Five Ways To Save The World

Climate change is being felt the world over and if

designed a fleet of remote-controlled yachts.
global warming continues to increase the effects
These will pump fine particles of sea water into
could be catastrophic. Some scientists and
the clouds, increasing the thickness of the clouds
engineers are proposing radical, large-scale ideas
and reflecting the suns rays.
that could save us from disaster. The first three
Sydney engineer Professor Ian Jones proposes
proposed ideas featured in a new BBC
to feed plankton with gallons of fertiliser. This
documentary, Five Ways To Save The World, look
will make the plankton grow and absorb carbon
at reducing the power of the sunthereby cooling
dioxide from the air.
the planet. The other two men in the programme
And New York-based Professor Klaus
want to tackle the problem of excess carbon
Lackner has designed a carbon dioxide capturing
dioxidethe cause of global warming.
machine and his plan is to locate more of them
Professor Roger Angel from Arizonathe
across the globe. They would suck in carbon
designer of the worlds largest telescopeis
dioxide, turn it into a powder and he would bury it
proposing to put a giant glass sunshade in space.
deep under the ocean in disused oil or gas fields.
Professor Angels sunshade will deflect a small
Most of the scientists are reluctant advocates
percentage of the suns rays back into space.
of these ideas, and all believe we should be cutting
Dutch Professor Paul Crutzen won the Nobel
down on our use of fossil fuels to heat our homes
Prize for chemistry when he discovered the causes
and drive our cars. But is time running out for
of the hole in the ozone layer. His plan is to fire
planet earth? Although these ideas might have
hundreds of rockets loaded with tons of sulphur
unknown side effects, some scientists believe we
into the atmosphere creating a vast, but very thin
may soon have no choice but to put these radical
sunscreen of sulphur around the earth.
and controversial plans into action.
British atmospheric physicist Professor John
Latham and engineer Stephen Salter, have
(BBC 361 words)

proposal

proposed by

reducing the sunlight

reducing carbon dioxide

Creating a sulphur screen

Launching rockets to create a sulphur screen high in the

stratosphere (regarded as the second layer of Earths

atmosphere, above the troposphere but below the

His solution would see hundreds of rockets filled

mesosphere, positioned at 10-50 km altitude above the

with sulphur launched into the stratosphere. He envisages

Earths surface) is one way to counter global warming

one million tonnes of sulphur to create his cooling

explored in a new BBC documentary, Five Ways To Save

blanket. Hydrocarbons are burnt to lift the rocket

The World.

material, and the rocket then goes into the stratosphere. In

In 1995, Professor Paul Crutzen won the Nobel Prize

for helping to explain how the ozone layer is formed and

the stratosphere, hydrogen sulphide is burnt, and the

sulphate particles reflect solar radiation, he explains.

depleted. Partly as a result of his work, world

governments

took

action

and

banned

the

Devastating effects

chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)chemicals used in fridges

But at low altitudes within the Earths atmosphere,

and aerosolsthat were thinning the ozones presence

sulphur has been known to create a lot of damage. Since

over Antarctica.

the industrial revolution began over 200 years ago, the

Now the chemistry professor has a solution to

combustion of fossil fuels has put just over a trillion

mitigate global warming. He believes that sulphur

tonnes of carbon dioxide, as well as sulphur, into the

particles similar to those erupting from volcanoes could

atmosphere. By the mid-1950s, the effects of sulphur

act as a natural cooling device for the planet, by creating

were killing thousands of people through respiratory

a blanket that would stop the Suns rays from reaching

disease. It also caused acid rain and had devastating

the Earth.

effects on plants and animals.

To combat this, clean air acts were introduced and

Perfect model

filters were put in place to reduce sulphur emissions. The

In 1991, there was a massive eruption in South East Asia.

chemistry professor finds it ironic that prior to these clean

Mount Pinatubo ejected about 10 million tonnes of

air acts, filthy factories actually shielded us from the Sun.

sulphur into the stratosphere at about 10-40km above the

He explains the paradox: We want to clean up the

Earths surface.

environment because air pollution is unhealthy. But this

Scientists like Professor Crutzen could measure how

much sulphur dioxide was injected into the stratosphere,
where it was injected and what happened to it over time.

pollution also cools the Earth by reflecting solar radiation

into space.
Professor Crutzen is not proposing a return to the

After the injection at high altitude, it started to

bad old days; rather, he wants to avoid the previous

move around the globe with the air motions; first in an

problems by making sure the sulphur is injected into the

east-west direction, but also with time in a north-south

atmosphere at high altitude.

direction. After about a year, the initial input of pollutants

in the stratosphere by the volcano had spread rather

Unknown consequences

evenly around the world, the Nobel Laureate said.

Nevertheless, the consequences of putting gargantuan

For two years after Pinatubo erupted, the average

quantities of sulphur into the atmosphere as he proposes

temperature across the Earth decreased by 0.6C. The

are unknown. It could increase acid rain, or even damage

volcanos location close to the equator helped make

the ozone layerthe very thing Professor Crutzen has

Pinatubo the perfect model for explaining how sulphur in

dedicated his life to protecting. Neither does his solution

the stratosphere could reduce global warming. But

tackleor offer a way of reducingthe increasing

Professor Crutzen does not want to wait for another

amount of CO2 that is still being emitted.

volcano. Instead, controversially, he wants to duplicate

But Professor Crutzen believes global warming may

the effects of volcanic eruptions and create a man-made

reach such critical levels within the next 30 years that a

sulphur screen in the sky.

radical strategy will be needed. He thinks we should at

least test his plan, so we know now what the risks might
be if we face a catastrophic situation in the future. I am
prepared to lose some bit of ozone if we can prevent
major increases of temperature in the future, say beyond
two degrees or three degrees, he says.
Whether other scientists agree that a sulphur screen
is a viable solution remains to be seen.
(BBC 734 words)