(I'm Dr Bob)
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Antarctic ice shelves
Global Warming Cure This site is to seek two thousand people to hear a message about hope for a cure for global warming.
Artificial limestone powder: the carbonate economy
After reviewing the scientific evidence, it will be apparent to an ordinary person that if the oceans rise, this is our wake up call that extinction may be headed our way within 500 years or less. So lets take notice. What may be desirable, to be certain of avoiding disaster, is a method of extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. A frontrunner in the race for solutions is idea of artificially producing carbonate, similar to limestone powder, in bulk, on land.
The carbonate economy, should we decide to head that way, would rely on a carbon tax levied on all goods and services, and proportional to the amount of C02 emitted by the production and transport of the goods. This tax would be used to efficiently produce hydroxide and calcium, which can then be reacted with atmospheric CO2 to produce carbonate. This process has been investigated for a long time by the oil and coal industries, as a way of reducing carbon emissions. In smokestacks the CO2 concentration is high and facilitates the reaction (see side panel). The process has not been attempted from the atmosphere, as yet, hence this site.
To create carbonate from CO2, the only crucial sticking point is how much energy does it take to industrially produce hydroxide and calcium on the scale that would be required. What CO2 penalty would we pay, producing hydroxide by conventional means? Assuming the current production methods for hydroxide are inefficient, the idea of a catalyst becomes worth investigation. Living things achieve carbonate production efficiently through the catalyst histidine, which could be mimicked to achieve net CO2 loss, and carbonate production without the involvement of living organisms.
Algae as inspiration for a global warming cure
The full carbon cycle, and its waxing and waning over aeons is not fully understood, but it is certain that there are large quantities of non-gaseous CO2 laid down as limestone deposits, by various marine algae. Could the production of artificial limestone be a method for us to dispose of our C02, just as nature does?
Some scientists say that in eras of high global CO2 levels, when enough land turns to deserts, the soil may blow into the sea in large amounts. Similarly when sealevels rise due to melting ice caps, rich coastal soils become continental shelves. Apparently, the iron and other nutrients in the dust and soil can act as nutrients for marine microalgae, which may flourish and absorb carbon dioxide. This may begin to alleviate global warming, because carbon dioxide is one of the key greenhouse molecules.
Will we have to wait until the icecaps melt, sea levels rise and countries are turned into deserts before we act to control global temperatures?.
It is no use deliberately dropping megatonnes of iron chelate into the oceans, because this would involve actual greening of oceans and there are issues regarding permissions and controls by fishing industries, and prevention of blooms of harmful algae such as dinoflagellates near populated places and fishing grounds. As such, this avenue may not be the one that is actually pursued. However it is very possible to take inspiration from nature, in micking the action of biological 'enzymes' that convert CO2 to non-gaseous forms. This can be done on land, as an industrial process, without the involvement of algae. Take inspiration from nature, but sidestep nature, to speed up the healing process, and save our skins!
It is not known how quickly or efficently nature herself would install algae as a solution, and whats worse, high CO2 levels in the atmosphere acidify the oceans, and may inhibit algae, preventing them from helping us!
A model for what is happening
The closest likeness for what is happening now, was the end-Permian extinction which killed 95% of all living things on earth and in the oceans. That was due to a mere ten degrees rise in global temperature over an 80,000 year period, caused by natural carbon release from volcanoes and subsequent methane release from the ocean floor on continental shelves. On conservative estimates, we are currently warming the planet by at least one degree per century (perhaps one degree per fifty years). So hold onto your seats.
Some more numbers: The coal, oil and gas that we have burned in two hundred years took nature around two hundred million years to lay down. It's nearly all used up now (burnt to form CO2). That's a million-fold acceleration of the release of carbon that was laid down in the fuel during fossilization. We have sped up natures atmospheric cycle by a million-fold! Nature isn't coping. She needs our help! Clearly this release hasn't happened before during the last two hundred million years, it is unique to our time!
The way forward
Sign up as a friend if you value the hope that the potential cure offered by carbon sequestration represents. Its a goal to sign up two thousand people to increase awareness of the need for research on this front.
Collectively, we are seriously considering terraforming the atmosphere of Mars by introducing algae to the martian surface to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, with the help of the water that is there. Can we not take inspiration from the algae of our own planet to save our grandchildren's future? Consider for a moment, then join us. Its only a click away!
