What Is Albedo Modification and How Can It Mitigate the Climate Crisis?

Jan 16, 2024 | Advocacy & Action, Technological & Research Advancements

As the world grapples with the escalating climate crisis — marked by rising temperatures, melting ice caps, and extreme weather events — the need for innovative and effective climate change mitigation strategies has never been more urgent. Among these strategies, surface albedo modification stands out as a significant and potentially transformative approach.

This method offers a unique angle in the battle against global warming by way of increasing the albedo effect on our planet. Here’s what you need to know about challenges the planet’s albedo is facing and how surface modification can help.

Exploring Surface Albedo Modification: A Strategy Against Climate Change

What Is Albedo? What Is the Albedo Effect?

Albedo is a measure of how much light or radiation is reflected by a surface, and the albedo effect refers to the process by which this reduces the temperature of that surface. Different surfaces have varying albedo; the lighter the surface, the greater its ability to reflect rather than absorb light. (If you’ve ever driven or ridden in a black vehicle during the summer, you know all too well that dark surfaces absorb the most heat).

In the context of Earth, this term refers to the proportion of sunlight reflected by the planet’s total surface and atmosphere, or planetary albedo. Planetary albedo affects both local and global temperatures.

What Is Our Current Planetary Albedo?

The Earth’s albedo is a critical factor in the global climate. It is the average value of all geographic albedos, and it represents the fraction of solar energy our planet reflects back into space. This average is influenced by geographical and temporal factors, such as the extent of ice and snow cover, cloudiness, and the type of land cover. As of 2023, the Earth’s average albedo was around 0.3, meaning just 30% of incoming solar radiation is reflected back into space — and if action is not taken, that number will soon be lower.

What Is Surface Albedo Modification?

Surface albedo modification is a climate intervention strategy that specifically focuses on solar radiation management (SRM), or solar geoengineering. It works to alter the Earth’s surface properties to increase its reflectivity. This can be achieved through various means, such as painting roofs and pavements in light colors, planting crops with higher reflectivity, or manufacturing and deploying reflective material in strategic locations, like the Arctic.

How Can Surface Albedo Modification Work as a Climate Intervention Strategy?

Surface albedo modification presents a method for mitigating the “warming” part of global warming, which is the main driver behind the current climate crisis. By increasing the Earth’s reflectivity, this approach to climate intervention could help to lower global temperatures. It’s an attractive idea because it can be implemented locally in a wide range of geographical regions and have immediate effects.

However, it’s important to note that albedo modification is not intended to be a standalone solution to the climate crisis, but rather a strategy that can be paired with others, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

Why Albedo Modification May Be Most Beneficial in the Arctic

Promoting surface modification in the Arctic is particularly strategic because snow and ice, being white in color, naturally have a higher albedo than darker surfaces (like the ocean). The Arctic region is responsible for a considerable portion of the Earth’s overall albedo, and it’s also the region that is most vulnerable to climate change — even more than the Antarctic.

Increasing the albedo in the Arctic could help restore ice cover, reducing the “albedo feedback” in which melting ice uncovers darker surfaces that absorb more solar radiation, thus speeding up and worsening the warming process. This intervention could potentially slow down the warming process in a region crucial for global climate stability.

However, even in the Arctic, albedo modification is not without challenges. The scale required for significant impact, potential unintended consequences, and the variability of effects in different regions are crucial considerations.

How You Can Support Albedo Modification and Other Climate Intervention Strategies

You can help protect Arctic sea ice and the health of our climate by educating yourself and others on climate intervention strategies, reducing your own reliance on fossil fuels, and voting for legislation and politicians that work to address the climate crisis. You can also support nonprofit organizations that work directly in climate intervention.

Protect Arctic Sea Ice and Our Climate With Arctic Ice Project

You can do your part in this critical fight by donating to AIP. With your donation of cash, stocks, bonds, or your opening of a DAF, you can help ensure that Arctic sea life and humanity on our planet not only see a tomorrow, but see a brighter one. No donation is too small!

If you are not able to make a financial contribution, you can still share the message and inspire others to act through social media and by staying informed on climate projects. Contact us today for other ways to help!

What You Need to Know About Solar Radiation Management

Sep 28, 2023 | Advocacy & Action

In the face of sharply increasing global temperatures and the dire need to combat the current climate crisis, scientists and policymakers are exploring various innovative solutions. One of the most intriguing yet controversial methods gaining attention is solar radiation management. Here’s what it is and what it entails — and what the potential pros and cons of adopting this approach are.

What Is Solar Radiation Management?

