In recent years, scientists have proposed many ways to curb global warming, such as: spraying diamond dust, working with glaciers, reflecting sunlight, alternative energy, and working with human and farm waste.
Diamond dust
An international group of scientists from Switzerland and the United States has found evidence that spraying diamond dust into the Earth’s atmosphere from an airplane could stop global warming. The researchers’ work was published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL).
To find out which type of material would be best suited to regulating the flow of solar heat to the Earth’s surface, the team of scientists simulated the process of spraying various materials into the Earth’s atmosphere using a specially developed 3D model. The software processed such effects of using different aerosols as the reflection of light and heat. The researchers then simulated the impact on the Earth of spraying particles of seven substances into the atmosphere: calcite, diamond, aluminum, silicon carbide, rutile, sulfur dioxide, and anatase (a variation of titanium dioxide).
The results of computer modeling showed that diamond dust would reflect the most sunlight and heat. In addition, diamond particles also have the advantage of staying in the air for a longer period of time without sticking together. The researchers also noted the fact that diamond is chemically inert, so it will not react with other compounds in the atmosphere and lead, for example, to acid rain, which could form as a result of the use of sulfur dioxide.
Models suggest that dispersing 5 million tons of synthetic diamond dust into the Earth’s atmosphere would cool the Earth by 1.6°C in about 45 years, but the cost of such a project would be about US$200 trillion.
Precipitation Forecasting Using Artificial Intelligence
At the latest International Rainfall Enhancement Forum in Abu Dhabi, experts and investors once again discussed the challenge of increasing rainfall in the UAE, a Gulf state located in one of the world’s largest deserts. Decades of work and millions of dollars have already been spent to combat persistent drought in the UAE, whose largely expatriate population is growing rapidly despite a dry, unfavorable climate and sweltering summer heat.
Despite the United Arab Emirates’ best efforts, precipitation remains sparse. At the International Precipitation Improvement Forum in Abu Dhabi in February, officials discussed a new initiative to use artificial intelligence to better identify clouds for seeding by aircraft.
Flight. Deposit file
The project, three years in the making, uses satellite, radar and weather data to create an algorithm that predicts where clouds will form in the next six hours, which could, when seeded with chemicals, become rain. Hundreds of rain-making flights are carried out in the UAE each year. With only about 100 millimetres of rainfall annually, the UAE’s nearly 10 million people rely mostly on desalinated water piped in from factories that, according to government figures, produce about 14 per cent of the world’s water.
And while UAE officials say rainfall has increased as a result of the measures, downpours remain so unusual that schoolchildren have been known to burst into applause and rush to their classroom windows to see the rain. The exception to this dry picture was April 2024, when the heaviest rainfall on record closed Dubai’s major international air hub and flooded roads, paralyzing the city for days.
In search of solutions to the drought problem, the UAE launched the Rain Forum in 2017, which was held for the 7th time. Over the past ten years, the Rainfall Improvement Program has provided $22.5 million in grants.
Special soil mixtures
Artificial soils can actively “absorb” greenhouse gases, especially in cold climates, this is the conclusion reached by RUDN scientists as part of a research team. The specialists created a special mixture of natural components that absorbs carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides twice as much as ordinary soils in Arctic forests. The results of the work, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), are presented in Catena, RIA Novosti reports.
Soil mixtures, like natural soils, have a “breathing” function – the microbes living in them are able to absorb and release carbon dioxide, which is the main reason for the formation of a “wool cap” on the surface of our planet, which does not allow heat to be removed from the Earth’s surface, explained the press service of the Russian Science Foundation. The intensity of absorption and release directly depends on the composition of the soil.
Mixtures of “clean” soil components (technosols) often contain industrial waste. Such a composition is specially selected based on economic feasibility for a certain climate zone. For example, mixtures based on peat, sand, loam are widely used for greening cities (for example, planting lawns) located in the Arctic zone.
