Since I am not a scientist, I don't know all of the technical details behind this...but doesn't it make sense for scientists and politicians to spend time trying to resolve the problem? If an increase in CO2 is the problem, why can't the government just get together with some really smart scientists and invent some machine that would convert a portion of the increased CO2 into something useful?
CO2 is released as part of an exothermic (energy-yielding) reaction. Thus, to turn it into something else would take more energy than you got originally by burning it. So the only way that can be done is to cause plant life to use free solar power to soak it up. I have seen one serious proposal (besides planting trees), and that is to seed the oceans with iron to promote algea blooms, which could soak up enormous amounts of CO2. The side-effects of that are hard to predict, though.
A lot of really smart scientists are working on this problem right now. As mentioned above a company (actually two now I think) - Planktos (?) is studying the effects of dumping iron into the ocean to boost photosynthesis. The geophysics community is also involved in something called carbon sequestration - this is the process of putting CO2 back into the earth. One of the most promising methods they're looking at is pumping CO2 down oil wells - it pushes more oil out of the well, and seals CO2 in the well. You can help these efforts, of course, by making it clear to your congressperson that this is an important issue to you (and trust me, it counts, the government is one of the main funders of geophysical research of this type).
Originally posted by bs123456: Since I am not a scientist, I don't know all of the technical details behind this...but doesn't it make sense for scientists and politicians to spend time trying to resolve the problem? If an increase in CO2 is the problem, why can't the government just get together with some really smart scientists and invent some machine that would convert a portion of the increased CO2 into something useful?
If only it were that easy. Scientists and politicians are already working on ways to stop global warming. However, it seems very unlikely they will come up a simple solution like a "Miracle Carbon Converter." I mean, that would be a little too good to be true, right?
There is nothing you can do to stop global warming. It is a climatic change that occurs naturally. You can have businesses spend millions of dollars to cut the output of CO2 and it will do nothing other then send more of our jobs overseas where they don’t have such restrictions. I was able to dig up this article from oxford http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/91/7/905 in which they found that introducing more CO2 to a plant increases growth. We all know that the bigger the plant, the more CO2 it can absorb.
So it looks like nature has a way of taking care of itself. If you want to buy that new SUV or drive to your next vacation, plant a tree.
There have been warming periods and cooling periods we are going through a warming period. It is only a warming trend, and then it will cool down again. True c02 has risen a some, it should be with all our cars, but that gets canceled out by other factors. And another reason the temps are rising is just a recovery from a little ice age in the 1700’s. The media always tries to corrupt people by making it a lot worse than it is just so you watch them more often and they make more money. And the only reason al gore does this is for political gain.
I'm not a scientist either, but a family member is and converts all the technical talk I cannot understand into plain English.
The CO2 issue is way overblown and is nothing more than another scare tactic. Points. The biggest greenhouse gas? Water vapor. Why does CO2 increase? Because methane, mostly from lakes, oceans, etc, rises and causes a CO2 conversion in the atmosphere. As of now, CO2 is about 325 parts per million. Approx. 50 million years ago it reached 4000 PPM and wiped out most life forms on earth. Who was responsible for that CO2 increase, which was considerably larger than what it is now?
A recent newspaper article here in South Africa suggested a possible benefit of global warming. It would delay the onset of the next ice age, possibly even more detrimental than global warming. On a different note, an increase in the CO2 content in the atmosphere has lead to an increase in CO2 fertilization of plants. This means that there are far more trees growing than grass. In the future this could lead to a decrease in grazing for live stock.
invent some machine that would convert a portion of the increased CO2 into something useful?
This possibility of attaining self sufficiency in liquid fuels, as envisioned by Michael Briggs of the University of New Hampshire Biodiesel Group, has been brought a giant step foreword by the developments of GreenFuels Technology Corporation of Cambridge, MA.
GreenFuel's algae bioreactor system produces high-quality clean air biofuels™ from algae grown using smokestack emissions. The company claims that the fuels prices are competitive with conventional fossil fuel products. Biofuels are produced at the same time that emissions are being decreased. Using smokestack emissions as its feedstock, a site-configurable GreenFuel installation grows a year-round 'cash crop' of commercial grade algae. At the same time the process reduces the NOx by up to 86% and the CO2 by 90% of the smokestack emissions (2)
well you must not have heard of the best co2 coverter nature has given toyou, plants and trees, the dont cost and there is no limit to their numbers. ..................... mark osborn [URL=http://www.goinggreenbuzz.com ]http://www.goinggreenbuzz.com [/URL]
Because in Doctor Who they tried to kill everyone. lol
But I would think the best thing to do is have lots and lots of algae and small plants and trees that don't give out more CO2 than they take in when they have matured.