Solar radiation management (SRM), also called solar geoengineering, is a term that actually refers to multiple forms of climate intervention which, theoretically, work to reduce global warming caused by greenhouse gasses. Unlike emissions reduction strategies, which focus on mitigating the root causes of the climate crisis, SRM attempts to modify the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth’s surface, effectively offsetting some of the warming effects of greenhouse gasses.

Why Does Finding Viable SRM Methods Matter?

The primary motivation behind exploring SRM is its potential to counteract the rapid increase in global temperatures. As emissions continue to rise, the world may face dire consequences, including extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and ecological disruptions. SRM, if successfully implemented, could offer a rapid and relatively low-cost method of reducing the immediate impacts of the climate crisis. It’s important to note that no form of SRM can replace the imperative need to reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions in the first place. However, it may be worthwhile to combine SRM with emission-reducing practices. Effectively, SRM could provide a ‘safety valve’ in case emissions reduction efforts prove insufficient in limiting global warming to safe levels. Proponents argue that in combination with emission reductions, SRM could serve as a useful tool to achieve climate stabilization targets and prevent catastrophic climate scenarios.

What Kinds of SRM Methods Are Available (and What Do They Involve)?

There are multiple proposed SRM techniques, which generally include the following:

Space-based Geoengineering
Stratospheric aerosol injection
Surface albedo modification
Ocean albedo modification
Marine cloud brightening

Space-based Geoengineering

Space-based geoengineering involves the use of space-based devices to reflect or block sunlight, thereby reducing the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth. This approach aims to counteract global warming and mitigate climate crisis effects. One possible method of space-based solar geoengineering is creating a sunshield positioned close to the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian equilibrium point (L1), about 1.5 million kilometers sunwards of Earth. The shield could intercept a percentage of sunlight headed for Earth, effectively reducing the radiative force of greenhouse gasses. It could be designed using high-tech, low-mass scattering structures or low-tech, high-mass scatters constructed in space using local resources. Some proposals even include using dust created from asteroids to create a sunshield. Pros: By reflecting or blocking sunlight from space, space-based geoengineering could effectively reduce the amount of solar energy reaching Earth, helping to counteract global warming. Unlike some localized geoengineering methods, space-based approaches could also have a global impact. Finally, being deployed in space, such approaches might be less likely to interfere with Earth’s weather patterns and ecosystems. Cons: The technology required for space-based geoengineering is highly complex and not yet fully developed. The cost of developing, launching, and maintaining space-based systems would likely be prohibitively high, while its long-term effects on Earth’s climate system are uncertain. This method of SRM could lead to unforeseen changes in weather patterns. Further, decisions about deploying space-based geoengineering could lead to political and ethical conflicts.

Stratospheric Aerosol Injection

Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) involves the intentional introduction of aerosols into the stratosphere to create a cooling effect through global dimming and increased albedo (ability to reflect light away from the earth). This method mimics the natural cooling effect that occurs after large volcanic eruptions, when particles released in the stratosphere reflect sunlight. SAI could be implemented using various materials, including sulfur compounds, alumina, calcite, and salt, with sulfate being the most researched aerosol. The leading proposed method of delivery is custom aircraft, although other mechanisms are under consideration. Pros: SAI may offer temporary albedo effects that can mitigate the amount of sunlight that reaches Earth, thereby intervening in the greenhouse effect. It could counter most changes to temperature and precipitation and take effect rapidly at low direct implementation costs. Cons: SAI is widely acknowledged as the most-researched solar geoengineering method, but its implementation would require careful consideration of various factors and potential side effects. Concerns include imperfect control of the climate effects, potential negative impacts on ecology, political conflict, and unknown consequences on global health and quality of life.

Surface Albedo Modification

Surface albedo modification is a theoretical solar geoengineering technique that aims to reflect more sunlight back to space by enhancing Earth’s albedo — the measure of sunlight reflected off the Earth’s surface — by modifying land or land-based structures. The proposals for albedo modification are diverse and include growing crops that reflect more light, clearing boreal forests in snow-covered areas, covering large desert or ice areas with reflective materials, and whitening mountaintops and roofs with white paint. Essentially, the goal is to create large surfaces with a higher albedo, reflecting more solar radiation and thus theoretically reducing the temperature of the atmosphere. Pros: This method could increase the amount of solar radiation reflected away from the Earth’s surface. Cons: Surface albedo modification would not reduce the concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Moreover, there could be unwanted side effects on ecosystems, fauna, flora, and human communities that depend on those ecosystems.

