Ideas to fight Climate Change
Apr 28, 2022
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Ideas to Fight Climate Change by Dr. Michellie Hernandez is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Abstract:
The following are ideas that I hope will inspire climate scientists to research in order to combat climate change. Varying from a possible positive feedback loop due to melting permafrost or microplastics to use of artificial carbon capture technologies in an attempt to reverse climate change if mass produced along with natural carbon sink holes.
Ideas to Fight Climate Change:
1. Declare the Amazon Forrest as UN international protected rainforest and negotiate with nations owning the land to either sell the land and declare as international land or provide yearly incentives to nations containing the Amazon rainforest to conserve the land from mining, farming and deforestation as well as policies to fight off poverty within the nations. And any attempts to mine, farm or deforest the Amazon should be fined with possible sanctions towards the company’s country of origin.
Why is the Amazon Rainforest an international issue?
• The Amazon provides 20% of the world’s oxygen
• The Amazon basin is an important CO2 sinkhole.
• The Amazon absorbs the Saharan Dust from the air thus reducing the duration of Saharan dust over the oceans. Dry air over the oceans are mayor contributors to hurricane genesis and hurricane intensification. Such funding for the Amazon should be considered as preventive measures to reduce the costs of hurricanes in coastal areas of many nations by the oceans.
2. Mass produce carbon capture technology WITHOUT the coal plants. Use carbon capture technology adaptation to be added to air conditioners and produce calcium bicarbonate that can be used as compost in homes. Another option is use carbon capture technology to produce calcium carbonate building blocks.
CAUTION: Carbon capture such as Climeworks technology1 where technology is used to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. USE WITH CAUTION: DO NOT Return calcium bicarbonate back into the ground near geothermal plants because it can increase volcanic activity. 2 Per David S. Goldberg, Taro Takahashi, Angela L. Slagle chemical reaction of CO2 with basalt to produce stable and nontoxic (Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe2+) CO3 infilling minerals. 3 Thus DO NOT allow technology of carbon capture such as Climeworks to return concentrated CO2 near basalt in geothermal plants as this can be converted to calcium bicarbonate and increase volcanic activity! Uses of calcium carbonate instead in construction building blocks.
3. Research on CO2 capture within the plant species should be done to select plant species that absorbs the most CO2 from the atmosphere and plant the most efficient plant species worldwide. Kiri or Paulownia trees have a high CO2 absorption and can be planted all across the globe. 4
Per Pirro Icka, Robert Damo and Engjëllushe Icka : “The company Gjelbërimi shpk exercises its activity in the sector of production and selling the decorative plants including flowers and trees. According its own demand the company imported from France in 2014 300 seedlings of Paulownia tomentosa. The seedlings were planted in a surface of 500 m2 in a distance of 1 x 1 m for the production of decorative seedlings. The land where the seedlings were planted is in a height of 850 m over the sea level. During the spring 2015 was performed the technical cut “seedlings enforcement” and further the necessary services to obtain a healthy seedling. After the cutting, the plants have growing quickly. The growth of new soot was quick and with high intensity. By the end of vegetative growth by 2015 were performed several biometric measurements, and the most interesting indicators are the average plant height of 4,25 m and the trunk diameter on chest height by 5,22 cm, which are close to the literature data for the seedlings of the same age.” 4
4. We can Tackle 2 problems at once by making biodegradable plastic out of plants used in Phytoremediation. This will extract ALL the heavy metals in the land via Phytoremediation (Decontaminating the soil and water reservoirs). In order to extract the heavy metals from the plant and properly dispose of heavy metals. As well as use the rest of the plant to make biodegradable plastic (End the contamination of Plastic in our oceans and landfills) 5, 6
Phytoremediation can be used in plants to absorb heavy metal contamination in water reservoirs and soil: End the water crisis in El Salvador and Honduras or use in gardens and cisterns in Flint, MI.
5. Use low technology coral reef restoration methods via fragmentation to mass reproduce worldwide the species scleractinian or Astrangia Poculata coral which ingests microplastic. The coral will eventually die due to microplastic, but it can be removed from the ocean and replaced with new fragmentation. Another option is to genetically engineer coral to include the enzyme found in wax worms that degrades plastic thus possibly result in decreasing mortality of coral from microplastics. 7, 8, 9, 10 Per Jenny Howard the coral species, Astrangia poculata, appeared to selectively feed on clean microplastics when also offered bio-fouled particles. 7
6. Invent a cooling system in glaciers to buy us time to implement the solutions mentioned above. Pass copper wire underneath the glacier attach copper wire to cooling system powered by solar panels similar to heat pumps used in geothermal plants. Heat is absorbed from underneath the glacier and taken above the glacier where it will be attached to heat absorption plate on top of the glacier 11 and use of heat pumps such as those used by Copper Development Association Inc.12
PROBLEM: Water temperature below the glaciers are rising due to warming ocean waters Reason: Per scientists Climate Change, but public may disagree with science and blame underwater volcanos.
