The Problem: The ice caps are melting as a result of climate change.
The Solution: Refreeze the ice caps with drone-delivered liquid nitrogen bombs.
It has been well-publicised that the ice caps are melting as a result of global warming caused by climate change, leading to rising sea levels and further warming as less heat is reflected by ice and more is absorbed by the sea.
There have been a number of suggestions for using geo-engineering, such as seeding clouds to reflect heat and help prevent further ice melt, and the UK government has launched a research project to determine methods to restore the natural balance at the ice caps and elsewhere.
Given the dangers associated with ice melts as well as the wider benefits to stopping global warming by restoring the ice sheets, the simplest approach to start to fix the problem is to manually refreeze the ice caps.
I propose creating large ‘drone aircraft carriers’ with the capability to create liquid nitrogen on board the ships and load depth charges that would be dropped by drones flying around the ice caps to rapidly refreeze the water into ice.
The ship need not be a military grade aircraft carrier, it just needs a flat surface large enough to allow drones to take off and land (the drones would likely be the ‘aeroplane’ style as opposed to ‘helicopter’ style to enhance their capabilities, so would need a runway to take off, although that need not be on the same scale as a conventional aircraft carrier).
The ship would primarily be focused on generating liquid nitrogen (a temperature of about minus 200 degrees centigrade) to load onto the drones, as well as having the capability for drone take off and landing. If that was too difficult, the jobs of liquid nitrogen creation and aircraft carrier would be separated into two ships.
The drones would perform continuous flying sorties from the ships to the ice caps, dropping depth charges that would release liquid nitrogen at specified depths to freeze the ice from the bottom up, starting close to existing ice sheets and gradually expanding out.
The liquid nitrogen would flash-freeze the seawater back into ice, expanding the ice sheets. The aircraft carrier could have an enduring operation in the region, receiving re-supply to enable it to perform 365 days a year.
There are of course risks with such a project, especially from the effect that excess nitrogen in the water may cause, so an alternative may be sought. But as with the baseball bat idea that inspired this website, it points towards an eventual solution – using existing technology from civilian and military spheres to address a significant issue.
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