A dash of lime -- a new twist that may cut CO2 levels back to pre-industrial levels

Science Codex ^ | July 21, 2008

[Abathar]

That would take a lot of limestone, and a lot of capital.

I guess we now have another excuse to tell AlGore to go pound sand...

[SamuraiScot]

One useful definition of insanity might be: searching for solutions to non-problems.

[DManA]

Scientists first need gain a rudimentary understanding of the atmosphere, then they can start tinkering with it. Maybe in 250 years or so.

[Vanbasten]

Not only that, but I guarantee an unintended consequence would come from this.

[WayneS]

...to pound limestone IN to sand...

[WayneS]

Increased alkalinity is, no doubt, bad for the whales...

[MainFrame65]

These people scare the hell out of me. They have no idea what the Earth will do in two weeks, much less two years or two decades, but they want to lay waste to natural processes out of sheer chutzpah.

[achilles2000]

Very well put...

[DancesWithBolsheviks]

And if we then add Tequila...!

[hsrazorback1]

One pleasant side effect: pre-marinated sea bass.

[mdmathis6]

Global cooling by reducing co2...fish kills due to dumping all that lime, declining vitality in the worlds plants and trees due to reduced co2...I can think of all sorts issues. Now the use of lime in a power plant bubbler scrubbing system before gasses escape might be an interesting concept....could something like that be put into cars and trucks?

[PeterPrinciple]

That would take a lot of limestone, and a lot of capital.

---

Plus the cost of unintended consequences.

[mc5cents]

Scientists first need gain a rudimentary understanding of the atmosphere, then they can start tinkering with it. Maybe in 250 years or so.

Amen to that! I don't think we want to go around messing with the ecosystem that God himself created!

Drill here, drill now, pay less!

[Gorzaloon]

It would be interesting to see what the current calcium levels are in Sea water compared to x years ago. There are places where shells were dumped by the original People, or by colonists.

Coral and shellfish remove calcium and CO2 from water to make their calcium carbonate shells.

Do clams have thicker or thinner shells lately?

[Abathar]

I guess there are people who would know that, I happen to not be one of them.

[G Larry]

New CCC effort.
Pick, shovel, donkey cart....

None of these idiots have studied the negative effect of “fixing” a non-problem.

[Vanbasten]

I sure hope not!

Only another a demand on automakers, thereby raising prices.

Also, if what the IPCC has claimed is really true (and I am very skeptical), than less than 1% of the earth’s atmosphere drives climate. And what you said may come to pass, global cooling, or even worse bring on an ice age.

[ianmb]

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly...

[21twelve]

I know that the clam-farm guys are worried about thinner shells. But that may just be from listening to the alarmist news and not related to actual observed thicknesses.

[Flycatcher]

They say we can't drill our way out of the oil crisis but apparently we can mine our way out of the nonexistent global warming crisis.

Total lunacy, no matter how you slice it.