'Wind screens' could save glaciers

A German geography professor has developed a controversial system of mountain "wind-catching" screens which he claims could slow or even halt the dramatic rate at which Europe's glaciers are melting.

Glaciers across the globe are shrinking fast as a consequence of global warming. In Europe alone, some researchers have predicted that all its glaciers will have vanished by 2100.

However, Professor Hans-Joachim Fuchs from Germany's Mainz University claims to have found at least a partial answer to the problem. His technique involves capturing the power of cold mountain - so-called kabatic - air streams with wind-catching screens installed on melting glaciers.

The screens are designed to harness the dense kabatic air streams which flow downhill and deflect them directly on to the surface of the glaciers, thereby cooling them enough, it is hoped, to counteract the effects of global warming.

Professor Fuchs travelled to the Rhne glacier in Switzerland, which is shrinking seven metres a year, where he installed a 15 metre-long, 10 metre-high wind-catching screen.

"We hope that our installations will bring about a net cooling of the area," he said in a statement.

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