The Problem

Global Warming seems simple enough, and when you get used to the idea, not so bad. What are a few degrees increase in average temperature compared to recession, lack of jobs, terrorism and other important issues. Right? Wrong! Consider the following problems that come with Global Warming.

• Because the ocean’s surface temperature is increasing and hurricane strength depends on ocean surface temperature, severe hurricanes (such as Katrina and Sandy) will increase in strength and frequency, even though the total number of hurricanes may be reduced. Also, severe tornados will increase in frequency and strength. Each severe hurricane and tornado will cause enough damage to use up a significant portion of the nation’s gross national product in recovery and repairs. Eventually, the nation as a whole and the areas affected will no longer be able to afford the continued losses and some living spaces will have to be abandoned. Here we must ask, can we afford to abandon large areas of the east and gulf coasts of the US? Some of these endangered areas encompass a few of the most important cities of the US such as New York, Boston, New Orleans, etc.
• The melted ice will raise the mean sea level and low-lying land will be submerged. If so, some of the most important and valuable real estate in the world will be submerged, such as the east, south and gulf coasts of the US, lowland Holland, Bangladesh, etc. The rising sea level makes hurricane damage due to surge worse as well. Also, important are the well-used aquifers near the edge of the oceans that will become salty and unusable.
• The oceans will warm and spread. This will kill many reefs in the ocean and damage cypress forests on the edge of the ocean where fish breed, with a resulting loss of fish and reef production.
• Carbon dioxide is being dissolved in the ocean and this process acidifies it. As the ocean becomes more acid due to the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it becomes more hostile to the growth of fish, shellfish, and reefs, and thus reduces ocean food production.
• As the earth warms, the climate zones will move north in the northern hemisphere (and south in the southern hemisphere), and some old fertile agriculture zones will dry up and some new zones will be made waterlogged. Some believe that there will be a net loss of productive agricultural area. Others believe there will be a net gain. Certainly there will be a net loss in food production close to the equator where the seasons will become less pronounced and so agriculture will become less productive. It is not possible to farm if the farmer can’t tell when the rainy season begins. Also food production and population in southern California will be reduced because it is one of the areas that will dry up. 
• The warming of the ocean and the influx of fresh water in the arctic areas will reduce the strength of the ocean circulation currents. If the warming of the ocean and the release of fresh water from melting ice is sufficient, the circulation of the ocean will shut down. This has a catastrophic impact on the ability of the oceans to produce food because the circulation carries nutrients as well as heat around the ocean. Thus it interrupts the operation of the ocean’s normal food chain. If the food chain is interrupted, plankton production, the base of the food chain and one of the most important carbon dioxide users, will be drastically reduced; so more carbon dioxide will remain in the atmosphere. The impact of a circulation shutdown also spills over onto the land by changing weather patterns that are determined by coastal air (and thus water) temperature and humidity, and this reduces the ability of the land to produce food.
• The permafrost layer in the arctic is melting. This melting will cause the vegetation frozen in this layer to decompose and emit the greenhouse gasses methane and carbon dioxide. These emissions will then raise the earth’s temperature above that caused by mankind’s carbon dioxide emission, and continue to raise it even if mankind’s contribution ceases until the permafrost layer has decayed. This increase will make the other bad effects mentioned here even worse.

This is only a partial list of the negative effects expected from global warming if nothing is done to stop it. However, this list catalogues a trend. The living area for mankind is being reduced in size and habitability by an increase in the power and frequency of storms created by Global Warming. Also, the growing area for the food that sustains mankind and other plants and animals is being reduced in size and productivity by Global Warming. Finally, Global Warming, although initially triggered by mankind’s use of fossil fuels, is increasingly being dominated by natural sources of greenhouse gasses that result from this trigger. This is called runaway warming. Thus Global warming is getting out of the control of mankind in his efforts to reduce fossil fuel use. And the population is still increasing. Something new must be done to solve this problem, or the earth will not be able to maintain the population and standard of living of mankind. Furthermore, that something must be done quickly before the melting permafrost source of greenhouse gasses becomes so large that it dominates emission and runaway warming occurs. There is a solution available, however. Let us investigate our options.

