They propose spraying aerosols on the poles to prevent their melting

Sep. 16 () –

Preventing melting at the poles by reducing incoming sunlight would be feasible and remarkably cheap, according to new research published in Environmental Research Communications.

The poles are warming several times faster than the global average, causing record heat waves that were reported earlier this year in both the Arctic and Antarctica. Melting ice and collapsing glaciers at high latitudes would accelerate sea level rise across the planet.

Scientists led by Wake Smith of Yale Universitypresent a possible future program whereby jets capable of high-altitude flight would spray microscopic aerosol particles into the atmosphere at latitudes 60 degrees north and south, roughly Anchorage and the southern tip of Patagonia.

If injected at a height of 43,000 feet (above aircraft cruising altitudes), these aerosols would slowly drift poleward, slightly shading the surface below. “There is widespread and sensible concern about the deployment of aerosols to cool the planet,” notes Wake Smith, “but if the risk/reward equation paid off anywhere, it would be at the poles.”

Particle injections would be done seasonally in the long days of the local spring and early summer. The same fleet of jets could service both hemispheres, ferrying the opposite pole with the changing of the seasons.

Pre-existing military air-to-air refueling tankers, such as the older KC-135 and A330 MMRT, do not have sufficient payload at required altitudes, while newly designed high-altitude tanker aircraft would prove to be much more efficient.

A fleet of about 125 such tankers could carry enough payload to cool the 60°N/S poleward regions by 2°C per year, bringing them back close to their average pre-industrial temperatures. The costs are estimated at 11,000 million dollars per year, less than a third of the cost of cooling the entire planet by the same magnitude of 2°C and a tiny fraction of the cost of reaching net zero emissions.

“Although it could be a game changer in a rapidly warming world, stratospheric aerosol injections simply treat a symptom of climate change, not the underlying disease. It’s aspirin, not penicillin.. It is not a substitute for decarbonization,” says Smith.

Cooling at the poles would provide direct protection for only a small fraction of the planet, although mid-latitudes should also experience some reduction in temperature. Given that less than 1% of the world’s human population lives in the target deployment zones, a polar deployment would pose far less direct risk to most of humanity than a global program. “Nevertheless, any intentional turn of the global thermostat would be in the common interest of all humanity and not just the arctic and patagonian nationsSmith adds.