When water became scarce in Kyrgyzstan in 2021, one proposed solution was as unusual as it was controversial: fly helicopters into the mountains and scatter coal dust over snow to make it melt faster. The idea came from Ermamat Tagaev, a member of Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, who argued that accelerating snowmelt could increase flows into rivers and reservoirs and help ease the country’s water shortage. The proposal was never established as a water-management method, but the science behind one part of it was real: dark particles can make snow absorb more sunlight and melt faster. The problem was that turning that physical effect into a deliberate water-supply strategy would introduce a very different set of risks.
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