Scientists from the Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN), the Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute of the Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after N.A. Avrorin and colleagues from the Netherlands tested the ability of technosols of different compositions to absorb carbon and nitrogen oxides from the air in the city of Apatity.
Soil. Kuban news
“It turned out that initially the technosols had unfavourable conditions for microorganisms due to the small amount of easily accessible nutrients. Thus, the amount of nitrogen and carbon necessary for the life of any organisms was reduced in these soils. As a result, there were fewer microorganisms in the technosols than in natural soil. Also, in artificial soil mixtures, respiration, for which microorganisms are responsible, was slowed down by about three times,” the press service of the Russian Science Foundation said in a statement.
Based on a 14-month experiment, the experts found that the annual absorption of carbon by plants on the studied technosols should be twice as high as the release of carbon dioxide from the soils of the Arctic region, with a slight increase in the volume of released gas. However, when using the same compositions in a moderate climate, the volume of released carbon dioxide will increase by a third compared to “local” soils.
“The results obtained can be used to develop recommendations for the use of soil mixtures of a certain composition in urban landscaping. This will allow us to take into account the ecological effect of such soils, which is especially important for creating a comfortable and sustainable urban environment in the conditions of the Arctic zone of Russia. In the future, we plan to continue monitoring the chemical and microbiological parameters of soils, as well as assessing the emission of carbon dioxide in the long term,” the press release quotes the words of the project manager, senior researcher at the laboratory of arctic urban ecosystems of the scientific center “Smart technologies for sustainable development of the urban environment in the context of global changes” of the Patrice Lumumba RUDN University Maria Korneykova.
Artificially slowing down the melting of glaciers
In the summer of 2024, radical ideas for combating glacier melting were discussed at conferences of the American Geophysical Union and the European Geological Union. Following these discussions, scientists from the University of Chicago, together with colleagues from Finland and Germany, released a “White Paper” on geoengineering intervention. In the published document, glaciologists for the first time publicly acknowledged the possibility of a technological approach to the problems arising from melting glaciers. There are no specific developments, but rather a call for a “big initiative” for the future.
The two largest ice sheets, Antarctic and Greenland, are gradually degrading under the influence of a warming climate. Their melting is inevitable under any scenario calculated until the end of the century. They are the main culprits of the rise in the level of the World Ocean, which has increased by almost 20 cm since the mid-19th century.
The authors of the White Paper believe that it is impossible to completely stop the rise in sea levels, but it is quite possible to slow it down while humanity makes the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Doomsday Glacier. RBC
As reported by the online publication Naked Science, scientists are considering two types of intervention. The first involves attaching some “curtains” to the base of the glaciers that will prevent warm ocean water from undermining them. Preliminary calculations have shown that a small amount of shielding is enough. For example, for the Thwaites Glacier in the Amundsen Sea in Antarctica, even 80 kilometers of insulation on the seabed will improve the situation. The second approach is to slow down the flow of meltwater from under the glacier into the sea. According to scientists, if the meltwater is diverted, the destruction of the glacier will slow down, or even stop altogether. This can be done by drilling drainage wells in the bed of the glacier or artificially freezing it.
What each approach will lead to is anyone’s guess. It is quite possible that bottom screens will divert warm water to nearby ice shelves, and stopping the usual currents will disrupt the lives of local marine life and coastal human settlements. Drilling is less traumatic for the ecological situation, but will it be effective, and isn’t it cheaper to gradually adapt to the changing climate than to involve “heavy engineering”?
A project to clean the ocean globally from accumulated carbon dioxide
The world ocean, atmosphere and land are interconnected, including in maintaining the oxygen balance and greenhouse gas flows. Today, when the content of these gases in the atmosphere has reached a record level, and the upward trend does not stop, the seas and oceans are also burdened with the processing of carbon dioxide “clouds”. And their capabilities are not endless. When there is more carbon dioxide in the air, it dissolves more actively in water and forms ions with acidic properties, acidification of the world ocean is observed. In 2014, the WMO included a special section on acidification in its annual report on greenhouse gases for the first time. The document notes that the current rate of increase in ocean acidity is the highest in the last 300 million years and, according to forecasts, will only increase, at least until the middle of the 21st century.
