So as others have mentioned, the water underneath the ice is warmer than the air above it. That’s a problem, because then the glacial sheets melt from the bottom up. If you pump enough water out from under the ice, not only will it refreeze in the much colder air above, it will eventually cause the glacier to sink until it makes contact with the ground again. That would remarkably slow the speed at which it melts, and thus help retain more ice longer which would prevent sea level rise and keep the reflective surface and reduce warming.
This sounds dumb, but the science is pretty cool. It would require a metric fuckton of pump capacity, though. This is likely a small proof of concept test to secure future funding.
![[Not the Onion] Deep in the Canadian Arctic...](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/39aeed6c-63d7-4d60-911a-26daf4b0f5b7.png){kind=link}
So as others have mentioned, the water underneath the ice is warmer than the air above it. That’s a problem, because then the glacial sheets melt from the bottom up. If you pump enough water out from under the ice, not only will it refreeze in the much colder air above, it will eventually cause the glacier to sink until it makes contact with the ground again. That would remarkably slow the speed at which it melts, and thus help retain more ice longer which would prevent sea level rise and keep the reflective surface and reduce warming.
This sounds dumb, but the science is pretty cool. It would require a metric fuckton of pump capacity, though. This is likely a small proof of concept test to secure future funding.