Okay, here is a solution to global warming I dreamed up when I was a grade school student. It is a very rough idea but I think there might be something to it and I am surprised I have never heard anything like it in the media. I am hoping to toss it out to those many a wiser than me in the JREF forums and see how it could be polished or shot down completely.
I am going to start with the preconceptions that lead to the idea.
1. The efforts of billions of years of photosynthetic life forms are responsible for the oxygen rich atmosphere we enjoy today and almost all of the carbon fixed in petrochemicals.
2. We are rapidly undoing the hard work of the photosynthesizer by releasing that carbon back into the atmosphere.
3. Most of the carbon fixing currently being done on Earth is not done in the Rain Forests but actually in the shallow parts of the Ocean and Seas by photosynthetic algae and aquatic plants.
4. Most of the Earth's surface is deep Ocean where no appreciable photosynthesis occurs.
5. Photosynthesis does not occur in the deep ocean because the surface is in constant motion and the heat and light of the sun is lost to the depths.
So here is my idea: We terraform Earth much in the way that has been proposed to terraform planets like Mars and Venus. We set up large rubber booms like the ones used contain oil spills in the deep ocean. At an optimal depth we place a rubber bottom in the area contained by booms. Think of a rubber dingy the size of a football field filled with sea water and you get the idea of what I am talking about. Now inside these ocean fields we have created we cultivate massive blooms of algae, of varieties selected for their ability to grow quickly and photosynthesize, fixing carbon from the atmosphere. This is done on an epic scale.
Afterwards we can sink the algae blooms to the bottom of the ocean to have nature once again change it into oil. Nations and companies who undertake this venture can receive carbon credits which are now a commodity thanks to the Kyoto Protocol. Or potentially, we could turn the algae to oil ourselves using a thermal depolymerisation process and use the algae as an energy source. I know this would be a huge engineering feat but certainly much less so than the solution entertained on the Skeptic's guide to the Universe to build a massive sun shield for the Earth in space. If we think algae is the key to changing the atmosphere on Mars or Venus why don't we consider it as a method of fix our atmosphere problems here on Earth?
I am going to start with the preconceptions that lead to the idea.
1. The efforts of billions of years of photosynthetic life forms are responsible for the oxygen rich atmosphere we enjoy today and almost all of the carbon fixed in petrochemicals.
2. We are rapidly undoing the hard work of the photosynthesizer by releasing that carbon back into the atmosphere.
3. Most of the carbon fixing currently being done on Earth is not done in the Rain Forests but actually in the shallow parts of the Ocean and Seas by photosynthetic algae and aquatic plants.
4. Most of the Earth's surface is deep Ocean where no appreciable photosynthesis occurs.
5. Photosynthesis does not occur in the deep ocean because the surface is in constant motion and the heat and light of the sun is lost to the depths.
So here is my idea: We terraform Earth much in the way that has been proposed to terraform planets like Mars and Venus. We set up large rubber booms like the ones used contain oil spills in the deep ocean. At an optimal depth we place a rubber bottom in the area contained by booms. Think of a rubber dingy the size of a football field filled with sea water and you get the idea of what I am talking about. Now inside these ocean fields we have created we cultivate massive blooms of algae, of varieties selected for their ability to grow quickly and photosynthesize, fixing carbon from the atmosphere. This is done on an epic scale.
Afterwards we can sink the algae blooms to the bottom of the ocean to have nature once again change it into oil. Nations and companies who undertake this venture can receive carbon credits which are now a commodity thanks to the Kyoto Protocol. Or potentially, we could turn the algae to oil ourselves using a thermal depolymerisation process and use the algae as an energy source. I know this would be a huge engineering feat but certainly much less so than the solution entertained on the Skeptic's guide to the Universe to build a massive sun shield for the Earth in space. If we think algae is the key to changing the atmosphere on Mars or Venus why don't we consider it as a method of fix our atmosphere problems here on Earth?