The scientific community, aware of this negative problem, is looking for ways out of it. One of the solutions is offered by the company Captura, a subsidiary of the California Institute of Technology; it is going to launch a project for global ocean cleaning from carbon dioxide accumulated in water. The principle of Captura is based on a patented process of seawater dialysis. Using energy from solar panels, purified ocean water is separated into liquid and salt, which turns into acid. Then the acid is added to the same seawater, which helps to release carbon dioxide from it. It is pumped into storage tanks, and the purified water is drained back into the ocean.
Ocean. Moika78.ru News SPb
After purification, seawater again turns into a natural accumulator of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so the process of gas extraction can be repeated almost endlessly. The estimated efficiency of one Captura installation is up to 100 tons of CO2 per year. The technology makes it easy to scale up the water filtration process and increase the rate of carbon dioxide extraction from the ocean, Tekhkult reports.
Some environmental groups are wary of the technology. Captura plans to filter the water to keep marine animals out of the facility. But it’s unclear whether the filters will be fine enough to keep out plankton. Plankton is the basis of the entire marine food web. There are also concerns about increased industrial activity and noise pollution in already stressed marine ecosystems. On the other hand, the World Economic Forum (held in Geneva in June 2024) lists Captura as a “Technology Pioneer 2024,” giving the company the green light to move forward.
Artificial volcanoes
To slow global warming, scientists have proposed creating artificial volcanoes to form a huge “heat shield” that lowers the Earth’s temperature. The “Pinatubo strategy” involves launching jets into the stratosphere that release sulfur compounds that reflect sunlight away from the Earth – mimicking the natural atmospheric effects of a volcanic eruption.
Henrik Welle
In 2011, as part of the three-year Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) project, UK scientists used a giant tube and balloon in a field experiment that injected particles into the stratosphere to cool it.
Wrap Greenland in a Reflective Blanket
Scientists have been exploring the possibility of wrapping Greenland in a massive reflective blanket to slow the rate of glacier melt. In 2009, climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science suggested that reflecting sunlight off different regions — primarily the Arctic — could reduce the warming effect and melt the glaciers.
Paul Souders
In the Discovery series “Saving the Planet,” which aired in 2009, scientists led by glaciologist Jason Box use reflective white polypropylene blankets to cover glaciers and test this theory.
Feeding Garlic to
Livestock Livestock farming is the world’s largest producer of methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming and more than 1 million premature human deaths each year. Reducing agriculture-related methane emissions, which are caused by the release of gas through farts and burps, is key to combating climate change, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.
Katherine Falls advertisement
Scientists have found that feeding livestock garlic, which contains bioactive organosulfur compounds, reduces methane emissions and benefits the health of consumers of meat and dairy products from livestock.
Artificial trees that remove CO2 from the air
Planting forests of artificial trees containing layers of carbon dioxide-absorbing discs could combat climate change on a global scale, according to scientists at Arizona State University (ASU). The mechanical trees use carbon capture technology and can reportedly capture CO2 a thousand times faster than natural trees.
Arizona State University
Designed by Klaus Lackner, a physicist and director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, the first mechanical tree was installed on the ASU campus in 2022.
Forced plankton bloom
Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that float in the ocean, providing food for marine life, producing oxygen, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen into the air. Pollution from agriculture and industry can cause huge swarms of plankton to form. Scientists hope that by fertilising the deep ocean with iron, they can trigger huge swarms of plankton to bloom and absorb extra CO2. The method was reported in The Times in 2019, but remains a controversial approach to tackling climate change.
Fake whale poop
Scientists want to increase the amount of greenhouse gas emissions captured by the ocean by creating artificial whale poop using iron-rich sand or volcanic ash. Whales naturally poop iron-rich poop on the ocean’s surface, creating huge clumps of phytoplankton that feed fish and trap carbon.
izanbar
Professor Sir David King, chairman of the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Climate Restoration and leader of the artificial poop project, hopes plankton blooms could absorb 50% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Giant Snow Cannons to Destroy Glaciers
Massive snow cannons pump seawater to create trillions of tons of artificial snow, which is then dumped onto glaciers.
