Why can't be build giant ice /snow making factories in the artic region powered by hydro or wind energy and build up the amount ice and help decrease the temperature to combat the melting ice caps?
Posted by bodaciusb@reddit | CrazyIdeas | View on Reddit | 33 comments
OkDrag3967@reddit
Because the refrigeration cycle works by moving heat. Even if you power the system with wind or hydroelectric energy, you’d have to put the heat somewhere and usually you can’t move it far due to the technological limits we have now.
Sisyphean_dream@reddit
It still wouldn't work, but there's no reason you'd have to use refrigeration. You could just use the same equipment ski resorts use to make snow, ie water under pressure, a small amount of compressed air and a mechanism to achieve sufficient loft to get cooling time.
Although the ice caps are melting, it is still more than sufficiently cold to produce snow in the arctic for the majority of the year.
it is still a terrible idea
Amazing-Mirror-3076@reddit
Lasers is always the answer
walkabout16@reddit
Attached to angry sea bass
Amazing-Mirror-3076@reddit
I believe the preferred transport mechanism is a turtle.
Almost_human-ish@reddit
But is the turtle supported by elephants?
Or is it turtles all the way down?
Fragraham@reddit
Refrigeration doesn't make heat disappear. It just moves it somewhere else. Your refrigerator makes itself cold by pushing the heat inside to outside. Your air conditioner does the same to your whole house. It gets hotter outside and cooler inside. The total heat in the system stays the same.
The earth regulates itself by radiating heat out into space at around the same rate it absorbs heat from the sun.
Greenhouse gasses like CO2 and methane slow down the cooling effect meaning heat gets added faster than it can radiate off.
aruisdante@reddit
Small nit: the total heat in the system increases, because the heat transference process isn’t 100% efficient. Otherwise your refrigerator would use no power.
Disastrous_Ad1260@reddit
reflectors or white panels/floats may work better. Reflect that solar heat back to space so you don't get a viscous cycle where melted ice reveals more heat absorbing surface which melts more ice.
Reptilian_Brain_420@reddit
So we should just dump massive amounts of styrofoam into the arctic ocean?
Disastrous_Ad1260@reddit
I would like to see someone run it on a climate model. Or float huge solar panels
svtr@reddit
ever held your hand behind your refrigerator? The compressor that is used to "make cold" gives of a lot more "heat" than "cold". Basically, unless you you find a way to beat the 3rd law thermal dynamics, your idea simply will not work.
If you can beat the 3rd law of thermal dynamics, you will have solved a lot more than just that problem thou.
Kokophelli@reddit
Desch, S.J. et al. “Arctic Ice Management,” Earth’s Future (2017)
morepwr2u@reddit
What if we sent that excess heat straight down into the core of that earth through a hole since it’s already hot in there
Megalocerus@reddit
I'm trying to picture how you would get heat to flow from a cool place to a hotter place.
Xloey@reddit
Would need to do it in the antarctic so heat rises up towards the center of earth.
morepwr2u@reddit
That the crazy ;)
Useful_Calendar_6274@reddit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamics
Spiritual-Spend8187@reddit
Exactly this unless we had a refrigerator that sent the heat directly into space and had limitless power ant attempt would just melt more ice.
KindAwareness3073@reddit
Making uce generates a tremendous amout of heat, far more than any potential cooling that could be achieved.
No-Sail-6510@reddit
Maybe if you did it like futurama and went to a comet for the ice. But that didn’t work too well.
GlennTheBaker69@reddit
Are the ice caps melting?
GREGORYfromtheFUTURE@reddit
Don't worry, mankind destroys itself way before the polar caps melt
TheManWithNoSchtick@reddit
"Just like daddy puts in his dwink evwy morning! And then he gets mad."
Parking_Chance_1905@reddit
Once and for all!
Ok-Skill8583@reddit
Just change building codes to mandate all new roofing materials be white. It’d be way more effective.
LastNightOsiris@reddit
you don't need to make ice. The temperatures in the arctic are cold enough that water will freeze. We would just need to pump sea water up to the top of glaciers at a massive scale and let it freeze. That does require huge amounts of energy, but not nearly as much as actual refrigeration.
calimehtar@reddit
I think this probably would work even though it sounds a bit crazy. The main reason it'd work is that snow and ice reflect solar energy rather than absorbing it and converting it to heat. At worst maybe it's too expensive vs the benefit it provides. Lots of cheaper options.
redbo@reddit
We could just all wear white hats
MrMakuMaku@reddit
shave EVERYONE
Cry2Laugh@reddit
What if you moved the ice making machines into the stratosphere? During the arctic summer you would encourage jets flying near the pole to make contrails. During the arctic winter you reduce or eliminate jet flights near the pole. The contrails would reflect some of the suns heat during the summer and cause a net cooling.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
[removed]
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