Back from the brink

• Ricard Solé ^[1]
  1. [1] Universitat Pompeu Fabra

     Universitat Pompeu Fabra

     Barcelona, España

     
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3093, 2016, págs. 36-37
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Sole details his radical way to curb the ravages of climate change. In the coming decades, climate change will mean many more ecosystems reaching catastrophic tipping points. Several grandiose suggestions have been made as to how people might engineer their way back from the brink, such as giant mirrors in space that would reduce the amount of solar energy reaching Earth. But such schemes are expensive and risky. He and his colleagues think they have a better idea, one that takes its cue from the solution to the algal blooms: engineering ecosystems using synthetic life. This approach could help prevent the spread of deserts, restore polluted lakes and rivers, attack the islands of plastic rubbish accumulating in the oceans, and deal with sewage or vast landfills resulting from industrial and farming activities.