Transcript source
CarbonLock: innovative carbon dioxide removal solutions to reach net zeroTranscript
[Music plays and a split circle appears and photos of different CSIRO activities flash through in either side of the circle and then the circle morphs into the CSIRO logo]
[Image changes to show text below the CSIRO logo: Future Science Case Study, Permanent Carbon Locking Technologies]
[Image changes to show the CSIRO Marine Laboratories Building, and then the image changes to show Dr Andrew Lenton talking to the camera, and text appears: Dr Andrew Lenton, CSIRO]
Dr Andrew Lenton: My name is Dr Andrew Lenton. I lead CSIRO’s Permanent Carbon Locking Future Science Platform.
[Image changes to show a CSIRO “Accelerating towards net-zero” sign, and then the image changes to show a close view of Andrew talking to the camera]
We’re focussed on developing engineered negative emissions technologies required to support the transition to net zero and beyond.
[Images move through to show a view looking down on the Earth’s surface, an iceberg crumbling into the sea, clouds swirling in the sky, and the tropical fish moving around in a reef]
I have more than two decades experience in looking at climate science, looking at past, present and future changes in the carbon cycle, and also looking at what the implications of those is on the marine environment.
[Image changes to show Andrew talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show factory chimneys belching smoke into the air]
The Permanent Carbon Locking Future Science Platform is really focused on the permanent removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
[Images move through of a view looking down on bush covered mountainsides, a person planting a tree, and then seaweed floating underwater]
And this really builds upon a lot of great work that was done in the nature-base solutions space, that is growing trees, agricultural management, seaweeds and other kind of work.
[Images move through to show people planting trees, a view looking down on bushland, cracked and dry earth, a bushfire, and a large flooded plain]
But in reality, the challenge of these nature-based solutions is they’re not often permanent and they are very vulnerable to things such as heat waves, floods, fire, and a lot of the extremes that Australia is experiencing more and more regularly.
[Image changes to show Andrew talking to the camera]
At its heart our work is really about enhancing the natural carbon cycle.
[Images move through to show a view looking down on waves crashing onto rocks, a close view of waves, waves crashing onto rocks, and water running back down the rocks to the ocean]
So, we’re looking at how can we enhance photosynthesis and also chemistry to capture carbon dioxide, how can we store carbon dioxide in the ocean which it already does, but how can we accelerate that, and how can we use geology and the rocks we have to react with the carbon dioxide to make new rocks and therefore lock it away?
[Image changes to show a view looking down on the ocean, and then the image changes to show a factory chimney belching smoke into the air]
How do we integrate this capture and this storage to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?
[Image changes to show a medium and then a close view of Andrew talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a view of the sun shining through the trees]
It’s the intersection of all of these, how they come together that’s going to ultimately determine how do we realise the potential for negative emissions in Australia.
[Images move through to shown medium and then close views of Andrew talking to the camera, a view looking down on Australia in the world globe, and a factory chimney belching smoke]
While our focus is on reaching net zero emissions by the middle of this century, in reality under the Paris Agreement we’ve signed on to a net negative world meaning actually that we take more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere permanently than we actually emit.
[Images move through to show a grassy paddock, and then medium and close views of Andrew talking to the camera]
So, that’s going to be a huge challenge, meaning we’re not just talking about what happens at the end of the century, we’re talking about much, much longer timescales. That’s why this so important.
[Images move through to show researchers at work on computers]
We’re going to need to be developing technologies and deploying these at unprecedented scales.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a scrubby plain, and then the image changes to show a view looking up into a gum tree]
The really big challenge is how do we do that responsibly, in a way that maintains our stewardship of the ecosystems that are around us.
[Image changes to show Australia in a world map]
And also, ultimately our ability to survive on the Earth.
[Image changes to show Renee Birchall talking to the camera, and text appears: Renee Birchall, CSIRO]
Renee Birchall: I’m Renee Birchall and I’m a geoscientist working on carbon sequestration in rocks.
[Images move through to show a close view of Renee talking to the camera, a view looking down on mountains meeting the sea, and water dripping off a rocky overhand]
I’m working on something called mineral carbonation which is a naturally occurring process in nature that sequesters CO2 by reacting with the minerals in the rocks.
