Whitewashing a Glacier Back Into Existence
Read Time:2 Minute, 42 Second
In a remote corner of the Peruvian Andes an extinct glacier is being painted back to life. It is the first experimental step in an innovative plan to recuperate Peru’s disappearing Andean glaciers.
There is some argument between those who dismiss the idea as loony and those who think it could be a simple but brilliant solution, or at least one which should be put to the test.
The World Bank believes the idea – the brainchild of 55-year-old Peruvian inventor, Eduardo Gold – has merit as it was one of the 26 winners from 1,700 submissions in the “100 Ideas to Save the Planet” competition in 2009.
Mr Gold, who has no scientific qualifications but has studiously read up on glaciology, is enthused that the time has come to put his theory into practice.
Although he is yet to receive the $200,000 awarded by the World Bank, his pilot project is already underway on the Chalon Sombrero peak, 15,600 feet above sea level, in an area some 60 miles west of the regional capital of Ayacucho. The area has long been made bare of its snowy, white peaks.
Four men from Licapa, the village which lies further down the valley, don coveralls and mix the paint from three simple and environmentally-friendly ingredients: lime, industrial egg white and water.
The mixture which has been used since Peru’s colonial times. There are no paint brushes, the workers use jugs to splash the whitewash onto the loose rocks around the summit.
‘Cold generates cold’
Mr Gold may not be a scientist but his idea is based on the simple scientific principle that when sunlight is reflected off a white or light-coloured surface, solar energy passes back through the atmosphere and out into space, rather than warming the Earth’s surface.
The US Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, has endorsed a similar idea using white roofs in the United States – possibly more pragmatic than painting mountains.
Changing the albedo (a measure of how strongly an object reflects light) of the rock surface, would bring about a cooling of the peak’s surface, says Mr Gold, which in turn would generate a cold micro-climate around the peak.
“Cold generates more cold, just as heat generates more heat,” says Mr Gold.
“I am hopeful that we could re-grow a glacier here because we would be recreating all the climatic conditions necessary for a glacier to form.”
The 900-strong population of Licapa, the village which depends on Chalon Sombrero for its water supply, did not think twice about accepting Mr Gold’s proposal and the funding it would bring.
In Peru, home to more than 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers, global warming has already melted away 22% of them in the last 30 years, according to a World Bank report of 2009. In Peru, home to more than 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers, global warming has already melted away 22% of them in the last 30 years, according to a World Bank report of 2009.
The remaining glaciers could disappear in 20 years if measures are not taken to mitigate climate change, it adds.
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Sounds so crazy it just might work. Good luck to the guy!
Darn Graves you were reading my mind again. I was thinking of just penciling them in.
Let’s take this idea further. Send DC somewhere, say, the gulf, and paint their likenesses upon their chairs in chamber. Sure, nothing will get done, but often, nothing is better than what passes for something.