REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Arctic Ice Project (AIP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to stabilizing the global climate by safely preserving and restoring Arctic sea ice, announced Dr. Stephanie Olinger has joined the team as technical director.
Olinger earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and served as the Thompson Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Geophysics at Stanford University. She brings a deep understanding of cryospheric geophysical systems and a serious passion for climate science action.
Olinger is a strategic thinker and experienced research manager with a successful track record of writing and receiving external funding for research and stewarding collaborative partnerships.
As a full-time employee she will serve as our scientific representative at global climate conferences to disseminate research progress and generate interest, support and partnerships. She is poised to manage multiple sponsored collaborative research partnerships, projects, climate modeling, and collaborative efforts critical to AIP success.
“Joining Arctic Ice Project is an exciting opportunity to apply my expertise in a ways that haves direct, tangible impacts on climate mitigation,” Olinger said. “I am committed to advancing our understanding of Arctic sea ice and developing innovative solutions to address the and urgent challenges of climate change.”
In her new role, Olinger is leading research and development initiatives focused on the safety and efficacy of enhancing sea ice albedo, or surface reflectivity, in the Arctic. Such surface albedo modification can be achieved by deploying a thin layer of tiny hollow glass microspheres (HGM) atop sea ice to enhance its natural albedo and protect young sea ice through warmer summer months.
Advanced computer modeling indicates eventual deployment of HGM technology could increase the reflectivity of sea ice surfaces and reduce accelerating heat absorption to provide an additional up to 10-25 years for global economies to decarbonize before the worst impacts of climate change are realized and become irreversible.
“The Arctic serves as a crucial indicator and driver of climate change, with its rapidly warming temperatures, melting ice, and significant impacts on global weather patterns,” said Annette Eros, CEO at Arctic Ice Project. “Stephanie’s engagement will help increase our momentum as we work to establish the safety and efficiency of our restorative solution in the global fight against climate change.”
Olinger’s cryospheric expertise in remotely sensed and in-situ observations, combined with her work in mathematical ice physics, is instrumental in advancing AIP’s ice restoration goals.
For more information about the Arctic Ice Project, visit www.arcticiceproject.org
The issue of climate change is no longer a fringe subject; it has evolved into a dire and imminent global crisis. With the Earth’s average temperature steadily rising, the impacts of climate change are already apparent: we’ve already witnessed the increasing severity of natural disasters, loss of species, rising sea levels, and loss of human life. This is why immediate climate intervention is not just a priority, but an essential requirement for human survival.
The Current State of Climate Crisis
Climate change refers to the long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns caused by global warming. The burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas have rapidly escalated this phenomenon over the past few decades.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global temperature is expected to rise by 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate. This rise in temperature is driving more frequent and severe weather changes, contributing to an array of devastating effects.
The Environmental Importance of Arctic Sea Ice and Its Vulnerability to the Climate Crisis
Arctic sea ice plays an indispensable role in the global environment and climate. However, it’s currently disappearing due to the consequences of climate change.
The Role of Arctic Ice in Global Climate Regulation
Arctic ice serves as a crucial global temperature regulator. Its white surface reflects sunlight back into space, a phenomenon known as the albedo effect. This process is essential for maintaining the Earth’s energy balance and keeping global temperatures stable.
Moreover, the Arctic region acts as a “global air conditioner” by producing cold air masses that influence wind patterns and weather conditions worldwide. It also helps regulate ocean currents, as the cold, dense water in the polar regions sinks and drives the circulation of warm and cold water, known as thermohaline circulation.
Lastly, Arctic ice is home to a diverse range of species, many of which are specially adapted to life in the extreme conditions of the polar environment. This biodiversity plays an essential role in maintaining the health of the global ecosystem.
Dangers of the climate crisis:
Rising Sea Levels: Melting polar ice caps contribute to rising sea levels, threatening low-lying areas and islands.
Heatwaves and Droughts: Increased temperatures can trigger devastating heatwaves and droughts, impacting food production and water supply.
Extreme Weather Events: Climate change leads to more frequent and severe storms, hurricanes, and floods, causing damage to infrastructure and loss of life.
Loss of Biodiversity: Changing climates can lead to habitat loss, causing a decline in species diversity and triggering ecosystem imbalances.
