Scientist Dr Wallace Broecker, the man who coined the term "global warming" in the seventies, has proposed a radical new idea to combat soaring CO2 emissions. At the Hay Literary Festival in Powys, Dr Broecker proposed the creation of giant artificial trees, or "carbon scrubbers" to pull CO2 from the air. 20 million of these constructions would be need to capture the CO2 emissions of the US alone. The scientist compared the logisitics of such as production to the manufacture of cars, if it was possible for the world to build 55 million cars a year; his plan was by no mean unrealistic. The 50ft tall, 8ft diameter plastic towers would be situated in desert areas of the planet, with 60 million of these at a cost of £303bn required to absorb the world's carbon emissions. Broecker, however, was not optimistic about the chances of world governments embracing the idea, emphasising the importance of getting rapidly developing countries such as India and Brazil behind the innovation.
Wallace Broeckner has been collaborating on another radical plan to cut the dangerous impact of CO2, which has been put forward by US scientists at the Columbia University in New York, led by physicist Klaus Lackner. The team have drawn up a plan for a CO2 extractor capable of sucking carbon dioxide from the air. They plan to build the prototype, small enough to fit in shipping container and capture a tonne of CO2 a day, within the next two years at a cost of £100,000. As with Broeckner's giant trees, the carbon dioxide captured would still need disposing of, although it is possible to convert the CO2 into minerals or have the gas pumped into greenhouse to increase plant growth. The quest to find an invention that will draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has been described as the holy grail of climate change, with Richard Branson promising $25m to anyone who succeeds in doing so.
Both Broeckner and Lackner have emphasised that such carbon scrubbers cannot single handedly save planet and are only a feasable option if used in conjunction with individual and worldwide and efforts to fight climate change. Broeckner expresses limited faith in the governments of the world's biggest polluters taking serious action against the threat of climate change. This supports the claims of some groups who believe that pressure must come from below for governments to act upon fears and that people must not give up on reducing their own carbon footprint due to lack of faith in government. Individuals must look towards renewable energy sources such as ground source heating to reduce their emissions.
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This post was written by Grace Simpson on June 3, 2008