Environmental wellness and wellbeing should be at the forefront of all of our minds. The planet simply cannot keep on in the way that it is currently going, otherwise we are going to run out of resources fairly soon.
When it comes to saving the environment, we should be willing to try anything, even some of the wackier ideas. We’ve collected together some of the strangest environment-saving thoughts that have been had in recent months.
Firstly, astronomer Roger Angel wants to give the Earth a big pair of sunglasses. The scientist says that we should build a 10,000-square mile solar sunshade, made from sixteen trillion glass disks, and place this between the planet and the sun. He says that this would reduce the harmful warming effect that the sun has on our planet by around two percent. Various other researchers have suggested a similar solution, such as creating a ring of sunlight-scattering particles all around the equator, by firing little pieces of reflective materials (such as glass) into space. The cost for this project would be a little more than a pair of sunglasses: somewhere around $350 trillion.
Another scientist, Peter Eisenberger, wants to use algae to start getting rid of carbon dioxide, the air pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels. The team tested this by floating certain types of algae in water, and then injecting CO2 into the water. The algae absorbed the gas, and even grew twice as fast as a result.
A third scientist would like to float the whole of New York on the water. Architect Vincent Callebaut has designed the Lilypad project, a conceptual island which (in theory) can accommodate 50,000 people and float on the ocean, suing solar, thermal, wind and tidal energies to create electricity.