We learned last week that CO2 levels in our atmosphere had just reached 400 parts per million for the first time in human history, although it turned out to actually be 399.89. Tune in later for the actual record breaker. 350 PPM was deemed a safe level for preventing climate change and sea level rises from ice melts, methane releases from permafrost melting, etc. The fast moving trend is seen here, from Scripps Institute:
April 2011 – 393.37
April 2012 – 396.45
April 2013 – 398.35
With recent developments in fracking technology, we’ll be producing more oil and gas, and other than using less coal as a result, there will be more fossil fuels for everyone, and less hope for conservation bringing down our levels, at least for economic reasons. So what to do?
Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group (Virgin Atlantic, et al) and others have put up a $25 million award for the best method for reducing C02 levels. It’s worth checking out the finalists, if you are looking for hope. My favorite one employs livestock grazing management as a solution for desertification, for food scarcity, and because healthy grasslands absorb lots of CO2. Allan Savory, a South African whose organization is successfully doing this as I write, gave a TED talk that begins with a heartbreaking story and ends satisfyingly encouraging.
Another potential solution involves technology, as most do. This one was reported last week in Scientific American - 440 PPM: Can Artifical Trees Pull CO2 From the Air? It involves a resin attached to plastic that is formed for greatest surface area, like grass. Here’s the funny part – in order to pull .5 PPM each year it would require 10 million trees made of this plastic, tons of energy and water too. Not sure the Lorax would speak for these trees, even if they do look like the Truffula kind. A guy responded to the piece – “Why not just use real trees?….”