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In 2015, the world came together and drafted the Paris Agreement. We agreed to try to limit our emissions so that the overall global warming would not exceed two degrees. An even more ambitious goal: warming would not exceed 1.5 degrees. This doesn’t sound like much, but going over such a small increase on a global scale could be responsible for an increase in drought, wildfires, global weather patterns, and even entire nations disappearing under the rising ocean.
The bad news – we may have already passed the point of no return. Reducing our emissions alone may not be enough to meet this goal.
But, there may be another way. Today we’re talking to two scientists, Dr.Kári Helgason, a research project manager, and Dr. Bergur Sigfússon, a senior geoscientist, at Reykjavik Energy. Both are involved in an amazing project called CarbFix, whose goal is to actually reverse climate change. CarbFix takes harmful gasses such as C02 and H2S that result from the production of energy, gases that would normally be released into the atmosphere. Instead, CarbFix returns them underground, where they turn into rocks. What’s more, this carbon-capture technology can be used to take preexisting greenhouse and toxic gases in the atmosphere and lock them in rocks as well. When deployed on a large scale, this could actually help reverse climate change.
How does it work? How much promise does this technology hold? It’s a wonderfully exciting possibility – so let’s travel to Iceland to find how it all works!
You can follow the CarbFix project @CarbFix and the GECO Project @GecoProject.
Some of the background music you heard were clips from Spacial Winds by Kevin McCleod (https://incompetech.com) licensed under CC BY 4.0, Route 17 by djolliej licensed under CC by 3.0., SkyDub by Psykick licensed under CC by 3.0., I Dunno (Grapes of Wrath Mix) by spinningmerkaba licensed under CC by 3.0., and Start To Grow (cdk Mix) by Analog By Nature licensed under CC by 3.0.