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MIT May Have Just Developed the Ultimate Climate Technology
- _Microft 4y agoHere is the paper: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2023/EE/D2EE03804H https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2023/EE/D2EE0...
- blacksqr 4y agoI have a problem with this and similar carbon capture solutions in that I have trouble imagining that the solution to reducing atmospheric carbon is to build from scratch a whole new parallel industrial infrastructure side-by-side with the existing one, with all the fossil-burning bootstrap costs that will be required, and taking perhaps decades that we don't have. I have a simpler idea, someone please tell me if it's crazy or not: Millions of tons of sargassum seaweed are floating free in the oceans. Sargassum stalks have air-filled nodules which keep them afloat. The idea is to outfit ships with shredders or rollers that suck up the sargassum, puncture the air nodules and send the seaweed to the bottom of the ocean, where its constituent carbon will be sequestered for centuries at least. It should be possible to refit existing ships, like oil tankers, automate them, and launch in very little time. They could roam continuously on wind, solar or nuclear power. Eliminated sargassum will regrow, as the ocean will continue to produce it to the limit of its capacity, thus sucking up more carbon and providing an endless supply to target. No new industrial infrastructure, easy and cheap to create a pilot project and quick to scale up. No competition for land or land-based energy resources. Your average multi-billionaire could start doing it if governments weren't interested.