I helped my daughter with her science project last year and together we proved this simple theory. We purposed that floating white panels in the Arctic Ocean would be a simple way to reduce the warming effect in salt water. We used a small scale version of course, but found a dramatic decrease of rising temperature in salt water using a heat lamp and floating white panels. I honestly believe our simple-minded research proves there is a simple way to at least provide a way to reduce the rise of temperature in the ocean waters of the Arctic. This will of course slow global warming. Needless to say we raised several UT professors eyebrows when her 7th grade project made it to a tri-state level of competition held at the University. Surprisingly enough it fizzled at that point into "good job" and was quickly forgotten. Possibly someone is reading this that can help promote our idea and help make a difference with such a novice idea? I would be happy to share info with anyone who is in such a position and has the means to make it happen. It seems someone should be doing something more than what is happening now as a solution; or is it truly all about "Drill baby drill?" What a sad legacy to leave behind us...

Yes it would work, the problem is the scale is immense. The average sea ice extent is 12.2 million square km. To make even a small offset we are talking about a huge ammount of resources needing to be used to make the pannels. Then on top of that the manufacturing process is going to have some waste which will likely be more harmfull in total than any global warming that they will offset.

It was an interesting idea but just the sheer scale that would be needed would make it impractical.

I agree that the size is immense, and I think that this misunderstanding tends to make everyone think that anything is possible, but the resources are limited, because of the sheer size of this planet. If we stop extracting oil, the temperature might not rise high just as fast, but I think this is the only reason why the temperature is rising, because we extract oil from underground, thus removing the insulation.

The temperature that we see at the surface has almost nothing to do with the heat escaping from our planets core. The vast majority of the temperature we see is from energy radiated from the sun.

You will find out eventually. The temperature past the atmosphere is very cold, too cold that there's no possibility of melting, but instantaneous melting and freezing are possible on earth. Lava and mantle has everything to do with the surface temperature, you barely notice it because you live down south, and if you move up north, you will suddenly notice something different. Something that your instincts have been trying to tell you but your sense of common sense skew your point of view on this climate. You have got to rise above the clouds in order to perceive the reality! I think socrates knew about this thing.

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Originally posted by Aupak:
You will find out eventually. The temperature past the atmosphere is very cold, too cold that there's no possibility of melting, but instantaneous melting and freezing are possible on earth. Lava and mantle has everything to do with the surface temperature, you barely notice it because you live down south, and if you move up north, you will suddenly notice something different. Something that your instincts have been trying to tell you but your sense of common sense skew your point of view on this climate. You have got to rise above the clouds in order to perceive the reality! I think socrates knew about this thing.

What!!!???

If what you are saying is true then the temperature between day and night would be identical, there would be no winter or summer, the temperature would be the same at the equator and the poles. But it isn't is it.

And this has got to do with the size of this earth. A room bigger will warm up slower than the room smaller. Bigger crust with insulation will slow down the warming of the atmosphere much longer than smaller crust with no insulation. Gotta get the perspective in mind buddy. I guess I'm saying is that we're basically small, but can do an enormous mistakes.

You don't get it do you. Yes the heat escaping from the core of the planet is responsible for some of the warmth, but only a very small portion of it. What ever effect we have on how well the crust insulates our core is miniscule. Scale has everything to do with it, and the earth is big.

If the core of the earth was the main driving force for the temperature on the surface, then how do you explane the poles being so cold? How do you explane the temperature difference between summer and winter?

The main driving force for temperature for at least the past several million years has been the sun and the atmosphere.

I guess the only way you'll understand is by showing you. Wonder why the western Arctic has seen a sudden rise in temperature past these few years? If you see closer, I bet there is an extraction going on. I bet if you even look closer, you'll see one of the biggest pipeline extending to even another province. While the warm air in alberta can reach the arctic, this regional warming I bet will increase when we increase using oil from the oil sands in Alberta, and beaufort sea.

Warmer than average water in the north pacific. Of course your going to respond by saying that is because we have been pumping oil out of that region, even though the warmer water is much more expansive than the oil pumping.

A question for you. How do the seasons work with your model?

I agree the cost would be immense, and it would take a lot of resources to accomplish. However,
the cost is going to increase exponentially as time goes on and more of the ice melts. We have waited too long already to address the problem, and the longer it goes un-noticed, the higher the cost to correct the problem. The larger problem is the draining of the oil from the earth. I tend to think of it not as insulation, but as a lubricant for the axis of the earth. It is like draining the oil from your car. How much can you safely drain before it overheats and causes damage? We have been steadily draining it for many years and have no clue how quickly it is replenished. I am willing to bet we are draining more than is being replenished without a doubt. We should probably retrofit our nuclear weapons to use as energy sources since it lasts for a much longer duration than conventional fuels. Of course none of these things will happen because the greed of money from oil will never end, and no one is willing to think about using nuclear power for anything other than terror. Yes, I know we already use some forms of nuclear power, but it could be used on a much larger scale as a cheaper source of energy, and it is more readily produced than crude oil. We could even tap the countless sources of methane and use it as well, but then again it is cheaper than oil so that would hurt the big oil companies that have the world by the jugular. Until someone invents alternate engine components that run on something other than oil on a large scale, this will never change. Just my two cents worth guys. Thanks for all your thoughts and replies.

Although I cannot explain all the questions asked short of holding a biology 101 class with some physics thrown in here and there, a lot of the points you all have noted are valid. However, the white panels do reflect the heat of the sun, which does affect temperature. Ok, so it costs too much to place the panels in the ocean... So place some throughout the desserts. It would eventually have the same effect as the temperatures from the south greatly affect the temperatures of the north. Our planet is round and enclosed by the atmosphere. Temeperatures are passed from one end of the globe to the other slowly but surely. Sure it loses some heat along the way on the journey to the north, but the cooler it is at the beginning, the cooler it is when it reaches the poles. My point is quite simply, no one in the right position to correct the problem cares. Therefore, it likely won't be addressed on a serious level in our lifetime. Humans are very ignorant when it comes to such large scale issues. This world has everything we need to survive, thrive, and endure. Why then do we not explore our own planet more instead of wasting so much money on space exploration? Our seas are vast and cover most of the planet, yet we know very little about them. Maybe the answers to the problem could be found there if we would look? I feel as if we are hoping to find another inhabitable planet so when we have used this one's resources up, we can then migrate to another to only use it up also.
It is easier to just pretend the problem does not exist, and keep raking in the profits from the spoils of the land. Future generations will suffer greatly from our mistakes. Let's just hope they learn from history and make wiser choices with regards to resources and how to use them and when to leave things as they are.