David Merron Photography
According to a 2019 study published in the journal Science, creating an artificial snowstorm in the coastal zone around the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers could stabilize the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, reducing ice loss and significant sea level rise. Anders Levermann, a physicist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a co-author of the study, said in a statement: “The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the tipping points in our climate system. Ice loss is accelerating and may not stop until the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is virtually gone.”
Drones for planting bombs on trees
Aerial forest planting using drones has been seen as a solution to deforestation after bushfires and in hard-to-reach areas. In Australia, AirSeed Technologies uses drones and AI to drop “seed bombs” in areas devastated by bushfires or floods.
AirSeed Technologies
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, reforestation is vital to reducing the impacts of climate change. A 2019 study found that there is room on Earth to plant hundreds of billions of trees, which could reduce atmospheric carbon levels by 25%. A 2020 study found that replanting trees could reduce the U.S. carbon footprint by 14%.
Lab-grown meat
It used to be thought that eating lab-grown meat rather than farm-raised beef was better for the environment. Lab-grown meat doesn’t require pastures to graze, uses less water and land to grow feed, and produces less methane than cattle.
D-Kane
However, a 2023 study found that energy requirements and greenhouse gas emissions across all stages of cultured meat production are four to 25 times higher than those of traditionally raised beef. This echoes the findings of a 2019 study that suggested that while cattle contribute to global warming by emitting methane, overall cultured meat may be worse for the planet in the long term.
While scientists have not yet found a low-emission solution for growing meat in a lab, growing meat still has positive effects from an animal welfare perspective.
Plant-based diet
In a 2024 report, scientists concluded that to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius, people need to eat less meat and animal products and switch to a predominantly plant-based diet.
Yagi Studio
This echoes an earlier 2020 report that found evidence that significantly reducing meat consumption and switching to a plant-based diet is the optimal solution to reduce global emissions.
A separate 2021 report found that animal products emit twice as many greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as plant products.
Plastic-Eating Enzymes
Humanity produces twice as much plastic as it did just two decades ago, and only 9% of it is successfully recycled. Plastic is not biodegradable and can take up to 500 years to decompose, according to the United Nations.
Data from the University of Colorado shows that plastic recycling emits between 184 and 213 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually. Disposal of single-use plastics in landfills accounts for more than 15% of methane emissions.
Gary Bell
In 2022, a plastic-eating bacterium created with artificial intelligence was engineered to solve the plastic problem. Researchers discovered a variant of an enzyme called hydrolase that can break down PET (polyethylene terephthalate) into its component molecules. A separate 2023 study found evidence that structural biology could be used to engineer an enzyme that “eats” plastic.
Ships that create clouds
Scientists have explored the possibility of deploying a fleet of “cloud-making” ships to increase cloud cover and cool the atmosphere. The “marine cloud brightening” (MCB) method involves finding the size of aerosol particles that are “just right.”
“Because there is a risk that particle size could either increase precipitation or increase evaporation, the optimal particle size and number will likely need to be tailored to the target cloud,” said NOAA scientist Graham Feingold.
According to a 2021 study, the main target will be stratocumulus clouds, which cover large areas of the Earth’s surface.
Underwater walls to protect glaciers
Walls of rock and sand on the seabed could be used to protect underwater glaciers from melting and reduce the risk of sea level rise in Antarctica, researchers say.
In a 2018 study, scientists explored this form of geoengineering to mitigate the impact of climate change on coastal areas. The structures would be used to prevent warmer water from reaching the base of glaciers, which is the main cause of glacier melting. The Guardian reported that the ice base around the South Pole shrank by 556 square miles (1,463 square kilometers) between 2010 and 2016.
