Documentary
Can you save a glacier with wool?
TL;DR
THAW follows Swedish adventurer Oskar Kihlborg as he covers part of a glacier on Kebnekaise with a wool blanket to slow its melting. Filmmaker Robin Danehav shot it across three separate trips in different seasons, and the film is honest about how uncertain the experiment is. It is free to watch on YouTube.
Swedish adventurer Oskar Kihlborg, the first Swede to summit Everest, hauls a huge wool blanket up Kebnekaise, Sweden’s highest mountain, to see if covering a glacier can slow its melt. Robin Danehav filmed the experiment across three trips, winter through autumn. Nobody in the film pretends one blanket fixes anything, but it could lead to much bigger solutions.
Why OGSP Recommends It
Can a wool blanket help stop climate change? Follow this film as an adventurer hauls wool up Sweden’s highest mountain to try and slow a melting glacier. This is the kind of film that show outside of the box solutions and makes it a perfect One Good Story Project film!
Related Resources
Key Takeaways
- Wool blankets really are used to slow glacier melt. Alpine countries have covered small glacier sections for years, and this film tests the idea in Sweden.
- The film is straight about scale. One patch of one glacier will not stop climate change, and nobody in it claims otherwise.
- Nobody knows if it will work. They make three trips up the mountain anyway, and that is the point of the film.
- Kihlborg knows long odds. He was the first Swede to summit Everest before he started hauling wool up Kebnekaise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you really save a glacier with a wool blanket?
Not the whole glacier. Covering sections of ice with reflective or insulating material genuinely slows local melt, and alpine countries have actually done it for years on small patches. The film is upfront that this is a local measure, not a complete climate solution.
What is the documentary THAW about?
Swedish adventurer Oskar Kihlborg covers part of a glacier on Kebnekaise with a huge wool blanket to test whether it slows the melt. Robin Danehav filmed the experiment across three trips in different seasons. It streams free on YouTube.
Who is Oskar Kihlborg?
A Swedish adventurer and the first Swede to summit Mount Everest. In THAW he leads the wool blanket experiment on Kebnekaise.
Where can I watch THAW?
Free on YouTube, on filmmaker Robin Danehav’s channel. The film is also on this page.