[Image changes to show a view of clouds scudding across the sky above farming land, and then the image changes to show Renee talking to the camera]
This is one of the ways that the Earth’s been managing its climate through the natural rock weathering cycle, and this has been happening for millions of years.
[Image changes to show a medium and then close view of Renee talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a cloudy sky above the ocean]
One of the ways mineral carbonation works in nature is rainwater reacts with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, effectively sucking it out of the air and creating carbonic acid.
[Images move through to show rain falling on a scrubby area, and then a close view of rain falling on to rocks]
The rainwater then falls to earth and weathers rocks forming bicarbonate and then stable carbonate.
[Images move through to show rain falling on rocks and running off, a view looking down on a river amongst shrubs, and then a view of a river mouth merging into the ocean]
The carbonate is permanently and safely stored and stays in the soil then washes into the waterways and eventually the ocean.
[Image changes to show medium and then close views of Renee talking to the camera]
We are looking at speeding up those natural cycles and engineering the specific mineral reactions so that we can scale up and increase the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered.
[Images move through to show a view looking down on a mining area, a mining tailings dam, and a farmer carrying a shovel through his paddock]
We’re also looking at how to apply mineral carbonation to waste materials from industry and mine tailings and use sequestered carbon to make farming more productive.
[Images move through to show Renee talking to the camera, rocks moving through a crusher, and a tailings dam]
By engineering mineral carbonation, we can imitate this process using crushed rocks from industrial waste, including toxic mine tailings that can’t just be released into the environment.
[Images move through to show water moving into the mine tailings dam, crushed rock moving up conveyer belts, a view looking down on a rock crusher, and cement being mixed]
Many of these industrial wastes and mine tailings already contain the necessary elements we need to react with carbon dioxide to create stable carbonates and even carbonate products like cement.
[Images move through to show Renee talking to the camera, a plane moving through the air, a chimney belching smoke, and a view looking down on the chimney]
Engineered mineral carbonation can also be used as stepping stone to assist fossil fuel based industries in their pathway to Net Zero and in their emissions reduction strategies.
[Image changes to show close and then medium views of Renee talking to the camera]
The challenge I’m looking at is not just a geoscience problem. It needs an interdisciplinary approach.
[Images move through to show a close view of Renee talking to the camera, a CSIRO building, and a close view of a CSIRO sign]
It especially requires communication so I’m primarily playing a coordinating role in bringing the expertise we need together. Achieving buy-in from communities is a part of that.
[Images move through to show views of rain falling through the trees, rain falling on rocks, and a view looking down on a river]
Of course there’ll be concerns, especially about the potential environmental impacts of these new technologies, as well as changes in land use.
[Image changes to show a rocky escarpment]
In responding to these challenges, communication is key.
[Image changes to show medium and then close views of Renee talking to the camera]
Having conversations with communities early, getting the right people in the room and achieving social acceptance from the beginning will help us move forward together.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a pile of rocks, and then the image changes to show rocks moving up a conveyer belt]
That means having policy makers, First Nations representatives and the scientists having those difficult conversations early in the piece.
[Music plays and Images move through to show a view looking down on the ocean, and then the image changes to show Dr Elizabeth Shadwick talking to the camera, and text appears: Dr Elizabeth Shadwick]
Dr Elizabeth Shadwick: I’m Dr Elizabeth Shadwick.
[Image changes to show fish swimming through the water, and then the image changes to show a view of a lighthouse on a point of land surrounded by water]
I’m a chemical sonographer and my research focussed on observing and understanding the ways in which the ocean exchanges carbon dioxide or CO2 with the atmosphere.
[Images move through to show a view looking down on the globe, a view of the clouds, crashing waves in the ocean, and an underwater view]
Net removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere requires both capturing it, so getting it out of the atmosphere and also storing it somewhere over long periods of time.
[Image changes to show a diver underwater swimming around a structure in the ocean and fish and sea creatures can also be seen]
And the ocean has emerged as one of the feasible places where we could potentially store additional CO2 over long time periods.
[Image changes to show rocks underwater in the ocean]
The ocean is by far the largest reservoir of carbon on the planet.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a boat on the water, and then the image changes to show a view looking down on water swirling between rocks in the ocean]
In the present day it already contains some 45 times more carbon dioxide than what is currently in the atmosphere.
[Image changes to show a medium and then a close view of Elizabeth talking to the camera]
Rocks are input to the ocean and those allow the waters to become more basic or more alkaline which induces an uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere.
