Geoengineering may save the Earth

Geoengineering may secure the earth's ecosystem

Despite of its controversial plan, solution based on the geoengineering aspects may become one of the best solution to save the Earth from environmental damages. There are some promising methods that could be conducted by re-engineering the biological, physical and chemical systems in the earth. This term was coined to save the planet from human’s activities not only to make it sounds cool.

One of the geoengineering method in solving the environmental damage was by using the biological elements. In July 2012, scientists which were funded by the Russ George conducted experiments involving the plankton. Their plan was to trigger the plankton for reproducing themselves by giving them vast source of food which were needed by them. The Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation threw hundreds of thousands pounds of iron sulphate which were consumed by the plankton so they would do reproduction. But, why it had to be plankton?

The aim was to harvest plankton which had ability to absorb airborne carbon dioxide. This type of plankton consumes carbon dioxide as raw energy to perform the photosynthesis. When the carbon dioxide is being utilized, the carbon dioxide is cracked so it produces the oxygen as by-product. At the end, the carbon will be staying at the body of phytoplankton and when this microalgae dead, it will be sinking to the oceans’ floors. Thus, the decomposition process is begun while the leftover of decomposed material will be consumed by the marine life including the phytoplankton. This cyclic process is one of the promising solution coined by the geoengineering plant.

On the other hand, the ocean acidification is currently bleaching the coral reef in certain places. This environmental damage is occurred because of the solved carbon dioxide in the ocean. In the nature, the chemical reaction conducts continuously. Subsequently, the carbonic acid is formed which is actually a weak acid. However, by the increasing of carbon dioxide resulted from the activities of human generates more acidic ocean each year. The more acidic the ocean the more corrosive the ocean, and as the result everything you put in it will be dissolved.

Surprisingly, the presence of phytoplankton mentioned earlier can become one of the effective solution because before the carbon dioxide reacts to the water, these microalgae already captured it. To conclude, geoengineering is one of the promising method in saving the Earth from greenhouse gasses. Furthermore, it can secure the marine’s ecosystem.

Reference
[1] Image is downloaded from https://sea-birdscientific.com