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A bold new project aims to refreeze parts of the Arctic, and scientists say it might be one of the most ambitious climate solutions ever attempted. In this video, we’ll explore how researchers plan to cool the region using cutting-edge technology — and why slowing the Arctic’s melt could protect weather systems, coastlines, and ecosystems around the entire planet. You’ll find out how the project works, what challenges stand in the way, and what a refrozen Arctic could mean for our future. From giant reflective structures to geoengineering breakthroughs, this idea sounds like science fiction…but it’s becoming reality fast. And if it succeeds, the entire world could feel the impact. Let’s take a closer look at the project that might just give Earth a second chance. Animation is created by Bright Side.
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00The Arctic is disappearing.
00:02In just a few years, the North Pole could see its first ice-free summer in the last 125,000 years.
00:10But a bold new experiment might turn back the clock.
00:13Scientists are refreezing the Arctic.
00:16If they succeed, they could save the North Pole.
00:19But if they fail, they could trigger unforeseen disasters.
00:23So, which way would things go?
00:25Well, here's some backstory.
00:27Deep in the Arctic, temperatures drop so low that metal cracks and winds scream across the ice.
00:33In winter, it's minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit on average.
00:37But despite the seemingly extreme cold, it's actually melting, warming two to three times faster than the rest of the planet.
00:45Now, ice is like Earth's natural mirror.
00:48It reflects sunlight back into space, keeping the planet cool.
00:51When it melts, it exposes the dark ocean underneath.
00:54The ocean absorbs sunlight instead of reflecting it, and it spreads all across the planet.
01:01This warms the planet even faster, melting even more ice.
01:05It's a vicious cycle.
01:07And if it continues, we'll reach a point where the ice won't come back.
01:11That thick, ancient ice that has covered the North Pole for thousands of years is already 95% gone.
01:17It's been disappearing since the 1980s.
01:20The ice that remains there now is thin and fragile.
01:24And when it disappears, it will trigger a dangerous chain reaction.
01:28Meanwhile, a group of researchers from a UK startup called Real Ice is out there trying to slow down or even reverse the melting of the Arctic.
01:37The project takes place in a tiny frozen village in Canada called Cambridge Bay.
01:43Real Ice wants to break the vicious cycle.
01:46And here's their plan.
01:47First, they drill through the existing ice and place an underwater pump beneath it.
01:52Then they pump seawater onto the ice surface, where it quickly freezes into an extra thick layer.
01:57Finally, they remove snow from the ice, which usually acts like a blanket, preventing further freezing.
02:04After that, ice keeps growing.
02:06Stronger, thicker, and harder to melt.
02:09It's a simple idea inspired by nature itself.
02:12Ice naturally forms this way in some Arctic regions.
02:15But now, scientists want to do it on a massive scale.
02:19So far, it appears to be working.
02:21Between January and May 2024, they covered around 44,000 square feet of ice.
02:27And it became 20 inches thicker on average.
02:30And in November 2024, they started a new round of tests.
02:34In the first 10 days of the trial, the ice was already 4 inches thicker.
02:39Now, they'll return in May 2025 to check out how things are going.
02:44They think it's going to get between around 16 to 31 inches of it during the Arctic winter.
02:50It's a small start, admittedly.
02:52But if they can prove it works,
02:54their plan is to expand across an area more than twice the size of California,
02:59about 386,000 square miles of ice.
03:03And they're not stopping there.
03:05The big idea is to send in 500,000 underwater drones,
03:09powered by clean energy, to automate the entire process.
03:13These drones would drill holes, pump water, and refreeze the ice without human intervention.
03:18But not everyone is convinced.
03:22Some scientists think this whole idea is a disaster waiting to happen.
03:26First, they point out that saltier ice, the one from seawater pumped onto it,
03:30melts faster in the summer.
03:32So if this new ice melts too quickly, we could end up making the situation worse.
03:37Some of them also think this is a dangerous distraction from the core problem,
03:41like treating the symptoms instead of the root causes.
03:44Besides, making a small patch of ice thicker is one thing.
