In general, a glacier is formed and maintained by a cycle of snow falling at high altitudes, melt occurring at lower altitudes and or discharge into the sea.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Increasing precipitation on a glacier would add to the glacier's mass, thereby directly countering the melting. Also, the snow that falls would increase glacial albedo, and thereby reduce the amount of absorbed energy.
The loss of ice in Greenland and the shrinking of glaciers in other parts of the Arctic currently contribute up to 40% of the average 3 mm global sea level rise per year. A number of studies suggest that Greenland could be a major contributor to a potential rise in sea levels of 0,5 to 1 meter by the end of the century.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
There is a suggestion to use localized surface technologies to create artificial snow cover on mountain glaciers Oerlemans et al. (2017).
Krossfjorden lies within the Spitsbergen National Park in the Svalbard archipelago. The mountain formations in this area represent different geological periods and the site is recognized as an important monitoring station for climate variations. Lucky visitors to the area might witness the calving of ice into the sea from one of the five surrounding fjords.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
It has recently been suggested that hollow glass microspheres (HGM, see also see sea ice albedo increase) could be used to increase the albedo of mountain glaciers and thereby slow their melt.
Mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet quadrupled over the past two decades, contributing a quarter of the observed global sea-level rise.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
One method to increase the albedo of individual glaciers already in use is to wrap them in reflective materials.
Mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet quadrupled over the past two decades, contributing a quarter of the observed global sea-level rise.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Several high mountain communities around the world have a long history of building barriers and other constructions that trap or hold meltwater by refreezing it (Nüsser et al. 2019b).
Mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet quadrupled over the past two decades, contributing a quarter of the observed global sea-level rise.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
It covers about 98% of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
It has been suggested that ice sheets could be stabilized by building physical structures that could artificially support and buttress them.
The loss of ice in Greenland and the shrinking of glaciers in other parts of the Arctic currently contribute up to 40% of the average 3 mm global sea level rise per year. A number of studies suggest that Greenland could be a major contributor to a potential rise in sea levels of 0,5 to 1 meter by the end of the century.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
It has been suggested that ice sheets could be stabilized by reducing the lubrication effect of water below the ice sheet.
About 61% of all fresh water on Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet, an equivalent to 70 m of water in the world's oceans.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
One of the potentially most catastrophic effects of contemporary global warming would be the dramatic increase in sea levels as a result of the melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Even if all current emissions were immediately stopped, sea level rise could still occur because of locked-in warming (ICCI 2022).
Glaciers cover around 59% of Svalbard, which is made up of four islands, Spitsbergen, Nordaustlandet, Edgerøya and Barentsrøya. Many of the glaciers in this area are known to surge, meaning that for 100 years they can remain still and silent, only to suddenly and violently move, advancing from the upper area of the glacier towards the mouth.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Engineer Paul Klinkman has suggested increasing the water content around glaciers and ice sheets to increase precipitation over them (see Klinkman Solar Design, U2).
An ice shelf is a thick platform of ice that forms at the grounding line of a glacier, where the glacier meets the coastline.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
With rising Arctic temperatures, there have been major changes in iceberg production rates from marine terminating glaciers. These icebergs drift into warmer sea waters where they will slowly melt.
The ice in glaciers has been under enormous pressure for eons. The compression eliminates air and reflective surfaces within the ice.
Year: 2014
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
In 2019, an Indonesian design team came up with the idea of a submersible device that could take in sea water, desalinate it, and then have it freeze into a solid block they called a “new ice baby” (Griffiths, 2019).
Sea ice is simply frozen ocean water. It forms, grows, and melts in the ocean. In contrast, icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves all originate on land.
Year: 1991
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Sea ice thickening is an idea to slow or reverse the decline of Arctic sea ice by artificially thickening it.
Seal hunting (mainly on abundant ring seals) is an important part of life for the Inuit of Pond Inlet (Inuktitut: Mittimatalik).
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Apart from thickening sea ice by directly adding mass to it (see sea ice thickening), it has been suggested that the ice could also be protected by increasing its albedo and thereby reducing the amount of absorbed energy (Field et al. 2018).
Sea ice is simply frozen ocean water. It forms, grows, and melts in the ocean. In contrast, icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves all originate on land.
