Ice, Ice, Maybe? Scientists Are Trying to Regrow Ice in the Arctic With Simple Tech
Key takeaways
- The ice in the Arctic is in trouble, and a group of geoengineers wants to do something about it.
- Their first attempts proved a success, according to the group's 2024 to 25 research report, released in June.
- That means the additional 30 centimeters effectively reversed 50 years of ice thinning in the pockets where they were working.
The ice in the Arctic is in trouble, and a group of geoengineers wants to do something about it. Their initiative, called Real Ice, figured out a way to rebuild Arctic sea ice, on a very small scale, using little more than augers and water pumps.
Their first attempts proved a success, according to the group's 2024 to 25 research report, released in June. They were able to regrow approximately 30 centimeters of ice in addition to the ice that formed naturally without any help, or for a total of about 50 centimeters overall.
What makes the results especially noteworthy, according to Real Ice, is that Cambridge Bay, Canada, the region of the Arctic where the scientists did their work, was losing about 6 centimeters of ice per decade on average. That means the additional 30 centimeters effectively reversed 50 years of ice thinning in the pockets where they were working.