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How might humans be able to stop glaciers from melting?

Answer: By showering them with artificial snow.

Ski resorts have been making artificial snow for years to improve conditions on the slopes, but it turns out the practice could be able to help the environment too.

In a new study, a group of scientists have detailed how snow-making technology could be used to prevent the current rapid melting, and impending destabilization as a result, of two of Western Antarctica’s glaciers. They found that if 7.4 trillion tons of snow were to fall on a section of the glaciers roughly the size of Costa Rica over the next 10 years, it would stop the glaciers from destabilizing.

To achieve this, ocean water would have to be pumped up 2,100 feet from the base of the continent to the surface of the glaciers. It would then be desalinized and transported to be blasted out of a cannon as snow over the glacier.

Kate is a senior copy editor in Northern California. She holds a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in professional writing from the University of California, Davis.