Year: 1991
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Sea ice is simply frozen ocean water. It forms, grows, and melts in the ocean. In contrast, icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves all originate on land.
Year: 1991
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Pykrete is a 6:1 mix of ice and sawdust that has the property of melting slower than regular ice. Several references have been made online to the use of pykrete as an artificial barrier, as artificial sea ice, or as blockers of moulins.
Sea ice is frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface. It forms in both the Arctic and the Antarctic in each hemisphere’s winter, and it retreats, but does not completely disappear, in the summer.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
In 2010, Veli Albert Kallio suggested the use of ‘floating cables or levees, even platforms’, to act as ‘seeding points to fasten the seasonal growth of the Arctic Ocean's sea ice’ (Geoengineering Google Groups n.d.)
Unlike the Arctic, which at its center is an ocean, Antarctica is a landmass that is surrounded by the Southern Ocean.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Similar to other ideas to pump water on sea ice (see Sea ice thickening), engineer Sev Clarke (Planetary Restoration n.d.) and engineering student Katy Cartlidge (University of Cambridge 2022) both came up with designs to artificially produce sea ice.
Here in the mountains of Southern Norway at about 800m above sea level harsh winter conditions determine the limits where trees are still able to grow.
Year: 2014
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Uummannaq is home to 1400 people and 3000 dogs. This district boasts the largest number of glaciers found in the one place.
Year: 2011
Photographer: Lawrence Hislop
Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) is an idea to inject particles in the stratosphere to reduce the amount of incoming solar energy (Rasch et al. 2008; Irvine et al. 2016).
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Year: 2016
Photographer: Lars Kullerud
Clouds play an important role in the Earth’s energy system. The effects of clouds are complex and diverse, often having simultaneous cooling and warming effects. Mixed-phase clouds (MPC) are clouds that contain water vapor, ice particles, and supercooled water droplets. MPCs are still poorly understood and 'notoriously difficult to represent in numerical weather prediction and climate models' (Korolev et al. 2017).
Icebergs in Disco Bay, Greenland
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Roughly one-third of the incoming solar radiation is directly reflected back into space by the Earth’s atmosphere and surface albedo. Clouds play an important role in this, although their role is double as water droplets can also interfere with outgoing longwave radiation, thereby contributing to the greenhouse effect. Over open water clouds can make a particularly big difference as the albedo of the water is below 0.1, thereby absorbing most of the sun’s energy.
An aurora, also known as the polar lights or aurora polaris, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic).
Year: 2021
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
One of the most intuitive SRM approaches would be to reflect or block some solar energy before it reaches the Earth’s atmosphere.
The loss of ice in Greenland and the shrinking of glaciers in other parts of the Arctic currently contribute up to 40% of the average 3 mm global sea level rise per year. A number of studies suggest that Greenland could be a major contributor to a potential rise in sea levels of 0,5 to 1 meter by the end of the century.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Fisheries contribute to global CO2 emissions by the extraction of fish, disturbance of coastal and oceanic blue carbon ecosystems, and the use of fossil fuels as their main energy source. Fishing vessels are moreover a major source of short-lived climate forcers like black carbon (McKuin and Campbell 2016), which can have a major effect in Arctic and Northern regions (see Black carbon reduction).
Chumbe Island Coral Park Ltd. (CHICOP) is an award-winning private nature reserve that was developed from 1991 for the conservation and sustainable management of uninhabited Chumbe Island off Zanzibar, one of the last pristine coral islands in the region.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Rob Barnes
Ocean fertilization schemes seek to increase the amount of available nutrients in the top layer of the ocean to stimulate the growth of phytoplankton.
Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Yannick Beadoin
The potential of carbon sequestration by marine based plants such as mangroves, seagrass and algae, often referred to as blue carbon, and the importance of better understanding it, has clearly been recognised (Mcleod et al. 2011). The IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019) concluded blue carbon can play an important role in both climate regulation and adaptation. The term algae groups together several kinds of marine photosynthetic organisms. These are often subdivided into very small microalgae like phytoplankton, and larger macroalgae like kelp and seaweed. Although there is still large uncertainty about the total amount of carbon sequestered by these marine organisms, a recent estimate by Duarte et al. (2022) indicated that all macroalgae took in as much CO2 as the Amazon rainforest.
