By pumping seawater…an innovative plan to save Arctic ice | sciences

In an attempt that appears strange and contradictory to logic, an Al Jazeera report revealed a realistic scientific experiment currently being conducted to save the Arctic ice from melting, which simply relies on pouring more water on it.

To understand the dimensions of this project, it is necessary to point out the imminent climate danger. Arctic sea ice acts as a natural mirror that reflects about 70% of sunlight back into space. As it melts, dark ocean water is exposed that reflects only 7% of the heat, dangerously accelerating global warming.

Faced with this challenge, Real Ice began testing an innovative technology that pumps seawater over layers of ice during the winter to freeze quickly, which increases the thickness of the ice and makes it more able to withstand the intense summer heat. The results of the experiment are clearly visible on satellite images, as the test area appears as a solid white island in the middle of a dark blue sea.

This experiment was conducted in northern Canada, where researchers pumped 50,000 tons of seawater over ice one and a half meters thick, adding 50 centimeters of new thickness to it. The surprise was not limited only to the increase in size, but it turned out that the “rapid freezing” trapped more air bubbles inside the ice, which increased its degree of whiteness and thus increased its ability to reflect the sun’s rays and heat.

In a parallel track, the team is testing another technique that relies on drilling holes to drain pools of melted surface water, with the aim of re-exposing the white ice and slowing the melting process.

The challenge of space and billions required

Despite the encouraging initial indications, the project faces a huge space challenge. The Arctic loses about 3 million square kilometers of its sea ice annually, an area roughly equivalent to the size of India. To overcome this obstacle, researchers are working to develop drones and submarines to carry out this operation on a large scale, in a step that could cost billions of dollars.

This “geoengineering” approach raises broad scientific and environmental questions. Critics fear that this solution will divert attention from the radical and basic solution to the crisis, which is to reduce carbon emissions, as well as concerns related to the impact of pumping huge amounts of salt water on the fragile ecosystem in the Arctic region.

For their part, those in charge of the project confirm that their current goal is not immediate comprehensive application, but rather answering three pivotal questions:

• Does this technique succeed in slowing the melting for long periods?
• Does it cause any harmful environmental effects?
• Can it be applied economically and technically over large areas?

The question remains open to the international community and climate leaders: Is engineering intervention in nature a last resort to save the planet, or is cutting carbon emissions still the only sustainable option?