My Take on Global Warming

An Irrelevant Introduction

Being influenced by my workplace and mass media on issues like global warming and food resilience, I've succumbed to the idea of having my own little hydroponics farm in my house. My initial intention was to have traditional potted plants growing in soil, until I stumbled upon more convenient means, like hydroponics (which won't attract bugs) and aeroponics (which saves water). Too bad, there isn't any reputable company selling aeroponics kit in Singapore. (There is one offered by Eco City Hydroponics at $220, but there isn't any picture or review available online.) By the way, you can get a hydroponics kit from Oh Chin Huat Hydrponics Farm. Add in a LED growth lamp, and you'll have an automated "farm" that sets you back by a few hundred dollars. That will yield.. 6 vegetable every one to two months?

Plants & Carbon

As I delved further into the hydroponics over the previous week, I realised how minimalistic plants can be. They only require space, gravity, light, carbon dioxide, water and dissolved nutrients to thrive. I began to appreciate that plants don't need a solid/liquid source of carbon (carbohydrates & fats) like us to produce their bulk. Their genetic coding allows each seed to build more cells using carbon dioxide as building blocks. In a way, plants are the essence of carbon dioxide, condensed from the air.

The Cause of Global Warming

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. It traps heat radiated from the sun, forming a blanket which retains heat on Earth's surface. The cause of global warming is that we've been releasing, since industrialisation,  a significant portion of Earth's carbon store into the atmosphere, through combustion of crude oil derivatives and deforestation. The solution, then, is to find a way to store these carbon dioxide back into solid form as cost effectively as possible.

A Small Mental Experiment

Lets imagine that you were given a plot of land, with the sole purpose of reducing carbon dioxide from the air. The first thing to do, instinctively, is to plant lots of fast growing trees and prevent loggers form getting near it. So the first decade past by, and your original barren land is teeming with lush green vegetation. Every ounce of biomass accumulated on your land is a solid store of carbon that was originally in the atmosphere. However, the plot has reached its maximum capacity. Old trees will die and rot, releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere, and new trees will take its place. The amount of biomass would inevitably reach an equilibrium. Your piece of land is no longer sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Our Best Bet: Wooden Furnitures?

The next task would be to find a way to store the old trees before they die and rot. So we call in the loggers to remove the old trees, and produce timbers. How then, should we store the timber? We could have a giant warehouse designated as a carbon store (generating cost), or we could make them into furnitures or construction materials and get everyone on earth to store a bit of these in their house (generating profit). The latter could be our best bet..

Lets Play Our Part

If you're like me, wanting to do a small part to solve global issues, you could consider using wooden furnitures in your new home or renovation and ensure that they come from sustainably managed forest. By allowing wood to be stored in your home for long-term use, you actually created a little carbon sink at home. With greater awareness, simple habits like this can make a significant impact as a whole.

Thank you for spending time reading this post. Feel free to comment and share your point of view. Do share with your friends if you find it useful. For more information, you can view this YouTube video and this Wikipedia article which I find informative.

Sincerely,
Kwok Leong