Climate Clock: Time We Have Until Climate Change Is Irreversible
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The Problem
The climate crisis is not fresh news. It’s been happening for years now, but is suddenly nearing the point of being irreversible. When examining the causes of a calamity like this it’s safe to say that there are more than one, but carbon dioxide emissions are certainly a large contributor, especially as they are caused by human activity. Carbon dioxide is a natural gas that we breathe out, but when fossil fuels like oil and coal are burned, and pursuits like deforestation occur, there results in an excess amount in the atmosphere. In 2019 CO2 made up 80% of US greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, and CO2 is contributing heavily to this effect, subsequently leading to respiratory disease in humans, disrupted food chains, wildfires, droughts, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and more. This leads to hundreds of thousands of people and wildlife killed yearly. Because of climate change, over 1 million species of animals face extinction, and the rate of extinction is now over 1,000 times the natural rate.
Climate change is a problem. We need to solve it now.
It’s not that the world hasn’t had more carbon dioxide, it’s not that the world hasn’t been warmer. The problem is the speed at which things are changing. We are inducing a sixth mass extinction event kind of by accident and we don’t want to be the ‘extinctee.
We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.
The world is reaching the tipping point beyond which climate change may become irreversible. If this happens, we risk denying present and future generations the right to a healthy and sustainable planet – the whole of humanity stands to lose.
The World Needs Cequest
We need something, a radical solution, to play a role in putting an end to climate change. One way to do this is by removing that excess carbon dioxide and putting it to a greater purpose. This is where Cequest comes in, a solution with the potential to sequester over 10 Gt of carbon dioxide per year by 2050. Cequest sequesters carbon to produce clean hydrogen fuel as well as a bicarbonate that can be released into the ocean to combat ocean acidification.
At a high level, the reaction that will allow us to capture carbon from the sea takes in sea water as an input. Then electrolysis is performed with the seawater. After that NaOH is produced which then is bubbled to capture carbon dioxide. Furthermore, carbon dioxide is combined with crushed limestone to form alkalized water that is then imputed into the sea in order to improve the habitat of sea creatures.
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