 

The Solution

Several solutions to this problem have been proposed, but only one appears practical. We will consider all the known proposals and highlight the practical one. Carbon dioxide and methane are being pumped into the atmosphere primarily by fossil fuel combustion, vegetation decay (especially from melting permafrost), forest clearing, and volcanic emissions. Carbon dioxide is being removed from the atmosphere primarily by plankton growth, forest growth and dissolution in the ocean. The competition between these two processes leaves a net emission rate of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Clearly this emission rate is too high because the amount of carbon dioxide is increasing. The solution to this problem is to sequester carbon dioxide at a rate somewhat greater than this net emission rate. The excess sequestration capacity will be used to bring the carbon dioxide concentration down to the value that restores the earth to the conditions best suited for ecological balance and thus reduce storm strength and frequency and increase the size and productivity of the growing area for the food that sustains mankind and other plants and animals. In addition, cooling the surface layer of the ocean in strategic spots with cold water from below the thermo cline can directly reduce the strength and frequency of storms

 

There are only five places to sequester such large amounts of carbon dioxide.

1. Freeze and package the carbon dioxide and sink it to the bottom of the oceans where it will remain until it is sub ducted some millions of years in the future. There is no known limit to the amount of sequestration possible with this method.
2. Pump it into the ground where it remains trapped between rock layers and particles. This method is limited by the number of suitable sites and leakage to the surface.
3. Convert it to surface rock such as cement rock or limestone.
4. Stimulate the growth of plankton, which will convert it to limestone (in its shells) and sink it to the bottom of the ocean where it will remain until sub ducted some millions of years in the future. Note that eventually, it will come to the surface through volcanoes after sub duction. This is the most important of the natural sequestration processes that has been happening through the years, and there is no known limit to the amount of sequestration possible by this method.
5. Reforest areas on earth that have been deforested. This is the other important natural sequestration process that has been happening in the past, but the area amenable to forest growth limits the amount of sequestration possible.

 

Now let us investigate the practicality of each of the above sequestration processes.

• Number 5 is impractical because there is not enough area capable of reforestation to cover all the carbon that has been and currently is being emitted, and humans are currently using much of the area available for reforestation. It is a desirable procedure, however, and should be pursued insofar as it is possible.
• Number 4 may be practical if the cost of the iron (and other nutrients) needed to fertilize the plankton growth is not too high. However, it will require fossil fuel energy (from coal which emits carbon dioxide) to obtain the iron from iron ore (which is also expensive), and so its sequestration efficiency is compromised. It will also require large numbers of ocean vessels (expensive) that do not require oil or supply vessels to operate in order to spread the iron over the large ocean areas needed to produce the necessary plankton growth. These vessels do not currently exist, but they can be provided-see Number 1 below.
• Number 3 is impractical because in order to obtain the materials needed to make the cement rock and/or limestone, it is necessary to mine the source rock (which requires fossil fuel energy and uses valuable source rock), then heat it (which requires fossil fuel energy and releases carbon dioxide in the process) and then transport (which requires fossil fuel energy) the resultant cement or limestone to a final storage place.  Thus more carbon dioxide is emitted than is sequestered in this process, and the procedure is expensive as well.
• Number 2 has potential, but only four new energy sources for pumping have the carbon free generation characteristics needed to sequester carbon dioxide: nuclear, solar, wind and deep thermal wells. Of these, nuclear has the necessary capacity, but is politically extremely unpopular and the time necessary to complete plants is prohibitive for this purpose. Solar and wind are limited in capacity by the cost and the suitable sites available. The necessary land sites for these energy sources are not available in sufficient quantity to cover the sequestration needed, and the cost of sequestration using these sources would be extremely high. Deep thermal wells appear practical because sequestration happens automatically while energy is being generated. Carbon dioxide is used as the heat transfer medium and some of it is lost in the deep rock formations while energy is generated from the deep heat sources. However, there do not appear to be enough practical sites with hot rock near the surface to cover all the sequestration required.
• Number 1 can do the job for a reasonable cost, and there does not appear to be a limit on the amount of carbon dioxide (and methane) that the deep ocean can receive. The method that can be used is as follows. Aquater2050 LLC is working on a program to place ocean based wind turbines, wave generators and solar cells on the high-energy areas (wind speed >15KN) of the oceans.  Such vessels would generate 100 to 400KW each in electrical energy. This energy can be used to freeze, package and sink carbon dioxide in the ocean. Calculations indicate that roughly 200 million vessels that harvest energy can operate profitably in the high-energy areas of the oceans, so the necessary sequestering capacity can be available. In addition, the world has a current need for jobs. Thus it is expected that these vessels will be built and sent to sea rapidly as soon as the prototype is finished and tested. Such vessels are non-polluting and relatively inexpensive ($100,000 for materials, and an equal amount for labor). The energy harvesting apparatus for all three energy types can be operated on one platform or vessel (called a SEMAN) to save capital expense, and each vessel will grow it’s own food and purify its own water to save operating expense. Thus a large number of SEMAN would be available for freezing and sequestering carbon dioxide, and the owner would already be on the ocean and be generating the necessary energy. Furthermore, the SEMAN could provide a means of directly reducing the strength and frequency of storms by cooling the surface layer of the ocean in strategic spots with cold water from below the thermocline. Note that most of the equipment needed for this task is normal equipment for a SEMAN. Note also that these SEMAN can also stimulate plankton growth if this method turns out to be practical. Calculations indicate that 200 million SEMAN can easily cover the current sequestering needs of the world plus provide clean energy for sale on land.

