During the summer of 2019, tourists were stopped in their tracks by a haunting melody ringing out across the Swiss Alps. Performed by two glaciologists, Hans Oerlemans and Felix Keller, the Requiem for the Glaciers of Switzerland mourns the disappearance of glaciers around the world.
Glaciers are retreating fast. A report by the European Geosciences Union suggests that 90% of the glacier volume in the Alps, an essential source of drinking and irrigation water, could be lost by the end of the century. But Oerlemans and Keller are not simply standing by and watching it happen.
They have patented a method that uses artificial snow to blanket glaciers and protect them from the sun during the spring and summer. Preliminary results suggest this technique can even lead to glacier growth. Similarly, high in the Sawir mountains on the border between China and Kazakhstan, Feiteng Wang and colleagues have been experimenting with silver iodide smog generators to induce snowfall and protect Asian glaciers.
The scientists all agree that ultimately stopping global heating is the only way to preserve mountain glaciers, but in the interim they hope that efforts to conjure up snow will allow some glaciers to cling on.
