By Haddon Libby
The wave of fires in and around Los Angeles is yet another sign of climate change. Experts are concluding that strict adherence to the 2016 Paris Climate Accord is unlikely to make enough of a difference to reverse the current trajectory of the planet we call home.
If the planet stays on its dirty path, scientists believe that our planet will begin to die around 2100. With such a gloomy outlook, human ingenuity is looking to ways to help heal our world. Here are three ways that can help clean our water and air and reduce temperatures.
Earth
Nazi scientist Hermann Oberth was the first person to discuss the concept of space mirrors. His idea was to use the mirrors to warm or cool regions of the Earth by redirecting the light to certain areas or reflecting it away from Earth. I wonder if he was really thinking of a space-based Death Ray as part of his design.
In 2022, Dr. Olivia Borgue and Dr. Andreas Hein proposed creating a sunshade in orbit. The scientific team believes that it would take 4,000 SpaceX flights to move the polymeric films and nanotubes into position. At present, the cost of a launch can be as much as $97 million each or nearly $400 billion.
Another MIT group came up with the concept of creating ‘space bubbles’ in space in order to reduce the number of trips to space to create the sunshield. This idea relies on creating the bubbles in space from silicon. Scientist Carlo Ratti believes that a reflection of 1.8% of the sun’s rays would reverse climate change.
Wind
Greenhouse gases are a key reason that Earth is warming. The primary cause of greenhouse gases is the burning of fossil fuels. Other causes of greenhouse gases are the creation of electricity and the production of animals for food.
As things stand now, humans produce 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year. How do we bring this down to a zero or negative number?
Carbon recapture
Climeworks, a Swiss company, currently operates a carbon capture machine in Iceland. What happens is that the 10’ by 20’ machine has a chemical filter that captures CO2 and pumps it 2,000 feet underground. Once deep in the Earth, the gas interacts with basalt rock and becomes an inert solid mineral.
Powered by excess heat from an Icelandic geothermal plant, one Climeworks machine pulls 50 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. At present, the cost to pull one ton of CO2 from the air is $1,000 meaning that the cost of this solution would be $37 trillion annually. For comparison, the Gross Domestic Product of all countries in the world is approximately $94 trillion.
Water
With so much plastic in the ocean, potentially dangerous microplastics are polluting our bodies. Microplastics in the human body have been linked with a variety of health issues from cancer to lower fertility rates.
In 2018, researchers from the University of Tel Aviv found a way to use a microorganism that feeds on plastic and creates seaweed that can be processed into bioplastics. That microorganism then helps grow the seaweed population that is cultivated to make a bioplastic that is more earth-friendly when degrading. These microorganisms create a natural polymer called PHA for short. These PHA can then be used as a replacement for plastic.
There are more ideas on how to clean the Earth relatively quickly. A hope is that advances from Generative AI and Quantum computing will help scientists to refine these ideas and others so that humankind can help the Earth heal.
Haddon Libby is the Founder of Winslow Drake Investment Management, a Fiduciary RIA. To find out more about our services, please visit www.WinslowDrake.com.
