Europe's Alps could lose three-quarters of their glaciers to climate change during the coming century.

In an experiment to find a way of reducing melt rate, scientists last year, covered 3,000 square metres of the Gurschen glacier with a half-inch thick PVC coating.

The Swiss glacier has been retreating at an alarming rate in recent decades. It was hoped that the plastic covering will reflect more of the sun’s rays, thereby reducing the rate at which the ice mass melts and recedes. In nature, thick gravel coatings have the same effect, and scientists were hoping to copy this process.
However, while this may help reduce the rate of ice melting in Switzerland, can anything be done on a larger scale to stop the loss of Antarctic ice?

The impacts of warming temperatures in Antarctica are likely to occur first in the northern sections of the continent, where summer temperatures approach the melting point of water, 32?F (0?C). Some ice shelves in the northernmost part of Antarctica—the Antarctic Peninsula—have been collapsing in recent years, consistent with the rapid warming trend there since 1945. Scientists are also concerned about future changes in the large West Antarctic ice sheet on the main continent because its collapse could raise sea level by as much as 19 feet (5.8 meters).