A team of MIT scientists believes they have uncovered a way to not only pause the devastation of climate change but to reverse the process completely.
According to the United Nations, climate change is described by long-term shifts in both temperature and weather patterns. The international society also acknowledges that numerous factors contribute to the phenomenon.
The Devastation of Climate Change
Some known contributors to climate change are natural phenomena, such as the Earth's position relative to the sun and volcanic eruptions. On the other hand, the main concern is the effects of anthropomorphic activity on global temperatures.
Since the 19th century boom of the industrial revolution, humanity has consistently been burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal. Fossil fuels do not burn clean' various gases are given off during the process, with some having the potential to blanket the planet and trap heat - greenhouse gases.
Gases like carbon dioxide and methane are the two main greenhouse gas humans emit. Practices such as landfills and deforestation are also known to exacerbate the devastation.
The planet also seems to be more than 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than over a century ago, with the recent years being the hottest globally recorded temperatures. Although the increase seems small, scientists are already seeing the vast effects of climate change.
Droughts, large forest fires, extreme weather, and rising sea levels are a few significant consequences of climate change. Across the world, a large number of communities have been forced to relocate. The UN expects the number of refugees due to climate change will increase sharply over the next few decades as areas of the planet become virtually uninhabitable.
But hope is not lost. Experts believe that the worst consequences of global warming can be avoided if temperature rises are kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius, with numerous scientists studying how to keep temperatures at a minimum.
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MIT Scientists on Reversing the Effects of Climate Change
Currently, experts are eyeing a drastic change in emissions to slow or stop the effects of climate change. Meanwhile, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe that they have found a novel way to negate the effects of global warming and, in the best-case scenario, completely reverse the process.
The solution for MIT scientists involves creating several thin film-like silicon bubbles that would be joined in space to form a raft. The raft would have to be the size of Brazil and could provide an additional buffer area between the Earth and the sun's harmful rays.
Silicon is the best material for the ambitious bubbles that would be created and frozen in space to form parts of a shield. These bubbles would degrade at the rate they would have to replenish. The shield would be positioned along the planet and the sun's Lagrangian Point - the point where the planet and sun's gravitational forces act to keep the shield in position between them. MIT claim that the novel method would not directly interface with the planet's biosphere and would pose few risks to altering the existing fragile ecosystems, reports SlashGear.
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