The Arctic Ice Cap is melting!
And with it goes our future and that of our children. Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) might slow or even reverse this process. We are the Refreeze the Arctic Foundation. We are fast tracking funding into MCB research.

Why is preserving
the Arctic ice cap important?

Our planet is heating up fast. This rapid global warming is causing climate change. The damage of climate change is evident in the multitude of extreme weather events we are experiencing.

The bright, white arctic ice cap on the other hand provides cooling and mirrors sunlight back into space. As the Arctic ice cap melts because of global warming, it exposes the dark ocean on which it floats, which absorbs heat instead and is a poor mirror. This is a powerful feedback loop where more melting exposes more ocean which causes more melting… until all the ice is gone! And without Arctic ice cap, our planet will heat up even faster. The Arctic ice cap is vital to keep our planet cool.
Why do we need a cool planet?

As a result of using fossil fuels and thereby releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) the planet is heating up. Because of the higher average temperatures many effects take place on a global scale. Examples are: coral reefs are bleaching, fish stocks collapsing, deserts are advancing, the permafrost is thawing, and the ice caps are melting. But heat is also energy. Violent weather events fuelled by all that stored energy are devastating our communities (hurricanes and typhoons at sea, tornados ashore, floodings, wildfires, rain bombs, heat waves, big freezes). Everything is happening simultaneously and faster than we thought. Even the melting of the Greenland ice cap is accelerating. This could lead to sea levels rising by many meters. All our coastal areas could be submerged and hundreds of millions living in coastal communities and cities could become destitute climate migrants.

We urgently need to cool our planet, whilst finding ways to reduce our emissions of GHGs drastically and rapidly and remove them from the atmosphere.
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We need the “3Rs”

Burning fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases (GHGs). GHGs trap incoming solar radiation. That radiation can no longer reflect back into space. It is stored in the form of heat in our oceans and atmosphere. Currently, we produce 45 Gigatonnes of GHGs per year, whereas 200 years ago, it was next to none (!). Man-made GHG-emissions are the root-cause of global warming, which causes climate change. The best way to combat global warming is by reducing GHGs emissions and removing GHGs from the atmosphere. But this will take time. And we are running out of time because global warming is accelerating. Refreezing the Arctic could buy us precious time by cooling our planet and slowing down global warming. Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) is probably the most effective way to refreeze the Arctic. We need the “3Rs”: Reduce, Remove, Refreeze.

“Refreezing the Arctic, were it possible, would be a huge defence against the global catastrophes currently threatened by continued global warming”
Sir David Attenborough
“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.”
Barack Obama, Former US President

How can MCB help preserve and refreeze the ice caps?

Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) makes clouds brighter. How? MCB mimics nature. MCB uses spraying nozzles that turn seawater into a fine sea spray. That spray is lifted into the clouds by sea winds, bringing sea salt particles into the clouds. These particles then break up big water droplets into smaller water droplets turning dark clouds into brighter clouds. Brighter clouds reflect more sunlight and therefore cool our planet. A cooler planet prevents the Arctic ice cap from melting away. A cooler planet slows down global warming. A cooler planet prevents the worst effects of climate change.

1.1oC

The Earth is now 1.1
degree Celsius higher
than it was in 1880
Earth Observatory (Nasa)

How can I get involved?

What is the Refreeze the Arctic Foundation?

The Refreeze the Arctic Foundation (RAF) is a not-for-profit charity with a single goal: fast track research into MCB. All the RAF donations are deployed to fund research programmes into MCB. Today, the RAF has already signed research programs with Cambridge University (Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge) in the UK and Technical University Delft (TUD Climate Institute) in The Netherlands. The RAF aims to build a global MCB funding community and a global MCB research alliance. All MCB research results will be available to the public.

How can I get involved?

13 m

13,000,000

lives are lost to environmental
factors caused by climate
change each year
United Nations