We are talking about their temperature drops rapidly and strongly, forming many years of sea ice in a vast area. In addition, the annual cost will be much lower than 0.1% of that of GDP in the United States.
Researchers around the world have different attitudes toward the rapid disappearance of sea ice in the ring polar region for many years. Mikhail Budyko predicted in 1971 that the inevitability of global warming , believing that this (just as warming itself) is a "ticket to the lost paradise", which modern Western scientists believe is a disaster. Therefore, they also provide ways to combat this phenomenon. Strangely, most of these suggestions are various versions of the so-called "Budyko blanket " - a method proposed by the same Soviet scientist half a century ago.
Initially, the "Budyko blanket" is a compound that is sprayed into the stratosphere ( sulfur dioxide or its analogue). They form aerosol , effectively reflecting sunlight back to space, thereby severely cooling the earth in a short period of time. However, most of these methods have technical and economic problems. They require many aircraft capable of lifting tonnages above 12 km. It doesn't make sense to transport the "Budyko blanket" to a lower height: it rains from the troposphere, quickly washing away any aerosols in it.
The author of the new paper " Environmental Research Communication " led by Wake Smith of the United States proposes a solution that is different from the previous ones, with slightly different goals and much lower prices.
First, researchers say the Arctic warms much faster than the rest of the world. If the Earth warmed about 1 degree between 1971 and 2019, the Arctic would warm by 3 °C. The reason is to reduce the effect of reflecting surfaces. As the temperature rises, many years of sea ice melts here, allowing summer sunshine to not rebound from the ice, but heats deeper seawater and speeds up the temperature rise. And, ultimately, not only in polar regions , but also in the whole world.
They believe that the best height for spraying such aerosol is 13 km. The choice is because the typical layout of passenger aircraft is difficult to cope with higher altitudes. However, the improved (and previously proposed by another team of researchers) the stratospheric aerosol jet lift (SAIL-01) will be able to eject 75.6 tons per flight from such an altitude. Such aircraft will require 125, which they must perform 175,000 flights per year (a fairly typical frequency if we talk about planned flights not far from existing air bases). The northern hemisphere needs to be sprayed in the spring, while the southern one needs to be sprayed in the autumn (when there is spring in the local area).
stratospheric aerosol jet Lofter concept (illustrated by Wake et al.)
Overall, in order to restore the “preheated” area of years of ice, the proposed plan requires spraying 12 million tons of sulfur dioxide per year. The final drop in temperature in the poles will reach two degrees. This will be a return to the values of the 1980s.
As the author of the work honestly wrote, “until the physical or social outcome of such a project will be net positive.” Simply put, it can be seen from the early history of the earth’s climate that a decrease in temperature leads to a decrease in precipitation and an increase in temperature fluctuation. People living in areas where this happens often have negative views on both effects.
Nevertheless, however, the researchers remained optimistic: "It is obvious that a project focused on significant cooling in the polar and circular poles is logically very realistic." They refer to the very low estimated cost of the program - only $11 billion a year. This is significantly lower than 0.1% of the U.S. annual GDP, about ten times less than the country’s spending on global warming measures today. One of the expected benefits of polar cooling is the slowdown in the rate of sea level rise in .
Previously, Naked Science has reported that artificial greenhouse gas emissions have significantly reduced mortality rate and significantly increased yields of major crops.Contrary to popular stories, global warming did not increase the severity of drought and flooding. and even the contrary, it increases the area and biomass of vegetation and all life on the planet. Although the danger of sea level rise exists, the current hydraulic technology actions of human beings are sufficient to compensate for this.
