The race for climate change solutions leaves researchers divided
As climate events worsen, some scientists are turning to inventive proposals to lessen human impact
A squadron of planes flies overhead, releasing trails of sulfur and other aerosols into the air. A fleet of ships traverses the ocean, spraying plumes of saltwater mist into the air. A wall of fans gently hums between grassy hills in the Icelandic countryside.
These images are not from a movie, they are very real concepts and technologies put forth by scientists in Apocalypse Plan B, a documentary from The Nature of Things.
We have entered a new era of combating climate change — with carbon capture and geoengineering technologies — where science fiction is becoming science fact.
Carbon and climate events
More than half of humanity's CO2 emissions have been released into the atmosphere since 1990. Each year, more than 34 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide are pumped into the atmosphere — almost three gigatonnes a month, which amounts to enough carbon to fill New York's Central Park with a mass of coal half a kilometre high.
As our carbon output continues, global temperatures increase, which disrupts weather patterns and results in higher temperatures, more intense storms, increased drought and warming oceans. These events have a cascading effect, leading to species loss, poverty and displacement.
Though we're already witnessing some of these problems, climate scientist Michael Mann says we still have time. "The science tells us that it's not too late to prevent the worst impacts of climate change if we reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent within this decade," he says. "It's a tough task, but we can do it."
Scientists are racing to find solutions to pull carbon from the atmosphere. Some have taken the more controversial approach of using human intervention to cool the planet, although this solution doesn't come without consequences.
Climate change and inequality
David Keith, a Harvard University physicist, is in favour of intentionally increasing Earth's reflectivity. His proposal involves a fleet of aircraft spraying sulfur and other aerosols into the atmosphere, where they would divert sunlight away, effectively cooling the planet. It's a concept known as solar geoengineering.
However, this strategy could affect Earth's natural systems, disrupting plant productivity, ocean currents and atmospheric wind patterns, which could have an outsized impact on populations that depend on these systems for their livelihoods.
Climate inequality is a concern as temperatures continue to rise. Populations in low-income countries are more likely to experience consequences from climate change and the costs of mitigating it, namely by reducing emissions. These disproportionate impacts can further increase poverty in these communities.
But Keith insists climate justice is the basis for his idea, and that the reduction in temperatures would benefit those living in hot countries the most. But Indian scientist and environmental activist Vandana Shiva disagrees.
"You block the sun, what you're basically doing is you're cursing the 80 per cent of humanity and all the beings on this Earth who depend on the green leaf for their survival," she says.
Shiva believes climate justice is about listening to those whose livelihoods depend on the natural environment rather than imposing solutions on them.
"We have not forgotten that colonialism began with the excuse of the white man's burden," she says.
Human intervention is only one of the ways scientists are exploring to cool the planet. Some researchers think the solution is not to fight our natural systems, but to work with them.
Natural options
The first mangrove forest that Lola Fatoyinbo ever visited as a graduate student was in Everglades National Park, Florida. "It's actually one of my favorite sites in the whole world," she says.
Fatoyinbo is an environmental scientist who likes looking at forests — a lot of forests.
Working with a team from NASA, she uses a combination of 3D scanning and satellite imagery to determine the density of forests around the world and their carbon content.
Fatoyinbo is one of the scientists who sees the planet's natural systems as a solution for removing carbon from the atmosphere. During the spring and summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, carbon dioxide is pulled from the atmosphere as the Earth's forests turn green once more, removing a significant amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
When considering carbon-storage solutions, Fatoyinbo stresses the importance of these forests — especially mangrove forests.
"One of the really big advantages of mangroves is that they have a really high carbon-storage capacity," she says. "Mangroves store about three to five times more carbon than a tropical rainforest. That's really a huge amount of carbon, and this is just in the first metre of soil."
As climate events worsen, Fatoyinbo is seeing the depletion of these carbon stores. Mangroves, which historically have been able to withstand storms and the rising sea level, are not able to tolerate the intensity and frequency of storms resulting from climate change, as they have less time to recuperate. Some become "ghost forests" — a haunting name for these ecosystems when they haven't been able to recover and die.
"There's no way to see what we're seeing and not worry," she says.
For Fatoyinbo, the protection of these forests is an essential step for removing carbon from the atmosphere. "[The] restoration of mangroves, forests and wetlands — these are really important mechanisms that are part of the fight," she says.
British environmental writer and activist George Monbiot agrees with Fatoyinbo's approach.
"Our chances of getting through this century — let alone those that follow — depend to a very large extent on whether we can restore many of the world's wild ecosystems," he says.
According to Monbiot, the fastest way of removing carbon from the atmosphere is to turn it into solid carbon in the form of trees, wetlands and other ecosystems. However, this requires an understanding of how land is used, or rather misused.
Half of the world's habitable land is used for agriculture, and Monbiot points out, "twenty-eight per cent of the planet's terrestrial surface is used for keeping grazing livestock," he says. "That extraordinary area … is used to produce just one per cent of the world's protein. This is a phenomenally wasteful way of producing our food."
Despite the bleakness, Monbiot feels there's still time to change.
"It really is not too late because social change can happen at great speed," he says.
Moving forward
Against a backdrop of extreme climate events, carbon buildup and indecision, time is running out, and these scientists know it. Whether by radical human intervention or protection of natural systems, they all agree that action is needed to slow the damage caused by climate change.
Mann wryly sums up the urgency of the situation: "The good thing is that if we screw up this planet, we've got another one to go to — Oh no, wait. No, we don't. Do we?"
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