Ocean Albedo Modification

Like land-based albedo modification, ocean albedo modification aims to increase the reflectivity of the ocean’s surface. This is typically achieved by creating microbubbles or using reflective materials on the water’s surface. Pros: By increasing the ocean’s albedo, more sunlight is reflected back into space, rather than being absorbed by the ocean. This can help to reduce global warming by lowering the Earth’s overall temperature. Cons: Ocean albedo modification is still in the experimental stage and involves complex processes and potential ecological impacts that need to be carefully studied and understood. It represents a novel approach to climate crisis mitigation, but requires further research to assess its feasibility, effectiveness, and potential side effects.

Marine Cloud Brightening

Marine cloud brightening works to increase the reflectivity of clouds over the ocean. By spraying fine droplets of seawater into the atmosphere, the method seeks to create or enhance cloud condensation nuclei, leading to the formation of brighter, more reflective clouds. These clouds would then reflect more sunlight back into space, reducing the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth’s surface. Pros: Marine cloud brightening may offer an effective organic form of solar radiation management. Cons: This concept has been proposed and studied in theoretical and modeling contexts, but currently, it remains largely untested in the real world, and its potential impacts on weather patterns and ecosystems are not fully understood.

Help Address the Climate Crisis With Arctic Ice Project

Arctic Ice Project’s efforts are crucial to the protection of Arctic sea ice. Our team is developing reflective materials and strategies to increase the albedo of this precious ice, mimicking natural processes to reflect solar energy out of our atmosphere and restore the Arctic. You can do your part in this critical fight by spreading awareness of and supporting efforts to mitigate the climate crisis. One way to do this is by donating to a climate restoration nonprofit like Arctic Ice Project. No donation is too small, though if you are not able to make a financial contribution, you can also share the message and inspire others to act through social media and by staying informed on climate projects. Please consider donating to Arctic Ice Project today!

The Necessity of Climate Intervention: Why Immediate Action Is Critical

Jun 14, 2023 | Advocacy & Action

The Necessity of Climate Intervention:

Why Immediate Action Is Critical

The issue of climate change is no longer a fringe subject; it has evolved into a dire and imminent global crisis. With the Earth’s average temperature steadily rising, the impacts of climate change are already apparent: we’ve already witnessed the increasing severity of natural disasters, loss of species, rising sea levels, and loss of human life. This is why immediate climate intervention is not just a priority, but an essential requirement for human survival.

The Current State of Climate Crisis

Climate change refers to the long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns caused by global warming. The burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas have rapidly escalated this phenomenon over the past few decades.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global temperature is expected to rise by 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate. This rise in temperature is driving more frequent and severe weather changes, contributing to an array of devastating effects.

The Environmental Importance of Arctic Sea Ice and Its Vulnerability to the Climate Crisis

Arctic sea ice plays an indispensable role in the global environment and climate. However, it’s currently disappearing due to the consequences of climate change.

The Role of Arctic Ice in Global Climate Regulation

Arctic ice serves as a crucial global temperature regulator. Its white surface reflects sunlight back into space, a phenomenon known as the albedo effect. This process is essential for maintaining the Earth’s energy balance and keeping global temperatures stable.

Moreover, the Arctic region acts as a “global air conditioner” by producing cold air masses that influence wind patterns and weather conditions worldwide. It also helps regulate ocean currents, as the cold, dense water in the polar regions sinks and drives the circulation of warm and cold water, known as thermohaline circulation.

Lastly, Arctic ice is home to a diverse range of species, many of which are specially adapted to life in the extreme conditions of the polar environment. This biodiversity plays an essential role in maintaining the health of the global ecosystem.

Dangers of the climate crisis:

Rising Sea Levels: Melting polar ice caps contribute to rising sea levels, threatening low-lying areas and islands.

Heatwaves and Droughts: Increased temperatures can trigger devastating heatwaves and droughts, impacting food production and water supply.

Extreme Weather Events: Climate change leads to more frequent and severe storms, hurricanes, and floods, causing damage to infrastructure and loss of life.

Loss of Biodiversity: Changing climates can lead to habitat loss, causing a decline in species diversity and triggering ecosystem imbalances.

The Dangers of Climate Crisis

Uncontrolled climate change poses significant risks to both the natural world and human societies, as it causes not just the loss of essential natural resources, but the disruption of economies. The climate crisis is already causing the following:

Rising Sea Levels: Melting polar ice caps contribute to rising sea levels, threatening low-lying areas and islands.
Heatwaves and Droughts: Increased temperatures can trigger devastating heatwaves and droughts, impacting food production and water supply.
Extreme Weather Events: Climate change leads to more frequent and severe storms, hurricanes, and floods, causing damage to infrastructure and loss of life.
Loss of Biodiversity: Changing climates can lead to habitat loss, causing a decline in species diversity and triggering ecosystem imbalances.

