SCIENCE SAVES THE WORLD

Space umbrellas, green sand and garlic milk... Isabel Thomas explores the boldest ideas and wackiest ways to fight climate change and fix the planet.

- 

Every day seems to bring new stories of extreme weather around the world, from flash floods and forest fires to melting glaciers and crumbling coastlines. Most scientists agree that these events are becoming more common because of climate changes caused by the rise in average global temperatures.

However, there is also hope that technology will help us fix the problems caused by 200 years of burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). From mechanical trees to Moon-dust sunscreen, scientists and engineers are hard at work inventing all kinds of ingenious solutions for a lower-carbon future.

What causes climate change?

Global warming has lots of causes, but carbon dioxide is the most infamous. This invisible gas makes up just 0.04% of Earth's atmosphere, but it has a planet-sized impact. Along with water vapour and methane, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. This means that it absorbs some of the Sun's energy and traps it in Earth's atmosphere, stopping it from escaping back into space.

This "greenhouse effect" is natural and keeps our planet warm enough to live on. However, since the Industrial Revolution began around 250 years ago, humans have been adding tonnes of extra greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

When fossil fuels are burned, the carbon in those fuels combines with oxygen in the air, forming carbon dioxide. This extra greenhouse gas increases the greenhouse effect, trapping more of the Sun's energy than normal. As a result, the world is getting warmer, causing climate change.

Tummy trumpets