A new study recently showed that global warming could be reversed by freezing the poles. It said that restoring the ice caps of Earth at its south and north poles would lead to blocking the Sun and maintaining weather patterns.

A Newsweek report said that according to the researchers, the ambitions notion sounds like a "crazy plat from a science-fiction blockbuster," although it is both remarkably cheap and feasible.

Aircraft would fly above the Arctic and Antarctic, spraying particles called "stratospheric aerosol injection or SAI.

They fight against greenhouse gases by dimming starlight, cooling the entire planet, the team from the United States reported.

Seeks to Reduce Climate Change

According to Professor Wake Smith, the first author of the study from Yale University, it would seek to abate climate change by deflecting back into space a tiny fraction of the incoming solar radiation.

The study published in the Environmental Research Communication journal discovered that it would need to be conducted in the subpolar regions. Past proposals have recommended the use of the technique throughout the planet.

It would quickly envelop the poles, not to mention, may arrest or reverse permafrost and ice met at high latitudes, preventing a rise in sea level.

Essentially, effective deployment at much lower altitudes than would be needed in the tropics also represents fewer aeronautical challenges.

Subpolar SAI Program

Smith explained that their model approximates the cost of executing the subpolar SAI program to be $11 billion yearly in 2022.

He elaborated this is less than one-third of the estimated $36 billion to cool the surface temperature of the whole world by approximately 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Most savings are because of the vastly smaller area and fewer planes that carry five times the payload given significantly lower altitudes than covering the tropics, for example.

Operating costs included insurance, crew, maintenance and ground, landing and navigational fee charges.

Smith explained that the Arctic faces a specifically dire danger as well, from climate change, warming at approximately double the global average.

Warming Antarctic
(Photo : MATHILDE BELLENGER/AFP via Getty Images)
Glaciers that melt before your eyes, marine species that appear in areas where they previously didn't exist: in Antarctica, climate change already has visible consequences for which scientists are trying to find a response and perhaps solutions for the changes that the rest of the planet can expect.

ALSO READ: Climate Change Causes Mass Extinctions: Humans, Animals, Plants Species May Have Shorter Time to Adapt

The Antarctic Is Warming

The yearly average surface temperature rose by over 37.4 degrees Fahrenheit between 1971 and 2019. Furthermore, the September sea ice extent between 2010 and 2019 was 40 percent lower than between 1979 and 1988.

By the middle of the century, if not earlier, summer Arctic sea ice will possibly have effectively vanished, with possibly catastrophic climate effects for the Earth in general, explained Smith.

The Antarctic is warming more rapidly, too, compared to the planetary average, with the ice sheet melting at a potential climate change "tipping point."

The professor also said stratospheric aerosol injection is a "perspective intervention that would seek to abate global warming" by minimally increasing the effectiveness of Earth's upper atmosphere.

Refreezing Geographical Poles

A similar report from Today UK News said the paper is considering a substitute scenario whereby SAI might be deployed only in the sub-polar sites.

The first author also said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC has shown a "sobering picture."

The average global surface temperature between 2011 and 2020 was 33.962 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than between 1850 and 1900. By 2018, the global average sea level had risen already, eight inches since 1901.

Fortunately, according to Smith, refreezing the poles by reducing incoming sunlight would be feasible and substantially cheap, as earlier mentioned.

Related information about refreezing the Arctic is shown on Seeker's YouTube video below:

 

RELATED ARTICLE: Global Warming Causes the Planet To Warm Even More; MIT Researchers Show Extreme Climate Change in Ancient History of Earth


Check out more news and information on Climate Change and Global Warming in Science Times.