Isn’t it still an emission?

06/28/2006 @ 11:00 am

What’s a country to do when they need to cut greenhouse gas emissions into the air in order to comply with the Kyoto Protocol?

Pump it into the ground, according to a report coming out of Japan.

Japan hopes to slash greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming with a revolutionary plan to pump carbon dioxide into underground storage reservoirs instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, an official said Monday.

The proposal aims to bury 200 million tons of carbon dioxide a year by 2020, cutting the country’s emissions by one-sixth, said Masahiro Nishio, an official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Introduced last month, the plan is still under study.

Though this idea actually is not new to Japan (similar steps are being taken in Norway, Canada, and Algeria), the system envisioned by Japan is the largest by far. Questions remain, however, as to what would happen if the system is ruptured by a major earthquake.

By Edward Chmura, Stored in: Dumb, Japan, Kyoto Protocol

5 Responses to “Isn’t it still an emission?”

overoften Said:

I’m no scientist, so there are large parts of this I don’t understand.

pressurizing it into liquid form, scientists can inject it into underground aquifers, gas fields or gaps between rock strata, safely keeping it out of the air.

Between rock strata? Call me a worrier, but that doesn’t seem awfully safe. What if it were suddenly to be accidentally warmed, would that not blow the rock apart? And what would be the effect of a massive accidental leak?

When stored properly, 99 percent of the carbon dioxide will likely remain stable for up to 1,000 years.

And then?

And bearing in mind the projected cost of this (the report states $52/ton), are there not better solutions than finding expensive hiding places?

June 28th, 2006 at 12:04 pm

ghoti Said:

This is a bold move. I am doing my bit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and have cut refried beans completely out of my diet.

1000 years from now, in the next ice age, our descendants can amuse themselves by guessing where the next carbon dioxide explosion will occur. I wonder if homeowners insurance will cover that?

June 28th, 2006 at 5:30 pm

cloneofsnake Said:

The kinds of people that thought of “storing the unwanted away for future generations to deal with” are despicable. Not only are they not solving problems, they are wasting more resources to create more problems! The first step to solving any problems is to get rid of these people!