The Climate Apocalypse
There are many doomsday prophecies but only one is backed by science: The Climate Apocalypse
Solar Evolution
People like to think of our sun as being ageless, but albeit on a much longer timescale than a human lifespan, stars age and eventually die. Fortunately our sun has still about 4.5 billion years before it will turn into a red giant but it has been slowly increasing in size and luminosity for the last 4 billion years and this is an ongoing process.
Evolution of Earth's Atmosphere
Life on Earth emerged about 3.8 billion years ago below an atmosphere which contained no oxygen but a large amount of carbon dioxide and had a strong greenhouse effect. If the energy output of our sun was then, what it is today, Earth could not have cooled enough to support liquid water and consequently life.
Further cooling and glaciation started when photosynthetic algae and early plants began to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere replacing it with oxygen and weakening the greenhouse effect. If our sun had not increased it's energy output by more than fourty percent over the last 4 billion years, Earth would have been permanently frozen.
Carbon Dioxide Depletion
Without human influence, Earth's biosphere would continue to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, eventually falling below 180ppm where plants based on C3-photosynthesis (about 85% of current vegetation) would no longer be able to grow.
Anthropogenic Emissions
Human interference from digging up and burning fossil fuels like carbon, oil and gas has already reversed the long standing trend of decreasing carbon dioxide.
Global Warming
This increase in greenhouse gas has already caused a significant rise in average temperature.
Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions
The Kyoto protocol and the Paris agreement about reducing carbon dioxide emission are so far the only measures, government leaders could agree on to combat the global threat of climate change.
Unfortunately they are in a bad position to implement the agreement for they depend on their electorate and most people are reluctant to change their habits.
Rising Earth's Albedo
A more convenient solution to prevent the Earth from warming would be to instead decrease the amount of energy absorbed from the Sun.
Whitening Streets
Credit: @bsslosangeles
The city of Los Angeles has recently announced that it is going to paint it's streets in white to reduce the temperature in the city and combat climate change.
Greening Buildings
Credit: Lahminewski Lab/Wikipedia
Plants are not just good for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and providing food for all animal life, they are also great for reflecting green and infrared light.
Credit: green4cities
Scrubbing the Atmosphere
Chemical process using Carbonate:
`2 NaO + H_2O = 2 NaOH`
`CO_2 + H_2O = H_2CO_3`
`NaOH + H_2CO_3 = NaHCO_3 + H_2O`
`NaHCO_3 = NaO + H_2O + CO_2`
Burying biomass.
Desertification and Desert Greening
Credit: USDA
Climate change is also causing weather patterns to change, causing extreme weather conditions including hurricanes, thunderstorms and heatwaves. This is not only a threat to humans but also a significant problem for plant and animal life.
Desertification is the most overlooked but immediate threat from Global Warming.
- no carbon dioxide fixation
- no warm and humid air to rise and rain
- no clouds to reflect energy from the Sun
Survival of Humanity
All these measures cannot outrun the steadily increasing energy output of the sun and a more permanent solution will be needed to ensure the survival of humanity.
Colonize Mars
Credit: NASA/Clouds AO/SEArchA
Colonizing Mars is the most obvious and important thing to do. Mars is far enough from the Sun to remain inhabitable for several billion years. Until we are hopefully ready to travel to other stars.
Change Earth Orbit
NASA had planned an Asteroid Redirect Mission to use the gravitational force between a spacecraft and an asteroid to change the course of the asteroid and capture it in a Moon orbit for further examination. Unfortunately this mission has been cancelled with the 2018 budget.
This is important because it is not possible to install thrusters anywhere on planet Earth. Atmosphere and gravitation would capture the exhaust and neutralize it's momentum.
Having low gravity and insignificant atmosphere, the Moon would allow the installation of thrusters and could be steered to become a gravity tractor for rising the orbit of planet Earth.