The Dangers of Climate Crisis
Uncontrolled climate change poses significant risks to both the natural world and human societies, as it causes not just the loss of essential natural resources, but the disruption of economies. The climate crisis is already causing the following:
Rising Sea Levels: Melting polar ice caps contribute to rising sea levels, threatening low-lying areas and islands.
Heatwaves and Droughts: Increased temperatures can trigger devastating heatwaves and droughts, impacting food production and water supply.
Extreme Weather Events: Climate change leads to more frequent and severe storms, hurricanes, and floods, causing damage to infrastructure and loss of life.
Loss of Biodiversity: Changing climates can lead to habitat loss, causing a decline in species diversity and triggering ecosystem imbalances.
The Threat of Climate Change to Arctic Ice
Climate change poses a severe threat to the integrity of Arctic ice. Rising global temperatures are causing Arctic sea ice to melt at an alarming rate. According to NOAA Climate.gov, Arctic sea ice has been declining by about 13% per decade since satellite records began in the late 1970s.
When Arctic ice melts, it disrupts the albedo effect, leading to a vicious cycle known as a positive feedback loop. This actually worsens climate change. As the ice melts, it reveals darker water or land underneath, causing the water to absorb more sunlight rather than reflecting it. This in turn leads to more warming and more ice melting, accelerating both the loss of arctic ice and the many other severe consequences of the climate crisis.
Why Immediate Climate Intervention Is Essential
Given the urgent and severe threats posed by climate change, immediate climate intervention is essential. Climate intervention (also called geoengineering) is defined as the deliberate alteration of mechanisms in the Earth’s environment or atmosphere that ultimately work to reduce the impact of the climate crisis.
Here are some of the key reasons climate intervention or geoengineering is imperative:
Ensuring Human Security
Climate change poses significant threats to human security, including water and food scarcity, displacement, and conflict over resources. Immediate intervention can help safeguard these essential aspects of human life.
Protecting Biodiversity
Climate intervention can help conserve the world’s biodiversity by protecting habitats from the impacts of climate change. Biodiversity is crucial as it contributes to the resilience of ecosystems and provides invaluable resources for human survival.
While the earth is already experiencing many consequences of climate change, immediate intervention can help mitigate current and future adverse effects. By cutting greenhouse gas emissions, we can slow down global warming and subsequently reduce the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters.
Preserving Future Generations
Immediate action is necessary to preserve the planet for future generations. If we do not act now, the consequences of climate change will only become more severe, leaving a compromised world for our descendants.
All images were taken by Carol Sontag during her trip to Greenland.
Redwood City, CA, October 20, 2022 – Arctic Ice Project (AIP), a nonprofit dedicated to safely preserving and restoring Arctic ice to slow climate change, today announced Annette Eros has joined as Chief Executive Officer. The AIP Board of Directors has been familiar with Eros and her work as a nonprofit leader for several years. Eros was selected by the board to lead the global organization and help accelerate progress toward restoring Arctic ice, the Earth’s natural heat shield. Emphasizing relationships with top research organizations, Indigenous tribes, and national/regional governments and NPOs, Eros understands the importance of increased global collaborations and exposure to the success of the project.
“Annette brings the expertise and experience that will help align necessary resources to realize our ambitious growth objectives, including expanding our technical work, developing new strategic partnerships, and increasing major donor participation on a global scale,” said Steve Payne, chairman of the board of AIP. “She is a strategic and inspirational leader with a proven track record in transformational nonprofit leadership and will help advance our vision and goals so we can prove and scale our climate restoration solution while there’s still time.”
In her role, Annette Eros is responsible for advancing efforts to prove the efficacy and safety of AIP’s solution to preserve and restore Arctic ice to slow climate change and extend the window of opportunity to preserve the Earth’s environments and ecosystems. Under her direction, the team will expand research partnerships, increase funding and establish international policy and governance for the adoption of AIP’s proven methods at scale by local communities, governments, and global institutions.
“With global warming advancing quicker and more dramatically than expected, we all have a responsibility to take meaningful action and become part of the solution,” said Eros. “I am thrilled to join our dedicated and passionate group of experts who understand the urgency of our global crisis and have identified a potential solution that, with further research, can safely preserve and restore Arctic ice.”
In agreement with a recent report by the National Academy of Science, AIP believes that a major research and development effort is urgently needed to fully understand the safety, effectiveness, cost and potential unintended consequences of currently proposed climate intervention approaches.
