P5_7 Baked Alaska

Abstract

Alaska currently has a very cold Arctic and sub-Arctic environment, but due to global warming and a proposed increase of global temperatures of 5.4 ◦C by 2100 AD this is being threatened. We calculated if placing an insulating cube on Alaska in 2100 AD and using a refrigerator to cool it down to its 2019 AD temperatures was a viable solution to keeping Alaska cold. It was worked out it would need 1.1×1015 J of work in order to cool the interior of the cube. It was concluded the environmental damage and increased fossil fuel emissions are too great for this to be a option.