[Images move through to show various views of rocks underwater in the ocean and the camera pans through the rocky areas in the ocean]
And in fact, it’s this process that occurs naturally in the ocean and allows CO2 to move from the atmospheric reservoir into the deep ocean where it stays in a stable form for tens of thousands of years.
[Images move through to show a fish swimming in an underwater cave, views of smoke belching from factory chimneys, cut down large tree logs, cement being mixed, and fish swimming round a reef]
If we wait long enough, the majority of anthropogenic CO2, so that’s CO2 that has found its way into the atmosphere from human activities, those are burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, cement production, those CO2 emissions will ultimately end up in the ocean through natural processes.
[Images move through to show the sun shining through the water, tropical fish swimming around a rocky reef, and a diver in an underwater cave]
We would like to find technologies and strategies that allow us to forcefully accelerate the process of moving the CO2 into the ocean.
[Image changes to show a medium and then close view of Elizabeth talking to the camera, and then images move through of fish swimming in various underwater areas]
We are focussing on studying something called ocean alkalinity addition, which is adding alkalinity or a basic material to the ocean to induce an additional uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere.
[Images move through of waves crashing on the shore, waves crashing through a reef, and Elizabeth talking to the camera]
There are a few different ways that you can get alkalinity into seawater, what we’re interested in doing is what we call electrochemical approaches.
[Image changes to show a close view of Elizabeth talking to the camera]
And that involves a first step of taking seawater and splitting it into its acidic and basic components. So, that would be hydrochloric acid as the acid and sodium hydroxide as the base.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a turbulent ocean]
And then reintroducing the basic component back to the ocean.
[Images move through to show a diver swimming amongst fish in the water, fish swimming over a rocky area in the ocean, and then the sun shining on the water]
The way that we will track this modified stream of seawater is using both in-ocean state-of-the-art sensors, some of which are being developed by our team and also really sophisticated biogeochemical models.
[Image changes to show Richard Matear talking to the camera, and text appears: Richard Matear]
Richard Matear: I’m Rich Matear, I’m a climate scientist working at CSIRO.
[Images move through to show hands typing on a keyboard, fish swimming over a reef, and a view looking down on a reef, and the camera pans over the reef]
I’ve spent about three decades modelling the climate system with a particular focus on the oceans and the role of the oceans in the climate and carbon cycle.
[Images move through to show fish swimming over a coral reef, a close view of dying coral, two divers swimming around a coral reef, a view looking down on a reef]
That’s really been focussed on really demonstrating over the last several decades what the consequence of global warming is on the climate system, and particularly on the oceans, through things like changes in the ocean circulation or ocean acidification.
[Images move through to show tropical fish swimming among the rocks, a turtle swimming amongst the coral, fish swimming over the reef, and the Investigator boat in the ocean]
And now with this project I have an opportunity to take that knowledge and go, “What are some of the ways we can actually solve our global warming crises?”.
[Images move through to show a graph on a wall in the CSIRO building, and then a medium and then close view of Richard talking to the camera]
I think this type of research is ideal for CSIRO because we are a public funded research organisation, we have no vested interest that this idea is taken forward.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on the ocean, and then the image changes to show a view looking down on a whale swimming and blowing in the water]
We are much more focused on really exploring whether this is a credible option for the world in the future.
[Images move through to show clouds scudding through the sky above the ocean, fish swimming around a reef, waves moving into the shore, and then fish swimming among the coral plants]
This research is not advocating doing carbon dioxide removal, but really providing the fundamental science that allows us to make a critical assessment of whether this is a good idea or not.
[Image changes to show a view of waves rolling into shore, and then the image changes to show Richard talking to the camera]
Our research is really targeting, can we have an effective way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?
[Image changes to show large cuttlefish swimming over a reef]
Can we do it in a way that actually doesn’t have any detrimental impacts on the biology of the ocean or the chemistry of the ocean?
[Images move through to show a researcher typing on a keyboard, and then a close view of a supercomputer]
Models are an ideal place to start that exploration.