“Once implemented at scale, our approach will provide the much-needed time to complete the global transition to more sustainable energy and conservation solutions,” said Steve Zornetzer, vice-chair at AIP and retired associate center director for research and technology at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. “Interventions like AIP’s can have a significant impact in reducing the worst of climate risks but must be accompanied by rapid decarbonization in order to have a lasting effect. There is a limited window of opportunity to intervene.”
Recent research indicates that the Arctic could be free of sea ice in summer by 2030. Losing the reflective power of Arctic sea ice will lead to levels of warming and sea rise that pose an extreme threat to humanity. With full funding, AIP expects to prove the efficacy and safety of increasing ice reflectivity in five years. That is, in time for large-scale adoption by international coalitions to avert an even greater crisis.
To demonstrate and subsequently influence global adoption of a safe, effective and timely ice preservation methodology, AIP partners with preeminent research institutions to ensure the highest quality testing and public confidence in outcomes. AIP openly publishes its research findings in peer-reviewed scientific publications and shares its progress through partnerships and strategic communications outreach with Arctic experts and Indigineous communities around the world.
Eros brings more than 30 years of executive leadership experience for regional and national organizations. She has extensive experience and a proven track record developing and executing impact-driven strategies, transforming and scaling organizations, fundraising, accelerating growth of programs, activating creative collaborative partnerships, and ensuring responsible business practices.
Prior to joining AIP, Eros served as president at Carondelet High School, chief executive officer at Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area, president and chief executive officer at The Kidney TRUST, executive director at Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego and a change management consultant to dozens of nonprofit and mission-based organizations. Before that Eros enjoyed multiple positions in marketing and communications. She completed the Executive Leadership Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, earned her master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of San Diego and her bachelor’s degree in Journalism from San Diego State University.
About Arctic Ice Project Arctic Ice Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit leading the global effort to stop Arctic ice melt using a safe, localized approach. By collaborating with top scientific and research organizations in the climate field, AIP is focused on the most promising solution to date, a novel materials approach that proposes to deploy a thin layer of very small hollow glass microspheres across strategically chosen small regions of the Arctic to improve the reflectivity of sea ice, mimicking natural processes to reflect solar energy out of our atmosphere and restore the Arctic. In addition to its ongoing technical work, the team is working to establish international policy, governance, and funding for the adoption of its solution in a manner that ensures involvement and consent from local communities, governments, and global institutions. For more information, please visit ArcticIceProject.org. Follow Arctic Ice Project: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,Twitter.
Rebrand highlights nonprofit’s commitment to helping stabilize the global climate by saving the Earth’s natural heat shield
Redwood City, CA (September 29, 2020) – Ice911 Research, a climate restoration nonprofit, announced today the launch of a new brand identity. The organization will now be known as Arctic Ice Project (www.ArcticIceProject.org).
Arctic Ice Project more clearly brings the organization name into alignment with its mission, philosophy, and commitment to restoring the Earth’s natural heat shield. This new identity will help the nonprofit accomplish significant growth objectives, including expanding its technical work, developing strategic partnerships, and increasing major donor participation on a global scale.
“As our work has grown internationally over the past several years, we’ve found that our prior name was a bit confusing to our global partners and collaborators,” said Tom Light, Executive Director of Arctic Ice Project. “After some thoughtful team discussions, in-depth research, and feedback from many of our long-time supporters, we landed on a name that clearly tells the world what we’re focused on.”
Light continued, “Our audacious mission really is a moonshot project to safely slow climate change and buy time to transition from a carbon economy. The health of the Arctic is vital to preserving the Earth’s environments and ecosystems, and restoring its ice reflectivity may be the single safest lever we have to slowing climate devastation.”
Arctic Ice Project CTO and founder Dr. Leslie Field said, “Now is a great time to strengthen our identity as we work with more and more technical collaborators around the globe and partner with world-class supporters.” (Read Dr. Field’s name change blog post)
The new name is effective immediately.
About Arctic Ice Project Arctic Ice Project (formerly Ice911 Research) is the most studied ice restoration effort in the world. As a 501(c)(3) climate restoration non-profit organization, we’re developing a localized, safe technique to improve ice reflectivity, increase the Earth’s planetary albedo, and slow the rate of global warming. Our technology represents an opportunity to buy up to 15 more years for our planet to decarbonize.
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