Persuasive Essay On Climate Change

Interesting fact: 86 percent of American adults drive cars and 72 percent believe that people need to limit emitting greenhouse gases (Winke). Where is the connection between American thought and action regarding climate change?

Actually, Americans have dealt with climate change exactly as can be expected from human behavior. Leaving American citizens without a comprehensive plan on how to control climate change has left them prey to tragedy of the commons, confused on how to accomplish the task, and fixed to the idea that carrying out climate change policy is ‘too hard.’

Inaction is becoming increasingly more risky. For many years it has been the consensus to keep the rise in global temperature under 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial

CARBON DIOXIDE REMOVAL

CDR attempts to directly solve climate change by removing CO2 from the atmosphere (What is…). Because it requires human intervention in Earth’s natural systems, it fits in the category of geoengineering. It is generally considered safer than the other type of geoengineering, called albedo modification or solar radiation management, which attempts to limit the amount of sunlight radiation hitting the Earth to the temperature below a certain level.

Carbon Dioxide Removal is a blanket term to cover a variety of activities that remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The most commonly cited type of CDR is direct air capture and sequestration, or DACS. This method includes removing carbon dioxide from ambient air, separating it chemically in a process called ‘scrubbing’ and then storing it in holding facilities (Klusinske).

Another popular option for CDR is Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Sequestration (BECCS). BECCS first requires the growth of biomass, then the organic matter is made into biofuel and the carbon emitted when burning the fuel is immediately captured and sequestered so it does not end up in the atmosphere (Klusinske). In every step, BECCS combats the carbon problem—growing plants remove CO2 through photosynthesis, renewable fuels would limit fossil fuel emissions, and any other CO2 would be

Two simple types include reforestation (replanting deforested areas) and afforestation (planting trees where trees never existed). The trees would naturally take the carbon dioxide out of the air through photosynthesis.

Scientists have also considered increasing the rate of photosynthesis in the ocean as a potential CDR method. Ocean iron fertilization is a method where powdered iron sulfate is dumped into the ocean to stimulate phytoplankton growth. Theoretically, more phytoplankton would mean more carbon taken out of the atmosphere. Phytoplanktons naturally remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they photosynthesize and sequester the CO2 when they die and sink to the bottom of the ocean. (Klusinske).

Enhanced weathering is another option for CDR that has one of the highest possibilities to affect the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. This method of CDR uses mined minerals (either crushed basalt or harzburgite) exposed on the Earth’s surface to react with atmospheric carbon dioxide and therefore remove it from the atmosphere. It is estimated that under a ‘business-as-usual’ model (where people would continue to live and emit carbon dioxide as they do now), the Earth would warm 4 degrees Celsius by 2100. With enhanced weathering implemented at a global scale, under the same conditions the Earth would only warm 2.5 degrees Celsius, and the potential concentration of CO2 would change from 930 parts per million