Six Fantastic, But Plausible, Ways to Fight Global Warming
March 26, 2010 | Environment, Featured
As each year goes by, the evidence to support global warming continues to mount and more and more people look to find ways to deal with this threat against our species. While there are plenty of people thinking globally and acting locally by conserving energy and recycling, there are some scientists out there who are looking at more outside-the-box ways to fight global warming. While these ideas may seem far-fetched, they are plausible and could be used when the time comes.
1. Wrapping up Greenland
When ice melts in Greenland, it goes into the ocean, and when that happens, ocean levels rise. The more ocean levels rise, the more people who have to migrate away from the coast. Created as a solution to rising seas by Dr. Jason Box of Ohio State University, it involves wrapping melting glaciers with blankets that will reflect the sun’s rays back into space, thereby stopping the ice from melting. This may seem far-fetched, but sun-reflecting blankets have actually been used in the Alps for several years now to preserve the ski hills throughout the summer.
Dr. Box has since 1994, traveled to Greenland to test out his theory in Greenland on various glaciers there. Each year, using 31 giant rolls of polypropylene blankets, Dr. Box has found some measurable results with this method. As it turns out, the concept does work and now Dr. Box is looking to cover 10,000 square meters of Greenland in blankets to preserve the ice, and our coastlines.
2. Space Sun Shield
A space sun shield sounds awesome, and it would look awesome, but is it plausible any time soon? The concept seems simple enough. Put a bunch of mirrors in space, between the sun and the Earth, to reflect some of the sun’s heat away from the planet, thereby allowing the planet to cool and prevent global warming. What is not so simple is making it happen. First, we would need to launch trillions of mirrors into space, and to get them to where they need to be, a gun with a barrel several long would need to be used to launch the mirrors. The gun would have to be 100 times more powerful than conventional weapons, and the price tag of all of this would be immense. Current estimates have the price tag at $350 trillion, which may be a bit too much for countries to pay on a project that might not work. The cloud of mirrors would need to be over 100,000 miles long, and 800,000 mirrors would have to be launched every five minutes for ten years. In addition, since the mirrors would get damaged in space, they would need to be replaced every 50 years.
This has not stopped NASA from commissioning a study to see how feasible this highly expensive project would be. How much of the sun’s heat would this reflect? About 1.8 percent, which may not seem like much but it would make an impact on Earth.
3. Tree Bombs
We all know that trees help take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and we all know that rain comes from the sky. So, why not have trees come from the sky? This may sound way-out-there, but it is actually a very plausible method of dealing with global warming. What it involves is literally dropping bundles of tree seeds out of a plane over empty land in order to plant millions of trees in probably the laziest way possible. Seedlings would be dropped from wax canisters that are packed full of fertilizers. When the canister hits the ground, it explodes, creating a handy hole for the tree to grow out of. Again, this may seem like a crazy idea but it is already in use and has been used to regenerate the mangrove forests in Louisiana, which were decimated by Hurricane Katrina.
4. Misting the Oceans
Clouds block sunlight, and when sunlight is blocked, the world cools down. This is the principle behind an idea that would create clouds from the oceans using giant misting machines floating on the waves. For this idea to work, a fleet of computer-controlled ships would be needed, which would float around the world pumping seawater mist into the air to create thick and low clouds.
The ships would move 22 pounds of water per second into the air and to make this work only 50 to 60 ships would be needed. Each ship would cost about $4 million, putting the price tag of this idea at below $1 billion, which makes it a bargain.
5. Orbital Power Plant
Instead of misting oceans, reflecting sunlight or bombing the land with trees, why not create an energy source that stops the need for fossil fuels. This is the concept behind the orbital power plant idea, which is being floated around as a viable solution to the world’s energy needs. According to former NASA physicist John Mankins, an orbital power plant would collect the sun’s rays in space and beam them down to Earth to a power plant that would then distribute the energy around the planet. This would entail having thousands of satellites in space that act as one power plant, collecting energy and using microwave technology to move that energy do the Earth below. This may seem like science fiction, but Japan has already announced plans to put a power plant in space by 2030 to provide completely clean and never-ending power to its citizens. The solar-powered generator will produce one gigawatts of energy, which would power 294,000 homes. California also has plans to put a power plant in space that would generate 200 megawatts within a decade.
6. Feed Garlic to Cows
It may seem like a leap to go from a futuristic solar power plant in space to cow farts, but limiting the flatulence of cows is being seen as a solution to global warming. Each year, millions of tones of methane are released into the atmosphere by cows who are chewing the cud. Methane itself is 20 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and limiting methane from cows is a good thing. According to a Welsh company called Neem Biotech, who has been given the blessing of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, allicin can be extracted from garlic an fed to cows to decrease their methane output by half. Given to cows as a food tablet, tests on a stomach simulator have shown that it can cut methane emissions by 90 percent. In actual real world use on the farm, it reduces methane emissions from cows by 20 percent.
It may seem odd, and slightly humorous, but it is in fact a viable way to deal with global warming. One-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions come from farm animals, and cutting those emissions by 20 to 90 percent could have a big impact on our planet.
Global warming is something that scares a lot of people, but thankfully there are lots of seemingly far-fetched ideas that are already being put into place to deal with the warming earth. Whether it is space shields, tree bombs or garlic tablets, there are plenty of ways to limit global warming and save our planet from ourselves.
Author: Craig Baird — Copyrighted © roadtickle.com
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