‘At first, the idea does sound crazy’: meet the scientists trying to refreeze the Arctic
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Real Ice pumped 50,000 tonnes of seawater onto Arctic sea ice near Cambridge Bay, thickening the 1.5m-deep ice by about 50cm and extending its lifespan by an estimated 7-10 days, according to co-founder Andrea Ceccolini.
- Real Ice's artificial ice turned out brighter and more reflective than natural ice — an unexpected finding, possibly because fast-frozen ice traps more air bubbles, Ceccolini told the Guardian.
- Real Ice also tested drilling 5cm drainage holes to drain melt pools; the holes widened to dinner-plate size within 45 minutes and may extend ice life by "an extra week," per co-founder Cían Sherwin.
- Aria, the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency, provided a £3.5m grant for the project, which was approved by the Ekaluktutiak Hunters and Trappers Organization and local authorities after community consultation.
- A prototype underwater drone that pokes drainage holes in sea ice using an electrically heated probe underwent trials in Finland's Gulf of Bothnia in February, with Real Ice envisioning hydrogen-powered drone swarms at a target cost of $5,000 each.
- Real Ice estimates that halting the annual shrinkage of Arctic sea ice would cost about $10bn — roughly equal to the windfall profits the top 100 oil companies made in under two weeks after the Iran war sent oil prices soaring.
- Since 1979, about 3 million sq km of summer Arctic sea ice has vanished — roughly the size of India — with another 80,000 sq km lost every year on average, and scientists warn summer ice could be gone as early as the 2030s.
Why it matters: If scalable, the $10bn estimated cost to halt Arctic ice shrinkage equals what the top 100 oil companies made in under two weeks of Iran war windfall profits. With 3 million sq km of summer ice already gone since 1979, the project's unexpected reflectivity bonus and Inuit community buy-in provide early credibility — but University of Washington's Roger Marchand calls scaling "a difficult and open question."
