The Climate Change Reversal Project

By the time the sun reached its apex the temperature was well on its way to reach the predicted high of 118 degrees. For Sydney, Australia, another day of record-setting temperatures. Over three-fourths of the world's population has already been evacuated because of rising sea levels. For years now scientists have been warning about rising seas and yet too many political leaders scoffed at the idea of man-induced climate change. But now, faced with global devastation that is unprecedented in modern times it just maybe too late for Mother Earth. The human race is now on the verge of extinction. All over the world for the past few years there continues to be record-setting temperatures. Places like Seattle, Washington and even London, England have seen days on end where the temperatures have reached 110 degrees or higher. Compounding the massive heat waves, the world is witnessing increasing violent hurricanes and typhoons. Never before in recent history has the world been thrust into such an inferno.

Scientists all agree that humans can still survive if temperatures don't exceed 130 degrees. Already there have been mass evacuations all across the globe. Humanity is at the breaking point. Civil unrest and violent confrontations are poised to send mankind back into the caves. This is the future of humanity if the world doesn't quickly implement drastic measures to not only reduce carbon emissions but to completely eliminate them. But then again, that is not going to be enough to stop the above scenario from occurring. We have to come up with a viable solution to once and for all secure the ozone so that the planet will stabilize and prevent what surely will be a global catastrophe of biblical proportions.

The world is already coming dangerously close to being thrust into the inferno. Still, and even with the Montreal Protocol in place the planet is getting warmer, sea levels are rising, and more violent weather patterns are causing too many fatalities and too much devastation, not to mention the billions if not trillions of dollars in damages. And, yet there are still too many countries whose growing economies haven't been very cooperative in reducing carbon emissions. With the world getting warmer, is there still time to prevent disaster?

Meanwhile in northern Saskatchewan, Marvin Hobbs, a renowned physicist, along with Vladimir Dmitriev, his Russian counterpart, are hard at work developing what could be man's last and best hope. They are collaborating not on a weapon of mass destruction but developing a chemical compound that, when released in the Stratosphere, will seal the ozone and in the process will stabilize the planet's climate. Is this science fiction, or could there really be a possible scientific breakthrough already in development? That is the purpose of CCRP, the Climate Change Reversal Project.

To understand how we have gotten to this point, we must retrace our steps back to 1973. This is when many in the scientific community first tried to tell the world that renewable green energy will save the planet. But, the oil industry had too much influence, just like it did 25 years earlier and just like it does today on our politicians and our economy. It was in 1949 that the big three auto manufacturers and Big Oil got together to sabotage what was then a revolutionary concept automobile, the Tucker. As it was then, by the 1970's Big Oil and General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler were still doing business as usual. Gas pumps kept pumping and oil was still being drilled. The world seem oblivious to the mounting threat that combustible fuels were having on the earths environment and climate.

For over 60 years now our consumption and steady reliance on fossil fuel sources have opened holes in the ozone that are causing dramatic climate changes all around the globe. So what the planet is experiencing today is the result of man's indifference to what has amounted to a blatant disregard for the sanctity of life just for the sake of corporate profits. Over a century of CO2 emissions produced by all the mechanisms that rely on carbon fuels has opened holes in the ozone that will never be repaired without developing a compound that will permanently close them. Sure, man has reduced carbon emissions following the Montreal Protocol but to secure the future for our planet the successful completion of the Climate Change Reversal Project is vital.

To fully understand the scope of the severity of one of man's greatest threats is to understand just what is CO2 and how it is so disruptive to the earth's atmosphere and the effects it has on our climate. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a clear gas composed of one atom of carbon and two atoms of oxygen. Carbon dioxide has many chemical forms. Under standard temperature and pressure conditions, it is stable, inert, and non-toxic. Carbon dioxide occurs naturally in small amounts in the Earth's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide helps create and maintain the natural greenhouse effect that keeps the Earth friendly to life. Without this effect, Earth’s temperature would be a chilly 0° F. Plants break down the CO2 into carbon and oxygen, releasing the oxygen into the atmosphere, and retaining the carbon to live and grow.

Ever since the first industrial revolution humanity has been adding more CO2 to the atmosphere, affecting the ability of natural absorbers, such as forests, to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Now, within the past century, what man has done with so much deforestation–especially the near depletion of the Amazon Rain forest (which is still ongoing)–those natural absorbers, aka the forests, has only increased the amount of CO2 into the atmosphere and further opened the ozone. While CO2 emissions come from natural sources, it has been man who, for over a hundred years, are responsible for the increase that has created openings in the ozone that, without a counter offensive, will never close. And without closure, the planet will continue to see more climate disturbances the likes of which have never been seen before in modern times.

We all know that the increase in CO2 emissions is due to energy use by expanding economies and populations, and we also know that reducing those CO2 emissions are done by operating more fuel-efficient vehicles, and using more efficient appliances. We can also reduce CO2 emissions through conservation, such as reducing personal energy, by turning off lights and electronics when not in use and driving fewer miles. We need to produce more energy from renewable sources and completely eliminate the need for and use of carbon fuels. Another way to reduce CO2 emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants is carbon dioxide capture and sequestration. But, what our Republican-led legislature and Republican President fail to realize is that cutting back on CO2 emissions is not going to cut it. We need to start removing the CO2 that exists in the atmosphere now, and even if we stopped adding to the carbon dioxide that is presently in the air, this high level will continue for possibly thousands of years and our ozone will never close in ours or our grandchildren's lifetime.

But, how do we remove the excess CO2 from the air and close those openings in the ozone? Even if we put in place many forms of carbon dioxide capture devises, the need is more than apparent that a chemical compound much like what has just been recently developed, a bacteria the dissolves plastic, is needed to stave off a possible Armageddon-like climate change scenario. We all have to realize that to reverse climate change, our society requires something beyond today’s renewable energy technologies. Fortunately, new discoveries are changing the way we think about physics, technology, and biology all the time. While humanity is currently on a trajectory to catastrophic climate change, this disaster can be averted if researchers aim for goals that seem nearly impossible. That is the real purpose of why Climate Change Reversal Project must and can not fail.

For our fictional scientists Norman Hobbs and Vladimir Dmitriev, they realize what real scientists today must have. That is the backing of every industrialized nation around the world to find that chemical compound that, when released in the stratosphere, will close the openings created by man's indifference to our planet so that mankind will survive.