Hacking Planet Earth: How Geoengineering Can Help Us Reimagine the Future by Thomas M. Kostigen

Hacking Planet Earth: How Geoengineering Can Help Us Reimagine the Future by Thomas M. Kostigen

Author:Thomas M. Kostigen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
Published: 2020-03-24T00:00:00+00:00


Ice Stupas

Receding glaciers do more than affect sea level rise; they also crimp water supplies. Higher temperatures cause more glacial meltwater that wastes away down rivers and streams during winter. Glaciers grow smaller, with less water to give in springtime, during the traditional melt season. The Ice Stupa Project is a way to delay the glacial melt, saving it for when water is in higher demand for agriculture.

Sonam Wangchuk, a fifty-two-year-old engineer in Ladakh, a sprawling region in northern India known as the Trans-Himalayas, devised the solution. By erecting a vertical pipe fed by water flowing downstream, mist sprays out the top. The winter cold freezes the droplets into a cone shape and that provides shade for the ice layers that form underneath. The cone shape keeps the ice frozen longer. When the ice stupas do melt, it provides a ready source of water and, in turn, irrigation for rural villages in the region.



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