The PBS Newshour has always impressed me with their consistent emphasis on interesting science stories. In this one, the talk about the possibility of trapping CO2 permanently within basalt rocks… a process I had never heard from before.
I’m alway fascinated by technical solutions to social problems. In college, I remember them being termed “techo-fixes”, the idea being if we can’t change human behavior then we can develop some technological workaround to achieve the same effect. The danger of the techno-fix is that there are often unintended consequences. Even despite my inherent wariness of techno-fixes, I think this video is worth looking at. The potential mass of carbon dioxide that could be removed from the atmosphere is very impressive. Safely trapping large amounts of carbon dioxide as well slowly move to a more sustainable energy generation system might be the best solution moving forward.
I did cringe when the interviewer brought up the idea of ‘saving the planet’. That kind of hyperbole isn’t really constructive as I pointed out in my last post.
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