We now have the ability to help mother nature 'industrially'. Could we find a way to take nature's methods of fixing carbon, making it into an artificial limestone, without requiring living things? Can this stuff then be used as a building material? The principles by which enzymes work are now well known and should be able to be mimicked on a solid-state surface, or in a column or gel, without the involvemnet of lkiving organisms. Concentrating the carbon dioxide may be the neccessary but energy-expensive step, but once it is present at high enough concentration, any catalysis will be improved. Chemistry research for earth is what is needed!
The aim is simple: lay down more carbon dioxide than we release. Dream of a day when we can see ourselves as caretakers of the planet. What kind of caretakers sit back and just watch it happen? We should discuss (take ideas widely), agree on something (whatever), and eventualy act!
Some scientists are saying among themselves that the carbon dioxide we already have released into the atmosphere is enough to cause major problems, because of a feedback cycle by atmospheric water acting as a greenhouse gas. On the other hand, governments and the public are mainly concerned with generating legislation to stop releasing _more_CO2 into the atmosphere. The issue of whether or not we may be capable of soaking up the CO2 thats already out there hasn't been raised. We are capable of great creativeness! Solutions can be dreamt of! Lets talk about the issues!
Remember the Apollo 13 ? Short of oxygen, on a mission to the moon, they relied heavily on a carbon dioxide "scrubber". Can we scrub the earth's atmosphere? In the 90's, there was an experiment in contained living in a bubble in the desert. It stopped when, after some time, the CO2 began to accumulate, and the group of people had to come out of the bubble. The technology hadn't been perfected yet. Did we learn some important lessons technically that may help us?
Hopefully, this site is being read by people who have a critical eye and a sense of balance, humour (i.e. non-desperation), and respect for what us humans as a species are capable of, in a positive sense. Thankyou!
Within a few years we will see mass protests in the streets as democracy takes its course and people begin to lobby governments to correct global warming. The sequesteration (locking away) of atmospheric carbon dioxide should not be left lingering as a forgotten aim, overtaken by militance against oil and coal companies, and our popular focus on merely sequestering new CO2 that comes from burning these forms of CO2-producing fuels. The CO2 thats already in the atmosphere is what is melting the poles, and this is now probably unstoppable.
Biodeisel, ethanol, all make CO2. What is needed is sequestration technology that will unite all the vested interests. Big energy companies need to be kept honest, sure. They need to sequester CO2 at the smoke stack, sure. We need to develop alternative technologies such as solar energy, sure. Lets also get behind new technology to sequester carbon on a vast scale from the atmosphere! It may already be too late to stop the icecaps from melting, with extensive sea level rise due to melting ice, and this will cause much disruption to human civilisation. But if we start soon, could we contemplate the reappearance of the icecaps in one hundred years?.
Lets lobby for sequestration when we protest. A huge positive energy, from the grassroots, like back in the cold war. I'm ready with my banner and with songs. I'll be marching with you. Lets show the leaders that we support them in finding a cure for global warming before its too late. I march for my wife and son. When do we start?
Triangle of survival
The solution to global warming will have three aspects, none of which can accomplish global cooling on its own, but taken together these can fufill our optimistic expectations.
1. CO2 sequestration, both at the stack and from the atmosphere
2. Energy efficiency regulations, plus vast expansion and strengthening of public transport to simultaneously emit less CO2, and cope with population destabilisation from sea level rises.
3. Carbon tax on all goods and services, in proportion to the CO2 emissions caused by their production. Tax phased in gradually over ten years will ease energy companies away from high CO2 resources toward renewable energies without loss of their valuable customers, or destabilisation of commerce.
Public support to lawmakers and industrialists will be crucial in getting each of these done! Never underestimate people-power and optimism. Good luck in your goals!
-Bob
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Link to Tomorrows Aeronautical Museum, the powerful potential of optimism!
Ask not what your world can do for you, but what you can do for your world
[For music used on this site, many thanks to Arlo Guthrie for his song "All Over the World" used previously, and Youssou Ndour and Ninah Cherry for their song "7 seconds" used currently]
1. Richard Smith's documentary "Crude" (link below) tells of how algae dominated the oceans when todays oil was originally laid down, in the Jurassic period. The oil we drive on is made of algae! For algae to be 'useful' like this, requires what is called an "Oceanic Anoxic Event": This involves stagnation of the oceans. By contrast, when the poles are iced over as now, the oceans mix by cold water sinking at the poles, and rising again at the equator. As mentioned in "The Inconvenient Truth" (Al Gores Movie), the oceanic "conveyer belt" of rising warm water and sinking cold water brings oxygen from the surface waters of the poles down into to the deep ocean. When this conveyer belt slows or stops, we get an Oceanic Anoxic Event. At the current rate of temperature increase, we are due for one of these events within a hundred years, along with the sealevel rises, and acid rain that accompanies it. Whoa!