[Images move through to show waves rolling into the beach, a view looking down on the sandy bottom of the ocean, and the sun shining through scudding clouds above the ocean]
With models we can actually do this ocean alkalinity addition, we can track how it behaves in the ocean and we can also quantify how it’s taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
[Images move through to show a seagrass bed in the ocean, a view looking down on the world globe, waves washing on to a rocky beach, and a view of a harbour]
So the models provide a nice kind of toolkit to first start that exploration, and we’ve done that at global scales, and as we’ve push forward with this particular project, we‘d like to do that at a much more local and regional scales.
[Image changes to show Andrew talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a satellite view of Australia in the world globe]
Dr Andrew Lenton: So, what we really need to work on is raising the awareness of negative emissions and what that means.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on two whales moving through the water]
One of the biggest challenges in Australia is developing the social acceptance around this.
[Images move through to show water washing down rocks, a view of the sandy bottom of the ocean, and then a view looking down on farming land]
We know globally, negative emission technologies will need to be at the scale of oil and gas and that will have huge implications for regional and also Indigenous Australia.
[Image changes to show a medium and then close view of Richard talking to the camera]
We want to have an informed discussion. We want people to decide what is there future and their opinions on this.
[Image changes to show a view of a coral reef, and then the image changes to show a view of the coastline]
Our goal is to raise awareness so that we can have those broader debates at the national level we need to be having.
[Images move through to show Richard talking to the camera, an underwater view of the ocean, a view looking down on waves crashing on a sandy beach, and then a coastline]
Richard Matear: I was involved in a project about 15 years ago where we were going to explore adding liquified CO2 to the oceans in a place off the big island of Hawaii.
[Image changes to show a view of boats in a harbour]
We spent five years planning that experiment and it never happened. And largely because there was a strong resistance to using the ocean as an option for carbon dioxide removal.
[Image changes to show waves crashing on to a sandy beach]
That is a really important thing to emphasise.
[Image changes to show a dolphin swimming through the water]
The ocean is seen as this pristine environment, and we shouldn’t be touching it.
[Image changes to show Richard talking to the camera]
The reality is global warming is happening. It is changing the ocean.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a shallow area in the ocean showing plants on the ocean floor]
Ocean acidification is a real problem.
[Image changes to show an area of ice shelf floating in the water]
So to think that we’re not changing the system is the fallacy.
[Image changes to show Elizabeth talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a close view of Elizabeth talking]
Dr Elizabeth Shadwick: The idea that we should not tinker with the ocean is a really understandable place to be and earlier in my own career, I shared some of those reservations.
[Images move through to show chimney stacks belching smoke over a city, the eye of a weather system, trees uprooted and lying on the ground, and then a flooded river]
I think now that the problem has become so much more urgent and we’re really beyond the place where we can just rely on moving away from emissions. We really need to do a net removal as well.
[Images move through to show a fire truck moving around a smouldering area, two kangaroos, and then medium and close views of Elizabeth talking to the camera]
I think one way of helping people to understand the urgency is to think of the natural experiment that we’re already all of us, participating in, which is the release of fossil fuel emissions to the atmosphere.
[Images move through to show various chimneys belching smoke from factories, and then tropical fish swimming over a coral reef]
One could argue that’s the biggest geoengineering experiment we have going and what we’re talking about would actually help to reset the ocean to its pre-industrial conditions.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a bushfire, and then a view looking down on a car moving along a flooded area]
My hope is that the need for action outweighs the reluctance to tinker.
[Image changes to show a diver moving over a coral reef amongst schools of fish]
But first of course we need to show that we can do these things without causing harm.
[Image changes to show a dolphin moving through the water]
And we need to show that we can do these things in a safe and transparent way.
[Image changes to show Elizabeth talking to the camera]
The way that we’re trained to work is to really, you know, go after the hard science, do the research and so we’re not always very skilled at engaging with the public.
[Images move through to show waves breaking on a sandy beach, fish swimming over a reef, and turbulent waves crashing in]
For something like this, I think it is so important that we do engage with the public early rather than come to them down the track and say, we have the solution and now we’re going to have to implement it.
[Image changes to show a medium and then close view of Andrew talking to the camera]
Dr Andrew Lenton: One of the most exciting things about this is we’re not just taking notes here as the ship sinks, if you will.
[Images move through to show a researcher looking into a microscope, a handshake, Andrew talking to the camera, and a satellite view of Australia in the world globe]
We’re actually actively and proactively developing new science, new ideas bringing new people into the fold here, really trying to develop solutions that will guide us to net zero and ultimately on to net negative emissions.