Dim sun
While dimming the sun won’t reverse climate change, researchers have found that it could have a cooling effect. A 2018 report found that solar engineering technology that reflects some of the sun’s rays into space could help limit global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius and meet the goals set in the Paris Agreement.
Using a combination of solar engineering techniques to block some of the sun’s light could also protect the polar regions from melting, according to a 2023 study.
Glass on Arctic ice
According to NASA satellite observations, Arctic summer sea ice extent is declining by 12.2 percent per decade compared to the average ice extent between 1981 and 2010.
One solution could be to coat large swaths of the Arctic with a thin layer of reflective glass beads that protect young ice and allow older ice to form, according to the Arctic Ice Project, a nonprofit organization. Scientific experiments testing geoengineering techniques on lakes and rivers in Canada have shown some success, according to a 2018 study.
Painting buildings white
Researchers have found that painting buildings ultra-cool white could be an affordable cooling solution. In many hot countries, such as Greece and Spain, white houses are the norm. They reflect the sun’s powerful rays, making buildings cooler.
In 2023, researchers invented a new ultra-white formula that modeling experiments showed reflected 98.1% of the sun’s heat from the surface. The paint won an Innovation Award for its potential to keep surfaces cool and reduce the need for air conditioning.
Recycling of human waste
Researchers have found that composting human waste for use as fertilizer in agriculture reduces greenhouse gas emissions and waste-borne diseases.
A 2020 study published in the journal Nature examined sanitation and composting of human waste in a large Haitian slum where only 30% of the population has access to sanitation. The researchers found that off-site composting had a methane emission rate of 0.5%, compared to 20–80% from pit latrines and lagoons.
“Composting leaves a much smaller greenhouse gas footprint than all other non-ductless technologies in common use today,” UC Merced professor Rebecca Ryals, a co-author of the study, said in a statement.
Insect food
According to the World Economic Forum, insects can provide an alternative source of protein and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A 2017 study found that cricket farms emit 75% less carbon dioxide and half as much water as poultry farms.
A separate study in 2023 found evidence that edible insects, many of which are considered pests, could solve a host of environmental and health problems by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from food production and providing an additional food source as the global population grows.
Use of algae for food, fuel and cement production
Scientists investigating the potential use of microalgae for carbon capture, medicine and food have found that some types of algae form limestone that could be used to make biocement and reduce carbon use.
A 2024 study found that microalgae could be used as a biofuel and a greener solution to fossil fuels. A separate 2024 report found that algae are increasingly being added as a nutritious ingredient to plant-based foods. Compared to traditional plant and animal sources, researchers found that algae use fewer natural resources to grow and harvest.
The human body as a source of energy
Instead of cooling the heat generated by people in busy urban areas, scientists are using human heat to heat buildings.
In Sweden, an eco-office building located above Stockholm Central Station recovers excess heat generated by thousands of passengers. Using heat exchangers, excess heat is converted into warm water, which provides up to 20% of the office’s heating. To cool the building, water is taken from a nearby lake.
Asbestos for removing CO2 from the air
Scientists are studying how asbestos (in its natural form) could be used as a “carbon sink” to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral that is harmless in soil but when manufactured becomes a carcinogenic compound that causes serious health problems when inhaled.
In a 2019 study, scientists reported how mining waste, including asbestos, could be used to capture carbon.
Painting the mountains white
In 2010, a Peruvian inventor whitewashed a mountaintop in the Peruvian Andes in an experiment to see if it could protect against melting glaciers by reflecting heat away from the peaks. The Glaciares de Peru project, an early example of geoengineering, won a $200,000 prize in the World Bank’s 100 Ideas to Save the Planet competition.
In 2023, Reuters reported that 56% of Peru’s tropical glaciers had disappeared in the past six decades as a result of climate change.
Arctic sea ice expansion
In 2023, researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Climate Restoration conducted an experiment in Cambridge Bay, in the Arctic Circle, drilling and pumping seawater across the surface to freeze and therefore thicken the ice.