Thus we see that there is a practical means of sequestering the carbon dioxide produced by our civilization. However, this must be done rapidly to minimize the damage done by Global Warming and keep runaway warming from starting where permafrost decay overwhelms mankind’s contribution to warming.

 

Conclusions

It has been shown that the living area for mankind is being reduced in size and habitability by an increase in the power and frequency of storms caused by Global Warming. It has also been shown that the growing area for the food that sustains mankind and other plants and animals is being reduced in size and productivity by Global Warming. It has finally been shown that Global Warming, although initially triggered by mankind’s use of fossil fuels, is increasingly being dominated by natural sources of greenhouse gasses that result from this trigger. Thus Global warming is moving out of the control of mankind in its efforts to reduce fossil fuel use. Also, the population of earth is increasing. A new means of sequestering greenhouse gasses must be used to solve this problem, or the earth will not long be able to maintain the population and standard of living of mankind.

 

It has also been shown that a new means of sequestering greenhouse gasses is available to solve this problem. The greenhouse gasses carbon dioxide and methane can be sequestered at the bottom of the ocean, and there does not appear to be a limit on the amount of these gasses that the deep ocean can receive. The method that can be used is as follows. Aquater2050 LLC is working on a program to place ocean based wind turbines, wave generators and solar cells on the high-energy areas (wind speed >15KN) of the oceans.  Such vessels would generate 100 to 400KW each in electrical energy. This energy can be used to freeze, package and sink carbon dioxide in the ocean. Roughly 200 million vessels of this type would be sufficient to cover the current greenhouse gas emissions and start removing the current excess. Calculations indicate that roughly 200 million vessels that harvest energy can operate profitably in the high-energy areas of the oceans. In addition, the world has a current need for jobs. Thus it is expected that these vessels will be built and sent to sea rapidly as soon as the prototype is finished and tested, so they will be available for sequestration work. Such vessels are non-polluting and relatively inexpensive ($100,000 for materials, and an equal amount for labor). The energy harvesting apparatus for all three energy types can be operated on one platform or vessel (called a SEMAN) to save capital expense, and each vessel will grow it’s own food and purify its own water to save operating expense. Furthermore, the SEMAN can provide a means of directly reducing the strength and frequency of storms by cooling the surface layer of the ocean in strategic spots with cold water from below the thermo cline (see ap11 CLIMATE AND WEATHER CONTROL-June-this site). Note that most of the equipment needed for these tasks is normal equipment for a SEMAN. Note also that these SEMAN can also stimulate plankton growth if this stimulation turns out to be practical.

 

In summary, there is a critical need for climate and weather control. Furthermore, there is a practical means of control by sequestering the carbon dioxide produced by our civilization. In addition, there appears to be a means of directly reducing the strength and frequency of storms. This can be done by regulating the normal cycles of nature rather than fighting them. However, these means must be implemented rapidly to minimize the damage done by Global Warming and keep runaway warming from starting. In another paper (see ap11) this solution to climate and weather problems will be further detailed.

 

Notes

1. The design work for the SEMAN is done. The physical prototype SEMAN is nearly complete-see “SEMAN prototype”, this site, at the bottom of the home page.
2. To donate to help complete this prototype, click on “Add To Cart” on home page.