The Threat of Climate Change to Arctic Ice

Climate change poses a severe threat to the integrity of Arctic ice. Rising global temperatures are causing Arctic sea ice to melt at an alarming rate. According to NOAA Climate.gov, Arctic sea ice has been declining by about 13% per decade since satellite records began in the late 1970s.

When Arctic ice melts, it disrupts the albedo effect, leading to a vicious cycle known as a positive feedback loop. This actually worsens climate change. As the ice melts, it reveals darker water or land underneath, causing the water to absorb more sunlight rather than reflecting it. This in turn leads to more warming and more ice melting, accelerating both the loss of arctic ice and the many other severe consequences of the climate crisis.

Why Immediate Climate Intervention Is Essential

Given the urgent and severe threats posed by climate change, immediate climate intervention is essential. Climate intervention (also called geoengineering) is defined as the deliberate alteration of mechanisms in the Earth’s environment or atmosphere that ultimately work to reduce the impact of the climate crisis.

Here are some of the key reasons climate intervention or geoengineering is imperative:

Ensuring Human Security

Climate change poses significant threats to human security, including water and food scarcity, displacement, and conflict over resources. Immediate intervention can help safeguard these essential aspects of human life.

Protecting Biodiversity

Climate intervention can help conserve the world’s biodiversity by protecting habitats from the impacts of climate change. Biodiversity is crucial as it contributes to the resilience of ecosystems and provides invaluable resources for human survival.

Upholding Economic Stability

The economic cost of climate change is staggering, from damage to infrastructure due to extreme weather events to lost productivity due to health issues. Timely intervention can help to save trillions of dollars: as of 2022, the acceleration of climate change and the resulting climate crisis had already cost $2.2 trillion in economic losses.

Mitigating Adverse Effects

While the earth is already experiencing many consequences of climate change, immediate intervention can help mitigate current and future adverse effects. By cutting greenhouse gas emissions, we can slow down global warming and subsequently reduce the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters.

Preserving Future Generations

Immediate action is necessary to preserve the planet for future generations. If we do not act now, the consequences of climate change will only become more severe, leaving a compromised world for our descendants.

All images were taken by Carol Sontag during her trip to Greenland.

The Arctic is in Crisis

Aug 2, 2022 | Advocacy & Action, Updates from the Arctic

Steve Zornetzer, PhD and AIP Board Member

I am going to start out this report with something that scientists normally don’t do and that is to share some feelings with you. I’m scared, I’m anxious, I’m frustrated and I’m angry. Political leaders and humankind in general have not taken climate change and global warming issues more seriously than they have in the past. We are losing ground on global warming. It is advancing much faster than we had hoped. We have not abided by the Paris Accords or any of the commitments we have made as governments around the world to begin weaning ourselves from a carbon economy and from fossil fuels and therefore climate change continues to advance. We have only a short window of time to act.

Our planet’s climate is changing due to human-caused disruption of the balance between solar radiation absorption (heat gain) and heat loss into space. Atmospheric absorption of surface thermal radiation has been increasing due to huge emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases by humankind into the Earth’s atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution. These gases, commonly called “greenhouse gases” (GHG), trap heat in the atmosphere that would otherwise be reflected back into space. The net effect is a reduction in planetary heat loss while solar radiation heat gain continues, thus warming the planet. In its simplest form, this imbalance is the root cause of global warming (GW).

So, the question is, how do we, as the species that caused this unintended GW problem, solve the problem? Before addressing this question directly, as we will below, it is important to understand the consequences of doing nothing. The adverse impacts of GW and associated climate change are undeniably dangerous: intensified destructive storms, droughts, wildfires, sea level rise, and an intense decrease in biodiversity caused by habitat degradation. Together, these consequences threaten the material safety and food security of a growing human population. Doing nothing to slow and potentially reverse GW is not an option. Human and economic suffering will be catastrophic. Cost estimates for climate change-related disasters and associated infrastructure, agricultural, economic and human health impacts by 2040 are staggering. In just the next two decades, these costs are estimated to be $54 trillion world-wide. Today it is estimated that the Arctic is warming more than three times faster than the rest of the planet. This is the Arctic crisis.

