21st century technology comes to the aid of China’s melting glaciers - South China Morning Post
Climate scientists cover Sichuan’s Dagu glaciers with Tencent-sponsored hi-tech blanket to impede their melt amid global warming | South China Morning Post
Researchers at Nanjing University cover the glacier with self-developed radiative cooling film to preserve the snow at Dagu Glacier on June 30, 2023. Photo: Handout
Climate scientists cover Sichuan’s Dagu glaciers with Tencent-sponsored hi-tech blanket to impede their melt amid global warming
- About 8,000 glaciers, or 15 per cent of the total in China, have melted in the past 50 years due to global warming
- Half of the Earth’s 215,000 glaciers could disappear entirely by 2100, with ramifications for the world’s supply of fresh water and ecosystems
Researchers at Nanjing University cover the glacier with self-developed radiative cooling film to preserve the snow at Dagu Glacier on June 30, 2023. Photo: Handout
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”