[Music plays and the image changes to show the CSIRO logo, and text appears: CSIRO Australia’s National Science Agency]
[Image changes to show text below the CSIRO logo: Future Science Case Study, Permanent Carbon Locking Technologies]
[Image changes to show the CSIRO Marine Laboratories Building, and then the image changes to show Dr Andrew Lenton talking to the camera, and text appears: Dr Andrew Lenton, CSIRO]
Dr Andrew Lenton: My name is Dr Andrew Lenton. I lead CSIRO’s Permanent Carbon Locking Future Science Platform.
[Image changes to show a CSIRO “Accelerating towards net-zero” sign, and then the image changes to show a close view of Andrew talking to the camera]
We’re focussed on developing engineered negative emissions technologies required to support the transition to net zero and beyond.
[Images move through to show a view looking down on the Earth’s surface, an iceberg crumbling into the sea, clouds swirling in the sky, and the tropical fish moving around in a reef]
I have more than two decades experience in looking at climate science, looking at past, present and future changes in the carbon cycle, and also looking at what the implications of those is on the marine environment.
[Image changes to show Andrew talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show factory chimneys belching smoke into the air]
The Permanent Carbon Locking Future Science Platform is really focused on the permanent removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
[Images move through of a view looking down on bush covered mountainsides, a person planting a tree, and then seaweed floating underwater]
And this really builds upon a lot of great work that was done in the nature-base solutions space, that is growing trees, agricultural management, seaweeds and other kind of work.
[Images move through to show people planting trees, a view looking down on bushland, cracked and dry earth, a bushfire, and a large flooded plain]
But in reality, the challenge of these nature-based solutions is they’re not often permanent and they are very vulnerable to things such as heat waves, floods, fire, and a lot of the extremes that Australia is experiencing more and more regularly.
[Image changes to show Andrew talking to the camera]
At its heart our work is really about enhancing the natural carbon cycle.
[Images move through to show a view looking down on waves crashing onto rocks, a close view of waves, waves crashing onto rocks, and water running back down the rocks to the ocean]
So, we’re looking at how can we enhance photosynthesis and also chemistry to capture carbon dioxide, how can we store carbon dioxide in the ocean which it already does, but how can we accelerate that, and how can we use geology and the rocks we have to react with the carbon dioxide to make new rocks and therefore lock it away?
[Image changes to show a view looking down on the ocean, and then the image changes to show a factory chimney belching smoke into the air]
How do we integrate this capture and this storage to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?
[Image changes to show a medium and then a close view of Andrew talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a view of the sun shining through the trees]
It’s the intersection of all of these, how they come together that’s going to ultimately determine how do we realise the potential for negative emissions in Australia.
[Images move through to shown medium and then close views of Andrew talking to the camera, a view looking down on Australia in the world globe, and a factory chimney belching smoke]
While our focus is on reaching net zero emissions by the middle of this century, in reality under the Paris Agreement we’ve signed on to a net negative world meaning actually that we take more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere permanently than we actually emit.
[Images move through to show a grassy paddock, and then medium and close views of Andrew talking to the camera]
So, that’s going to be a huge challenge, meaning we’re not just talking about what happens at the end of the century, we’re talking about much, much longer timescales. That’s why this so important.
[Images move through to show researchers at work on computers]
We’re going to need to be developing technologies and deploying these at unprecedented scales.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a scrubby plain, and then the image changes to show a view looking up into a gum tree]
The really big challenge is how do we do that responsibly, in a way that maintains our stewardship of the ecosystems that are around us.
[Image changes to show Australia in a world map]
And also, ultimately our ability to survive on the Earth.
[Image changes to show Renee Birchall talking to the camera, and text appears: Renee Birchall, CSIRO]
Renee Birchall: I’m Renee Birchall and I’m a geoscientist working on carbon sequestration in rocks.
[Images move through to show a close view of Renee talking to the camera, a view looking down on mountains meeting the sea, and water dripping off a rocky overhand]
I’m working on something called mineral carbonation which is a naturally occurring process in nature that sequesters CO2 by reacting with the minerals in the rocks.
[Image changes to show a view of clouds scudding across the sky above farming land, and then the image changes to show Renee talking to the camera]
This is one of the ways that the Earth’s been managing its climate through the natural rock weathering cycle, and this has been happening for millions of years.
