Could a £400bn plan to refreeze the Arctic before the ice melts really work? | Hacker News Reader

Could a £400bn plan to refreeze the Arctic before the ice melts really work?

theguardian.com

17 pointsthedoctor14 comments

Open articleView on HN

This sounds like that futurama episode where they drop a giant ice cube into the sea whenever it gets too hot.

https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/13083-how-big-would...

These schemes are all insane. Just imagine the damage done to the environment by:

1) Tens of millions of fans floating in the ocean and blowing air on the ice.

2) Oceans being flooded with massive amounts of green algea, sucking up CO2 and producing who knows what out of it.

3) Filling the skys with sulfer aerosols to block out the sun.

There is no way CO2 can be worse than any of those.

What? Did you read the article? That's not even close to the plan mentioned.

Just now I did, it says the new plan is: "building 10 million wind-powered pumps over the Arctic ice cap. In winter, these would be used to pump water to the surface of the ice where it would freeze, thickening the cap."

Wouldn't that be salt water? Would it actually freeze at all?

It freezes just fine, just at a lower temperature of -2C.

I wonder why the polar oceans don't freeze solid?

Because ice floats to the top of the water, and insulates the water remaining down below beneath the ice.

A proposal to salt the Arctic in order to lower the melting temperature wouldn't get much support, but it seems like it's also a valid description of the plan.

Because Science's explanation of why it won't work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk9bKysYWLI

Why are they so worried about the Arctic melting? Are they hiding something? http://www.theonion.com/article/melting-ice-caps-expose-hund...

How about deploying a cluster of "umbrella" satellites to throw some shade on regions of the planet that get too hot? 15 years of having less solar illumination, not complete darkness just a penumbra, could maybe do a lot.

How big of a shadow would we need?

Edit - someone already thought about it; http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160425-how-a-giant-space-u...

If the political will to do something like that existed, we wouldn't need to do it.

Or perhaps drifting platforms that stay adrift at the edge and blow water onto the ice? That way it's even possible to measure the edges.. This way it would even help to stop pieces from breaking at the edge (and thus floating away to warmer climates.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com