Blanket for ice cover? Scientists wraps Swiss glacier with sheep’s wool to protect it from melting; early tests found it protected the ice about as well as plastic sheets

A Swiss glacier experiment is testing sheep’s wool as a natural alternative to plastic covers used to slow glacier melting. Researchers found that wool blankets placed on the Tsanfleuron Glacier performed about as well as plastic covers, reducing ice loss by roughly 50–70% compared with uncovered ice. The trial also aims to find a use for Swiss wool that is often discarded, though researchers stress that such covers can only protect small areas and cannot stop large-scale glacier loss.