What do you think?

[donkpow]

The addition of olivine to the world's oceans to reduce environmental carbon. 

 

"Coastal Carbon Capture, known in academic research as Coastal Enhanced Weathering, can be categorized as a negative emission technology (NET) that removes and stores CO2 on long timescales (tens to hundreds of thousands of years) (Minx et al. 2018). The process aims to accelerate the natural chemical weathering of the mineral olivine by spreading large amounts of ground olivine-containing rock onto coastlines where it can dissolve in seawater, thereby increasing the rate of CO2 absorption by the ocean (Bach et al. 2019).

When olivine dissolves in water, it drives the below reaction to the right, thus increasing CO2 uptake, increasing pH, and generating alkalinity. As a result, this process has the potential co-benefit of counteracting ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is the process by which increasing atmospheric CO2 dissolves in seawater, which reduces pH (increasing acidity) (upper reaction in diagram below). This reduces the ability of calcifying organisms like corals to grow and produce exoskeletons, or shells. As you can see below, dissolving olivine in water sequesters hydrogen ions into dissolved silicate (H4SiO4), a molecule that can be used by diatoms, an important photosynthesizing algae that fixes carbon dioxide and forms the base of food web."

 

 

https://www.projectvesta.org/

 

 

[Razors Edge ★]

Why would anyone want to mess with the world's oceans or change what we are currently doing?  That seems a solution in search of a problem!

[12string]

That was a lot of science.  Can you summarize it in a meme so I can make an informed decision?

[donkpow]

1 hour ago, 12string said:

That was a lot of science.  Can you summarize it in a meme so I can make an informed decision?

[Razors Edge ★]

5 minutes ago, donkpow said:

Not MY problem, though.  Good luck sorting ownership back to the folks responsible.

[donkpow]

3 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Not MY problem, though.  Good luck sorting ownership back to the folks responsible.

Well, I know I'm getting paid. That's for sure. I don't care who does it.

[jsharr ★]

1 hour ago, 12string said:

That was a lot of science.  Can you summarize it in a meme so I can make an informed decision?

[jsharr ★]

15 minutes ago, donkpow said:

 

His post was about acid ocean, not plastic ocean you dolt.  Keep up with how we are killing the planet please.

[donkpow]

The topic references a solution presented by Project Vesta. They put special sand on the coastal areas. The sand gets washed into the ocean. The carbon gets locked up and settles to the bottom of the ocean. In ten thousand years, you can drill for oil and put it in your car.

[Randomguy]

Can't be any worse than the usual nothing, right?

[donkpow]

I have a problem with adding stuff to get rid of stuff. The other side is what to do with all the stuff that gets collected when you just want to remove stuff. The popular thing now is to continue putting stuff in the environment but buying credit from other people who don't put stuff in the environment.

The thing around here that I hate: They say don't mow or fill your gas tank during the day, wait until evening when it won't affect air quality. I'm pretty sure a politician dreamed up that one.

[Razors Edge ★]

1 minute ago, donkpow said:

I have a problem with adding stuff to get rid of stuff. The other side is what to do with all the stuff that gets collected when you just want to remove stuff. The popular thing now is to continue putting stuff in the environment but buying credit from other people who don't put stuff in the environment.

The thing around here that I hate: They say don't mow or fill your gas tank during the day, wait until evening when it won't affect air quality. I'm pretty sure a politician dreamed up that one.

I still pour used motor oil and old paint down the drain.  If folks can't be bothered to fuel up their cars in the evening, why should I bother altering my routines?

[donkpow]

1 minute ago, Razors Edge said:

I still pour used motor oil and old paint down the drain.  If folks can't be bothered to fuel up their cars in the evening, why should I bother altering my routines?

I hope you didn't get vaccinated, yet. Vaccines are definitely not for you.

[Razors Edge ★]

1 minute ago, donkpow said:

I hope you didn't get vaccinated, yet. Vaccines are definitely not for you.

Well, I did the vaccine for ME and ME alone.  I cough on people for fun these days. The vaxxed folks don't seem to mind.  Good clean and free fun!

And FTR, no effing way I pay any money to offset my dumping of oil or paint.  What am I??? A snowflake?

[donkpow]

1 minute ago, Razors Edge said:

Well, I did the vaccine for ME and ME alone.  I cough on people for fun these days. The vaxxed folks don't seem to mind.  Good clean and free fun!

And FTR, no effing way I pay any money to offset my dumping of oil or paint.  What am I??? A snowflake?

