The Arctic ice plays a critical role in maintaining a safe and stable climate because it acts as a global heat shield, reflecting solar radiation – hence why the Arctic can impact the Earth’s temperatures more than any other region on the planet. But we have a big problem now. Research has shown how the Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world because of global warming, and Greenland’s ice is melting seven times faster than 30 years ago.
The arctic consists of two types of ice – seasonal (young) and permanent (old). The seasonal ice is new, having grown fresh during the winter and melts in the summer. Permanent ice is the backbone of the region and remains all year round. Unfortunately, this essential old ice is vanishing fast due to climate change. The old ice is the most reflective, so we are losing our natural heat shield by losing it. When the ice melts, it turns into dark water, absorbing almost 100% of the sun’s heat instead. The more the ice melts, the warmer the water gets, causing more ice to melt even faster.
Research shows ice-free summers by 2030, that’s how near we are to losing the Arctic once and for all. At the moment, the thickest Arctic ice has declined by 95%, according to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Arctic report card. In Alaska, the waters are now ice-free. In the Canadian Arctic, the permafrost is thawing 70 years earlier than predicted.
Since not enough is being done to tackle global warming, people have been thinking up ways to slow down arctic ice melting by other means. In Indonesia, a team of designers proposed iceberg-making submarines that can re-freeze seawater, producing miniature modular hexagonal icebergs that can plug into each other. While that approach creates new replacement ice to help reflect heat and keep the artic cooler, scientists from the California-based non-profit Arctic Ice Project suggest slowing the ice from melting in the first place. Their solution involves covering it with reflective hollow glass microspheres.
The material looks like small, delicate, white beach sand, but it’s a lot like snow. It floats and sticks to ice and water as sand would. It’s also safe for wildlife because it’s made of silicon dioxide (silica) – which is already abundant in nature, being a common ingredient in many rocks – and its chemical composition ensures the microspheres don’t attract oil-based pollutants. The ocean is full of silica already, and all creatures (including humans) have co-evolved with it so it won’t accumulate in the bodies of living things. Also, it’s perfectly spherical, so there are no sharp edges.
The plan would be to deploy the powder over Arctic ice (wherever it’s particularly fast-melting) in the springtime. The hope is that it will ensure the ice lasts through the summer months, so it has a chance to rebuild multi-year reflective ice.
Engineer Leslie Field, the chief technical officer of the organization, said:
We’re trying to break [that] feedback loop and start rebuilding. This is the backup plan I hoped we’d never need.
This geoengineering approach is not a replacement for reducing carbon emissions, Field said. Instead, it’s a chance to buy some time while world economies decarbonize.
The group has already tested the silica spheres and knows it works. They spread it on the ice of Canadian and American lakes while leaving half of the surface uncovered. When the uncovered area had melted completely, there was still a foot of ice in the section treated with the glass.