A history of C02, oil, and the Jurassic Oceanic Anoxic Event
Link to Wikipedia, Oceanic Anoxic Events
2. In a recent Horizon BBC documentary about "Global Dimming" climate experts spoke about the future.
Click here to see Global Dimming video
Summary: A separate effect of pollution (other than CO2) has been masking the true extent of global warming. If you can watch this video you'll see that we gotta get crackin' sooner than we thought! According to the dimming-corrected models, we may have as little as 100 to 200 years until irretrievable holocaust, if nothing is done to correct carbon dioxide levels. The point of the Global Dimming documentary is that evaporation from the oceans has been shielded, due to the reflection of sunlight by pollution! As pollution decreases and evaporation increases, a potent greenhouse gas, water vapour, does its work of raising the global temperature. This is known as a runaway greenhouse. The point is that temperature rise is cumulative, exponential, and the synergy of many factors.
If you were to compare notes from this film with those from the end-permian extinction information, found in a link under "Books", you'd see the parallel in the two scenarios, of the five degree rise due to CO2, followed by the second five degree rise due to methane hydrates that bubble up from the ocean floor.
Folks, if it gets to the point where the methane bubbles up, its too late. Under those circumstances, extinction of 95% of the earth's species follows! That's no future to leave your grandchildren! Lets soak up the CO2, before it invites the methane!!
Information to look at regarding the ideas on this page. Click on the red words to read info regarding that topic:
End-Permian extinction
The main inspiration people have taken from algae and other organisms, as regards carbon sequesteration (locking away carbon) is the idea of making calcium carbonate (CaCo3, which is limestone powder) or magnesium carbonate from raw ingredients: CO2, oxygen, magnesium, and calcium. The reaction of CO2 with hydroxide can work almost spontaneously, we have learned this from many organisms, which use various forms of the enzyme family "carbonic anhydrases" to achieve it.
The following information on successes and grant funding in this area is from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) carbon sequestration site:
Non biological production of carbonate at high temps in power plants:
Artificial carbonate formation pt1
Artificial carbonate formation pt2
Artificial carbonate formation pt3
Algae sequester CO2 to carbonate pt1
Algae sequester CO2 to carbonate pt2
Algae sequester CO2 to carbonate pt3
Other, eg. non carbonation or combined approaches:
Other pt1
Other pt2
Membranes: There are many under development, these all apparently work at high temperatures and pressures to separate CO2 from other gases, during fuel burning. Whether they could work in extracting CO2 from the atmosphere has perhaps not been proposed.
It may now be useful to invest in experimental systems that can help reduce CO2. For example for massive conversion of CO2 to calcium carbonate (CaCo3), limestone powder, the following scenario is conceivable. A CO2 selective membrane could surround a chamber that is under vacuum. The membrane allows through only CO2, and partly or completely blocks passage of other gases from the atmosphere. This setup would lead to a modest concentration of carbon dioxide in the chamber, beyond that normally found in the atmosphere, and concentrated enough to allow chemical reaction of the CO2. Then, singlet oxygen molecules or hydroxide would be pumped in to the chamber together with calcium ions, and the mixture filtered through a sieve that brings the molecules into contact with each other and with a catalyst. If this produces CaCO3, the powder could be removed periodically and disposed of by burial. This is only one of the possibilities. A better way would be to dispense with the membrane and the vacuum, and just find the right catalyst. If you have specifications for any process that can sequester carbon, publish them, or make a prototype.
1. Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, coral bleaching specialist. Corals are an early indicator of the anthropogenic pressures on living organisms, as discussed in the blog.
2. Al Gore, a public advocate of climate change science. The public's right to know about and decide on their own future is sacrosanct. Leaders like Al know this, and act accordingly. Have you heard of the movie “An Inconvenient Truth� Highly recommended!
3. Professor Tim Flannery is a biologist and climate scientist who was this year awarded Australian of the year. Here are his tips for how you can personally lower CO2 levels.
Steps individuals can take to reduce lower carbon dioxide levels
4. Richard Branson and his company have issued a technical challenge for carbon seqestration with a $25 million prize attached. To view, click on the red link.
Virgin Earth Prize for carbon sequestration
Could your company be the winner?
5. My other hero is yet to come, and is anyone who can actually absorb net CO2 using a technological process.