We take our stuff to the waste facility and they dump it for us for free.  Probably at night so as not to hurt the environment.

[Razors Edge ★]

6 minutes ago, donkpow said:

We take our stuff to the waste facility and they dump it for us for free.  Probably at night so as not to hurt the environment.

Some stuff you want to burn.  Other stuff is better pumped into the water, and most other stuff is just fine to bury or spray on the soil.  You'd be surprised how well the planet does with this stuff.

[donkpow]

17 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Some stuff you want to burn.  Other stuff is better pumped into the water, and most other stuff is just fine to bury or spray on the soil.  You'd be surprised how well the planet does with this stuff.

Open burns are prohibited in this county except for cook outs. As long as it is not too close to your house and you have a stick and some hot dogs, you're good.

[Razors Edge ★]

1 minute ago, donkpow said:

Open burns are prohibited in this county except for cook outs. As long as it is not too close to your house and you have a stick and some hot dogs, you're good.

Best to not inhale the stuff I like to burn.  You really want to let it get diluted by the air.  But, yeah, if the cops come, claim it is a "cook out"! Good suggestion.

[Further]

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

Best to not inhale the stuff I like to burn.  You really want to let it get diluted by the air.  But, yeah, if the cops come, claim it is a "cook out"! Good suggestion.

A friend had been doing a lot of remodeling and yard cleanup, she had a huge pile of debris that she wanted to burn.

She called the fire dept. about having a fire and they were rattling off all the regulations and restrictions. She mentioned she was planning to light it up on a Saturday night, and that there would be plenty of people around.

The fire guy said, oh that's recreational, you can do whatever you want.

[Prophet Zacharia]

2 hours ago, donkpow said:

The other side is what to do with all the stuff that gets collected when you just want to remove stuff.

Exotic beaches.

[MoseySusan]

4 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

Not MY problem, though.  Good luck sorting ownership back to the folks responsible.

Absolutely your problem. Your plastics, your local waste management, your apathy about oversight, your faulty disposal/recycling chains.
Everyone’s problem.  

[MoseySusan]

4 hours ago, donkpow said:

I’m guessing that photo was taken outside a clothing manufacturer in another country. Clothing is in the top five of the “most environmental harms” list. 

[12string]

So when are you just going stop all the arguing and tell me what I think?

I still can't tell. none of those memes look like my backyard, so they aren't applicable to this discussion.

[maddmaxx ★]

What do I think.  I think unintended consequences are a bitch.

[MickinMD ★]

As a chemist, my first question is: how much olivine would you need to increase ocean CO2 absorption enough to matter?

The main paper referenced in the article says there needs to be a large number of mines, in the tropics, close enough to oceans and tropical areas where each mine would produce 100,000,000+ tons of olivine per year and says, "This will bring employment to millions."  Then, the olivine would be spread over 4,000,000 square miles of the tropics and oceans and rivers, where it would take 5 years to dissolve.  So 20,000,000 square miles of olivine would exist before much of it dissolved!

To top this off, the paper notes that laboratory weathering is MUCH slower than "natural weathering" where fungi help it along.  So 20,000,000 square miles of fungi would need to be available too, though there's no clear proof it would speed it up anywhere close to 5 years.

The normal atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the past 620,000 years, determined by studying air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice over that period, were in the 100 to 150 ppm range, with spikes of up to 294 ppm.  Today, its over 400 ppm.

So, in order for olivine to have any effect, it would have to remove about half of the CO2 or around 200 ppm or 2/100th of a percent of the entire atmosphere.  That's a lot!

On top of all this, CO2 is still being overproduced.  So even if the olivine worked, it would be a never-ended process unless we end the overproduction of CO2.

So, we have to FIRST reduce CO2 production to a sustainable level and the plankton in the ocean plus the plants on the earth would eventually reestablish a balance, though the longer we wait, the longer global warming will decimate the planet until balance is restored.  Perhaps only then would olivine be an advantageous aid to setting things right.

 

[Razors Edge ★]

15 hours ago, MoseySusan said:

Absolutely your problem. Your plastics, your local waste management, your apathy about oversight, your faulty disposal/recycling chains.
Everyone’s problem.  

Nope - it's the downstream suckers problem - literally (folks downstream) and figuratively (young folks).  This planet has more than enough wiggle room left for my needs. By the time it's in an unlivable condition, I'll be long dead.  Grandkids? Probably not, but their not my concern.

[maddmaxx ★]

Now I know why some people can't come to grips with other people getting sick from Covid.