How you can help preserve glacier ice?

Giant blankets or artificial snow may slow down ice losses of individual glaciers, but these approaches are extremely cost and labour-expensive, and would only be feasible on a few selected glaciers. The funds would be better spent on addressing the root cause: greenhouse gas emissions.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the most effective way to preserve glacier ice (Huss et al., 2024).

On the long-term, every kg of reduced CO2 emissions results in 16kg less global mountain glacier mass loss (Marzeion et al., 2018).

What can you do?

1. Reduce your ecological CO2-footprint

Start by changing your lifestyle to minimize emissions. Find out how you can reduce your impact with the footprint calculator.

2. Enlarge your handprint

Leaving positive traces by engaging in societal and political transformations for a socially and ecologically just future. Enlarging your handprint may be more effective than simply reducing your own ecological CO2 footprint as it improves the framework for sustainable behavior for many people.

More under this handprint concept article. If you are German-speaking, check out the Handprint Hub and this Handprint Test.