[ExI] Glacier Geoengineering

[Spencer Campbell]

Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>:
> The object is to freeze a glacier to bedrock.

This is something you came up with? I assume the purpose is to combat
global climate change.

If that's so, it's an interesting idea, but pretty obviously unwise in
practice. Alarmingly fast glacier movement is only a symptom, for one
thing; slowing it down would buy us some time, but I suspect that not
even stopping the glaciers completely could stabilize the system.

The most obvious problem is that we'd have to keep pumping the coolant
down there forever. After the initial freeze I suppose we could slow
down, but stop entirely and the whole thing just starts up again.

Causing artificial phytoplankton blooms remains my favorite
geoengineering project.

The mathematics going into glacier freezing are way more fun, though.