The planet is warming rapidly, and the Arctic is warming the fastest. Since 1979, most of the Arctic Ocean has been warming at a rate of 0.75°C per decade, which is almost four times more than the global average. When sea ice melts, it gives way to water, which absorbs solar radiation more intensively than the surface of snow or ice.
Photo: Artsiom P / Shutterstock.com
A “temporary Band-Aid” for the Earth
Similar processes are taking place in the seas around Antarctica. Scientists from Yale University propose to reverse the warming by supercooling the poles of the Earth. An article about the method they developed has been published in the journal Environmental Research Communications. This is something like a temporary Band-Aid for the Earth, say researchers from Yale University.
The plan to freeze the poles looks ambitious. According to him, it is necessary to spray small aerosol particles at an altitude of 13 kilometers. If you do this at the parallels of 60° latitude, the wind rose will carry the aerosols closer to the poles, and the earth’s surface will be darkened. This will slow down the warming in the Arctic and Antarctic and cool the polar regions by 2 °C.
It is suggested to carry out the procedure according to the seasons — during the polar spring and in early summer. The same fleet of aircraft could serve both hemispheres, moving back and forth with the changing seasons. The financial cost is estimated at $11 billion per year, and according to the researchers, it is cheaper than other methods of mitigating the effects of climate change.
However, scientists admit that their technology has a number of controversial issues. Firstly, the aerosol is dangerous for the human body. Secondly, aerosol-spraying aircraft will produce their own emissions of pollutants, which are formed during the combustion of fuel. And they further contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming.
How can the poles be cooled
Photo: Robert Harding / Alamy
Scientists have calculated that their proposed method will yield results if 125 aircraft are involved and 175 thousand departures per year are organized. In addition, the cooling of the poles will protect only a small part of the planet. And it is clear that it is only a temporary measure that will not eliminate the main causes of global climate change.
The idea of using aerosols to stop global warming is not new. It was discussed several decades ago, however, at the theoretical level. And in 2010, the ubiquitous Bill Gates took over its implementation. He initiated the SCoPEx project, developed at Harvard University.
According to the project, a balloon with an aerosol can containing calcium carbonate powder should be sent to an altitude of 20 kilometers. At altitude, this chemical compound will spray, and the probe, descending to the ground, will fly through a cloud of particles and measure various characteristics: air composition, parameters of sunlight scattering.
By tracking the readings of the instruments, scientists will find out how safe this very idea is — to spray calcium carbonate in the atmosphere. By the way, this is ordinary chalk, which seems to be harmless, but there are doubts: will it affect the chemical composition of the atmosphere? At the same time, they were going to spray a small amount of calcium carbonate, only about 2 kilograms.
Nevertheless, the public in the United States opposed the experiment, which was scheduled for 2019. Then the billionaire turned to the Swedish authorities. Politicians and environmentalists gave him the green light, but then the locals, representatives of the indigenous people of Lapland, the Sami, said their weighty word. They protested and demanded a ban on testing in the Arctic.
But that wasn’t enough. In January of this year, a large group of climate scientists and management experts spoke out against the SCoPEx project. The open letter was signed by 46 people. Addressing the UN, they called for a ban on solar geoengineering technologies, explaining that attempts to “darken” the Sun are extremely dangerous.
Scientists have warned that scaling up the technology could disrupt the monsoon rains in South Asia and West Africa, shallowness and dryness of America’s largest rivers, and an increase in the number of extreme weather events, which have already become more frequent. And the process of global warming and further rising sea levels is unlikely to stop.
It is possible that small aerosol particles sprayed at an altitude of 13 kilometers, reflecting sunlight, will cause the cooling of the Earth’s poles. But the effect of this procedure will last exactly as long as it is maintained. In other words, planes with reagents will have to be launched non-stop, in non-stop mode. It is clear that such an idea is absolutely impossible.
By Dmitry Pisarenko