[Image changes to show a medium and then close view of Renee talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a cloudy sky above the ocean]
One of the ways mineral carbonation works in nature is rainwater reacts with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, effectively sucking it out of the air and creating carbonic acid.
[Images move through to show rain falling on a scrubby area, and then a close view of rain falling on to rocks]
The rainwater then falls to earth and weathers rocks forming bicarbonate and then stable carbonate.
[Images move through to show rain falling on rocks and running off, a view looking down on a river amongst shrubs, and then a view of a river mouth merging into the ocean]
The carbonate is permanently and safely stored and stays in the soil then washes into the waterways and eventually the ocean.
[Image changes to show medium and then close views of Renee talking to the camera]
We are looking at speeding up those natural cycles and engineering the specific mineral reactions so that we can scale up and increase the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered.
[Images move through to show a view looking down on a mining area, a mining tailings dam, and a farmer carrying a shovel through his paddock]
We’re also looking at how to apply mineral carbonation to waste materials from industry and mine tailings and use sequestered carbon to make farming more productive.
[Images move through to show Renee talking to the camera, rocks moving through a crusher, and a tailings dam]
By engineering mineral carbonation, we can imitate this process using crushed rocks from industrial waste, including toxic mine tailings that can’t just be released into the environment.
[Images move through to show water moving into the mine tailings dam, crushed rock moving up conveyer belts, a view looking down on a rock crusher, and cement being mixed]
Many of these industrial wastes and mine tailings already contain the necessary elements we need to react with carbon dioxide to create stable carbonates and even carbonate products like cement.
[Images move through to show Renee talking to the camera, a plane moving through the air, a chimney belching smoke, and a view looking down on the chimney]
Engineered mineral carbonation can also be used as stepping stone to assist fossil fuel based industries in their pathway to Net Zero and in their emissions reduction strategies.
[Image changes to show close and then medium views of Renee talking to the camera]
The challenge I’m looking at is not just a geoscience problem. It needs an interdisciplinary approach.
[Images move through to show a close view of Renee talking to the camera, a CSIRO building, and a close view of a CSIRO sign]
It especially requires communication so I’m primarily playing a coordinating role in bringing the expertise we need together. Achieving buy-in from communities is a part of that.
[Images move through to show views of rain falling through the trees, rain falling on rocks, and a view looking down on a river]
Of course there’ll be concerns, especially about the potential environmental impacts of these new technologies, as well as changes in land use.
[Image changes to show a rocky escarpment]
In responding to these challenges, communication is key.
[Image changes to show medium and then close views of Renee talking to the camera]
Having conversations with communities early, getting the right people in the room and achieving social acceptance from the beginning will help us move forward together.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a pile of rocks, and then the image changes to show rocks moving up a conveyer belt]
That means having policy makers, First Nations representatives and the scientists having those difficult conversations early in the piece.
[Music plays and Images move through to show a view looking down on the ocean, and then the image changes to show Dr Elizabeth Shadwick talking to the camera, and text appears: Dr Elizabeth Shadwick]
Dr Elizabeth Shadwick: I’m Dr Elizabeth Shadwick.
[Image changes to show fish swimming through the water, and then the image changes to show a view of a lighthouse on a point of land surrounded by water]
I’m a chemical sonographer and my research focussed on observing and understanding the ways in which the ocean exchanges carbon dioxide or CO2 with the atmosphere.
[Images move through to show a view looking down on the globe, a view of the clouds, crashing waves in the ocean, and an underwater view]
Net removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere requires both capturing it, so getting it out of the atmosphere and also storing it somewhere over long periods of time.
[Image changes to show a diver underwater swimming around a structure in the ocean and fish and sea creatures can also be seen]
And the ocean has emerged as one of the feasible places where we could potentially store additional CO2 over long time periods.
[Image changes to show rocks underwater in the ocean]
The ocean is by far the largest reservoir of carbon on the planet.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a boat on the water, and then the image changes to show a view looking down on water swirling between rocks in the ocean]
In the present day it already contains some 45 times more carbon dioxide than what is currently in the atmosphere.
[Image changes to show a medium and then a close view of Elizabeth talking to the camera]
Rocks are input to the ocean and those allow the waters to become more basic or more alkaline which induces an uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere.
