There can be few people now who are genuinely willing to argue that climate change is not one of the biggest challenges mankind has ever faced and it is one that is, by all accounts, becoming very time-sensitive.
So who is doing the research that will save the planet and, more importantly, what are these technologies and how are they going to work?
Here are some prime examples of what is currently going on in the fight against climate change.
The Simple Solution – Reduction
There is a simple solution to the whole global warming crisis.
Well, that’s not quite true as the solution is to reduce and stop emitting carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
The downside of this idea and approach is that we are in no way looking like this is at all possible as globally we are actually increasing the fossil fuel consumption, and at an increasing rate as well, now this is not to say that we won’t get on top of this but with time running out we cannot rely on this happening.
Geoengineering
If we are not going to be able to stop the fossil fuel problem in time, then we are possibly going to have to find scientific solutions to deal with its consequences.
Methods like carbon capture, literally pulling it out of the atmosphere after we put it there or finding ways of reflecting solar radiation away from the atmosphere such as solar radiation management or stratospheric aerosol injection.
Collaboration and Mixed Solutions
There is much being done by academic groups that work across various universities, government departments and even nations.
If we look at the efforts of the Russell Group Universities you can see how a group that comprises of 24 universities can call on a large amount of expertise and look for coordinated solutions.
We can see on the Best-Paths project how they are working with other organizations and nations to look at what is the best mix of energy sources to provide a sustainable future in terms of energy supply.
Biofuels
The transportation sector is going to be a huge issue going forward, especially international travel as much of our economy depends on global trade. It’s unlikely or even impossible that we will ever go back to locally produce all of our products. The solution in this case could be the use of biofuels at large scale.
Biofuels can successfully replace all the fuels based on oil today, even if we talk about cars, trucks, buses, planes and large ships.
This is not happening yet, but biofuels could represent a great change in terms of reduced emissions produced by the transportation sector, and the good news is that we are getting closer to it.
Existing Technologies
We have talked a lot about emerging technologies, but there are lots of potential solutions that are already available.
We could expand our use of solar and wind power, but we just need to make these industries more desirable and more reliable.
What about giving another look at nuclear energy and although there are understandable concerns regarding safety the urgency to find a solution may just mean that we need to be a little more ambitious with these technologies.
