Changes in the Earth’s Systems are Moving Fast: Our Conservation and Climate Playbooks Have to Adapt.
Brad Ack, Ocean Visions CEO
Neither traditional ecosystem protection nor only reducing CO2 emissions are sufficient to reduce the risks we face from global tipping points; we need additional and new tools to maintain a livable planet.
Acting with Urgency
I just finished attending the three-day Arctic Repair 2025 conference hosted by the Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge, followed by three more days at the Global Tipping Points Conference at the University of Exeter.
Sitting in darkened auditoriums listening to some of the world’s leading experts provide stark evidence of the accelerating decline in many key elements of the Earth’s system was painful and frightening. I imagined it might be how one would feel upon hearing from a doctor that a recent battery of tests showed critical risks of failure in a number of your vital organs. You had known your lifestyle was a problem, and while you have been working hard to change it, your illness has intensified and is past the point where the known and proven treatments, that might have worked had you adopted them earlier, can ensure your survival. More serious interventions are likely going to be needed to save your life, but many of those potential interventions are still experimental, unproven, and come with risks. You must choose – do I stay the current course, knowing that this comes with a high risk of very bad outcomes, or do I investigate every possible avenue to preserve my existence?
After these last six days, I am more convinced than ever that we need to identify and research every potential climate solution, as the course we are on now is nearly certain to produce very dangerous and unacceptable outcomes. And that is why Ocean Visions is dedicating significant energy to such efforts, starting with the Arctic.
Not unlike the vital organs at critical risk in this analogy, the Arctic region is warming around four times faster than the rest of the planet. Sea ice is at record lows. The Greenland ice sheet is destabilizing. Some of the permafrost is thawing, releasing methane—a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. Yet even in the face of this clear evidence, our climate and conservation strategies remain frustratingly narrow.
The moment we face demands a broader and bolder strategy—one that tackles not just the carbon dioxide and other climate pollutants we’re pumping into the atmosphere, but also aims to reverse the damage we’ve already done. That strategy must include a focus on cleaning up legacy greenhouse gas pollution from the air and water. It must also include regenerating and repairing the systems that regulate and stabilize our climate. And it should center the Arctic as a critical foundation of the health and stability of our planet.
The stark reality: The climate crisis is well past the point of being solvable with emissions cuts alone. It’s time we change our conservation and climate playbooks. 
The Arctic is a Warning Beacon and a Solution
If we let the interconnected Arctic systems unravel, we’re in uncharted climate territory – in addition to the damage done to the unique ecosystems, people, and culture who call the Arctic home.
We already know of some ways to slow and even reverse the loss of Arctic sea ice: Protecting the Arctic from new fossil fuel extraction, reducing black carbon pollution from ships and wildland fires, stopping methane pollution in the Arctic and around the globe, and preventing the destruction of seafloor ecosystems are all “no-regret” actions with important impacts that we should be prioritizing right now.
But we will need to go farther. We must start removing some of the two trillion tons of carbon pollution we’ve already pumped into the atmosphere and actively seek to repair and restore the systems that underpin our climate’s stability – starting with Arctic sea ice.
What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. The Arctic helps regulate the entire planet’s climate. As we lose sea ice, the Arctic Ocean both absorbs more heat and releases heat from the ocean, which accelerates regional warming in the Arctic and destabilizes the foundations of a stable global climate.
Mapping Out a Bigger Climate Agenda
As part of our work to evaluate and advance research around potential climate solutions, Ocean Visions created the first-ever assessment of potential pathways to slow Arctic sea ice loss late last year.
Released as an interactive digital “road map”, the assessment identifies and evaluates potential approaches for how we can forestall more losses in the Arctic while we fix the root causes. The map is designed to mobilize efforts to advance our collective understanding of the possible.
This road map does not advocate for any particular approach. In fact, many of the options listed are nowhere near the ability to deploy yet. But that’s precisely why it’s imperative to get moving sooner rather than later – because we still have significant work to do in researching and testing the ocean-based efforts to slow and reverse the negative impacts of climate change. Only through greatly increased research, rigorous testing, and scaled investment in ecosystem repair do we have a chance of making a dent.
Some of the ideas and pathways to slow and repair Arctic sea ice will make people uncomfortable – including me. But the situation IS uncomfortable. No choice we face now is without tradeoffs, and the likely impacts of not arresting these declines are exceedingly serious.
A Call to Action for the Climate + Conservation Industry
This isn’t about ideology. It’s about physics and the melting point of ice. It’s about science, research, and marshalling a proportional response to the current threat. Because if we fail to act at the scale and speed required, we will witness ever more severe changes that will make today’s climate disasters look mild. We cannot shrink from this challenge. It’s time to reframe and bolster our agenda to steer toward approaches big enough to meet the moment.