The Cape Petrel, also called Cape Pigeon, is one of the most common seabirds of the Southern Ocean and around Antarctica. They have an estimated population of around 2 million. Cape Petrels feed mainly on crustacean, including krill, and are often seen following ships.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Year: 2012
Photographer: Dimitris Poursanidis
Fishermen in Zanzibar, Tanzania
Year: 2016
Photographer: Rob Barnes
Biotic processes play an important role in oceanic carbon uptake, with most attention going to carbon-consuming photosynthesising organisms. Moore et al. (2023) argue that the potential role of shellfish and other calcifiers in carbon sequestration is significantly overlooked in the CDR literature.
South the shores of the islands outside Arendal a marine national park is in planning. The rolling stones, remains from the last ice edge is a main feature of the protection plans. The recreational value is immense. It should become a win-win for tourism and conservation.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
The Coastal Archipelago Park of the South Coast ("Sørlandet") of Norway covers an area of the Skagerak coast between Grenland in Telemark and Lindesnes in West Agder, including many hundreds of islands and skerries. The Sørland coast is one of the most important recreation areas of Norway and hosts a unique coastal ecosystem with special habitats and a rich biodiversity.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Artificial downwelling (AD) is an idea to pump upper layer water deeper down into the ocean.
A school of juveniles of the Dusky spinefoot Siganus luridus, swim over a meadow.
Year: 2012
Photographer: Dimitris Poursanidis
Artificial upwelling (AU) is an idea to increase carbon uptake of upper ocean layers by fertilizing it with pumped-up colder nutrient-rich waters from the deep, which would encourage the biological sequestration of carbon through photosynthesis (NASEM 2022).
Seagrass Meadows in Greece
Year: 2017
Photographer: Dimitris Poursanidis
The deep waters in the Baltic are severely deoxygenated. Although the causes of the current state are complex, this is mainly a result of increased eutrophication from sewage and agricultural runoff from surrounding lands, which leads to extreme bioproductivity (Rolff et al. 2022). Some species manage to survive in the upper water layers, but many organisms living on the seafloor are severely impacted by the hypoxia, thereby influencing the health of a wide network of ecosystems and biochemical processes. There are attempts to reduce nutrient runoff into the Baltic (see for example: https://helcom.fi/baltic-sea-action-plan/). However, some argue these will be insufficient and argue for engineering solutions to the issue.
The Tromlingen islands, as a centrepiece and most valuable part of the Raet national park, are an attractive place for bird watchers, in particular in autumn, when migratory birds from the Arctic stop over on the islands.
Year: 2017
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Carbon uptake in the ocean mainly occurs directly through ocean-atmosphere interaction or through weathering processes. Due to this uptake of carbon, the oceans turn more acidic overtime, and since the start of the industrial revolution oceans have become 30% more acidic. This has all sorts of effects as it, for example, impacts marine biochemistry, and prevents certain organisms from successfully growing.
The Ölfusá is Iceland's largest river in terms of volume (average flow of 423m3/s) and has major importance for the local salmon fishing industry.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
June 9-20, 2008, happened the largest forest fire since 100 years in Norway. In the area of Mykland 26 km2 of (mainly pine) forest burned. Now this is a unique area, where natural processes can be studied. Therefore some of this area will be kept untouched and protected. Several research projects have been developed.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
The photo illustrates the environment around the capital of Finish Lapland, Rovaniemi.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Although the rate of deforestation has slowed over the last few decades, the world is still losing forest cover (FAO 2020). Adequate management, protection, and restoration of existing forests, and the planting of unforested areas, play a crucial role in climate mitigation scenarios (IPCC AR6 WG3), and many countries now include forests in their climate mitigation targets (NDCs).The Northern and Arctic regions are essential in this endeavor since they are home to large swaths of boreal forests that make up 27% of total global forest area (FAO 2020).
In areas around the taiga/tundra boundary in Southern Taymyr since long time different tribes of indigenous peoples have settled.
