October 2nd, 2007The Real Solution for CO2 Reduction
There have been some pretty crazy ideas thought up by environmental scientists over the last few years when it comes to effective methods of handling our CO2 emission problems. Two of the more recent options which are gaining momentum in some corners include dumping large quantities of micro-grain hematite into the oceans, and using massive pumps to bring sediment from the ocean floor to the surface. I really wonder if these are just “joke options”, because nobody in their right mind would think that we can fix our problems by destroying the incredibly fragile ecosystem of our oceans even further.
Rather than rip on these scientists and discuss the damage their plans would cause to our oceans (which are already being over-taxed with our demands), and rather than focus on the one scientist that happens to be the same guy that suggested we block out the sun with millions of little plastic filters in space, I’d like to offer another solution to the CO2 problem that we face as a species. It’s really quite simple, and I’m not sure why it isn’t discussed more often. The great part about this plan is that it does not require us to modify the environment or develop new technologies.
The solution is this: Stop breathing.
Before you leave the site, please hear me out. It really doesn’t get much simpler than this, and the collateral benefits are endless.
If enough people stop breathing, then there will be less CO2 sent into the atmosphere. Not only because we’re no longer converting oxygen and nitrogen into carbon dioxide, but because we would no longer need to drive anywhere. We also wouldn’t be using as much electricity. On top of that, we wouldn’t need to buy anything, which would reduce secondary emissions from delivery vehicles and manufacturing processes. Heck, if enough people stopped breathing, much of our heavy-pollution industries could be drastically scaled back in size. This would have a pretty big effect on the world’s CO2 levels, as well as our food supplies.
Just looking at the food aspect of the “Don’t breathe the air” solution, we could reduce the amount of fish taken from the oceans, reduce the amount of livestock being kept, and reduce the amount of pollution generated by the farming industries (which isn’t much to begin with, but enough to warrant attention).
Once we get our CO2 emissions down to target levels as decided by some body that doesn’t care enough to look at these numbers in terms of human lives, then we can look at technology solutions to reduce the excess gasses and sediments from the atmosphere. Because we would no longer be emitting the same levels of greenhouse gasses, new technologies could include such simple solutions as air-scrubbing blimps and massive forests where cities once stood.
Who knows, perhaps within a few hundred years the Earth could be a little cleaner.
Before a bunch of angry comments are left, this post was written a little tongue-in-cheek because of all the really, really bad “solutions” out there for our greenhouse gases problem. I’m sure many of these options are offered by scientists who are just trying to promote conversation, but to hear people actually agree with these “solutions” rather than deal with the human side of the equation first leaves me wondering just how livable this world might be in 200 years.
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