[Images move through to show various views of rocks underwater in the ocean and the camera pans through the rocky areas in the ocean]
And in fact, it’s this process that occurs naturally in the ocean and allows CO2 to move from the atmospheric reservoir into the deep ocean where it stays in a stable form for tens of thousands of years.
[Images move through to show a fish swimming in an underwater cave, views of smoke belching from factory chimneys, cut down large tree logs, cement being mixed, and fish swimming round a reef]
If we wait long enough, the majority of anthropogenic CO2, so that’s CO2 that has found its way into the atmosphere from human activities, those are burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, cement production, those CO2 emissions will ultimately end up in the ocean through natural processes.
[Images move through to show the sun shining through the water, tropical fish swimming around a rocky reef, and a diver in an underwater cave]
We would like to find technologies and strategies that allow us to forcefully accelerate the process of moving the CO2 into the ocean.
[Image changes to show a medium and then close view of Elizabeth talking to the camera, and then images move through of fish swimming in various underwater areas]
We are focussing on studying something called ocean alkalinity addition, which is adding alkalinity or a basic material to the ocean to induce an additional uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere.
[Images move through of waves crashing on the shore, waves crashing through a reef, and Elizabeth talking to the camera]
There are a few different ways that you can get alkalinity into seawater, what we’re interested in doing is what we call electrochemical approaches.
[Image changes to show a close view of Elizabeth talking to the camera]
And that involves a first step of taking seawater and splitting it into its acidic and basic components. So, that would be hydrochloric acid as the acid and sodium hydroxide as the base.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a turbulent ocean]
And then reintroducing the basic component back to the ocean.
[Images move through to show a diver swimming amongst fish in the water, fish swimming over a rocky area in the ocean, and then the sun shining on the water]
The way that we will track this modified stream of seawater is using both in-ocean state-of-the-art sensors, some of which are being developed by our team and also really sophisticated biogeochemical models.
[Image changes to show Richard Matear talking to the camera, and text appears: Richard Matear]
Richard Matear: I’m Rich Matear, I’m a climate scientist working at CSIRO.
[Images move through to show hands typing on a keyboard, fish swimming over a reef, and a view looking down on a reef, and the camera pans over the reef]
I’ve spent about three decades modelling the climate system with a particular focus on the oceans and the role of the oceans in the climate and carbon cycle.
[Images move through to show fish swimming over a coral reef, a close view of dying coral, two divers swimming around a coral reef, a view looking down on a reef]
That’s really been focussed on really demonstrating over the last several decades what the consequence of global warming is on the climate system, and particularly on the oceans, through things like changes in the ocean circulation or ocean acidification.
[Images move through to show tropical fish swimming among the rocks, a turtle swimming amongst the coral, fish swimming over the reef, and the Investigator boat in the ocean]
And now with this project I have an opportunity to take that knowledge and go, “What are some of the ways we can actually solve our global warming crises?”.
[Images move through to show a graph on a wall in the CSIRO building, and then a medium and then close view of Richard talking to the camera]
I think this type of research is ideal for CSIRO because we are a public funded research organisation, we have no vested interest that this idea is taken forward.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on the ocean, and then the image changes to show a view looking down on a whale swimming and blowing in the water]
We are much more focused on really exploring whether this is a credible option for the world in the future.
[Images move through to show clouds scudding through the sky above the ocean, fish swimming around a reef, waves moving into the shore, and then fish swimming among the coral plants]
This research is not advocating doing carbon dioxide removal, but really providing the fundamental science that allows us to make a critical assessment of whether this is a good idea or not.
[Image changes to show a view of waves rolling into shore, and then the image changes to show Richard talking to the camera]
Our research is really targeting, can we have an effective way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?
[Image changes to show large cuttlefish swimming over a reef]
Can we do it in a way that actually doesn’t have any detrimental impacts on the biology of the ocean or the chemistry of the ocean?
[Images move through to show a researcher typing on a keyboard, and then a close view of a supercomputer]
Models are an ideal place to start that exploration.
[Images move through to show waves rolling into the beach, a view looking down on the sandy bottom of the ocean, and the sun shining through scudding clouds above the ocean]
With models we can actually do this ocean alkalinity addition, we can track how it behaves in the ocean and we can also quantify how it’s taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
[Images move through to show a seagrass bed in the ocean, a view looking down on the world globe, waves washing on to a rocky beach, and a view of a harbour]
So the models provide a nice kind of toolkit to first start that exploration, and we’ve done that at global scales, and as we’ve push forward with this particular project, we‘d like to do that at a much more local and regional scales.
