Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Climate change is no longer something we're wondering about - it's happening. Glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, oceans are warming and coastlines could soon be in danger of disappearing.

So what can we do about it? A group of bio-engineers is suggesting a simple way to curb climate change - plant waxy, reflective crops.

We could potentially cool the global climate by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit if we planted light-reflecting crops, according to the article on Yahoo! Green.



Of course, planting reflective crops wouldn't reverse all the damage done. But together with carefully limiting carbon emissions, using alternative fuels and fostering better stewardship of our natural resources, plants could be a large part of the solution. They are, after all, nature's solution to carbon emissions.

According to an article in Science Daily...

The growing of crops already produces a cooling of the climate because they reflect more sunlight back into space, compared with natural vegetation. Different varieties of the same crop vary significantly in their solar reflectivity (called 'albedo'), so selecting varieties that are more reflective will enhance this cooling effect. Since arable agriculture is a global industry, such cooling could be extensive.

The article states that unlike the growing of biofuels, these crops would add to the food supply, not take away from it. For example, a corn species with a high albedo could be grown, used for food and then replanted to continue providing the cooling effect.

Makes sense to me, but we might want to stop clearcutting the world's tropical rainforests, too. Talk about reflective plants...