Reduce solar radiation geo-engineering
the whole planet is constantly warming, and therefore people panic, scientists had to start head, design a series of large-scale intervention in the Earth’s artificial solutions to environmental and climate systems, this is the Earth works.
At present, scientists have proposed dozens of geoengineering projects, all of which are creative and exciting, but many are not feasible. For example, the idea of installing huge mirrors in space to reflect sunlight is indeed a good idea. We have the International Space Station, the Mars rover, and about 8,000 man-made objects orbiting the Earth, so the idea of installing a reflector in space is not so far-fetched.
But it is estimated that we must launch trillions of mirrors into space to form a awning with a diameter of 160,000 kilometers in order to truly cool the earth, which may take tens of thousands of years of human time. Therefore, the scheme of launching a reflector into space is too sci-fi and is not realistic.
Another option is to cover the desert with reflective plastic. Although this can cool the earth, it needs a large number of cleaners to maintain its operation, and white pollution will only make the earth’s environment worse … Scientists think about it and weigh the advantages and disadvantages to find that weathering of rocks may Is the only more sensible and feasible method at this stage.
Or fly rock weathering
and reduce solar radiation geoengineering different, the purpose is to remove the rock weathering atmospheric carbon dioxide, the principle is very simple, is to let containing silicate (such as calcium silicate, magnesium silicate, or Iron) rocks react with the air to transfer the carbon in the carbon dioxide contained in the atmosphere to stable compounds, and then the weathered products gradually flow into the ocean with rain or soil movement to achieve the purpose of removing carbon. Moreover, the weathering products of rocks are more alkaline, which can also delay ocean acidification.
In 2011, a mining company in Tanzania conducted a rock weathering experiment using olivine. Workers grinded olivine containing calcium silicate and magnesium silicate into powder and put it into the farmland. They found that olivine’s carbon fixation effect is very good. During the weathering process, one ton of olivine powder can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide on average.
However, because olivine contains heavy metals such as manganese, nickel, and cobalt, if people mine olivine in large quantities and use it for geoengineering, it may cause heavy metal ions to flow into groundwater or the food chain. As a result, scientists thought of replacing olivine with basalt. Although the former’s carbon removal capacity is not as good as the latter (which can absorb 1 ton of carbon dioxide per 3 tons of basalt), its main metal components are relatively harmless aluminum, iron, and calcium. , Magnesium, potassium, sodium, and rich in phosphorus, an important element that can promote plant growth.
Scientists predict that if basalt powder is sprayed on farmland around the world to replace the currently widely used soil additive, limestone powder, humans can remove 500 million to 4 billion tons of carbon each year.
Of course, if this solution is implemented globally, it also means that people must extract a large amount of basalt. But scientists have found that people can also extract them from industrial waste, and basalt powder in buildings and sugar cane ash in sugar factories can be used as raw materials. In addition, people do not need to spray basalt powder everywhere in the world. These rock powders only need to be put into farmland in specific regions, such as China, India, Europe, the United States, and Russia, because these regions have the highest agricultural standards and farmland It is the most dense and happens to be the place where carbon dioxide pollution is the worst.
At present, British scientists have tested this scheme on farmland in England, and it may be the first geoengineering project to be implemented by humans.