Year: 1993
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
In many Arctic and Northern regions, domesticated or semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) are the only large herbivores (Uboni et al. 2016). Reindeer play a crucial role in these ecosystems and in the livelihoods and traditions of multiple local and indigenous populations. In light of the major impact of climate change in the Arctic, the capacity of large herbivores to mitigate some of these effects is being explored. Herbivores can have different climate positive effects as they can reduce shrubification and slow ecosystem responses to climate change (Olofsson and Post 2018; Happonen et al. 2021), modify summer and winter surface albedo (te Beest et al. 2016), trample winter snow to thicken permafrost (Beer et al. 2020; Windirsch et al. 2022), and increase biomass and soil carbon sequestration (Ylänne et al. 2018; Ylänne et al. 2021; see also soil management).
The forests in Southern Norway show the highest diversity in the country.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Natural climate solutions like conservation or restoration can significantly contribute to climate change mitigation efforts (Griscom et al. 2017). One such category of natural climate solutions is re-wilding.
In the park are hundreds of different species of moss, lichen, fungi. A lot of plant species are protected.
Year: 2017
Photographer: Runa S. Lindebjerg
Wetlands and peatlands play important roles in global carbon cycles. Wetlands are areas that are seasonally covered by water. Globally mangroves are often the main topic of focus when it comes to wetlands (IPCC AR6 WG3, 2022, 7.4.2.8). In the Arctic and Northern regions, peatlands are important wetland elements, and will be the focus of what follows. Such peatlands are very carbon rich and store carbon in biomass below and above ground and in soil carbon. Although they only make up 3% of the Earth’s surface, peatlands store up to 21% of terrestrial carbon, and damaged peatlands contribute close to 5% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions (Leifeld et al. 2019). Peatland drainage between 1850 and 2015 has globally already released 80 Gt CO2-eq, and this figure may climb to 250 Gt CO2-eq by 2100 (Leifeld et al. 2019).
Compared to the global state of such areas, Arctic and Northern wetlands and peatlands remain relatively intact (UNEP 2021), and only around 2% of boreal peatlands are currently converted into croplands (Leifeld and Menichetti 2018). However, increasing attention is being paid to the importance of restoring destroyed areas, which make up 78% of total global peatlands, and preserving endangered ones, especially in light of the effects of climate change on such ecosystems. The Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands notes (CAFF 2021) therefore highlight the need for increased wetlands resilience to protect against future damage.
Year: 2003
Photographer: Lars Kullerud
Terrestrial carbon can be stored in biomass above or below the ground, and in soils themselves. Soil organic matter can form differently, and have different amounts of plant and microbial components depending on the availability of water (Cotrufo and Lavallee, 2022). The large amounts of the Earth that have been brought under cultivation over the past 12.000 years have significantly degraded soil carbon levels, and have released some 110 billion metric tons of carbon (Sanderman et al. 2017). Soil security and health is increasingly being recognised as essential for planetary health (Kopittke et al. (2022).
Ice wedges grow as the ice-rich frozen ground contracts during the winter and forms open cracks below the surface.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
There have been several isolated suggestions to mitigate permafrost thaw or influence the thaw processes in the active layer by physically covering the surface with materials (see for example https://groups.google.com/g/geoengineering/c/u2b9Xb5B0C8/m/aXQia-nNDbcJ) in a similar way to how glaciers might be preserved (see Glacier Insulation, and Passive Radiative Cooling). Although different materials have been suggested, these have not been worked out further, and are likely to be a very costly, and impractical solution.
Polygon Lakes in the Arctic Tundra are unique to permafrost areas and form as a result of the freeze-thaw cycle that occurs here.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Thermosyphon technologies that passively cool soils if the air temperature is colder than surface temperatures have been used on a smaller scale to stabilize permafrost that supports infrastructure (Xu and Goering, 2008).
Abu Dhabi Blue Carbon Demonstration Project
Year: 2014
Photographer: Rob Barnes under licence from AGEDI
Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) promises to provide energy free cooling through thermally-emissive surfaces that reflect incoming solar radiation whilst simultaneously enhancing longwave heat transfer to space through the infrared window of the atmosphere (8–13 µm) (Yin et al. 2020).
Year: 2014
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Surface albedo has a significant impact on global climate (Zhang et al. 2022). Plants play an important role in this. Matthews et al. (2003), for example, estimate that the spread of agriculture has led to a global cooling of around 0.17°C, as agricultural crops tend to have a higher albedo than wild vegetation (Monteith and Unsworth 1990).
