In the last thirty years our planet has become subjected to various pollutants that has harmed our environment and negatively affected our general health. One of the main pollutants and leading cause to global warming is carbon dioxide. I have researched and found a national geographic article that has a solution to cleaning up carbon dioxide emissions in our atmosphere. I will explain how this toxic gas affects our planet negatively and why we need to control and/or eliminate it from our planet.
The National Geographic article is titled "Scrubbing the Skies[1]." It's located in the August 2010 edition and is found on pages 30-32. This article explains that roughly a third of carbon dioxide emissions come from cars, planes, and other vehicles. Millions of dollars are being spent on research to make our cars and jets operate without having the need to emit pollution. Pulling carbon dioxide out of the air may be a much easier solution than trying to engineer a car or jet to not emit the toxic gas.
Most of you have heard at some time or another that burning certain things such as plastics is bad. Have you ever wondered why it's bad? In the Journal of Geophysical Research[2], an article explains the following:
· * Carbon dioxide gas is the most contributing pollutant to global warming.
· * It is estimated that eliminating bio-fuel carbon dioxide over 100 years would reduce temperatures approximately .05-.1 degrees Kelvin (see chart below).
The study in the article examined the effects of eliminating specific pollutants. In the chart below, FS stands for Fossil-fuel soot and FSBSG stands for fossil-fuel plus bio-fuel soot and gases. Looking at the carbon dioxide, the two lines surrounding the text shows that the temperature may decrease from at least 1 to at most 1.5 K.
Earth's pollution is gradually warming the planet. It's creating a pollution layer that traps in heat that needs to escape our atmosphere and into space. To better illustrate how carbon dioxide is essentially contributing to global warming, please view the image below and on the left. Note that greenhouse gases primarily consist of water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and most importantly, carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide absorbs primarily the Earth's infrared radiation and reemits it into the air. The reason for why retained heat should be avoided is so that we preserve the Arctic ice around the North Pole. If the Arctic ice were to melt, I'd have to write a whole new report on the negative outcomes that would come from it. The Journal of Climate[4] identifies that the rate of warming increased strongly in recent decades with exceptionally high temperatures reaching 1.72 °C in 2003, 2.11 °C in 2005, and 2.18 °C in 2007. These are the warmest recorded years in the history of instrumental observations! The illustration below is from NASA[5] and depicts the changing of the diminishing ice around the North Pole over the last 21 years. Since pollution is gradually increasing with time, the greenhouse gas layer continues to grow and the heat retained in the earth’s atmosphere is slowly melting away the ice at our earth’s poles.
The Solution:
In order to mitigate the problems associated with global warming and the melting of the ice caps, pollution needs to be controlled, and if possible completely removed. The National Geographic article illustrates new technology being developed called scrubbers. Scrubbers can capture approximately 1000 times the amount of carbon dioxide than that of an average tree. The technology & chemistry is similar to what is used already on space crafts and submarines. Once the carbon dioxide is captured we have a couple options with what to do with it. The quickest approach involving the least amount of energy is to compact it into a liquid form and dispose of it. Current considerations are being made for areas below the earth's crust. Additional research needs to be performed to identify the practicality of this approach and whether or not it's feasible. The three areas identified are: 1) oil reservoirs, 2) the saline aquifer layer, and 3) the volcanic basalt layer of the earth. Another approach is to add hydrogen to the captured carbon dioxide and convert it back into liquid hydrocarbons.
It's best to find a way to reuse or convert the elements captured from the carbon dioxide gas in the environment. This will save billions in drilling to dispose of the waste and not to mention the fact that once we run out of room to store it, we're out of options. The earth can be a much cleaner place to live once we start taking the measures necessary to reduce emitted pollutants and clean up the damage already done in our atmosphere.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, we have identified carbon dioxide as the main contributing pollutant to global warming. Documented research has proven that the atmospheric temperatures have increased dramatically over the past decade and has resulted in the melting of the ice around the North Pole. By reducing and eliminating the greenhouse gas layer we can gradually lower our planet’s retained heat and prevent Arctic ice from melting. Buildings have been designed to rapidly capture large amounts of carbon dioxide out of the air. The proposal of capturing and disposing carbon dioxide waste is costly and not very sustainable. The better and more practical approach is to convert the carbon dioxide into a reusable product such as formic acid using hydrogen as the means to do such.
With time, and with the help of technology such as scrubbers, we can return the earth to its natural and pure state to enjoy fresh, clean air everywhere we go.
Sources:
Images captured from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Wikipedia, and National Geographic.
[1] Kunzig, R., (2010) Scrubbing the Skies. National Geographic, Retrieved September 11, 2010, Website: http://sfx.lib.byu.edu.erl.lib.byu.edu/sfxlcl3?genre=article;isbn=;issn=00279358;title=National%20Geographic;volume=218;issue=2;date=20100801;atitle=Scrubbing%20the%20Skies.;aulast=Kunzig,%20Robert;spage=30;pages=30-32;sid=EBSCO:Academic%20Search%20Premier;pid=
[2] Jacobson, M.. (2010). Short-term effects of controlling fossil-fuel soot, biofuel soot and gases, and methane on climate, Arctic ice, and air pollution health. Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres, 115(D14), Retrieved September 11, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 2134027531).
[3] The green house effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_green_house_effect.svg
[4] Bekryaev, R., Polyakov, I., & Alexeev, V. (2010). Role of Polar Amplification in Long-Term Surface Air Temperature Variations and Modern Arctic Warming. Journal of Climate, 23(14), 3888-3892,3894,3896-3899,3901-3906. Retrieved September 11, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 2125403031).
[5]Global Warming Puts the Arctic on Thin Ice: http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/qthinice.asp
[6] Mikkelsen M., Jorgensen, M., & Krebs, F. (2009). The teraton challenge. A review of fixation and transformation of carbon dioxide. Energy & Environmental Science, Retrieved September 11, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 10.1039/b912904a)
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