Scientists in Iceland fuse carbon dioxide into rock in a bid to combat climate change

Scientists in Iceland fuse carbon dioxide into rock in a bid to combat climate change
By Katy DartfordNBC
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Iceland's glaciers are changing every year, so scientists are developing new ways to neutralize the harmful effects of carbon dioxide.

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The effects of the changing climate are already being felt in some of the few-remaining natural wildernesses.

Iceland is a country of glaciers, mountains, black sand beaches and dramatic waterfalls.

But that natural beauty is changing every year, so scientists are developing new ways to neutralise the harmful effects of carbon dioxide.

Iceland has nearly 300 named glaciers. But one is already completely gone and this summer locals held a funeral for it. See that here.

Last month in Greenland, comparatively extreme temperatures melted so much glacier ice that it created a river.

"It almost feels like the glacier is bleeding," says environmental researcher Sigurrós Arnardóttir.

But Iceland's scientists have come up with a creative possible solution to help combat climate change.

They are taking carbon dioxide, the gas in the atmosphere that warms the planet, out of the environment and fusing it into harmless rocks.

Scientists capturing the gas from the air, dissolve it in water and pump it underground where it's absorbed in those rocks, forever.

So why isn't this happening today on a massive scale?

"Cost," says Dr. Edda Aarad Ttir, project manager at Carbfix. "Short-sightedness as well, probably."

WATCH: NBC News's Richard Engel's report on Iceland's creative solution to combating climate change.

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