Solution: Cool the water beneath the glaciers to buy us time to correct the cause.
• CO2 capture from atmosphere similar to the one used in clean coal factories, but without producing coal as mention above.
• Microplastic disruption of Carbon cycle in oceans which can be solved with microplastic collection via coral farms (coral digests microplastics and eventually dies off but one can remove dead coral and replace live coral once more to capture microplastic). See point 7 ahead.
• Underwater volcanos? Needs more research to confirm. Look for calcium carbonate sink holes near volcanos that might be worsening volcanic activity and remove calcium bicarbonate from area near volcanos. As mentioned above extreme caution should be done not to add calcium bicarbonate near geothermal plants.
7. Microplastic effect on phytoplankton and possible disruption of on the Carbon cycle that is needed for oceans to maintain as a Carbon sink hole. Could there be another positive feedback towards global warming besides the Tundra that we have to worry about?
Hypothesis: Is there a correlation between the existence of Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and stensioeina beccarii formis extinction that were described by L. Alegret,S, Ortiz,E. Molina 13? If so, could there be a positive feedback of global warming due to alterations in the ocean's food chain specifically the phytoplankton and CO2 to CaCO3 pathway? After-all oceans are carbon sink holes and alterations to the pathway of CO2 to CaCO3 could have led to a possible temporary break in the carbon cycle that might have led to PETM until that break was restored. Once restored, the other species of beccarii recovered because CaCO3 production was restored. Hence the ocean was once more able to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and slowly end PETM. The stensioeina beccarii formis eat CaCO3 and they became extinct once CaCO3 dipped. What caused this break in CO2 to CaCO3 pathway and thus a rapid dip in CaCO3 is unknown and more research must be done to prove my theory and to see what the cause was.
If this is proven to be true not only do we have to worry about the effects of ocean acidification on deep water biosphere but also about the effects of microplastics in deep water biosphere. The oceans' biosphere might have survived warmer climates millions of years ago, but it did not have to survive toxic plastic remains nor a rapid adaptation that is necessary to survive today's global warming.
8. Melted Ice shelves over seawater do not raise much seawater, basically it’s like watching ice cube melt in your glass. The level remains the same, but ice sheets that are above land is a different story. Here the metaphor will be adding water to your cup of water and cause an overspill. Once the ice shelves melts, the ice sheets support system is compromised topple over into the sea and rapidly raise sea level.
9. Possible Methane positive feedback loop from melting permafrost. Permafrost is melted and decaying permafrost eaten by bacteria will release methane gas. This will especially occur once the Arctic permafrost melt. Now Canada, Russia and Alaska are already experiencing melting permafrost, as stated "Climate models used in the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) consistently project widespread loss of permafrost in the future due to climate warming (Slater and Lawrence, 2013), though the earth system models that participated in the CMIP5 also project NHL terrestrial C uptake rather than losses due to warming (Ciais et al., 2013)" 14 stating that the carbon release from their permafrost is less than the HUGE carbon release that will happen in the Arctic if Arctic Tundra melts. So can current carbon release from currently melting permafrost and continuing gas emissions lead to the melting of Arctic tundra? Or will these added carbon release lead to more rapid melting of the ice sheets and lead to a more rapid estimation of raising sea levels. If so how long are the estimations that it will take to do this and more importantly how much are you willing to risk that these estimations are accurate?
https://www.the-cryosphere.net/ is a PUBLIC database available online CLEARLY STATING CLIMATE WARMING by scientist.
Conclusions:
So why take the risk to major coastline cities of not only Antarctica but also Greenland ice sheets from falling if the technology already exists to slow down the process? Why let fishing communities affected by the currently increasing dead zones in the oceans? Calculate how many livelihoods and businesses have been affected already. Why put the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the east coast be at higher risk of stronger hurricanes after all its common sense if stronger hurricanes are a result of warmer oceans, I don't need a study to confirm hurricanes are getting stronger with climate change. Calculate how much it will cost you to withstand worsening hurricanes not only in human life but monetary as well. If the number of lives affected doesn't move you, then do the math...is it really cheaper to continue on gas and coal? Please create write a piece on why climate change the world can wait and take on these risks. Please add models reflecting possible methane hydrate feedback loops that I did not even mention above and compare with the ones you have now. If carbon capture is used please dispose CaCO3 in an appropriate manner either as concrete building blocks or compost. 15 In the natural carbon cycle in the ocean carbon dioxide can be converted to calcium bicarbonate by a series of ecosystems, if this conversion can be mimicked artificially calcium carbonate can be used to make concrete blocks or compost. 16. 17
Resources
1. https://www.climeworks.com/page/co2-removal
2. Texas Tech University. "Geologists Discover Magma And Carbon Dioxide Combine To Make ‘Soda-Pop’ Eruption." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 July 2008.
