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Pitch

More exhaust gases from fuel burning mean more air pollution, more air pollution means less rain.


Description

Summary

Rain enhancement by cloud seeding was successfully used in many regions in the world. Still, this method requires the existence of clouds that are precipitating less every year. Cloud formation and the precipitation of the cloud (i.e. rain and snow) has been found to be affected by air pollutants. Those pollutants are majorly caused by biomass or fossil fuel burning. One way to decrease the air pollution is to reduce the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is considered the major greenhouse gas because it can stay in the atmosphere longer than other gases. Not only the CO2 gas aerosols affect the precipitation of rain, but also the warming effect that this gas causes will decrease the water vapor condensation in the clouds.   


Category of the action

Mitigation/Adaptation, Changing public attitudes about climate change


What actions do you propose?

To minimize the effect of CO2 aerosols to the formation of clouds, several methods can be implemented. Exhaust gas from combustion reactions is to be reduced as one of the major methods. This can be done by numerous techniques. One of these methods is to treat the current combustible fuel by gasification then eliminate undesired chemicals. This is often called pre-combustion capture of CO2. Another similar process to the pre-combustion process is the oxyfuel combustion, where the fuel is combusted with pure O2, and the byproduct will only be CO2 and water vapor. Carbon dioxide can also be removed post-combustion, where the exhaust gas from the burned fuel is treated to filter out CO2. The latter is not used for power generation only, but also for other large industries like cement and iron and steel. There are more than those three technologies, and lots of research has been done to test and validate them. This CO2 can then be used for cultivation of plants because it needs CO2 to grow. In addition, increasing the efficiency of heat conversion will lead to less fuel burned, therefore, less polluting aerosols. Another way to reduce the carbon dioxide footprint is to use clean renewable fuels. These include, for example, the wind and solar energy as a source of power generation. Power generation is one of the largest polluting industry, and switching to clean renewables will also aid in the cloud formation in the long run. Most renewables have higher prices upfront, but they don’t require much later on. For the transportation sector, policies are to be executed to encourage minimal use of combustion powered motors.


Who will take these actions?

Regulations and policies are to be governmentally made to penalize any refusal, otherwise, no one will take action


Where will these actions be taken?

All around the world


What are other key benefits?

  • Minimize CO2 emissions
  • Create jobs
  • Decrease the atmospheric concentration of CO2
  • Reduce air pollution
  • Lower the global warming effect
  • Ease the formation of clouds
  • Increase cloud precipitations
  • Rise rainfall rates, if God wills


What are the proposal’s costs?

Couple zillion dollars. Individual work is insignificant


Time line

Long term (50-100 years)


Related proposals


References

Levin, Z., & Cotton, W. R. (Eds.). (2009). Aerosol Pollution Impact on Precipitation: A Scientific Review. Springer.

Metz, B., Davidson, O., Coninck, H. D., Loos, M., & Meyer, L. (Eds.). (2005). Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. Cambridge University Press.