The plan, “Geo-engineering on a planetary scale” is unique and consists creating artificial trees that can absorb carbon dioxide, or reflect sunlight away from the Earth. It’s troublesome that it’s come to this in my opinion, but if we don’t take care of the planet, this may be our only option.

According to the Times article, “the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of science, is preparing a report on the feasibility of geo-engineering” among other artificial plans. Some of these ideas include…

• Manually extracting carbon from the atmosphere – but that might be too slow so the other option would be somehow reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the planet. .
• Another idea is to make clouds brighter which totally sounds like some spaceman movie to me, but supposedly it’s an option. If this could happen, brighter clouds would reflect more sunlight.
• Fake trees are also in the works. Plantations of fast-growing trees would be turned into “biochar”. “Plants grow by extracting CO2 from the air and converting it to wood, so the idea would be to turn the wood into charcoal, using giant ovens. Then it would be buried so the carbon could never be released back into the air.“

The flip side, of course is that other experts feel that geo-engineer-ing risks might make people even more lazy about environmental issues, and people overall would be less concerned with creating a true carbon-neutral economy.

I’m gonna second that notion. If fake trees, and tricking clouds is so necessary than obviously we’re not doing enough, and can you image teaching our kids this? “Hey kids, no worries about the earth, we can fake it!” Great.

What do you think?

By the way, if you’re interested in learning more about global warming, read the following; Is Global Warming True? Does the Truth Even Matter?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Fake trees key to halting global warming

I’m not all the way through this book yet, but already I can tell you it’s worth far more than the $23 it’ll cost you. (Awesome price!). Of course you can always be like me and get this book at the library, but if you own your house, it’d be a good bookshelf book.

What’s inside: 

This book covers 36 remodeling projects that can help you go greener at home (as if you didn’t guess that from the title). The huge benefit of this book is how super user friendly it is. Here are some main points…

• Handy chart at the start which shows general costs and time involved in said project, the skills you need to pull the project off, energy saved if you do the project, and the chart even points out if the project is renter friendly (rare in green project books).
• In the actual project guides throughout the book, all the background is explained (i.e. why you should consider the project), and there’s a more in-depth discussion of tools, time, and skills needed.
• Great how-to diagrams, photos, and illustrations. Even if you don’t consider yourself particularly handy or crafty, there are projects you can do in this book.
• Plenty of listed resources for other green building books, websites, and DVDs.

Examples of projects included:

• Batch solar water heater
• Outdoor cob oven
• Install a 5-V metal roof
• Storm windows
• Insulation of existing fridge
• Simple box cooker
• And of course many more

I really like this book so far and think it’s a great green home manual no matter your building or green skill level.  Learn more at the Chelsea Green Bookstore. 

[image via Chelsea Green]

Post from: Blisstree

New Book Review: The Carbon Free Home