how can you get rid of a billion tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere every year?

Question

global warming is a very bad thing, very bad. can anyone devise a way to rid of this gas. it must rid of billions of tons of carbon dioxide every year constantly. stopping to create more is good, but the gas already in the air is what causes most of the damage. i was thinking, what property in plants allow it to create oxygen from carbon dioxide? we could probably harness that power, amplify it, and use it. although probably not. any better ideas?

Answer 1

im afraid the only solution is plants.

plants use carbon dioxide, starch, water and sunlight to produce food for them, then put out their wastes in form of oxygen.

how can you conduct photosynthesis artificially. i think not...

Answer 2

The idea that growing more plants will remove carbon from the atmosphere is an over-simplification: Plants do photosynthesis during the day which turns carbon dioxide into nutrients, but then they do respiration (like animals) during the night which consumes the nutrients and releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Even the carbon used by the plant to increase its mass will be released back into the atmosphere when the plant is burned, eaten, or decays.

The only way to have a net gain in CO2 removed from the atmosphere is to grow a large mass of plant material, and then keep it from being burned, eaten, or decaying. One way to do that would be to grow lots of algae and then pump a concentrated algae sludge into the geological structures that previously held oil and natural gas. It might also work to pump that sludge into the ocean depths, because carbon down there tends to get converted into carbonates (minerals) before it reaches the surface. That process is actually happening all the time, but we might be able to increase it by injecting more carbon down there.

Answer 3

Stop deforestation, the imbalance of plant life conversion compared to CO2 generation regardless of the source, is allowing the CO2 levels to rise dramatically. The tropics have lost over 1/3 of their rainforests and the commercial timber industry can't keep up with plantings. Human generation of CO2 is miniscule to the amount present naturally. It is the flora-biome that hangs in the balance. If you want cold hard facts and direct correlations and not scientific theories, look up the rate of de-forestation and compare it to the rise in CO2. The UN politicians know they can't control third world economies with their slash and burn agriculture. So like true lawyers, they look for deep pockets- hence the American economy. Review the Kyoto Protocols and you'll see third world countries are exempt.

Answer 4

if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to reverse the destructive processes

reduce carbon emisions,and they are already working on that by alternative forms of energy and regulations on carbon producing materials,aerosol cans,burning rubbish,industrial chimneys,powerplants etc.

the capture of carbon and the production of water and assist the aquiferous manta.

the world bank pays large subsidies for reforrestation to capture carbon and the best tree for this is the Pawlonia

Waterharvesting projects ,such as millions of small dams.to redirect over ground waterflows from the rains into the ground to supply subteranian water supplies.

the protection of existing forrests.

Answer 5

more plant life is the best long term solution as its biological function involves taking in co2 and using sunlight to turn it into food or energy, giving out oxygen in the process. however this option takes time, so in the short run there is one option but it's not likely to be done large scale. it involves pumping the co2 into water which can absorb a majority of it. however this does raise the acidity level of the oceans if actually carried out on large scale and is expensive to do so anyway.

Answer 6

Plants live on sugar. Photsynthesis allows plants to break down carbon dioxide and turn it into glucose.

carbon dioxide + water + light energy → glucose + oxygen

Plant more plants.

Even though we know how it works, we can't reproduce it.
It's as though there is something there that we haven't seen or accounted for yet.

Answer 7

The ocean absorbs the most CO2. Plants and trees absorb Co2 during photosynthesis, but give off Co2 at night (net affect is zero).

Answer 8

well there is estimated about 6 billion people and when you breathe out you are breathing out carbon dioxide so its hard but plants more tree and flowers because it gives oxygen

Answer 9

by reducing pollution and planting more trees