Can We Stop Climate Change by Removing CO2 from the Atmosphere?
Do you guys know that over a period of a few years, the Earth’s temperature has faced an increase of about 3 degrees Celsius globally?
This figure may appear little, but its effect is far more adverse than its size. The glaciers in Antarctica are melting at a fast pace. Summers, these days, continue for long and people tend to use air conditioners for longer durations than before. The Sun is burning our skins. The most unexpected areas in the world are experiencing wildfires. Marine life is dying owing to the extreme rise in sea temperatures. In fact, half of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is dead. World’s lakes are drying up. These all are minor insights into what that 3 degree Celsius of temperature increase can look like.
And the one and only one reason behind this is the increase in Carbon Dioxide emissions which are released from automobiles, refrigerators, burning of fossils, cutting of trees, and even from the manufacturing of cement. Each one of us, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is contributing to the CO2 emissions.
In regard to the worse times, it can bring, it is high time for us to act before it gets too late. In this story, I’ll share five ways, by which we all can make this good cause happen!
Here are the ways by which we can reduce CO2 emissions.
1. Grow more trees:
Trees release oxygen and consume carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Growing more and more trees would promote more carbon dioxide consumption, thereby reducing the CO2 naturally. This is one such method that we all need to adopt.
Start by growing some trees at your home. In case, you don’t have sufficient space like me, start growing them in large pots or containers. Trust me guys, within a few days, you’ll observe cleaner air around yourself.
2. Do some farming
People who have vast stretches of land must use it for cultivation, rather than keeping it barren for long. Soils have natural carbon in them, and we can manually increase the carbon content in the soils.
Pouring a good amount of compost over the farms can help soil grab more carbon content and retain it for a long. In fact, scientists are trying their best to discover plants that have long roots which aid in depositing and settling down more carbon to the soil.
3. Direct Air capture
Direct Air Capture is a wonderful concept of attaining the Carbon Dioxide directly from the air by chemically scrubbing the C02, and then storing it either in long-life things like concrete or below the ground. This can capture the unwanted carbon emissions directly from the air, rather than its source. Though this is a potential method, yet the technology required to make this project a success is quite expensive and consumes a lot of heat and energy.
Several firms have even started investing in this project. Keeping it precise, even though this is a new and expensive method, yet, it can significantly reduce the carbon emissions from the air directly.
4. Mineralizing Carbon
Carbon mineralization or enhanced weathering refers to the process when some minerals naturally react with the atmospheric carbon dioxide and convert the gaseous carbon into a solid form.
Usually, carbon mineralization is a very gradual process that takes up hundreds or even thousands of years, but scientists are figuring out ways to speed up this process, particularly by increasing the exposure of these minerals to the atmospheric carbon dioxide or the CO2 dissolved in water.
This process can also help in consuming CO2 by pouring it into certain rocks, where it reacts to build up solid carbonates such as concrete. Scientists have evidently proved that this method is possible and some of the start-up businesses have started manufacturing carbon mineralized based products, but there’s still a lot of work, and advancement to be made to make this method affordable, and efficient.
5. Bio-energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)
BECCS is a great alternative to reduce carbon emissions in the air. But this is a complicated method, much complicated than merely doing farming, or planting some trees.
In this process, biomass is utilized to produce energy, and the carbon emissions are to be captured before releasing them into the air. Then this seized carbon is either saved in the products like concrete or moved underground. If BECCS successively captures more carbon as compared to what it emits in the air, then this process can substantially reduce the carbon emissions in the environment.
We all can make a difference, and let‘s begin from now onwards.
Let’s march towards a greener, cleaner and safer future.