3. David S. Goldberg, Taro Takahashi, Angela L. Slagle Carbon dioxide sequestration in deep-sea basalt. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2008, 105 (29) 9920-9925; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0804397105 https://www.pnas.org/content/105/29/9920
4. Pirro Icka, Robert Damo 1 and Engjëllushe Icka 2 Paulownia Tomentosa, a Fast Growing Timber. Annals ”Valahia” University of Targoviste - Agriculture Volume 10: Issue 1 Department of Agronomy, University Fan S. Noli, Korçë, Albania University Nehemiah Gateway Albania, Pogradec, Albania DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/agr-2016- 0003 | Published online: 27 Oct 2016 https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/agr/10/1/article-p14.xml
5. A Sumiahadi1,2 and R Acar3 A review of phytoremediation technology: heavy metals uptake by plants. Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey 2Dept. of Agrotechnology, Muhammadiyah University of Jakarta, Indonesia 3Dept. of Field Crops, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey. IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 142 (2018) 012023 doi :10.1088/1755-1315/142/1/012023 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/142/1/012023/pdf?fb...
6. Bieby Voijant Tangahu,1 Siti Rozaimah Sheikh Abdullah,2 Hassan Basri,1 Mushrifah Idris,3 Nurina Anuar,2 and Muhammad Mukhlisin1. A Review on Heavy Metals (As, Pb, and Hg) Uptake by Plants through Phytoremediation. Copyright © 2011 Bieby Voijant Tangahu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. International Journal of Chemical Engineering Volume 2011, Article ID 939161, 31 pages doi:10.1155/2011/939161 https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijce/2011/939161/
7. Howard Jenny. National Geographic ENVIRONMENTPLANET OR PLASTIC? These corals choose to eat plastic over food. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/these-corals-choo...
8. Hall, N.M., Berry, K.L.E., Rintoul, L. et al. Microplastic ingestion by scleractinian corals. Mar Biol 162, 725–732 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-015-2619-7
9. Bowden-Kerby, Austin Low-tech coral reef restoration methods modeled after natural fragmentation processes Bulletin of Marine Science, Volume 69, Number 2, September 2001, pp. 915-931(17) University of Miami - Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/umrsmas/bullmar/2001/00000069/000... /art00052
10. Murat M. Kunelbayev1 § , Emil Sh. Gaysin2 , Vladimir V. Repin3 , Marat M. Galiullin4 , Karina N. Abdrakhmanova5 International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Volume 115 No. 3 2017, 561-575 ISSN: 1311-8080 (printed version); ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version) url: http://www.ijpam.eu doi: 10.12732/ijpam.v115i3.10 https://ijpam.eu/contents/2017-115-3/10/10.pdf
11. Fateme Ahmadi Boyaghchia Mansoure Chavoshia Vajiheh Sabetib Optimization of a novel combined cooling, heating and power cycle driven by geothermal and solar energies using the water/CuO (copper oxide) nanofluid. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2015.08.082
12. Copper Development Association Inc. https://www.copper.org/applications/plumbing/apps/dx_gt_htg_clng.html
13. L. Alegret,S, Ortiz,E. Molina. Extinction and recovery of benthic foraminifera across the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum at the Alamedilla section (Southern Spain).
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Elsevier Volume 279, Issues 3–4, 15 August 2009, Pages 186-200 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.05.009
14. Nicholas C. Parazoo, Charles D. Koven, David M. Lawrence, Vladimir Romanovsky, and Charles E. Miller. Detecting the permafrost carbon feedback: talik formation and increased cold-season respiration as precursors to sink-to-source transitions. The Cryosphere, 12, 123–144, 2018 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-123-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
15. Breslin, V.T. Degradation of Starch–Calcium Carbonate Disposable Packaging in a Solid Waste Composting Facility. Journal of Polymers and the Environment 6, 9–21 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022822427764
16. David Biello. Cement from CO2: A Concrete Cure for Global Warming? Scientific American August 7, 2008 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cement-from-carbon-dioxide/
17. Breslin, V.T. Degradation of Starch–Calcium Carbonate Disposable Packaging in a Solid Waste Composting Facility. Journal of Polymers and the Environment 6, 9–21 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022822427764