Flash scheme: One of the ideas involves placing giant mirrors in space to reflect the Sun's rays away from Earth.
Credit: iStockphoto
MAN-MADE CLOUDS: Under this proposal, a fleet of 1,000 specially-designed ships would patrol the oceans, pumping out seawater vapour to fluff up clouds. Marine engineers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland calculate that the clouds could reflect up to two per cent of sunlight. If it works, this innovation could effectively export the trademark Scottish grey skies worldwide.
WHITEWASH: Ice and snow reflect up to 80 per cent of sunlight hitting the poles. Climate experts at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, argue that by painting roofs and roads white, and covering everything from deserts to oceans in reflective foil we could deflect sunlight. Cities would certainly look less colourful from the skies, and we'd probably all need to wear sunglasses more often.
ALGAL BLOOMS: Encouraging a population explosion of algae with iron or nitrogen fertiliser might sound unimpressive, but phytoplankton already absorbs half of the 29 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide produced by humans each year, in effect locking it up at the bottom of the oceans when they die. By feeding the masses with some iron ore dust, scientists at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, California, hope to boost plankton numbers and draw more carbon out of the atmosphere. However, it could have unpredictable effects on the complex oceanic food chain.
Liz Williams is a science writer based in Perth, WA.
Why would there be an agenda of suggesting all ways are wacky?
Contact between air and powder made from very abundant silicate rocks such as peridotite and dunite removes CO2 from air. A coal-fired electricity plant built on top of land that is made of peridotite or dunite, and dedicated to powdering it and dispersing it, would make itself and about seven other coal plants carbon-neutral.
Of course the power plant need not be coal-fired; it could be nuclear, and compensate for eight coal plants.
A demonstrated instance of large-scale artificial sequestration by such a method: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AGUFM.B33A1014W
--- G.R.L. Cowan ('How fire can be tamed')
nature does a good job with carbon sequestration
Why build a synthetic machine to deal with global warming when mother nature already has all the ways? Industrial Hemp can capture a lot of CO2... and maybe it can even work as a biofuel. But we have to cut carbon dioxide emissions completely anyway... it will be cleaner that way!
Veganism
How about something much simpler, less costly, and a lot more tasty like VEGANISM ??? Together, we can heal the planet in as few as sixty days, ladies and gentlemen.
Not so easy
Good idea - it would lead to a massive reduction in acreage used to feed cattle and the methane production from animals. But these animals we'd have to eat all of cattle and animals farmed for meat first; just letting them die off would trigger a massive spike in carbon into the air as their bodies decomposed.
One last meaty meal, anyone?
Don't put away the barbie just yet
A properly grazed pasture, using rotational grazing, actually increases the carbon content of the soil. If we stop corn production, improperly used for finishing cows and ethanol production here in the US, and convert all that we(USA) currently use for corn production into properly grazed pasture, we would save the world's co2 problem and have enough beef to feed all of Africa..
reflector
GIGANTIC MIRRORS: Six enormous tilting mirrors, each up to 2,000-kilometres-wide, or tens of thousands of foil-covered 'flying saucers' could be launched into space; either way experts at the University of Arizona in Tuscon, U.S., estimate we could deflect two per cent of the Sun's rays. That's enough to mitigate a year's worth of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions — and at just U.S.$3 trillion, it's a steal.
My car sun reflector is inside the windscreen and works well.
The tilting mirrors could be inside the atmosphere and work almost as well for a much smaller cost.
Build in the desert only 3 meters above the ground,horizontal during the day,vertical at night.
The ground would become so cold that water would condense from the night time air.People and plants could live there.Maintenance would be easier and cheaper than in space.Crops would earn money on the inexpensive desert land.
Global Warming?
Are you people serious? Now in its most recent period, the Earth has been warming for at least 12,500 years prior to our industrial age -- since the coldest point of the last ice age, to be precise.
GET OFF IT!
You have to teach the children and/or morons
First you have to use all the hair-brained Ideas and make our atmosphere about 22%oxygen. If you remove that much co2, most will see that it isn't working. Then you can show them how to think versus "I feel like it would help the planet."
Bring back Black and White
How about ceasing the whole process of colour printing for packaging and advertising, bring back black and white and some real artistic talent. How many resources would be freed up to go to areas that really need them, especially the water and electricity that is used to create the RUBBISH that just goes in the rubbish.
Kara Nina
wacky ways to curb global warming
it may be too late for anyone to read this
HAS ANYONE HEARD ABOUT THE CHEMTRAILS??
THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO REFLECT THE SUN'S RAYS AWAY
THE SPRAYS ARE ALUMINUM SILICATE AND BARIUM WHY THE LATTER I DO NOT KNOW
LOOK UP YOU WILL SEE MANY LINES USUALLY INTHE SOUTH
X'S CIRCLES AND CROSSHATCHING WHICH TURN INTO A HAZE THAT SPREADS ACROSS THE SKY
CHECK IT OUT MANY WEBPAGES ON THIS MAN MADE EVENT
MAY HAVE BEEN DEVISED BY OPPENHEIMER 15-20 YRS AGO
REV JOYCE