Technological solutions to global warming Flashcards
Giant Sunshade Description
Huge mirrors in geostationery orbit in Earth. One huge mirror of 16 trillion small ones. 20 million rockets to get it to space. Relect solar radiation away from Earth, creating a cooling effect.
Giant Sunshade Benefits
Principle is simple and proven to be effective and it will result in cooler tropics.
Giant Sunshade Costs
Warming in the northern latitudes - ice caps? Weights 20 million tonnes. Russian attempt in 1999 failed. Take 20 years to put up there. Costs exceed $1 trillion.
Ocean fertilisation Description
Iron particles added to ocean to encourage plankton, which sequesters carbon dioxide as it grows. when they die plankton sink to the ocean floor and take the Co2 with them.
Ocean Fertilisation - Benefits
Shown to work - Planktos dumped 50 tons of iron into the Pacific Ocean. Dumping of Quicklime with it which would combat acidification.If done on a large enough scale it could have n impact on global warming.
Ocean Fertlisation - Costs
Th Un agrred a moratorium on this technology in 2008, fearing biodiversity would be harmed. Oceans could become acidified by the sequestered CO2. Could cost $5 per tonne of carbon sequestered. Up to 6 billion tonnes a year would eed to be sequestred at 2008 emission levels.
Artificial Volcano - Description
Sulphate particles scattered in the stratosphere from balloons or planes block incoming solar radiation and cool the planet. A similar effect occurs naturally after a major volcanic eruption.
Artificial Volcano - Benefits
Effective way of reflecting radiation from the sun. Will take 5 years to get to levels of 1990. Does reduce global cooling. Could be mobilized quickly if urgently needed.
Artificial Volcano - Costs
Estimated cost of $50 billion every 2 years. Sulphur could damage the ozone layer. Polluting the atmosphere to solve a problem caused by pollution could be seen as unethical, acid rain could occur and global rainfall patterns might be disrupted.
Artificial Trees - Description
The ‘trees’, designed by Klaus Lackner,are intended to sequester 90,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. they would use sodium hydroxide to capture carbon directly from the atmosphere, which would the need to be buried.
Artificial trees - Benefits
Single tree can reduce 90,000 tonnes, 15000 cars, worth of emissions a year. Simple and effective way and relies on a well known chemical process.
Artificial Trees - Costs
Hundreds of thousands needed to take up space. $30 per ton of CO2 to remove it. Problems with burying the captured CO2. Unaesthetically pleasing and the trees would need to be powered.
