Reframing sea-ice thickening as local adaptation, not climate intervention

Abstract

The Arctic’s sea ice cover is important both for the region’s communities and for the global climate system. Its rapid decline has prompted explorations of artificial ice thickening with the goal of partially stabilising the changing climate. Trials of this intervention recently received several million pounds of funding in the United Kingdom from a program aiming to investigate ways to cool the climate. We argue that while sea-ice thickening may work at a local scale, it is unlikely to scale to have a meaningful pan-Arctic or global impact in the next few decades. Based on this discussion, we suggest that these sea-ice thickening methods would be better understood as a way for local communities to adapt to ice retreat, rather than a way to intervene in the climate system. Such a framing better reflects our present and likely future technological capabilities, and highlights that control should lie with those most directly affected by sea-ice decline.