© Christian Miller
In brief
News from the Arctic (2023.01)
© Wallenius Marine / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Powering ships with wind and wings
CARGO SHIPS OF THE FUTURE
A Swedish ship-building company is designing a futuristic cargo ship fuelled entirely by wind. Oceanbird could be 200 metres long, with capacity to carry 7,000 cars. It will be equipped with wing sails reaching 105 metres above the water.
Although ships were carried by wind for centuries, today’s are fuelled mainly by heavy oil. According to the International Maritime Organization, shipping now makes up almost 2.9 per cent of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions, and the industry’s share of emissions has been rising. Wallenius Marine AB, Oceanbird’s designer, hopes to turn the clock back to a time when wind carried cargo ships around the world. Oceanbird will have back-up engines, but is expected to produce 90 per cent fewer emissions than conventional ships.
Oceanbird will travel more slowly than its fossil-fuelled counterparts: it is expected to take about 12 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean, whereas conventional vessels take eight. Although it will likely cost a bit more to build than a conventional car carrier would, its operating costs should be lower because it will need little or no fuel.
The company hopes to have the first full-scale prototype ready in 2024, and the first vessel with a full set of wing sails ready to hit the high seas in 2026.
Community-led hunter/harvester programmes in Nunavut, Canada
FOOD SECURITY PILOT PROJECT
Almost half of households in Nunavut, Canada are food insecure. Now, a charity known as MakeWay has partnered with the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation and researchers to come up with an innovative toolkit that aims to improve food security in northern Canada by focusing on hunters.
Researchers wanted to explore how supporting and strengthening the roles of hunters and harvesters might improve communities’ access to more nutritious, sustainable and affordable foods. Beyond bringing home food, Inuit hunters are stewards of land and culture, contributing to family, community, the maintenance of traditions, language, skills and knowledge.
To build the toolkit, researchers worked directly with northern and Indigenous organizations and communities to co-create processes and tools that would capture the impacts of full-time hunter programmes—from the planning stages to monitoring and evaluation. The resulting toolkit will help northern communities in Canada identify and articulate what activities their hunters undertake and what support they need. It also helps communities share knowledge.
MakeWay is now working alongside Indigenous organizations and communities to implement the toolkit and demonstrate the benefits of hunter programmes at scale across the North.
© Real Ice Development Company Ltd
Could new technology help preserve and restore Artic sea ice?
BRINGING THE ICE BACK
While no effort should be spared in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and avoiding the disappearance of Arctic sea ice, at least one company is exploring an innovative solution to address the consequences of the massive melting that is already taking place.
UK-based Real Ice Development Company Ltd. is trying to develop technology that it hopes could some day preserve, restore and thicken Arctic sea ice using water pumps powered by renewable energy.
The company is taking its inspiration from an American astrophysicist, Steven Desch, who first came up with the concept in 2017.
Fuelled by renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, the machines would pump sea water from beneath the existing ice onto the surface in winter and freeze it. This would thicken the ice and increase its ability to reflect light, helping it to last through the summer and ultimately become multi-year ice.
Over the next four years, Real Ice aims to develop its technology to the point where it can generate enough sea ice to cover one entire bay in the Arctic. If it succeeds, it will look for partners—such as governments, communities and other companies—to help it scale up significantly and generate enough ice to cover most of the Arctic
A drone that can better measure sea ice thickness
BUILT FOR THE ARCTIC
Researchers have long struggled to use drones to take scientific readings in the Arctic: the region’s harsh climate makes it difficult for drones to fly for extended periods. But that could be changing thanks to a fixed-wing drone named Vanilla and a team of scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Vanilla carries an instrument that uses radar to remotely measure the depth of the snow that builds up on top of sea ice. This is an improvement over satellites, which struggle to measure sea ice thickness accurately when snow accumulates on top of it. How this accumulation influences sea levels has also been unclear. The scientists hope Vanilla can collect the data they need to project how the Earth’s polar regions are changing and influencing sea levels.
In November 2021, Vanilla flew for six hours over open ocean and sea ice in Alaska, covering more than 222 kilometres. It used ice-detecting sensors, heating systems and a special anti-ice coating to protect against fog and moisture that could otherwise cause its wings and propeller to ice up. Alaska’s unusual precipitation has prevented multi-day flights in the past, but scientists anticipate that Vanilla could be capable of flying for up to five days.
The NASA team hopes to use the drone to survey sea ice in Greenland and Antarctica as well.
By WWF Global Arctic Programme