03:48But doing this across the entire Arctic?
03:51That's another challenge entirely.
03:53Another thing they're worried about is the ecosystem.
03:56The Arctic is one of the most fragile ecosystems on Earth.
04:00Changing ice thickness could affect marine life, disrupt algae growth,
04:04and impact the food chain in ways we don't fully understand.
04:07There's also the question of money.
04:09Realize estimates that refreezing the entire Arctic will cost about 5 to 6 billion dollars per year.
04:17Who's paying for this?
04:18Right now, they're self-funded with some investors backing them.
04:22But eventually, they hope that countries, global funds, and even corporations will finance the project.
04:28Realize argues that doing nothing could be far worse.
04:32If we don't act, we could lose the Arctic within our lifetime.
04:35That could at least help to buy more time to fix the planet.
04:39Desperate times call for desperate measures.
04:42Now, the idea of saving the Arctic ice isn't new.
04:45Over the years, scientists have suggested some pretty wild plans to stop the melting.
04:50In 2017, there was the initial wind-powered pump plan.
04:54Physicist Stephen Desch proposed installing about 10 million wind-powered pumps in the Arctic.
05:00These pumps would pull seawater up onto the ice, kind of like real ice.
05:04It would freeze in the cold winter months, creating a thicker ice layer.
05:08The biggest problem is that someone would have to run this entire show.
05:12And what happens if something goes wrong?
05:15In 2018, there was the glass beads plan, which was supposed to start in 2020s.
05:20A team called the Arctic Ice Project suggested covering the Arctic with tiny reflective glass beads.
05:27Yep, glass balls.
05:28The idea was basically to replace the ice's mirror effect.
05:33The beads would bounce sunlight away, keeping the ice colder for longer.
05:36The plan is being tested by a group of scientists working with the Arctic Ice Project.
05:42They say the glass balls are made of a material that's safe for animals.
05:46They even claim birds use similar materials to help them digest food.
05:50The glass used in these microspheres is the same material used in lab equipment and light bulbs.
05:55Sounds safe, right?
05:57Well, not so fast.
05:59There's also the environmental risk.
06:01These glass balls are tiny, and they could easily get into the ocean, impacting everything from fish to plankton.
06:08We still need more research to understand how this material breaks down in the ocean and whether it could affect marine life.
06:14But where things get really crazy is when we start talking about scaling this up.
06:21To cover just a tiny fraction of the Arctic, they would need millions of tons of these tiny microspheres.
06:27And that's just for starters.
06:29And they'd have to be working 24-7 through freezing temperatures and snowstorms.
06:34The scientists believe this could help keep the ice thick enough to survive summer and even slow the melting.
06:40But can it really work?
06:42Then, there's also the Bright Ice Initiative, founded by the same folks behind the Arctic Ice Project.
06:49Instead of focusing on the Arctic Ocean, they want to use the same glass microspheres to restore glaciers.
06:55They've even tried this out on a glacier in Iceland, but experts are still skeptical.
07:00They say it could just speed up melting instead of reversing it.
07:03Now, another idea was cloud seeding with water particles.
07:07This would involve spraying ocean water into the sky itself.
07:10This would form clouds, and they'd reflect more sunlight.
07:14So, as you can see, some of these plans were too expensive, too complicated, or just straight-up wild.
07:20The real ISIS plan borrows ideas from earlier projects, but is much cheaper and more practical.
07:27Most importantly, it's working.
07:29But all this Arctic disaster is already affecting people.
07:33In the village of Newtok, Alaska, the land is disappearing.
07:37Each year, about 70 feet of the riverbank erodes, taking homes and history with it.
07:43That's all because of the erosion and the thawing permafrost.
07:46Now, these people had to move to a safer place called Myrtevek, just nine miles away.
07:53But it's a long and challenging journey.
07:55The relocation is taking years of planning, with Newtok residents already starting this shift in 2019.
08:02The new village offers better health and safety, but it's still a work in progress.
08:07Things like the school and grocery store remain in the old village, which makes things harder.
