About the Project
Much of Earth’s water is locked in the immense ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland, but the warming ocean has begun to destabilize the ice. The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet is particularly vulnerable to disintegration because much of it rests on ground below sea level.
Disintegration is expected to start at Thwaites, a gigantic glacier running between banks of currently stable ice. Thwaites is moving and thinning at an accelerating rate that presages catastrophic sea-level rise. The question is whether Thwaites’s ice could be stabilized to avoid the worst consequences.
To examine whether the rapid disintegration of glaciers can be slowed, we formed the Exploratory Ice Preservation Working Group, composed of scientists, engineers, policy makers, and entrepreneurs. We convened a first meeting at Stanford on December 9-10, 2023, where more than 40 glaciologists discussed the feasibility and desirability of potential ice preservation interventions.
During the Stanford workshop, basal anchoring emerged as an avenue worth examining. Basal anchoring entails removing or freezing water from beneath glaciers to increase friction between the ice and ground in order to slow glacier motion toward the sea.
We selected this option because there are natural precedents for glaciers slowing in response to reduced subglacial water. Scientists have been drilling through Antarctic glaciers to investigate under-ice lakes, so much of the needed technology has been developed.
We believe that the science, engineering, and governance of the project must all proceed in parallel. Without governance, science and engineering cannot be responsive to public needs and secure public trust. Without science, governance and engineering cannot focus on realistic options and muster needed resources. Without engineering, science and governance cannot implement a project without unacceptable delays. We are developing a concurrent governance initiative, including a one-day meeting on September 21, 2024, in New York City.
If successful, stabilizing certain Antarctic glaciers could halt a major source of catastrophic sea level rise. Many island nations are already in peril. Seaports were built for yesterday’s sea level. Coastal areas are often densely populated, ecologically rich, and agriculturally productive. We are already seeing increased damage from storm surges with even small increases in sea level. The higher sea levels rise, the more serious the consequences.
