Hey, seen that before, the Tracker thought on seeing this illus in the LA Times over a story by enviro writer Alan Zarembo. It shows enormous flapjack flippers lined up across the desert, scrubbing CO2 from the air. And flapjack flippers are also what I thought almost exactly one year ago when Moises Valasquez-Manoff wrote about them , and about the Columbia University scientist toying with the idea, in the Christian Science Monitor. Both accounts say such atmospheric vacuum cleaners are an enormously costly long shot as a solution to global warming. Both accounts say however we’re headed for desperate times. While some pandering, opportunistic politicians these days say they’ll cut the federal tax on gas so we can keep driving ourselves to another planet (anent this Tom Friedman rant in today’s NYTimes), it is suggested that a tax rise by about the same amount but worldwide might raise enough trillions of dollars to blanket Arizona with these Brobdingnagian CO2-scouring things. No doubt an image this striking has gained other media circulation, too. The herd of teeny-looking horses is a stroke of graphic arts genius at its creator, Stonehaven Productions.

Zarembo’s piece does move the ball forward a bit, and has the broader perspective on such ambitious technical fixes for a changing climate. He uses the big carbonate-making, probably nuclear-powered devices as sample of several such mega-engineering ideas circulating widely in recent years.

See also: Earlier Post Apr. 19, 2007.

-CP

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