FAQs

We are on a mission to restore Arctic sea ice to counter global warming. We are committed to halting the rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice, which serves as the world’s refrigerator by reflecting the sun’s heat into space through its white ice sheets.

We aim to restore and thicken the Arctic ice by pumping seawater on top of it in winter. When pumped over the ice, Arctic seawater freezes quickly due to the low Arctic atmosphere temperature. The pumping produces thicker ice sheets, less likely to melt completely during summer.

Arctic sea ice plays a critical role in regulating global climate patterns by reflecting sunlight and maintaining cooler temperatures. Its disappearance would lead to increased absorption of solar radiation by the dark ocean water, contributing to global warming.

Furthermore, the Arctic’s role in the climate system includes feedback mechanisms that amplify climate change. For instance, melting permafrost could release stored methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, exacerbating warming.

No. We are an impact-driven enterprise that prioritizes our mission to restore the Arctic ice sheet above all else.

Accomplishing our mission will not be a walk in the park. To halt the decline of the sea ice we will need large investment. We believe that the best way to attract these funds is by founding a social, impact-driven enterprise. Investing in us should be just as attractive as investing in any other commercial company.

We strive to create environmental benefits for the planet while building a business model to attract investors.

We are a team of entrepreneurs and scientists with a shared belief that the disappearance of the Arctic sea ice should be halted and who are willing to act to do so. Please also have a look at our ‘Who we are‘ page. 

There are many ways that you can contribute to our organization. If you feel you have specific knowledge or skills which can help us in achieving our mission, please contact us at info@arcticreflections.earth

If you are representing an (impact) investor or philanthropical organization, please contact us at funding@arcticreflections.earth

Unfortunately, we are not equipped to handle your well-intended personal donations. However you can always help us by spreading the word about our initiative. 

We don’t regard our activities as geoengineering, which we would define as a large-scale intervention in the global climate system. Just like reforestation projects, our initiative can best be described as nature restoration, with of course the crucial difference that we operate in the Arctic Ocean.

We aim to stop the current decline of summer Arctic sea ice, which scientists attribute to human-induced climate change, driven by greenhouse gas emissions.  

We provide a localized solution that restores what has always been there and is projected to disappear completely in summer already as soon as the 2030s or 2040s: the Arctic ice sheet.

While the reason of founding Arctic Reflections is to protect the Arctic, any human activity, including ours, can pose a threat to the Arctic environment and its unique biodiversity.

Therefore, at every location, we will perform an ecological risk assessment and implement mitigating actions when and where needed.

Additionally, we will start with small field tests and carefully monitor for unwanted impact and any unforeseen risks.

Last but not least, we will collaborate with local Indigenous communities and incorporate their invaluable traditional ecological knowledge into our process. 

This is why we took multiple ice cores on a daily basis both on the thickened sites as on the reference site. Besides taking cores for salinity measurements, we also used ice cores for density and temperature measurements.

Thickening the ice is one thing. Validating that the thickened ice survives longer is the other important thing. At this moment, during the melting season, we are just doing that by remotely monitoring the ice via sensors installed in the ice and visually using a timelapse camera and satellite images.

Reduction of carbon emission is urgently needed: restoring Arctic ice cannot replace reduction of carbon emissions in any way.

Yet, even in the most optimistic carbon emissions reduction scenarios of the IPCC, the Arctic sea is predict to be completely ice free during the summer as soon as the 30s or 40s. This will cause even more warming and trigger a set of self reinforcing feedback loops.

We are researching the possibilities to stop the decline of the sea ice until carbon levels are back at acceptable levels.

Getting the water to release more heat to the atmosphere in winter to freeze ice is not necessarily bad. Also, a similar amount of heat will be absorbed again in the melting process of the additional ice in summer.

The amount of reflected solar energy is an order of magnitude higher than the latent energy involved, even when taking into account that the majority of the solar energy will already be reflected by cloud cover.