Global Warming Could Become a Thing of the Past

Throwing large quantities of carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere has become for some time a usual practice. Concerned about the increasing levels and the visible effects of global warming, scientists started thinking ways to remove large quantities of carbon dioxide as well.

Nature through natural sinks absorbs about 44 percent of the carbon dioxide eliminated into the atmosphere by man. Fifty years ago, the absorption level was higher, about 50 percent, meaning that for the entire mass of greenhouse gas eliminated in the atmosphere half of that was being cycled by nature. Natural sinks are represented by large surfaces of water and the terrestrial vegetation that uses carbon dioxide for its photosynthesis process.

But global warming triggered a process of heating that led to droughts, so plants would not grow at the same rate, and also a disturbance in the water cycle inside the oceans, which prevents the water to mix itself properly so it can absorb more carbon dioxide.

This new proposal to remove carbon dioxide from the air, unlike other separation processes, involves the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and placing it in the oceans for storage; it does not make the oceans more acid and the coral reefs may benefit from it.

The technique is used to selectively remove acid from the oceans in such a way that it will turn around the whole clime and stop global warming from accelerating. In natural silicate weathering, carbon dioxide dissolves in fresh water, and creates a weak carbonic acid. As the water seeps through the ground, the acid is converted by mild chemical reactions into a solution of alkaline carbonate salts, which will eventually find its way to the ocean and increase its alkalinity as well.

Alkaline solutions, therefore an alkaline ocean, can better hold dissolved carbon. More weathering will ultimately result in more carbon being transferred into the ocean for storage, to become part of the bottom sediments.

To apply this simple plan, scientists could swap the mild carbonic acid with a stronger one, such as hydrochloric acid, to accelerate the removal rates, thus removing the excess of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in a mater of decades.

The potential environmental impact of the use of hydrochloric acid can be minimized by combining the acid removal with silicate rock weathering, counteracting at the same time the acidification process of the ocean and will probably be adapted to operate in remote areas on natural gas.