[Image changes to show Andrew talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a satellite view of Australia in the world globe]
Dr Andrew Lenton: So, what we really need to work on is raising the awareness of negative emissions and what that means.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on two whales moving through the water]
One of the biggest challenges in Australia is developing the social acceptance around this.
[Images move through to show water washing down rocks, a view of the sandy bottom of the ocean, and then a view looking down on farming land]
We know globally, negative emission technologies will need to be at the scale of oil and gas and that will have huge implications for regional and also Indigenous Australia.
[Image changes to show a medium and then close view of Richard talking to the camera]
We want to have an informed discussion. We want people to decide what is there future and their opinions on this.
[Image changes to show a view of a coral reef, and then the image changes to show a view of the coastline]
Our goal is to raise awareness so that we can have those broader debates at the national level we need to be having.
[Images move through to show Richard talking to the camera, an underwater view of the ocean, a view looking down on waves crashing on a sandy beach, and then a coastline]
Richard Matear: I was involved in a project about 15 years ago where we were going to explore adding liquified CO2 to the oceans in a place off the big island of Hawaii.
[Image changes to show a view of boats in a harbour]
We spent five years planning that experiment and it never happened. And largely because there was a strong resistance to using the ocean as an option for carbon dioxide removal.
[Image changes to show waves crashing on to a sandy beach]
That is a really important thing to emphasise.
[Image changes to show a dolphin swimming through the water]
The ocean is seen as this pristine environment, and we shouldn’t be touching it.
[Image changes to show Richard talking to the camera]
The reality is global warming is happening. It is changing the ocean.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a shallow area in the ocean showing plants on the ocean floor]
Ocean acidification is a real problem.
[Image changes to show an area of ice shelf floating in the water]
So to think that we’re not changing the system is the fallacy.
[Image changes to show Elizabeth talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a close view of Elizabeth talking]
Dr Elizabeth Shadwick: The idea that we should not tinker with the ocean is a really understandable place to be and earlier in my own career, I shared some of those reservations.
[Images move through to show chimney stacks belching smoke over a city, the eye of a weather system, trees uprooted and lying on the ground, and then a flooded river]
I think now that the problem has become so much more urgent and we’re really beyond the place where we can just rely on moving away from emissions. We really need to do a net removal as well.
[Images move through to show a fire truck moving around a smouldering area, two kangaroos, and then medium and close views of Elizabeth talking to the camera]
I think one way of helping people to understand the urgency is to think of the natural experiment that we’re already all of us, participating in, which is the release of fossil fuel emissions to the atmosphere.
[Images move through to show various chimneys belching smoke from factories, and then tropical fish swimming over a coral reef]
One could argue that’s the biggest geoengineering experiment we have going and what we’re talking about would actually help to reset the ocean to its pre-industrial conditions.
[Image changes to show a view looking down on a bushfire, and then a view looking down on a car moving along a flooded area]
My hope is that the need for action outweighs the reluctance to tinker.
[Image changes to show a diver moving over a coral reef amongst schools of fish]
But first of course we need to show that we can do these things without causing harm.
[Image changes to show a dolphin moving through the water]
And we need to show that we can do these things in a safe and transparent way.
[Image changes to show Elizabeth talking to the camera]
The way that we’re trained to work is to really, you know, go after the hard science, do the research and so we’re not always very skilled at engaging with the public.
[Images move through to show waves breaking on a sandy beach, fish swimming over a reef, and turbulent waves crashing in]
For something like this, I think it is so important that we do engage with the public early rather than come to them down the track and say, we have the solution and now we’re going to have to implement it.
[Image changes to show a medium and then close view of Andrew talking to the camera]
Dr Andrew Lenton: One of the most exciting things about this is we’re not just taking notes here as the ship sinks, if you will.
[Images move through to show a researcher looking into a microscope, a handshake, Andrew talking to the camera, and a satellite view of Australia in the world globe]
We’re actually actively and proactively developing new science, new ideas bringing new people into the fold here, really trying to develop solutions that will guide us to net zero and ultimately on to net negative emissions.
[Music plays and the image changes to show the CSIRO logo, and text appears: CSIRO Australia’s National Science Agency]