ALKA-SELTZER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

A slight caution: The scientists warn the plan is doable but expensive and there might be risks. So like you always tell yourself in the morning while you’re trying to tolerate the “roaring” of the alka-seltzer’s fizz, it would better not to create the problem to begin with.

This doctor’s advice: Treat the cause, not the symptom.

Scientists Enhance Mother Nature’s Carbon Handling Mechanism
November 8, 2007 (Penn State via Science Daily)

WHO
A Harvard and Penn State team of scientists (Daniel P. Schrag, director, Harvard University Center for the Environment/professor of Earth and planetary sciences; Michael J. Aziz, Gordon McKay professor of material sciences, Harvard University; Christopher H. House, associate professor of geosciences, Penn State, & his brother, Kurt Zenz House, graduate student, Earth and planetary sciences, Harvard University;)

WHAT
Using a process that mimics the natural weathering of volcanic silicate rocks, the scientists want to remove human-generated and natural emissions from the atmosphere by neutralizing the acidic CO2 with a chemically basic silicate gas.

Once the CO2 is neutralized and filtered, it would settle harmlessly to the seabed. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
Reported in the November 7 issue of “Environmental Science and Technology”

WHERE
The neutralized CO2 would wind up in the oceans as salts and drift down into the seabed sediment.

WHY
- Silicates are basic and neutralize acidic CO2. In fresh water, it produces a weak carbonic acid. The acid bubbles through rock and soil turning more alkaline. By the time it gets to the ocean, it is salts. The salts dissolve and the carbon drops into the sea bed sediment.
- The scientists’ idea is to release a silicate-containing gas over remote oceans.
A byproduct of the neutralization is the likely protection of precious and presently endangered coral reefs. The reefs are now being eaten away when atmospheric CO2, unfiltered and acidic, overwhelms the oceans’ ability to neutralize it and eats away at the coral.

Coral reefs, one of the world's most diverse habitats, are endangered by increasingly acidic oceans.

QUOTES
- Kurt House: "The technology involves selectively removing acid from the ocean in a way that might enable us to turn back the clock on global warming…Essentially, our technology dramatically accelerates a cleaning process that Nature herself uses for greenhouse gas accumulation."
- Kurt House: "In the engineered weathering process we have found a way to swap the weak carbonic acid with a much stronger one (hydrochloric acid) and thus accelerate the pace to industrial rates…"
- Christopher H. House: "This work shows how we can remove carbon dioxide on relevant timescales, but more work is be needed to bring down the cost and minimize other environmental effects…"