They’re going to do what? with what?
I have read some really bizarre ideas about how to combat global warming. But just the other day I heard something on the radio that was too outlandish to be true. Or so I thought. It seems that the US government (among others, including Japan) has been experimenting with ways to bury carbon dioxide instead of releasing it into the air. Hm.
There are all sorts of ways that this could be “interesting” in the long run. I saw a special on the Bermuda Triangle a while back that presented the idea that giant methane bubbles were being released from the ocean floor. These bubbles were responsible for ships and even airplanes disappearing. They showed a scale model of a super tanker with a huge bubble exploding underneath… the tanker didn’t last more than a few seconds.
So that’s one concern, what happens if the CO2 escapes somehow in a dramatic fashion?
Or what if it escapes in a non-dramatic fashion? Another article I read suggested that forcing the liquid (the gas is first cooled to a liquid, and then pumped underground) into the ground could raise the acidity of the ground water. This means that the water would more readily dissolve toxic elements like lead. So while the carbon dioxide is not by itself poisonous, it could still impact our drinking water.
I’ve also read articles that suggest that the furor over the rising carbon dioxide levels has been blown way out of proportion anyway. One of Michael Crichton’s latest novels (State of Fear) takes on global warming and the concept of eco-terrorism in a nearly entertaining fashion… I say “nearly” because the book is full of footnotes and references to science studies that debunk some of the more commonly held beliefs about global warming. It’s more of a political statement (albeit on the opposite side from most) than a novel.
I won’t bother linking to any sites that discuss global warming in more detail, there are plenty of those. 
But I have provided a few links that are directly related to this idea.
Related Links
- Japan to bury CO2
An article from 2006 but still appropriate for this post - Burying CO2 in Texas
This article from the Christian Science Monitor web site talks about an on-going study in Texas where they have been injecting carbon dioxide into the ground since 2004.