James Lovelock urges ocean climate quick fix
by Richard Black
FILED IN: The Biofiles
Two of Britain’s leading environmental thinkers say it is time to develop a quick technical fix for climate change.
Writing in the journal Nature, Science Museum head Chris Rapley and Gaia theorist James Lovelock suggest looking at boosting ocean take-up of CO2.
Their idea, already being investigated by a US firm, involves huge flotillas of vertical pipes in the tropical seas. The two scientists say they doubt that existing plans for curbing carbon emissions can work quickly enough.
“We are taking the very strong line that we are not going to save the planet by the regular approaches like the Kyoto Protocol or renewable energy,” Professor Lovelock told BBC News. “What we have to do is to look at it in a systems sense, or a Gaian sense, and see if it’s curable by direct action.”
Professor Rapley, who has just moved to head up the Science Museum from a similar post at the British Antarctic survey, said the two men developed the ocean pipes concept during country walks in James Lovelock’s beloved Devon.
Unbeknown to them, a US company, Atmocean, had already begun trials of a very similar technology. Floating pipes reaching down from the top of the ocean into colder water below move up and down with the swell. As the pipe moves down, cold water flows up and out onto the ocean surface. A simple valve blocks any downward flow when the pipe is moving upwards.
Continue reading: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7014503.stm
SIMILAR ARTICLES
- Fiddling with figures while the Earth burns If you want to get some idea of what much of the Earth might look like in 50 years’ time then, says James Lovelock, get...
- Climate Change Alters Ocean Chemistry Stanford, CA— Researchers have discovered that the ocean’s chemical makeup is less stable and more greatly affected by climate change than previously believed. The researchers...
- Refuting Gaia It was the radical ecologist James Lovelock and his “Gaia Hypothesis”, which — in the mid-90s — persuaded me that Global Warming was in fact,...
- Engineered weathering process could mitigate global warming Researchers at Harvard University and Pennsylvania State University have invented a technology, inspired by nature, to reduce the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) caused...
- Arctic ice island breaks in half The giant Ayles Ice Island drifting off Canada’s northern shores has broken in two - far earlier than expected. In a season of record summer melting...
- Ocean Fish Farms Won’t Save Wild Fish & Can Easily Destroy Them A new study in shows why and how ocean fish farms can hurt wild fish populations. Done by prof. Neil frazer of the university of hawaii...
CURRENT ISSUE
Issue 29 of Biophile is going electronic and will be available soon. It will also be available to our international readers. Stay tuned or contact us for more details! find out more
EDITORIAL
I was just checking the website of the SEXPO which has just visited SA, this is what the Cape Town site says. . . . “The world’s largest Health, Sexuality and Lifestyle expo is coming back to Slaapstad and it’s bigger and sexier than ever! continue reading
ABOUT BIOPHILE
Biophile magazine is published every two months by Biophile cc. The magazine is edited by Chris Lautenbach, while subscriptions and advertising are managed by Lindsay Mitchell.
The telephone number is 076 9055 004 and you can send faxes to 086 514 9668.
ECOTELLY
Visit Ecotelly.com for more videos
AWARD
Biophile recently received recognition for its contribution to the print & internet category at the 20th SAB Environmentalist & Environmental Journalists of the year Awards. Congratulations to a dedicated team!
SPONSOR
RECENT COMMENTS