Enhanced Rock Weathering for CO2 Removal [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr4A7PKCHAw

by verdverm • 4 years ago

71 55 4 years ago

wiz21c• 4 years ago

So we don't get out of the problem: no silver bullet and a need to dedicate effort and money into stuff that doesn't contribute to economical growth. So the challenge remains open: how do we replace a bit of the economical growth mindset by environmental protection mindset; how do we think at world scale instead of solution scale.

I personally would love to be part of the new mind set and I'm fully ready to live in its with all the consequences which basically means, for me who am on the wealthy side : live with less.

ly3xqhl8g9• 4 years ago

One way of 'improving the system while keeping the system' would be to simply place the "economical growth mindset" into the "environmental protection mindset" with something like "CO2 Coin: Decentralized Carbon Capture Blockchains" [1].

I am not sure you, an individual, even if you have a private jet using it twice daily for nonsense trips, make much of a difference. At this point isn't the "personal responsibility policy" pretty much clearly BP, Shell and co. propaganda from the 1970s [2]? Certainly, it was perfectly depicted in Verhoeven's masterpiece "I'm doing my part" [3].

Perhaps a better inclination, energy wise, it to actually increase the consumption: the Sun is still hitting Terra in every hour with 430 quintillion (10^18) Joules of energy while "the annual global energy consumption is estimated to 580 quintillion Joules" [4]. Pretty much in 2 hours we should have all the energy required for a year of consumption, we just have primitive infrastructure and primitive brains continuing to take primitive decisions such as burning dead dinosaurs.

[1] https://www.gwern.net/CO2-Coin

[2] https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sh...

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_7FaWnlhS4

[4] https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/climate-change/ene...

simfoo• 4 years ago

Personally, I think the mindset we need here is one we know from war times: attack the problem like you would if you were defending your country against a massive enemy force.

That would mean (among many other things):

- important industries are put under government control (energy, chemical, agriculture etc)

- suspend the legal system where it slows down your defense (e.g. no more nimby litigation possible against wind/solar farms)

- manage everything top down (but transparent)

- put up a wealth tax to finance the efforts

I guess this is very unpopular to many, but I genuinely believe a concerted war-like effort coordinated with as many other countries as possible is our only hope to fix things now.

lelag4• 4 years ago

I think there a comparatively simple measure that would work just as well: just price the externality of using fossil fuels directly by introducing a carbon tax at the source, that is levied by the fossil fuels companies and baked in the raw ressources.

Start with a reasonably low tax so that you don't suddenly tank the economy and announce mandatory annual increase of x% in that tax and watch the problem solves itself.

By knowing in advance when fossil fuel stop making economic senses, users will have to plan for switching to renewable alternatives.

Also, use the carbon tax money to fund massive CO2 removal projects.

I feel it would be a pretty simple and effective solution which is not going to be implemented because it would need to be implemented worldwide and developing countries don't want to be told that there will be burden imposed on them than the west did not have in their time.

the_third_wave3• 4 years ago

So who is going to write the 5-year plans, who gets to set the goals, who will decide what gets produced where? GOSPlan [1] never managed to get this right, why do you think it would work this time?

History is there to be learned from. Planned economies do not work, they are inefficient and a breeding ground for corruption. Also, rest assured that there will be no wind turbines or solar farms around the dacha's of the party elite.

Read The GULAG Archipelago or The First Circle for some more insight in the dark side of your proposed "solution" and realise this has been tried - and failed, miserably and horribly - many times over.

[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/economic-planning/Economic-...

akie• 4 years ago

I am firmly convinced we need a "War on Climate Change".

weberer• 4 years ago

Implement fascism to fight climate change

...or we could just build more nuclear plants?

verdverm5• 4 years ago

Many people do not agree that climate change is going to wipe everything out in the next few years. If we are smart about it, we can fix our mistakes. Think of LA in the 70s and the invention of the catalytic converter. Human ingenuity can solve this better than being barbaric with our policies.

ZeroGravitas4• 4 years ago

First rule of holes:

When you are in a hole stop digging.

The basic problem is that externalities are not priced in. We are actively paying people to do things we don't want them to do.

That's the only real fix needed. And it would immediately make everyone much richer, because we'd be paying people to do stuff we want instead.

Which leads us to the second problem. We apparently have a society where doing things that make everyone richer can be prevented quite easily as long as a small group profits at everyone else's expense.

piva00• 4 years ago

We apparently have a society where doing things that make everyone richer can be prevented quite easily as long as a small group profits at everyone else's expense.

A tale as old as time. The Roman Republic went through the same issue, more than 2000 years ago, with all the unrest you'd expect when a class of rich people enrich themselves even more to the complete detriment of the rest of society.

winReInstall• 4 years ago

It needs to become a status symbol. Like a car or a dr. title. Something that society by convention is forced to recognize.

hackeraccount• 4 years ago

Living with less would mean going without things that are at a level of want that is indistinguishable from need. People aren't going to do that. They'll give up things that they don't actually want.

eneas2• 4 years ago

Problem: Farmers don't want an arbitrary amount calcium ions in their soils.

eneas2• 4 years ago

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030442382...

unlikelymordant3• 4 years ago

Farmers already put loads of lime and dolomite on soils to provide calcium. They do it to raise ph, but basalt does that too.

blueflow2• 4 years ago

Its not exactly on-topic, but i had an odd idea last night:

Surface mining (like for coal) pits are often filled with water after use. Would turning them into a dead zone/a bog be sensible to sequester carbon? Could we do the same to larger seas? This could also create peat or brown coal for future generations.

Is that a bad idea? And why?

NohatCoder2• 4 years ago

Cost and difficulty versus capture gains probably makes this unfeasible. Making a bog where no bog occurs naturally could be practically impossible.

blueflow2• 4 years ago

"Cost" - a truckload of fertilizer? Turning a lake into a dead zone might happen on its own if there is insufficient circulation. Pits for brown coal are likely suitable because they used to be bogs in the past.

almostdigital• 4 years ago

Another interesting idea: Drop asteroid pieces from space into the ocean to increase biomass growth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zQb_OitsaY

t_mann• 4 years ago

Climate change is easily the biggest impact a single human can have on improving the world today. Unfortunately the economics don't always work out, but with the same amount that Musk offered to buy Twitter we should be able to fund a pretty massive Manhattan project for CO2 removal.

unlikelymordant3• 4 years ago

Musk has put 100million (i think that was the number?) Toward the carbon removal xprize, which is a good start.

leesec• 4 years ago

He also started the most successful electric vehicle car company spurring on the rest of the auto industry to electrify.

verdverm5• 4 years ago

The US government has way more money than that. Imagine if we could find peace... we'd have trillions of dollars to spend on solutions. We (the world) have already sent more money and aid to Ukraine than Musk bid on Twitter.

twic• 4 years ago

Especially if the single human has a lot of ants:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ants-may-boost-co...

Enhanced Rock Weathering for CO2 Removal [video]

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