Stopping global warming
Graduate students from Stanford’s Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences measure a magnesite nodule at the abandoned Red Mountain in California.
An abandoned mine in California is providing scientists with important data that could lead to a possible new weapon to fight global warming.
Massive amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide vacuumed from smokestacks or the air could be permanently locked up in a type of tight, magnesium-rich rock found in the mine, according to scientists. One tricky part is to break up the rock to make room for the greenhouse gas. And that may require violence.
This type of violent breakup happened in a burst of geologic activity millions of years ago in a coastal mountain range in California near the infamous San Andreas Fault, Pablo Garcia del Real, a graduate student at Stanford University in California, explained.
An abandoned mine at a mountain there contains some of the world's largest veins of a chalky mineral made of magnesium and carbon dioxide known as magnesite. He and colleagues are studying the magnesite deposits to determine how they formed so they can replicate the process to store carbon dioxide produced in places such as coal-fired power plants.
Great potential
"The potential is great, " del Real told NBC News. The Red Mountain mine where he and his colleagues are working once held the equivalent of 140, 000 metric tons of carbon in mineral form before the magnesite was mined in the early 20th century, he said.
All told, the magnesium-rich rocks in this particular mountain area in California could hold 13 gigatons of carbon, he added, "and there are hundreds more" areas with magnesium-rich rocks "around California and massive ones in Oregon."
For perspective, human activity has put more than 500 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere. According to climate scientists, irreversible climate change is likely to occur somewhere around 1, 000 gigatons, a threshold that humanity is on course to cross by the middle of this century.
How you cn stop the global warming?
Governments and businesses have to stop burning fossil fuels, move completely to renewable energy, and replant the great forests of the world to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
What is the best way to stop the global warming?
best way(s) to stop global warming is walk or use a bike most of the time
Putting a stop to global warming? | Yahoo Answers
The amount of CO2 we put in our air comes mostly from the cars that we drive. So if you stop driving so much, that will help. But I agree, why are scientists wasting their time making electronics when the world is at stake here? We won't have ANYTHING if we don't have a world! I think the environment is more important than the economy! Al Gore should've been president...
@deenz: You stop global warming by stopping the production of cattle and other livestock, not by eliminating fossil fuels #DemDebate
@DailyCaller I thought that was for stopping global warming.
@Keith Jay R: Think about it, we are literally stopping ourselves from doing the greater good, global warming, poverty, exploring the universe, etc all bc