Chinese scientists cover melting glacier with quilts to slow loss linked to climate change

Chinese scientists have reported success with the country’s first experiment with covering a glacier to slow the pace of its melting. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences covered 500 square metres (5,380 sq ft) of the Dagu Glacier on the Tibetan Plateau in early August 2020. Two months later, the covered areas were found to be one metre thicker than parts directly exposed to the sun. Scientists said the glacier had shrunk 70 per cent over the past 50 years. As ice sheets around the world have been shrinking because of climate change, similar experiments have been carried out on a larger scale in other areas. One project on the Presena Glacier in Northern Italy covered 100,000 square metres (1.08 million sq ft) of ice to slow the pace of its shrinkage.