Global warming and climate change have been an issue that has been around for quite some time, and it has been seen that most of it is due to human causes. Economists and environmentalists have been looking at patterns and trying to find a solution, but there will always be some sort of consequence that comes with one solution. For example, the shift from using wood as fuel to coal was thought to be beneficial to humans and production, until we found out that burning coal has some negative consequences.
From there, researchers and scientists have started to conduct experiments on carbon sequestration. One of the contributing factors of global warming and climate change has to do with the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and so it is seen as a “greenhouse gas.” And so, carbon sequestration is an attempt at removing the carbon dioxide in the air and trapping it and storing it away from our atmosphere. Although this did sound contradictory in the beginning – “Why would we want to keep it on our planet if it’s bad for us?” There are ways in which the harmful chemicals in our atmosphere can still be of use to us. For example, through photosynthesis, plants are able to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. In a similar sense, different aspects of our ecosystem can use the carbon dioxide to their advantage. 
Because we have different ecosystems on our planet and their different functionalities, there are also different types of carbon sequestration that could be utilized according to their geography and biography – which are the two major types of carbon sequestration:
- Biological – This is the generic type that you would see, and photosynthesis would also fall into this category. Other ecosystems would include the oceans and forests.
- Geographical – As for geographical carbon sequestration, it’s in the name. This is where carbon dioxide is made to be sorted into landforms and the rocks on which we stand and surround ourselves with.
- Technological – Technology is something that has evolved our world, and this is the more artificial type of carbon sequestration. With this, scientists are looking for ways to use it as a resource, and they’ve been able to achieve this by creating new materials and molecules.
- Industrial – This is not as known of a method as the three mentioned above, but this goes through a three-step process that also does the job of converting and moving carbon dioxide elsewhere.
Throughout this blog and the semester, these processes will be spoken about more in-depth and we’ll also be bringing up some examples and methods that are appearing around the world.
This is a very interesting blog, very informational as well. I would have thought anything producing power with carbon was a bad thing, good to hear it can have its benefits. My major is actually economics, and some of the economics behind the global warming crisis are fascinating, to me at least. Also as someone new to the class, I really liked how you implemented your links and pictures. They work well with the topic at hand, and do not stick out like a sore thumb. I also love the topic and am excited to read more as the semester progresses. Great Job!
I would love to see a reasonable method of carbon sequestration. I haven’t paid much attention to scientific developments, but my general knowledge is that all innovations thus far are either too expensive to become mainstream, or cost the environment more than the value of the carbon being removed. I think that we have a big advantage since we have plants as a model, as they are the best form of carbon sequestration we have available to us. I know scientists all around the world are trying to replicate plants in this process, and I hope that one day they succeed.
I feel like throughout history humans have been learning through trial and error what is good for our natural environment and what is bad. But, with the bad piling up on our natural environment people began to raise awareness and find ways to overcome these negatives. Carbon sequestration made me realize that despite the increase of CO2 in our ecosystem there are still was we can use this element to our advantage. We can grow more plants to purify the air, CO2 can be sorted into landforms to produce more rocks to help us stabilize lands, and now scientists are looking for way we can use the CO2 in the air in technological and industrial ways. What can we do as individuals to help with carbon sequestration? Are there simple acts that we can do in order to help reduce or even use carbon to our benefit in our day to day lives?