Geoengineering can thicken Arctic sea ice, but for how long?
The Real Ice trial in Canada pumped seawater from below the ice sheet onto the surface Real Ice Each winter, Canada builds more than 7000 kilometres of ice roads, in part by drilling holes in lake ice and pumping water onto the surface, where it freezes and thickens the ice for massive vehicles, as seen in the TV series Ice Road Truckers. If we did the same thing on top of Arctic sea ice, could we thicken it enough to stop it from disappearing? That’s the question tested by geoengineering researchers in field trials in Canada and Norway in 2024 and 2025. It’s one relevant to the whole planet, since Arctic sea ice, which is expected to disappear completely in the summertime as early as the 2030s, reflects more of the sun’s warmth back into space than open ocean. While both trials thickened sea ice, the scientists in Canada said this slowed the ice’s melt when summer came, while those in Norway found it didn’t. Both groups have continued doing trials. “Yes, the ice is …
