More than 200 scientists signed a letter calling for “responsible” research on trapping methods There is carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans that warms the planet. They want to take immediate action on the climate crisis, but they also want to make sure they don’t create new problems by relying on the oceans to combat it.
Pollutants destroyed the earth’s atmosphere with carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. This blanket of pollution is already warming the planet and causing more extreme weather events. One way to prevent climate change from worsening is to remove some of these historical emissions from the atmosphere.
The oceans are already doing this for us; absorbs and stores about 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere. What if humans could develop this ability?
This is something scientists want to better understand, with the side effects that can arise from tampering with the chemistry of our oceans. Startups are already developing new technologies to further absorb CO2 from the sea. However, the letter states that we still don’t know much about what impact this might have or what strategies might be most successful.
“While approaches to removing carbon dioxide from the ocean have enormous potential, there are risks,” the letter said. “The public does not yet know enough about its effectiveness or impact on making informed decisions about the use of a particular approach at scale.”
There are several ways to increase the ocean’s ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide. Some of these are natural, such as repairing coastal ecosystems that remove CO2 through photosynthesis. Other strategies are more technology oriented. Many startups in California have set up pilot plants to filter CO2 from the ocean, for example. The idea is that removing CO2 from the world’s oceans is released in a way that allows the oceans to absorb even more gas.
These are all fairly early attempts, and offshore hacking is no substitute for avoiding the build-up of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere by moving away from fossil fuels. Some environmentalists are also concerned that new CO2 filtration technologies are harming marine life.
Today’s letter calls for third-party verification of results, as well as controlled field trials to evaluate decarbonisation strategies. Measures to address any “undesirable or negative consequences” and inclusive policies to involve various stakeholders should also be put in place.
Some famous names from the field of climate and ecology have signed. This includes David King, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government from 2000 to 2007. The letter was signed by former NASA climate scientist James Hansen, who is known for warning the world about climate change in his speech to Congress in 1988.
The oceans are already severely affected by climate change. For example, a heatwave in the Atlantic this summer is destroying Florida’s coral reefs. Scientists are so concerned about the mass extinction of corals that they have rushed to store the corals in laboratories on land until they can be safely retrieved from the sea and returned to the water. As a result, what happens at sea also affects communities on land. Florida’s coral reefs provide significant protection against storm surges and are home to thousands of species important to the local economy.
“I’ve seen these huge dips in the health of the ocean… It’s basically unethical to do nothing,” said Deborah Iglesias-Rodriguez, UC Santa Barbara Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology Chair. she published the letter. Today.
When it comes to exploring new ways to use the oceans to combat climate change, she says: “We should at least identify the risks and benefits and see if we can help solve the problem we’ve created.” Source
Source: Port Altele
