Geomimicry[1]
The term geomimicry is used by John Harrison to describe processes and technologies that mimic long term geological processes.
During earth's geological history, large tonnages of carbon were put away as limestone and coal by the activity of plants and animals. Shellfish build shells from it and trees turned it into wood. These same plants and animals wasted nothing, the waste from one was the food or home for another.
The solution to problems of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas and waste is to mimic nature and use them both to make building materials. Because of the size of the potential reverse flows the built environment is the ideal place to start. Such a paradigm shift in resource usage will not occur because it is the right thing to do. It can only happen if people can make money making it happen.
To succeed this process of reversal must be profitable. TecEco and other Global Engineering Alliance members have developed new technical paradigms that working together in a tececology can resolve the problem of excess CO2, waste and water shortages. By using carbon dioxide and other wastes as a building materials we can economically reduce their concentration in the global commons.
Geological Processes Past and Present
Geological processes of deposition have been sequestering carbon since the Achaean and the recent (holocene) period shows a strong correlation between the concentration of CO2 in the air, global temperature and sea level.
The Correlation between Temperature and Carbon Dioxide Concentration in the Vostock Ice Cores[2].
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Climate changes over geological time due to the influence of many factors however one of the most important is the composition of the atmosphere. Since the Achaean there has been a feedback system between carbon dioxide consumers and oxygen producers resulting in an atmospheric and climate equilibrium. There is no doubt that we are rapidly changing atmospheric composition increasing the CO2 content and reducing the oxygen content thus altering this equilibrium. Are we now the most relevant factor and “Weathermakers”[3] If so we will have to take on the role of planetary engineers[4] The present rate of change suggests this may be so. Can we learn from the past to modify our impact ? Can we mimic geological sequestration in the past but at a much more rapid rate? Geological history provides some dire warnings about precedents for Greenhouse Gas driven warming. Gaia theory describes a model in which life and the planet interact to control climate and which greenhouse gases are reduced by photosynthesis but increased by respiration, volcanic activity etc. and during the glacial/interglacial cycles, CO2 concentrations and temperatures show a remarkable correlation. There are documented events in geological history where global warming has been caused by atmospheric change. Correlation Between Temperature and Rainfall over Geological Time[5] |
More and more the evidence is mounting (Pollen studies, ice core studies, foraminifera, isotope studies etc.) for previous rapid climate change correlated with CO2 change even during the relatively stable quaternary period.
Correlation between Temperature and CO2 over Geological Time [6]
The lesson from climate history seems to be that small changes can trigger big effects that can be quite rapid and that it all could happen again. We are rapidly changing the atmosphere and will this trigger another massive climatic change? Consider just two events from the past
The Deccan Traps Eruptions and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs
The Deccan Traps formed between 60 and 68 million years ago at the very end of the Cretaceous period. The bulk of the volcanic eruption occurred at the Western Ghats (near Mumbai, India) some 66 million years ago and may have lasted less than 30,000 years in total. These massive and sustained volcanic episodes in India altered the atmospheric chemistry of the period and caused a drastic climate change which may have played a role in the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum
Roughly 55 million years ago during the very early Tertiary epoch, ocean pH levels dropped drastically and global temperatures rapidly rose 5 deg.C. The resolution of proxy records that are available indicate that this happened in a period of time no longer than 5K years. (It is not possible to know if it happened even faster)
The likely cause of this event was massive feedback systems such as releases of methane from the ocean floors as methane clathrates melted or releases of methane from the arctic tundra triggered by a smaller warming or changes in sea level.
It took over 100 thousand years for the ocean, atmosphere and temperatures to return to their previous state. The result was a mass extinction event that took millions of years to recover from.
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[1] John Harrison invented the word geomimicry in the same tradition of biomimicry to describe the way in which both Greensols and TecEco Eco-Cement mimic geological processes depositing CO2 as solid carbonate and using wastes as aggregate.
[2] Hansen, J., S. Makiko, et al. (2007). "Climate change and trace gases." NASA Goddard Centre.
[3] Flannery, T. (2005). The Weather Makers. Melbourne, Text Publishing and Flannery, T. (2006). We Are The Weather Makers. Melbourne, Text Publishing.
[4] Richard Buckminster ("Bucky") Fuller (July 12[1], 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American visionary, designer, architect, poet, author, and inventor. Fuller devoted his life to the question as to whether humanity had a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how. Pursuing this lifelong experiment, Fuller wrote twenty-eight books, coining and popularising terms such as and "spaceship earth". Perhaps Bucky was the first "Planetary Engineer"
[5] From Mager S. and Fitzsimons S for the Department of Geography/Te Ihowhenua, University of Otago at http://geography.otago.ac.nz/Courses/283_389/Lectures/283lect03.html. Accessed Dec 2006
[6] From http://www.clearlight.com/~mhieb/WVFossils/Carboniferous_climate.html#anchor147264 (Plant Fossils of West Virginia maintained by Monte Hieb. Accessed 2 Dec 2006