Sputnik hero Sergei Korolyov was in the news recently for being the one that opened the space era. As his co-worker Russian scientist Georgy Grechko explained, they weren’t sure about the impact of the breakthrough when they first launched Sputnik into space since it was mere “who’s your daddy” showing off from the hottest days of the Cold War. Just another example that shows we’re always in a rush to beat each other to destruction. Our kids will ask us, “Why didn’t you race to find the cure for global warming?” By the time this article goes to print, we will have found out whether Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize with his efforts to focus attention on the need to fight global warming. What has he really achieved? Was he able to convince his own politicians that the US has to cut emissions, since they are the largest contributor of greenhouse gases? Or is he playing along so that Americans would be able to feel good that some fellow Americans are actually doing something about it? If Gore wants to make a real, honest impression, he should reject the prize, pointing to the fact that he failed to generate the interest among the public and the administration he once was a part of.
The majority of scientists are clear on what to do to slow down global warming -- cut emissions of greenhouse gases, most importantly carbon dioxide, CO2. It seems like planting more trees is not helping since the carbon cycle (the global series of chemical processes where the carbon element cycles through different forms) is as much corrupted as the international coalition against global warming. The truth is oceans hold the most CO2, and in comparison forests are a small part, about one-100th of the former. Australian scientist Feng Fei and coworkers presented the following solutions for CO2 reductions: (1) improving the efficiency of energy utilization, (2) increasing the use of low-carbon energy sources, and (3) CO2 capture and sequestration. The last one being the most effective, they say, although the hardest of all too. For one, countries, especially the US (responsible for 30 percent of all CO2 emissions) and China (13 percent), should be convinced not to emit that much and then should agree to reverse the process to capture the CO2 they’re releasing every day. This sounds ideal and is far from being realized.
Let’s face it. As similar to the fact that Sputnik wasn’t intended for opening the space era, none of us will really care about global warming until somebody accidentally does something major about it. And Gore will live happily ever after with his Nobel medallion. This is our inconvenient nature.
*Cafer T. Yavuz is a researcher at Rice University, Houston, TX and a freelancer on nanotechnology and science in general.
