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♤ Geo-engineering primarily aims at modifying and cooling Earth’s environment, defeating the environmental damage and ensuing climate changes to make the planet more inhabitable. Geoengineering, at this point, is still only a theoretical Concept
♤ Hoisting parasols, placing mirrors in space, whitening the stratosphere with sulfate aerosols, whitewashing building roofs to reflect sunlight or flinging iron filings into the ocean to promote carbon-
gulping algae are some of the modes.
How Geoengineering Works: 5 Big Plans to Stop Global Warming
1. Copy a Volcano
♤ A volcanic eruption can bellow many million tons of sulfur-dioxide gas into the atmosphere, creating a cloud that blocks some of the sun’s radiation. By injecting the atmosphere with sulfur, some scientists believe they could likewise block solar radiation and potentially cool the planet.
♤ Those droplets are particularly good at scattering the sun’s light back out into space. And because sulfur doesn’t heat the stratosphere as much as other aerosols, it wouldn’t work against the cooling effect. Hydrogen sulfide is an even better candidate for atmospheric seeding than sulfur dioxide.
2. Shoot Mirrors Into Space
♤ In order to deflect enough sunlight to bring the Earth’s climate back to its pre-industrial level, geoengineers plan to launch a mirror, the size of Greenland and strategically position it between the planet and the sun.
3. Seed the Sea with Iron
♤ Scientist suggests iron will be the key to turn things around. Phytoplankton, which dwell near the surface, prefer iron.
♤ They are also adapt at pulling carbon out of the atmosphere during photosynthesis.
♤ When they die after about 60 days, the carbon the organisms have consumed falls to the bottom of the ocean.
♤ By pumping iron into the sea and stimulating phytoplankton to grow like crazy, scientist believe, global warming could be reversed.
4. Whiten the Clouds with Wind-Powered Ships
♤ Scientist hopes, like the volcanic eruption, the tops of clouds also reflect solar radiation. Spraying a lot of seawater into the sky by wind powered remotely activated ships to whiten the clouds and thus it will reflect solar radiation.
5. Build Fake Trees Do you know?
Mugger crocodile is a freshwater species, which primarily occupies Indian lakes, rivers and marshes. It prefers slow-moving, shallower bodies of water and may be found in man-made reservoirs and irrigation canals.
♤ “artificial tree,” a scaled-down version of an earlier prototype capable of capturing a ton of carbon in the atmosphere per day.
♤ Panels covering the surface of the tree--which would need to be about 50 square meters--will be made of an absorbent resin that reacts with carbon dioxide in the air to form a solid.
♤ It can be compared to a furnace filter, capable of pulling particles out of the air.
♤ The panels, or “boxes,” can be removed and exposed to 113 F steam, which effectively cleans the filter.
♤ The chemical reaction with the steam causes the solid to release the carbon it has captured, which can then seize as liquid CO2.
♤ But pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is only half the battle--afterwards it must be sequestered, or permanently trapped.
How sequestrated CO2 can be commercials used?
♤ Horticulturists need CO2 in greenhouses for plants to use during photosynthesis,
♤ For dry ice production, and
♤ For developing new kinds of plastic and concrete that can be made with CO2.
Drawbacks
♤ Scientists have no idea whether they could shut down some of these geoengineering projects once they start.
♤ Geoengineering treats the symptoms of global warming, and could very well undermine efforts to address the root cause.
♤ people may feel as though they don’t need to reduce their personal carbon emissions and companies may continue to conduct business as usual, expecting researchers to clean up the mess.
♤ The cost, maintenance for geoengineering projects are too high.