For UN Climate Summit 2014
To: [UN Climate Summit 2014 Civil society organizations UN Representatives]
Subject: “End Global Warming & Climate Change Now” Technology Solution Recommendation
Hi [UN Reps],
I wanted to contribute this recommendation to your epic efforts at the UN tomorrow to resolve the Global Warming problem.
There are so many proposals, the long list of things-to-try feels overwhelming. So many plans involve long lists of actions to be coordinated across many different agencies, while many others require profound changes to a country’s governmental, societal, technological & infrastructural dimensions, including requiring many turn-on-a-dime developments of new, un-time-tested technologies to be swapped in place of old. Numerous geo-engineering schemes augur unanticipated & potentially disastrous run-away ecological responses, while many other plans do not indicate how much added CO2 will be prevented, & nearly none address how to remove the current excess – even many of the things that have been tried haven’t had all that much effect, as reported in the The Economist survey “The deepest cuts”. Meanwhile powerful fundamentalist-like science & climate denial lobbyist groups approach majority power, while BRICS nations continue their massive & full-scale development towards total Industrialization, with the remaining developing nations waiting in the wings to launch same, even as countries & multinational companies eagerly eye the vast profits to be made mining the remaining planetary ground & arctic fossil fuel reserves.
As an Appropriate Technology Engineer, ever since Al Gore’s documentary, I’ve been keeping an eye out for an effective solution that will actually solve the problem – remove all CO2 contributed since the Industrial Revolution & continue removing it until all countries have gone green & all UN emission goals are met. I was looking for something simple & direct that would literally “take out” the CO2 problem, much like oil well firefighter Red Adair extinguished the oil well fires set by Saddam's troops after the Gulf War. Despite all the complexity that has arisen describing the CO2 problem & its solution, it really seemed possible to simplify the situation by viewing it as comparable to a multiply-sourced “oil spill in the sky” that could be removed by a “planetary-scale CO2 scrubber”. After some years of searching, just such a solution finally appeared. The tech was originally worked out by an 8th Grade 12 year old girl, Claire Lackner, for a science fair project, to extract CO2 directly from the air, as suggested by her father, Columbia University Geophysicist Dr. Klaus Lackner. The result changed his life, he since dedicating himself to scaling the tech to industrial levels, mimicking tree’s CO2 extraction methods but 1000 times more efficiently, his largest trees capable of pulling 90 Kilotons of CO2 yearly, resulting in an artificial tree forest being able to remove all CO2 added to the air since the Industrial Revolution in any desired timeframe – 30 years, 10 years or less, depending solely of the size of the forest.
Consequently, this being the best CO2 problem solving technology I've seen to date, I’ve written up a recommendation proposal that focuses on fully supporting & optimally promoting Dr. Lacker’s technology to effectively take out the CO2 threat. This proposal does not require or rely upon the success of any CO2 reduction scheme, nor does it deem likely that remaining fossil fuel will go undeveloped & that developing nations will curtail their development programs. This proposal’s singular strength is that it recommends a single, relatively simple, direct & failsafe method of CO2removal regardless of source or quantity, that makes it easy to rally behind & that thereby provides countries the time to make the changes to renewable/sustainable technologies & meet the UN IPCC goals without damaging their economies. I submitted the proposal, during Obama’s Presidential campaign, to his “Citizens Briefing Book”, as well as to Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu & the White House, as well as, more lately, to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT Center for Collective Intelligence project "Climate CoLab", which recently issued a call for ideas for "what to do about climate change".
I believe this technology is what we’ve been looking for. It is my hope that you will review the proposal, forward it to those who would find it of interest, & at some time during the UN Climate Summit, perhaps when it comes time to gather up all the presentations & proposals for review by the “UN Deciders”, include it in the plans to review. The proposal is on the MIT Climate CoLab site & titled “End Global Warming & Climate Change Now”.
Best of luck at UN Climate Summit - & hope this helps.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide,
Clifford J. Thompson
Appropriate Technology Engineer
VillageTech Paths of Native Africa Friends of African Outlet