08:12Water and sewage systems are being set up, and for now, most residents are using a honey bucket system.
08:19But at least, they have a chance to rebuild.
08:22It's still unclear whether these geoengineering ideas are a lifeline or a disaster.
08:27For now, we can just keep an eye on them.
08:31You're down in one of those polar seas where the brinacle, eerily called the Finger of Death, is born.
08:38It's a strange, almost otherworldly place.
08:41The deep ocean, where light barely reaches.
08:45Everything down there seems to have adapted to survive in darkness and intense cold.
08:50But even those truly hardy creatures aren't ready for what a brinacle can do.
08:56When that briny, super-cooled water starts dripping down, a ghost story begins.
09:01The formation of these brinacles is a fascinating process, like an underwater science experiment happening in real time.
09:12We know that when seawater freezes, it doesn't freeze like freshwater.
09:16Because of all the salt in it, it has to push out impurities to form the pure ice that floats at the top.
09:22This means the salty water, or brine, ends up trapped in channels and pockets within the ice.
09:29When it sees the light of day for the first time, a brinacle resembles a pipe of ice reaching down from the underside of a layer of sea ice.
09:37At first, a brinacle is very fragile, and its walls are thin.
09:42But the continuous flow of colder brine supports the growth of the brinacle.
09:46It also prevents it from melting.
09:49Otherwise, this process would be inevitable, caused by the brinacle's contact with less cold surrounding water.
09:55As the ice accumulates and the walls become thicker, the brinacle becomes more stable.
10:02Over time, the brine trapped inside gets squeezed out through tiny cracks, dripping down in this cold, heavy plume.
10:10Once that cold brine starts flowing downward, it begins freezing the seawater around it into a sheath of ice.
10:16That's why, instead of melting as it hits the water below, it forms this icy casing that protects it, helping it grow longer and stronger.
10:25The brinacle keeps moving forward inch by inch, and this crazy downward spiral is almost unstoppable.
10:32And when it touches down on the seafloor, uh-oh, that's when the trouble begins for anything living nearby.
10:40Imagine being one of those creatures on the seafloor.
10:43Maybe a sea star or an unsuspecting urchin just trying to make it through the day.
10:48And all of a sudden, you see this icy tentacle nearing you.
10:51It isn't just some cold water coming down.
10:54It's basically a net of ice moving down and spreading out.
10:59There's no escape, no way to predict its coming, and no chance for survival.
11:05It's a slow-motion natural disaster in action.
11:07When a brinacle reaches the seafloor, it continues to accumulate ice while the surrounding water freezes over.
11:16The brine keeps traveling across the seafloor in a down-slope direction.
11:20Once it reaches the lowest possible point, it stops and pools.
11:26But don't let the danger distract you from how beautiful brinacles are.
11:30Well, in their own creepy way.
11:31They look like something you'd see in a dream.
11:34Elegant, twisting, ice tubes reaching down, perfectly symmetrical, and totally random.
11:41Filming a brinacle is no easy task because they're delicate when they first form.
11:46Just the motion from a nearby current or a sudden change in temperature can snap them off,
11:50ending the show before it really starts.
11:53So, scientists who managed to capture brinacles on film in 2011 actually got incredibly lucky.
11:59It was the first time the world got to see this icy finger descending and freezing everything it touched,
12:06and it changed our understanding of polar ecosystems.
12:11Brinacles can reach quite impressive sizes.
12:13Sometimes they can stretch for several feet.
12:16Their size depends on the conditions of the water and ice above.
12:20The slower the water movement and the colder the temperature,
12:23the bigger and stronger a brinacle can grow.
12:25But if the water's too deep or if there's too much movement in the current,
12:30the brinacle is likely to break apart.
12:33It needs just the right balance to survive long enough to touch down and freeze over the ocean floor.
12:40For creatures living on the seafloor, brinacles are like invisible booby traps,
12:45only instead of avoiding a net, they're avoiding an expanding ice cage.
12:49Starfish and sea urchins might not have big brains,
12:53but they have a basic survival instinct to crawl away from danger.
