Wool Blankets Reduce Glacier Melting as Much as Plastic Covers: 50 to 70 Percent

Two big blankets made from sheep wool now cover part of a glacier in Switzerland. A glacier is a large area of ice on a mountain. Early results show that the wool blankets work just as well as plastic covers.

The blankets were placed on the ice this summer. Each blanket covers 100 square metres, so together they cover 200 square metres of ice. Next to them, a plastic cover of the same size protects another part of the ice. Researchers checked the ice every two weeks and looked for damage from wind, rain, and cold.

Why cover a glacier? In summer, the covers reflect sunlight and keep the ice cooler. Plastic covers can reduce melting by 50 to 70 percent, but over time they can break into tiny plastic pieces that enter the water. Wool is natural and can break down safely, so scientists wanted to test it.

Wool has another benefit: a lot of it is thrown away. In Switzerland, 40 to 70 percent of sheep wool is not used each year. Turning this local material into glacier covers could be a good way to use it.

But wool blankets are not the answer to climate change. All covers like these together cover only about 0.02 percent of all glacier ice in Switzerland. Scientists say the real long-term answer is to reduce the gases that cause climate change, and these gases come mainly from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas.