Repair
Prolonging the Health of Critical Marine Ecosystems and Averting Dangerous Climate Tipping Points
Scientists around the globe are recording and reporting on rapid and dramatic changes in the ocean and cryosphere as rising concentrations of greenhouse gas pollution and loss of planetary reflectivity drive increases in atmospheric and ocean temperatures. These rapid increases in temperature are destabilizing fundamental pillars of the Earth system.
The Challenge
Avoiding Dangerous Tipping Points
The only durable way to slow, and ultimately reverse, these climate change-driven threats is by reducing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases through decarbonization and the removal of legacy carbon pollution. However, the best available science indicates that even combined rapid decarbonization and large-scale carbon dioxide removal would not cool the planet in time to prevent dramatic and sustained ecosystem shifts.
Given the enormity of the risks, Ocean Visions believes it is necessary to responsibly investigate ideas that may be able to forestall transformations of marine ecosystems and the passing of more tipping points—while society continues work to reduce and remove greenhouse gas pollution as the permanent solution.
Read the full list of facts and principles guiding our work.
Our Focus
Arctic Sea Ice
Through its Repair Program, Ocean Visions works to systematically identify and assess potential approaches to prolong and reinforce the functioning of critical components of the ocean–climate system. We currently focus on Arctic sea ice as a lynchpin for a frozen Arctic and a system critical to global ocean and climate stability.
Arctic summer sea ice has historically played a critical role in reflecting incoming solar radiation, keeping the Arctic frozen and in turn stabilizing regional and global climate. That critical albedo function has significantly diminished as summer sea ice extent now has fallen to roughly half its historical average. And it is projected to worsen: Under all emissions trajectories reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, summer sea ice is projected to largely disappear by mid-century, if not sooner.
The loss of summer sea ice to date has amplified warming in the Arctic, and its projected continued decline has the potential to trigger cascading changes in systems of global concern, including:
- Northern Permafrost
- The Greenland Ice Sheet
- Boreal forests
- The Subpolar Gyre, part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
Read our white paper that lays out the case for exploring approaches to protect and restore Arctic sea ice: Arctic Sea Ice and Climate Stability: The Case for Prioritizing Sea Ice Restoration (DOI:10.5281/zenodo.20145217)
What We Do
Our Approach
The Repair Program organizes its work around three interconnected areas:
Building the Knowledge Base: Arctic Sea Ice Road Maps
Ocean Visions Arctic Sea Ice Road Maps are updated monthly to establish and advance priorities in the field, enable comparative assessment across intervention pathways, track progress, and build transparent evidence to inform scale/stop decisions. This interactive decision-support tool was initially developed through a collaborative process with a team of international experts.
The road maps review the current state and potential of 21 approaches, analyze social and environmental risks and co-benefits, identify key governance issues, and highlight the knowledge gaps that need to be filled to fully evaluate the tools and interventions. They also identify a set of first-order priorities for additional research, development, and potential testing. These road maps add to a growing body of work assessing potential interventions in the Arctic to address climate change.
Learn More
Read the Road Maps’ High Level Summary Report.
Advancing Research: The Arctic Sea Ice Restoration Research Fund
To advance responsible exploration of the most promising approaches, Ocean Visions created the Arctic Sea Ice Restoration Research Fund, pooling resources from donors to identify and fund high-priority research needed to increase societal knowledge of potential approaches to protecting and restoring Arctic sea ice. The Fund mobilizes action on a subset of the first-order research priorities identified in the road map with a near-term focus on those that are underfunded and untested.
The Fund currently supports six projects focused on three approaches: mixed phase cloud thinning, marine cloud brightening, and reducing or blocking ice export.
Learn More
Arctic Sea Ice Restoration Research Fund
Growing the Community of Innovators, Researchers, Institutions, and Beyond
Avoiding climate tipping points and repairing critical ecosystems must become a widely shared undertaking: with increasing engagement of more people, expertise and resources, and sustained capacity to do the work. Without broader, visible support for research, development, and engagement, progress will remain limited.
We work to engage a diverse, international cross-section of disciplines and communities to build capacity for conducting research and participating meaningfully in deliberation. In parallel, we build awareness, understanding, and urgency, ensuring that those positioned to shape decisions and those that are impacted by their outcomes are informed and engaged as research and development advance.
Learn More
For questions about the Repair program, contact us at
Dive Deeper
Remove
Advancing Ocean-Based Pathways for Cleaning Up Carbon Pollution
Reach
Building a Global Ocean-Climate Solutions Community
Reduce
Maximizing Ocean-Based Pathways to a Low-Carbon Economy