Problem:

Too much carbon in the atmosphere.

Solution:

Enhanced rock weathering

Professor David Beerling, Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation at the University of Sheffield and a team have shown that adding rock dust such as finely crushed basalt, a natural volcanic rock to all cropland soil in China, India, the U.S. and Brazil could trigger weathering that would remove more than 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year and help meet key global climate targets.

One compelling aspect of enhanced weathering is that, in controlled-environment studies involving basalt amendments of soil, cereal grain yields are improved by roughly 20%.

The scientists suggest that meeting the demand for rock dust to undertake large-scale CO2 drawdown might be achieved by using stockpiles of silicate rock dust left over from the mining industry, and are calling for governments to develop national inventories of these materials.

Discover Solution 141: Ethanol from CO₂

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