This could protect it from melting and restore lost ice to mitigate some of the impacts of carbon emissions, the team says. A 2024 study examining the experiment’s impacts found evidence of freezing further away from the injection point, suggesting that thickening the Arctic ice could be a useful strategy for mitigating further ice loss.
Living in houses made from waste
The construction industry is responsible for a large share of global carbon emissions and sends huge amounts of waste to landfills every year. The European Commission estimates that the industry produces more than a third of the European Union’s waste. Around half of the 100 billion tonnes of raw materials mined worldwide each year are used in construction.
One solution being tested is using recycled materials like plastic to create bricks. A 2022 study found that using recycled building materials like plastic, glass, concrete, and steel during construction could reduce the environmental impact of construction by up to 65%.
Storing carbon underground
Capturing and storing carbon (a process known as carbon sequestration) can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and reduce its impact on the environment.
In a 2022 study, scientists looked at the importance of erosion in carbon storage to see if the subsurface could be used with “frontier” technologies to store more carbon. The scientists found evidence that the subsurface could be used to capture carbon, with large amounts of carbon locked in centuries-old subsurfaces.
Space-based solar energy
Since the 1920s, scientists have been studying how to collect solar energy in space and beam it back to Earth. According to NASA, large orbital solar panels could be launched into space, and the energy they collect could then be beamed back to our planet using lasers or microwaves. A 2024 NASA report assessed the potential costs and conditions needed to deliver space solar power, as well as the role NASA could play in developing technologies to harness the energy.
European Space Agency – ESA/European SPS Tower concept
Sunlight is 10 times more intense in the atmosphere than on Earth’s surface, according to the European Space Agency, and space-based solar power could help Europe reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Reduction in the number of flights
Air travel is a significant contributor to climate change. According to a report published in the Atmospheric Environment Journal, the aviation industry generates up to 2.4% of global carbon emissions each year. The Institute for Environment and Energy Research reported that the “hypermobility” of air travel has led to the number of annual global passengers reaching 4.56 billion in 2019.
In a 2022 study, researchers looked at how behavioural changes such as not flying, choosing alternative modes of transport and offsetting carbon emissions could be encouraged to reduce individual impacts.
Growing algae in the ocean to reduce acidity
The ocean absorbs about a third of the planet’s carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, as carbon dioxide emissions have increased, scientists have found that seawater has become more acidic and less effective at trapping carbon.
But algae can help “calcify” water by secreting enzymes that break down carbon dioxide into bicarbonate ions. These ions can then be used for calcification. In a 2016 study, scientists found that algae help water stay neutral and absorb more carbon.
The Return of the Woolly Mammoths
In a Jurassic Park-like project, scientists from Harvard University have explored the possibility of bringing woolly mammoths back to life.
Science Photo Library – LEONELLO CALVETTI
Reintroducing previously extinct large animals and herbivores to Arctic environments could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by acting as natural geoengineers, according to researchers at the Woolly Mammoth Revival Project. By trampling, they could help grasslands, which absorb less heat than trees, thrive while preventing permafrost from melting.
Cattle toilets
Researchers in New Zealand have successfully trained cattle to use a toilet called the MooLoo. The project aims to reduce ammonia emissions from urine and manure, which leach into soil and nearby water sources, causing nitrous oxide, a type of greenhouse gas, and acid rain.
According to a 2021 report, a single cow can produce 30 litres of urine per day. Ammonia is created when this urine combines with faeces. While urine is not as harmful as the methane released when cattle fart and burp, nitrous oxide from urine was found to account for 5% of all greenhouse gases from UK agriculture in 2019.
Wind turbines in the sky
Aerial technologies could be a solution to combat climate change. Technologies such as giant kites are being explored as a way to harvest wind energy high above the ground and in remote locations where conventional wind turbines cannot be installed.
SkySails Group
According to a 2013 study, winds at high altitudes tend to be stronger than winds at the surface, resulting in an average power density increase of up to 4.5 times.
