An Arizona-based professor is proposing a very Canadian solution to saving the polar ice caps, using a common method for maintaining backyard ice rinks.
Steven Desch and his team at Arizona State University say it's possible to restore a thick layer of sea ice to the Arctic, by using 10 million pumps to spray ocean water over the existing ice. The water would quickly freeze and add to the thickness of the ice cap, in hopes of restoring it to the thickness it was at two decades ago.
"By moving water from below the sea ice to the top where it's colder, this would accelerate the rate of freezing," Desch told CTV's Your Morning on Wednesday.
It's a tactic used by many Canadians who skate on backyard ponds in the winter, to add a layer of thickness to the ice. However, Desch's proposal is more complex in that it would not involve traditional water pumps.
Instead, Desch proposes using wind turbines on floating buoys to blow water off the surface of the ocean and onto the sea ice during the Arctic's winter season. The wind turbines would cost an estimated total of US$500 billion, with each one capable of restoring 1 metre of ice across a 100 square metre area each season. And while the price tag may sound steep, Desch says something drastic needs to be done or nearly all of the sea ice will be gone by the end of summer 2030.
"A large number of these devices could restore the amount of ice that is currently being lost year to year," Desch said, adding that the goal would be to double the area of sea ice in the north, to what it was 20 years ago.
"The pace of climate change is pretty severe, but it's more severe in the Arctic than anywhere else," he said.
Temperatures in the Arctic last November were much warmer than normal. When the temperature would have typically been -25 Celsius, it was actually above freezing.
The area covered by Arctic sea ice in January was at its lowest recorded point for that month in 38 years, since satellites started monitoring the issue, according to the U.S. National Snow and Data Center.
Desch describes Arctic ice as an "air conditioner" for the rest of the world, because it reflects most of the heat from the sun's rays. But if that ice melts, the sunlight that would otherwise be reflected would instead heat the ocean, affecting weather patterns and raising the temperature worldwide. Higher global temperatures also causes permafrost to melt, releasing the greenhouse gas methane into the air.
Other strategies for saving the Arctic ice have included sprinkling reflective particles across the ice to reflect more light, and spraying ocean water into the air to create clouds that would block out the sun.
Desch says his proposal isn't necessarily the perfect solution, but he says it should have "relatively fewer negative consequences" on the environment than other processes. And he insists the world is running out of time to act on the issue.
"This is a very bad situation," he said. "We quite possibly are at a tipping point in the Arctic."
