In what has to be the strangest news I’ve read all day, the BBC comes out with a story about a man painting a mountain. Eduardo Gold of Peru, is painting up to 3 Peruvian mountains with a combination of lime, egg white, and water to reflect light back into space. His idea is that this will create a cold area around the peak and thus start growing glaciers. “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,” he says.
The World Bank seems to think this idea has a shot at working as his idea was one of 26 winners in their “100 ideas to save the planet” competition at the end of last year. While Mr Gold has not yet received the $200,000 prize, he has currently painted 2 hectares of mountainside white and hopes to expand to a total of 3 mountains for a total of 70 hectares of painted landscape.
It should be noted that Mr Gold is not a scientist and has no formal training in the matter. He says he has read up on glaciology however. There are some that says the scheme may have some improvement. Thomas Condom, a glaciologist at the French Institute for Research and Development says “On a local scale, it might have an impact, it might change a trend, improve things a little.”
Glacial melt is a huge problem in Peru. The country contains 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers and warming client has already melted 22% of glacial ice since 1970.
Read more about the story at the BBC.
