Can We Refreeze The Arctic? This Scientist Certainly Thinks So

Thanks to global warming, the ice in the Arctic Ocean is today about half of what it was in the 1980's. Given that the situation can only get worse and governments are unable to come to a consensus about how to reverse the trend, one scientist is proposing a radical solution - To use modern technology to repair the damage.

Harvard University's Professor David Keith who has published two papers on the subject is proposing a bold idea that involves injecting reflective particles into areas close to the Arctic ice caps, so that less of the sun's heat would be absorbed. This in turn, would result in lowering temperatures and help some of the Arctic water to refreeze. According to Keith's calculations, just a 0.5% reduction in sunlight penetration could restore the sea ice, back to its former glory. The best part is, it would all be accomplished without cutting back any human created greenhouse gases.

While this may sounds almost impossible, the scientist maintains that the whole thing could be accomplished with the help of a few modified Gulfstream jets and cost just $8 billion USD. While that may sound a lot, it is a minuscule amount, if this idea really works.

So, what is the holdup? Why aren't governments all over the world jumping at being the first to give this a try? Because this kind of open air large-scale geoengineering has never been done before and nobody knows what the side effects will be - It could all work out fine or lead to something totally disastrous like collapsing the remaining ice sheets or worse, cause a massive drought. In fact environmentalists are so vary that the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity has a permanent ban on any such human attempt to try change nature.

Even Professor Keith agrees with that stance, which is why he is just laying out the idea in his research papers, but not, advocating its implementation - At least not just yet! Hopefully, we will be able to avoid these kind of experimental solutions and reverse global warming by simply, altering the way we lead our day-to-day lives.

Resources: inhabitat.com, dailymail.co.uk