12:57Sadly, with brinacles, they're usually caught completely off guard.
13:02One second they're minding their own business,
13:04the next, an icy sheet is closing in around them,
13:08trapping them where they are and freezing them almost instantly.
13:11It's hard not to feel sympathy for these creatures, right?
13:16You watch footage of a brinacle in action,
13:18and you see a starfish just stopping.
13:21One moment it's moving slowly along the sand,
13:24and then it's frozen in place, totally helpless.
13:28It's like watching a train wreck in slow-mo.
13:31Luckily, brinacles present danger only to smaller marine life forms
13:34like sea urchins and starfish.
13:36Bigger animals like seals or whales,
13:39or humans who happen to go diving in the ocean at the frigid poles,
13:43brinacles are totally harmless.
13:46At the same time, for scientists,
13:48this tough natural phenomenon offers a fascinating insight
13:52into how life adapts, or fails to adapt for that matter,
13:56in extreme environments.
13:57And it gets even better.
14:00A brinacle might just be the perfect setup for life to begin.
14:03Researchers are now looking at these super-salty ice tubes
14:07as not just fatal traps,
14:09but potentially as sources of life.
14:13This theory isn't just science fiction.
14:15It's rooted in actual research.
14:17Here's how it goes.
14:19The brine channels in sea ice are full of tiny, confined spaces.
14:23Those are exactly the kind of places where chemicals can get trapped,
14:27concentrated, and start interacting in interesting ways.
14:30It's like setting up a mini-lab
14:33where the building blocks of life can come together
14:35and create something new.
14:39Scientists think this process of salt rejection in sea ice
14:42could have actually helped the first bits of life appear.
14:46Some researchers even think that this process
14:49might be happening right now on icy moons
14:52like Europa, Ganymede, or Enceladus,
14:55where there might have been frozen seas beneath thick ice layers.
14:58Just imagine it.
15:01Brinacles forming in other worlds of our solar system,
15:04laying down the foundations for extraterrestrial life,
15:07and all thanks to the same icy process
15:09that creates these fingers of death here on Earth.
15:14One way scientists describe brinacles
15:16is by comparing them to chemical gardens.
15:20Have you ever done one of those experiments
15:22where you mix metal salts into a solution
15:24and watch them produce plant-like structures?
15:28Well, you can observe a similar chemical process
15:31when a brinacle is in action.
15:33In the cold, saline-rich brine of a brinacle,
15:36certain reactions could kick off
15:37to create amino acids or other building blocks of life.
15:42It's wild to think that something so dangerous
15:44could have also helped shape our world,
15:47or could be creating other forms of life elsewhere.
15:50In both cases, whether on Earth or another planet,
15:55these icy chemical reactions
15:57might be the first step toward the formation of simple life forms.
16:02It's a kind of alchemy,
16:03where ice and salt water mix
16:05to create something more than the sum of their parts.
16:09This is one reason why scientists
16:10are so eager to study brinacles.
16:13Each one could hold a tiny clue
16:16about how life begins,
16:18survives,
16:19or fails under extreme conditions.
16:22Something as mesmerizing and weird,
16:25but at the same time simple as brinacles,
16:27hints at bigger questions.
16:30How did life start on Earth?
16:32What are the conditions needed for life
16:33to survive in extreme environments?
16:36Could icy structures like these
16:37exist in other parts of our solar system or beyond,
16:41creating similar conditions
16:42that might one day give rise to alien life?
16:46As much as they look like a silent threat
16:48reaching out from the ice,
16:50brinacles are also reminders
16:52of how beautifully complex
16:54and interconnected our world is.
16:56They may seem like simple fingers of ice,
16:59but they hold secrets
17:00that touch on everything
17:02from ecology to chemistry
17:03to the origins of life itself.
17:07So next time you hear about the ocean,
17:09remember that deep below
17:10in the darkest, coldest waters.
17:13Something incredible
17:14and a little bit terrifying
17:16is happening right at this moment.
17:18That's it for today.
17:22So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,
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