Masdar City, Abu Dhabi
Year: 2011
Photographer: Rob Barnes
The built environment takes up an ever greater portion of the earth’s surface. This mostly unused surface area could be coated in albedo enhancing paints or material which would allow them to reflect incoming sunlight.
Spitsbergen is the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago, the area of which covers around 62,500km2.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Some have suggested that it might be possible to capture methane or methane hydrates and transform it into useful materials.
Within the former German-Soviet Environmental Agreement in the years 1989-1991 3 biological expeditions to the Taymyr peninsula in northernmost Siberia were performed.
Year: 1990
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Apart from proposals to destroy atmospheric methane or capturing it, some have suggested it could be possible to prevent methane from reaching the atmosphere or flaring it.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Tropospheric Iron Salt Aerosol injection (ISAI) has recently received significant attention as a potential methane mitigation technique.
Nutrients which seep out of whale bones fertilize plants, leading to an accumulation of organic matter in the soil.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
The most widely studied carbon storage technique is the large-scale application of biochar. Biochar is produced when biomass is pyrolysed - a thermal process in which oxygen for combustion is lacking.
Sustainable forest management involves the maintenance and enhancement of forest environments, ensuring longevity of forest ecosystems while allowing the best possible environmental, economic, social and cultural opportunities now and into the future. In Canada, the world’s largest exporter of forest products, harvest rates and strict jurisdictions are set to ensure long term ecosystem sustainability, protecting soil and water resources and 55% of all energy used by the forestry sector is renewable bio-energy.
Year: 2014
Photographer: Lawrence Hislop
Bio-Energy with Carbon Storage (BECCS) offers a nature-based way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by consuming biomaterial and removing the remaining carbon residues from the carbon cycle.
Ice wedges grow as the ice-rich frozen ground contracts during the winter and forms open cracks below the surface.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) aims to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by taking it directly out of the air, and removing it from the carbon cycle.
Gentoo Penguins lay a couple of eggs but if food is in short supply once the eggs have hatched, one chick is often sacrificed in order to feed the stronger of the two.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Inspired by the discovery of CO2 ice caps on Mars, Agee et al. (2013) suggested it might be possible to artificially create similarly cold conditions in the already frigid temperatures of Antarctica that would allow CO2 to 'snow' out of the air.
More than any other animal, the polar bear, Ursus maritimus, is recognized as the symbol of the Arctic.
Year: 2011
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
The Taymyr Autonomous Area occupies 800,000 sq km, an area the size of England, France and the Netherlands combined.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Enhanced weathering (EW) is a measure that seeks to enhance and speed up the process of rock weathering in which CO2 reacts with minerals (Schuiling and Krijgsman 2006) that naturally occurs and already consumes 1.1 Gt CO2 per year (Ciais et al. 2014).
The forests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra are witnessing some of the fastest rates of deforestation in the world. Over the last decade, dozens of pulp and paper companies have established themselves on the island chopping down trees and setting up palm oil plantations on the cleared land. These changes have far-reaching environmental as well as socio-economic impacts on the island communities that are so dependent on the natural resources and ecosystem services provided by the rainforests.
Year: 2014
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Black Carbon (BC), also known as soot, is produced through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomaterials. Apart from its negative health impacts, BC also has significant climate effects because it generally has a lower albedo than its surroundings, which increases the amount of radiation absorbed both when BC is present in the atmosphere and when it is deposited on land (Stjern et al. 2017). Due to the large albedo differences, the effects of BC are especially significant in areas that are normally covered in snow or ice (Hadley and Kirchstetter 2012; Sand et al. 2016; Kang et al. 2020).
Norilsk is located between the West Siberian Plain and Central Siberian Plateau at the foot of the 1,700-meter high Putoran Mountains, on some of the largest nickel deposits on Earth. Consequently, mining and smelting ore are the major industries.
Photographer: GRID-Arendal
Year: 2022
Photographer: Olivia Rempel
One of the main issues with methane removal is that atmospheric methane concentrations are very low. This means that very large volumes of air, and related energy demands, are required, making the use of ventilators like those used for DACCS (see direct air capture) more complicated (Nisbet-Jones et al. 2021).
Year: 2014
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Zeolites are porous minerals that can capture methane (Jackson 2019).
Irregularly shaped icebergs are common around Greenland and Northern Canada and originate from the many Greenland fjords.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch