The Netherlands have a great history of inventions in their struggle to prevent the sea encroaching onto their coastal areas. Simple solutions can often aid huge and expensive projects like the Sand Machine (mentioned in the Guardian piece below).
Not surprising the idea of preventing Arctic ice from melting comes from the Dutch inventor group – Ice Reflections. They proposed to apply a known technique of IJsmeester – Ice Master that creates a thin layer of ice for outdoor ice skating on meadows in the Netherlands. From fun to environmental solutions, pumping sea water in areas where ice is re-treating will help to maintain ice cover and reflect the sun radiation back into space.
Ice Reflections teamed up with Welsh academic group – Real Ice to co-operate on their new drone technology that pumps water onto the surface of thin ice to increase its thickness.
But will this technique save us from climate change, or will it be just “a sticking plaster” good for polar bears to adjust, but unable to influence climate positively on a larger scale, as suggested by polar scientists?
But even at a smaller scale, this new technology will give more time to local ecosystems and indigenous communities to adapt to the changing climate.