At the Arctic Ice Project (AIP), we believe that regional surface albedo modification (SAM), will strategically increase the reflectivity of Arctic sea ice to preserve and extend its persistence. SAM, if proven safe and effective, could be deployed with few or no unintended consequences. The more ice that persists during Arctic summer months, the more solar reflectivity and the less planetary heating. In recent decades, Arctic sea and land ice have been melting at frighteningly fast rates. This ice loss is reducing the planet’s reflectivity and simultaneously increasing heat gain through greater absorption of solar energy by dark Arctic Ocean waters during summer when the sun shines 24 hours/day. This accelerating loss of sea ice is contributing to the alarmingly rapid warming of the Arctic. Not many years ago, Arctic warming and sea ice loss was thought to be a consequence of GW. Today, scientists now know that Arctic warming has become so great that it is now a contributor to GW. Some scientists estimate as much as 25% of all GW would be contributed by complete loss of summer Arctic sea ice. Loss of Arctic sea ice engages two feedback mechanisms that promote accelerated warming. First, loss of summer sea ice reduces the reflectivity of the surface allowing more solar energy to be absorbed by the ocean, leading to more heating which in turn leads to further sea ice loss. Second, sea ice provides a thermal barrier protecting the cold Arctic air from the relatively warmer ocean below, effectively insulating the colder air from the warmer ocean water. Loss of sea ice removes this insulation and the ocean warms the air which in turn melts more ice. These two positive feedback loops contribute to “Arctic Amplification”, i.e., accelerated warming.

The objective of sea ice SAM is to break these feedback loops, restore sea ice, mitigate warming over a large Arctic region, and slow GW. AIP’s innovation is to increase the reflectivity of young ice by applying a very thin layer of reflective hollow silica glass microspheres onto the surface of the ice. This could increase the reflectivity of ice by about 50 percent, reducing the absorption of solar radiation. The material used in this treatment is nontoxic, consisting mostly of silica (the primary material in sand, and most rocks). Bio-toxicological testing to date has shown no adverse impact on wildlife. AIP believes, in agreement with a recent National Academy of Science report, that a major research and development effort is urgently needed to fully understand the safety, effectiveness, cost and potential unintended consequences of currently proposed climate intervention approaches. We need every effective and safe tool in the toolbox to be ready for use. The clock is ticking and the Arctic crisis contributes significantly to the GW crisis, looming larger and larger each year we do nothing. We must act! Doing nothing is not an option! We appreciate your support and encouragement as we make progress towards providing an effective mitigation to GW.

I’ve Never Supported Geoengineering, So Why Now?

Aug 2, 2022 | Advocacy & Action

Matt Richter, PhD

My name is Matt Richter. I’m a physicist by training and received my PhD at Stanford doing polysyllabic work that very few people in the world actually understand or perhaps care about. Given my background, you would think that I’d be all for everything and anything that could help us deal with the problem of global warming. And yes, I think it’s the single most important issue facing our species.

However, being a physicist, I also understand how human efforts with global reach have never really worked out that well. All the carbon we’ve burned from the start of the industrial age to now? Yes, harnessing the power of fire to do work has allowed for unimaginable progress! And it’s raised atmospheric CO2 levels to truly horrific levels. Our use of plastics unleashed both endocrine disruptors and microplastics that are now found in pretty much every animal and every part of the planet, no matter how remote. We’ve disrupted fisheries, upended ecosystems, destroyed rainforests and polluted air, land, and sea. And the period of time we’re in now is looking like a period of global extinctions the likes of which may very well equal the past death of the dinosaurs.

The idea of doing something with global reach has always scared me. I mean, as a species our batting average has been pretty poor, spending our future for dubious gains today. But despite this track record of global damage, there are two reasons why I’m supporting Arctic Ice Project (AIP).

The first reason I support AIP is time, or rather the lack of it. I come from a family that has been active in environmental science for a long time. My father, Burton Richter, won the Nobel Prize in Physics for running one of two groups that confirmed the Standard Model (better known as Quarks to people outside the field.) After winning the Nobel Prize, his focus slowly but surely moved to energy policy– even writing a book, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Change and Energy in the 21st Century. Were he still alive, I think even he, a subject matter expert, would be surprised at how fast change is happening now. Growing up in science, around people who really care about making the planet a better place, I’m more aware than most about the scale and scope of the issues we’re facing. Change is here now, and it’s happening fast. There is no time to “wait and see” as so many who don’t want to change advocate doing. There is no time to lose to make a difference.

The second reason I support AIP is how it works. Small hollow glass spheres are spread onto new ice to make it more reflective so that it can get thicker faster and last longer. These are called “hollow glass microspheres” in the trades, but try to think of them as “shiny sand.” This shiny sand is composed of silica, which is ubiquitous. This approach appeals to me. Research is continuing, but this appears to buy us time to do the big work of decarbonizing while stalling the worst impacts of climate change.

These are the reasons I’m giving my support to AIP. We’re almost out of time and this approach just makes sense. I would like to encourage others to join me in supporting Arctic Ice Project while we still have time to make a difference.