🌎 Op-ed: Terraforming – a key to slowing climate change

A new way forward

For decades the climate debate has been dominated by a now-customary binary stance: those who point to human influence as the main cause and those who argue that climate change is a natural part of Earth’s cycle. In this article I want to move the discussion forward. Politics is good at slowing things down—and that can be useful—but we also have to accelerate other things. That requires private investment and innovators leading the way.
I do not claim to be a scientist or an expert in the field, but it is clear that we must move from debate to action. While our politicians do what they are best at—putting on the brakes—the world’s innovators, business leaders and engineers need to floor the accelerator.

Terraforming is a term usually applied when we gaze out into the cosmos and consider worlds other than our own. It refers to altering an atmosphere, temperature, surface and sometimes even gravity to make environments more Earth-like. I deliberately choose this term instead of more familiar ones such as “ecological restoration,” “re-vegetation” or “greening,” because Earth’s untapped potential calls for a concept that better captures the scale of the challenge we face.
In this article I play with the idea that terraforming can be part of the solution we need and that the binary debate has partly run its course. Nature grants none of its inhabitants the right to say “I told you so” when our survival is at stake. Terraforming might be a way to actively reshape our planet’s climate and ecosystems and could be a key factor in slowing global warming while also addressing growing water scarcity.

Challenges

Global warming and surplus water from the ice sheets

Over the past 50 years Earth’s average temperature has risen by about 1.2 degrees Celsius, an average annual increase of roughly 0.024 degrees (The Guardian, 2025). Melting polar ice and glaciers contribute some 267 gigatonnes of runoff each year, raising sea levels by up to 1.5 millimetres annually (Nature, 2021).
In the long term this trend threatens coastal cities with higher flood risk and alters ecosystems and water resources. The year 2024 was the warmest on record, with global temperatures 1.46 degrees above pre-industrial levels (The Guardian, 2025). Although rapid melting obviously poses major climate challenges, it is less widely known that melt-water from glaciers and ice sheets (and much more besides) could potentially be used as a resource to cool the planet and restore ecological systems.

Drylands: an untapped potential

Drylands cover about 40 percent of Earth’s land surface and account for roughly 65 percent of all ecosystems (The Guardian, 2021). These areas are expanding as temperatures rise, and without action the growing drought will worsen climate change by shrinking the planet’s carbon sinks.
By using only a small fraction of these areas for terraforming and water storage we could create a significant climate-regulating effect. Calculations show that converting 110 000 km² of dryland into vegetation-rich ecosystems would be enough to absorb the annual global temperature increase (based on a 0.024 °C rise per year and the cooling effect of vegetation).

To put this in perspective, 110 000 km² is about the size of Bulgaria or Iceland. By scaling up this kind of effort step by step we could not only stabilise the temperature rise but even start to reverse it.
This may seem an overwhelming task, but if we treat it as a global effort in which several countries with large dryland areas contribute—much as we cooperate under the Paris Agreement—it becomes more manageable. If this strategy accounts for 20 or 50 percent of the overall solution, responsibility and implementation are shared among many actors, making it a realistic and feasible measure.

A powerful tool in the fight against climate change

Terraforming these dry areas would not only affect temperature through greater reflectivity and cloud formation; it would also act as a giant carbon sink. Calculations indicate that vegetation covering this area could absorb a large share of the world’s annual carbon-dioxide emissions (about 36 gigatonnes per year, Global Carbon Budget, 2023), giving an extra brake on warming.
If we fail to act, large parts of Earth may become uninhabitable. Drylands reflect less sunlight than vegetation-rich zones and therefore absorb more heat, which in turn drives temperature rise. If that trend continues, the effect could rival the very emissions we aim to cut.

An illustrative calculation: could melt-water be stored instead of flowing into the oceans?
Assume we could capture all melt-water from polar ice and glaciers and divert it to drylands. With an annual supply of 267 gigatonnes of melt-water and an estimated total storage capacity of 250 000 gigatonnes across the world’s deserts and drylands, it would take roughly 936 years to saturate these areas fully. The figure highlights the vast potential of routing water to the right places—limiting sea-level rise while restoring ecosystems.

Agriculture’s challenge and potential (beyond drylands)

Agriculture is one of the biggest consumers of fresh water worldwide. The World Wide Fund for Nature estimated in 2023 that over 70 percent of global fresh-water use is in farming (WWF, 2023); in parts of Africa and Asia the share can reach 90 percent (FAO, 2021). With one in three people already living in water-stressed regions (IPCC, 2022), efficient water management in agriculture is increasingly critical.
If we terraform drylands and improve water storage, we not only secure a more sustainable water supply but also boost farming resilience. This could ease pressure on aquifers and create self-sustaining ecosystems where agriculture can thrive even in vulnerable regions. Failure could mean hunger and geopolitical conflict—threats that would hit our fragile planet far sooner than gradual climate shifts.

The solution

A holistic strategy: terraforming as a cocktail of measures

Climate change has no single fix. Real impact will come from a mix of strategies—a cocktail of actions that reinforce one another to slow global warming.

Integrated biogeophysical climate intervention

Combining water storage, vegetation and cloud formation can create a negative radiative effect, reducing the energy Earth absorbs and actively cooling the planet. A system that holds 55 783 gigatonnes of water—about 0.5 gigatonnes per km² of terraformed land—could offset the current 0.024 °C annual temperature rise (based on earlier cooling-effect estimates).
Soil moisture not only moderates temperature; it also enables natural ecosystems to rebound. Those restored ecosystems could lock away a substantial share of yearly CO₂ emissions, adding further braking power.

Desalination and water distribution

Instead of shipping melt-water from the poles, we can tap seawater through advanced desalination. Modern technologies now make it efficient to produce fresh water and pipe it to arid zones (European Commission, 2022; FAO, 2021). Creating artificial lakes and reservoirs in strategic spots would bolster local ecosystems and cool regional climates.

Restoring vegetation zones

Re-establishing vegetation is central to terraforming. Trees and plants act as natural air conditioners, cooling the surface and promoting evaporation that fosters cloud formation. Techniques such as “sponge cities” and large-scale reforestation projects can actively restore ecological balance.

Commercial opportunities and investment

Firms working in desalination, water distribution and climate regulation present significant investment potential. Backing these solutions is climate action and business opportunity alike. With demand for water and sustainable climate services rising, the sector looks poised for strong long-term returns. The World Economic Forum names climate innovation among the most profitable emerging markets (WEF, 2023).

Instead of a threat, water can be our solution

We should not fear water —we need more of it, and quickly. Rather than treating melting ice and rising seas solely as dangers, we can regard them as an opportunity to redistribute this resource to where it is needed most.

Terraforming can help us direct water to arid regions, strengthen agriculture and build self-sustaining ecosystems that can counter climate change over the long term.

We face three major challenges:

• global warming
• growing water scarcity
• a debate that risks distracting us from taking comprehensive, immediate action

Discussion matters, but we must also dare to experiment and implement large-scale solutions in practice.

By combining emissions reductions with innovative technologies such as terraforming, desalination and biogeophysical climate intervention, we can actively influence the climate and create a sustainable future.

It is time to move from theory to action. By investing in cutting-edge environmental technology and inventive solutions we can build a future in which both the climate and human needs are in balance — and strike a very good deal.

Oskar Söderström
Entrepreneur and ambassador for Warp News