Switzerland Covers Glacier With Giant Blankets to Keep It From Melting

It's a desperate situation.

Glacier Blanket

A giant glacier on Mount Titlis in Switzerland has shrunk drastically in recent decades, thanks to global warming.

Officials from a local skiing resort are now trying to slow the melting by throwing giant fleece blankets over the glacier, covering a cumulative area just over a million square feet, or around 14 soccer fields, according to Reuters.

The goal is to insulate the vulnerable glacier's ice and snow deposits by reflecting much of the Sun's energy back into the atmosphere using the white material.

It's a desperate situation — and yet another instance of global warming rearing its ugly head — that poses an existential threat to local industries. According to the Swiss government, 90 percent of Mount Titlis' remaining 1,500 glaciers will disappear by 2100 if greenhouses gas emissions aren't cut, Reuters reported.

Keeping Cold

According to local officials, the size of the fleece blankets had to be steadily increased over the last couple of years to have enough of an effect. Workers had to meticulously sew blankets together and cover the glacier over five to six weeks this summer to slow its melting.

The effects of global warming are being felt across the world right now, with monster storms drenching much of North America and devastating wildfires lighting up the Pacific Northwest.

So it doesn't come as a surprise that ski enthusiasts will soon have to travel further to find slopes with the right conditions — if, that is, there's any left at all.

READ MORE: Wrap up cool: Blankets help stave off glacier melt on Swiss ski pistes [Reuters]

More on global warming: Scientists Warn Gulf Stream May Collapse, Freezing North America