Promising Arctic ice thickening test faces scale hurdles
A field test in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut flooded seawater onto sea ice to thicken it. The eight test areas grew up to 12.6 inches (32 cm) thicker than controls, remained thicker through melt season, and appeared brighter, indicating slower melting. While this technique could boost Arctic albedo and offer regional cooling if scalable, experts warn large-scale deployment is unlikely due to logistical, economic, governance, and ecological challenges; prior studies estimate millions to hundreds of millions of pumps would be required to cover meaningful Arctic areas.