Giant ice slab to combat climate change

Mongolia’s capital city, Ulan Bator, has launched a creative experiment to lessen the effects of global warming.

The Mongolian government has provided funding to create a huge block of ice this winter in the hopes that it will help cool and water the city as it melts during the brief but warm Mongolian summer, according to the UK’s Guardian. A Mongolian engineering firm, ECOS & EMI, will create artificial naleds—especially thick slabs of river ice formed when water pushes through cracks in the surface during the day and freezes by night. The engineers will re-create this process by drilling holes in the Tuul River’s ice intermittently throughout the winter.

If successful, the project will offset the cost of summer air-conditioning, regulate drinking water and create a cool micro-climate in the city to combat the urban heat island effect, a phenomenon whereby urban areas are hotter than rural areas of the same region.