The bold geoengineering project to refreeze the Arctic

A bold project want to refreeze the Arctic 

Researchers are trying to rebuild sea ice above the Arctic Circle so it can reflect the sun’s warming rays, slowing climate change

Arctic sea ice is shrinking as humans continue to heat up the world by burning fossil fuels. Since the mid-1980s, the amount of thick, multi-year ice has shrunk by 95%. The ice that remains is young and thin. Some scientists predict the Arctic could have an ice-free summer as early as the 2030s.

The loss of sea ice is a global problem

The loss of sea ice is a global problem. Its bright white surface reflects the sun’s energy back into space, cooling the planet. When it melts, the darker ocean exposed beneath is able to absorb more of the sun’s rays. It’s a doom loop — global warming melts the ice and melting ice supercharges global warming.

The melting of sea ice is not just a concern for the Arctic or Antarctic—it’s a global issue with far-reaching effects. Sea ice helps regulate the Earth’s temperature by reflecting sunlight; as it disappears, the planet warms faster, contributing to extreme weather events worldwide. This loss also disrupts ocean currents that balance global climate systems, affects marine ecosystems, and threatens species like polar bears and seals. Indigenous communities in polar regions are seeing their traditional ways of life vanish. Additionally, melting ice opens new shipping routes and resource opportunities, raising geopolitical tensions and environmental risks.

In short, the loss of sea ice impacts the entire planet. It demands urgent global action to reduce emissions and protect our shared future.

This technology may help refreeze the arctic

Deep in the Canadian Arctic, scientists and entrepreneurs brave sub-zero temperatures, whipping winds and snowstorms to drill holes through the sea ice to pump out the seawater below and freeze it on the surface.

The group from the UK start-up Real Ice is in Cambridge Bay, a tiny coastal village in Nunavut, to try to prove they can grow and restore Arctic sea ice.

Their ultimate plan is to thicken ice over more than 386,000 square miles of the Arctic — an area more than twice the size of California — with the aim of slowing down or even reversing summer ice loss and, in doing so, help to tackle the human-caused climate crisis.

How it works

Real Ice’s plan for protecting this icy ocean landscape involves inserting electc-powered, submersible pumps under sea ice to pump seawater onto the surface. The water freezes as it pools across the ice like a huge puddle, creating an extra layer of ice. The process also removes snow from the top of the ice, stripping it of an insulating layer and triggering extra growth on the underside of the sea ice, said Andrea Ceccolini, co-CEO of Real Ice.

It’s a bold plan, and one of many controversial geo-engineering proposals to save the planet’s vulnerable polar regions that range from installing a giant underwater “curtain” to protect ice sheets, to sprinkling tiny glass beads to reflect away sunlight.

Some Arctic scientists and experts have criticized Real Ice’s methods as unproven at scale, ecologically risky and a distraction from tackling the root cause of climate change: fossil fuels. But the company says its project is inspired by natural processes and offers a last chance to protect a disappearing ecosystem as the world fails to act swiftly on climate change.

Tests are ongoing

The startup has been conducting field tests in the Arctic for almost two years. The first were in Alaska last year, mostly to check that the equipment worked and could stand up to the brutal cold.

The group started tests in Cambridge Bay in Canada in January last year. They covered around 44,000 square feet of ice and added an average of 20 inches of additional thickness between January and May compared to the control area, Ceccolini said. A new round of tests in Cambridge Bay began in November 2024 and they have so far covered 430,000 square feet. In the first 10 days of the trial, the ice was already 4 inches thicker in the places they were testing, said Ceccolini.

They have then retured May to measure how much ice has been created. Based on previous results, they expect between around 16 to 31 inches of ice gain,

The ultimate plan

The ultimate plan is to automate the process using underwater drones, each about 6.5 feet long and powered by green hydrogen. These will melt holes in the ice from below using heated drills.  It can be estimated around 500,000 drones would be used at full scale, and would be deployed carefully to avoid animal migration paths or shipping lanes, he said. If all goes to plan, we can expects they can scale up within eight to 10 years.

The costs

It won’t be cheap. Real Ice estimates the cost to be between $5 billion and $6 billion a year to thicken ice over 386,000 square miles, an area it believes is large enough “to be effective in slowing down and even reversing the losses of summer sea ice in the Arctic,” Ceccolini said.

Real Ice is mostly self funded with some money from investors. Eventually, they see a global fund or governments stepping in to pay. They also envision selling “cooling credits,” where polluters pay toward ice refreezing in order to “offset” their own pollution.

It’s a compelling vision but many scientists remain doubtful it could work at scale.

Extremely questionable project?

The science is sound – according to Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center: “ice will be made measurably thicker and brighter in local areas surrounding the pumps.” But a big question, she told CNN, is whether enough sea ice can be grown over a long enough period to make any difference to the climate crisis. “I have serious doubts,” she said.

The scalability of Real Ice’s solution is “extremely questionable. Other scientists and experts also warned of potentially wide-ranging ecological impacts on a vulnerable region. They expressed concerns in a recent report about polar geoengineering projects, including ice thickening. They warned of “the possibility of grave unforeseen consequences,” including the environmental impact of “an unprecedented level of human presence” in the Arctic.

The project’s future depends on whether Real Ice can prove ice thickening is effective and that it creates no significant side effects.

“Everything we do has an impact,” they said at Real Ice. “The problem is there is a much more dramatic impact in just letting things go on like this”-