Scientists are designing a radical 62-mile long curtain to protect Antarctica’s so-called “doomsday” Thwaites Glacier from melting. The largest glacier on Earth is nicknamed the “doomsday” glacier because it would drastically drive up sea levels around the world if it melted entirely, though this would take hundreds of years. But the Britain-sized glacier is already melting, responsible for around 4% of all global sea-level rise, according to a 2020 study in Nature Geoscience. Last year a group of scientists tasked by the UK Foreign Office to investigate “unprecedented” changes in Antarctica warned the disruption was not being taken seriously enough. As humans continue to emit greenhouse gases that warm the climate and oceans, the race is on to protect Thwaites Glacier. John Moore, a glaciologist at Lapland University, is working on a drastic idea that has divided scientists. He hypothesises a giant underwater curtain could protect the glacier from being nibbled away by warm water beneath it, as it floats on the sea surface. The curtain would be about 100m tall and pinned to the …