The Future is Engineering

Throughout history, we have become fascinated with predicting the end of the world. In 1999, just on the brink of a new millennium, people were certain that all computers would fail. In the early 2010s, people thought the world was going to end on December 21st, 2012 with the end of the Mayan calendar. Books, tv shows, safety kits, and movies have all been produced and made during the 2012 “tragedy”. Looking back today, these events all sound silly, but what if the prediction of the world ending because of some catastrophic event was somewhat true? 2030 is the year scientists predict global warming will be irreversible. They predict catastrophic changes for our planet. While eight years does not seem like a lot of time to reverse damage that has been happening for decades, we can look to engineering as a leading way to help reverse climate change by using biofuels, waste treatments and composting.

One of the biggest contributors to climate change is the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation. As a way to combat this problem, mechanical engineer Rudolf Diesel envisioned a way to use raw materials to power things without the need of fossil fuels called biofuels. Biofuels create a way to reuse energy by using renewable materials in the environment. Unlike fossil fuels, biofuels are considered a renewable resource that could cut down greenhouse gas emissions by at least 86%. If cities and countries decide to mimic Rudolf Diesel's plans, then they are positioning themselves to reverse a lot of negative effects of climate change.

While switching to biofuels could substantially improve the effects of fossil fuels on the environment, there is still the lingering carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. To deal with this, Mechanical engineer Christopher Jones and his team has developed a way to capture and absorb carbon dioxide. By using a NET technology known as direct air capture or DAC, Christopher and his team created an amine-oxide hybrid adsorbent material, which essentially grabs the CO2 in the air to be later compressed and stored. Using the technology DAC could remove 4,000 tons of CO2 waste in the atmosphere annually which is equivalent to removing 870 cars off the road a year. The DAC technology would benefit countless countries, and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions found in our atmosphere.

The second biggest contributor to climate change is land and food use. Landfills produce a mass amount of CO2, methane, and non methane organic materials which can create smog, and lead to health problems for people who live and work around the area. Plasma gasification can reverse this issue. CHO Power, a French chemical and mechanical engineering firm, has created a waste treatment center that uses plasma gasification. Plasma gasification is the process of taking organic material and converting it into synthetic gas. Compared to a traditional landfill, CHO Power’s one creates a way to reuse rotting food waste in landfills and in return use it for energy.

Another way even you can limit the amount of food waste found in landfills, is by starting or suggesting your local schools and grocery stores to start composting. Composting is the process of mixing organic materials to provide nutrients for the soil. I’m currently trying to pitch the idea of creating a compost system at my school to eliminate our food waste. If everyone in the United States composted, it would be the equivalent of removing 7.8 million cars off the road.

As the 8 year deadline comes ticking down, it may seem like we’re out of hope of reversing climate change. With the innovation and creativity of engineers, it gives out a sense of light and hope at the end of this dark tunnel we are in. Hopefully, as we all make serious attempts to reverse climate change, we can survive another doomsday prediction and put this all behind us.

Bibliography

https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2021/04/15/hidden-damage-landfills

https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/feature-taking-out-the-trash-how-engineers-could-tackle-the-landfill-problem

https://globalecoguy.org/the-three-most-important-graphs-in-climate-change-e64d3f4ed76

https://rh.gatech.edu/features/cool-solutions-science-and-engineering-help-address-impacts-climate-change

https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/tackling-climate-change-role-engineer