Today on Reactions: craziest ideas to combat climate change.
Let’s do this.
First up: massive gigantic enormous space mirrors.
The Sun is constantly emitting all kinds of light -- including visible, ultraviolet, and
infrared— which heat up the Earth.
A space mirror is designed to cast a small shade on the Earth and reduce the amount of
light that hits our planet.
In one of the better known proposals, a mesh made of tightly packed, incredibly fine aluminum
threads, would be placed up into orbit and filter out a tiny portion of the sun’s light.
That doesn’t sound like much, but the researcher who proposed the idea theorized that it should
be enough to stabilize our climate because it would decrease the global temperature to
what it was when CO2 concentrations were much lower than they are today.
But the space mirror approach is easier said than done.
The mesh would have to stretch over 1.5 million square kilometers.
That’s more than double the land area of…
France.
Creating something that massive and getting it to space--and then maintaining it once
it’s there--that’s kind of unfathomable.
Plus, space mirrors would mostly control temperature but there are other climate factors, like
rain, that would still be different than what we experienced before the amount of CO2 in
our atmosphere was out of control.
To be fair, the scientist who proposed this said it would definitely be a last ditch effort.
Since then other space mirror proposals have popped up, like launching trillions of super
lightweight discs into space that would redirect some of the sun's rays so they don’t hit
us.
But that would also cost trillions and be really hard to get into space.
So...no go.
A little less crazy than solar mirrors--seeding the ocean with iron.
Why?
To increase phytoplankton growth.
Phytoplankton photosynthesize, which means they use light to pull carbon dioxide from
our atmosphere and react it with water to make oxygen as well as sugar, which they use
to grow.
There are lots of steps in this reaction, some of which need iron, so the hypothesis
goes that adding iron to the ocean would mean more phytoplankton, pulling out even more
CO2.
But the issue with just dumping iron is its potential side effects, like an algal bloom,
which happens when phytoplankton grow out of control and then begin to die.
When that happens the microbes that feed on phytoplankton debris begin to suck up so much
oxygen from the water that they create what’s called a “dead zone,” and other critters
in those waters begin to suffocate.
And if that weren’t enough, some of the microbes make methane and nitrous oxide, which
are potent greenhouse gases.
So some computer models of iron fertilization have suggested that the potential cure is
worse than the disease.
And maybe my personal favorite climate change combating idea that’s a little weird but
very awesome: feeding cows seaweed.
We have a ton of cows and they burp a lot of methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse
gas than CO2, although it sticks around in our atmosphere for shorter periods of time.
A few years ago a study by the UN FAO estimated that the total annual emissions from animal
agriculture made up almost 15 percent of all human greenhouse gas emissions, and of that,
41 percent was attributed to cattle raised for beef.
Knowing that people probably weren’t going to give up beef altogether, scientists asked:
How do we decrease the amount of methane cows are producing?
Maybe by putting them on a diet--a seaweed diet.
All the methane burped out by cows is produced in their gut by bacteria.
Turns out that one particular type of seaweed, Asparagopsis taxiformis, produces a compound
called bromoform, which messes with enzymes that would normally turn carbon dioxide and
hydrogen into methane in a cow’s gut.
One study has shown that a solution of 2% seaweed reduced methane gas production from
some cow stomach juice in a test tube/by 99%.
But a lot more work needs to be done before this is ready for prime time.
Researchers also suspect that there’s a genetic component to how much methane a cow
produces, which opens the door to even more possibilities as we try to figure out how
to cool this rapidly warming planet.
So although today’s video was about some weird ways to combat climate change, there
are a bunch of less crazy things you can do now, like support climate-friendly policies
that will help us invest in renewable energy--like wind and solar--and by doing so decrease the
amount of fossil fuels we’re using.
A big thank you goes to Miriam from Hot Mess for weighing in on this video.
Hot Mess is a show where they take a fresh look at climate change with a solutions-focused
perspective and aim to empower an ever-growing community concerned and engaged with climate
issues.
A little while back they even made a video about Space Mirrors, that first crazy idea
I mentioned.
Be sure to check it out!
See you next week!