Doldrums continue to plague China's post-pandemic economy, and now the country's leaders are firing up a new round of plans to jump-start growth. China's central bank unveiled the "biggest stimulus" of the post-Covid era, said Reuters. The package includes mortgage interest rate cuts and other measures designed to pull the country's economy out of a "deflationary funk." 

It's a "massive adrenaline shot" for an economy beset by a "property market blowout, consumer price weakness and rising global trade tensions," said Bloomberg. But the "sweeping" effort doesn't meet demands to "fundamentally reconfigure" the economy away from manufacturing exports and toward domestic consumption. 

'Likely to disappoint'
Chinese households and businesses are "getting another credit stimulus that's likely to disappoint," said The Wall Street Journal. The new stimulus is the "most aggressive" attempt to pull China's economy out of a slowdown. But it won't create the "investment opportunities" the economy needs to grow. "Only greater freedom for private innovators and entrepreneurs can do that," said the Journal. Beijing isn't ready to go that route, which means China's domestic economy will "continue to underperform."

The stimulus is "hefty but insufficient," said the Financial Times. The "poorest households" need a boost that includes "social security and health care support" and investors need "policy stability and deregulation." But those measures would require Beijing to overcome its "desire to control the private sector." 

Fears of 'social instability'
China's central bank announcement came as the youth unemployment rate reached "record highs," said the Los Angeles Times. That has led to concerns among Chinese leaders that "social instability" rising from mass unemployment could become a "political liability." The new stimulus is an effort to keep that instability at bay.

Despite its problems, China still has the world's second-largest economy. Continued efforts to goose growth could have "global ripple effects," said Jared Blikre at Yahoo Finance. The stimulus focused mostly on policy changes. And Beijing could start "throwing more government money at the problem," which may set off a chain reaction of "shifts in supply chains and pricing for raw materials" that would create "headaches" for U.S. manufacturing firms. 

Every decade, about 13% of the ice in the Arctic Ocean is lost, but scientists are now exploring whether new technology can help refreeze the sea ice and halt its rapid decline. Scientists from two enterprises, Real Ice and Arctic Reflections, have been testing a plan to spread seawater on top of the ice in order to create thicker ice that will last longer in the summer months. 

How bad is the situation in the Arctic? 
The level of Arctic sea ice has declined starkly in recent decades due to increasing global emissions, and the "oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic has declined by a stunning 95%" since the 1980s, said the World Wildlife Fund. At this point, there's some consensus that even if "greenhouse gas emissions are sharply reduced" immediately, the Arctic would still be free of summer ice by the next decade, said The Guardian. Research published last year suggests 90% of the melting had been due to "human-caused global heating." 

How does the refreezing plan work? 
Engineers will first send an underwater drone to find thin ice and punch a hole through to the surface. They will then "flood" seawater over the top of the ice using pumps, said The Times. It's hoped that the extra water will speed up the "natural freezing process" and "create ice that's about a meter thicker" and, therefore, more durable in warmer temperatures. Though the system has been through numerous tests already, this year was the first time the pumps were powered by renewable energy, running on hydrogen. 

Will it work? 
The sheer size of the Arctic means there's doubt whether the technology could be rolled out effectively and widely enough to make a significant difference. Some research suggests "deploying pumps across a tenth" of the area could "reverse present trends of ice loss," said The Times, but that would require "about 10 million pumps" alone. Ultimately, refreezing is not a "solution" to the problem, Hayo Hendrikse, an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, said to The Guardian, but merely a "sticking plaster" that could be used on a "smaller scale."