Sayed Talat Kamal
Durban, South Africa
Durban, Dec 2 (bdnews24.com) – From the Sahara now comes an idea that claims to be able to save the globe's green sheen.
A scientist named Muftah Elarbash, leading the Libyan Initiative at the Conference of the Parties (COP17) meet at Durban, claims that his country has already prepared the "draft engineering" to cut carbon dioxide emissions down to zero by 2021.
Presenting his proposal at the COP17 meet, Elarbash said his scheme is to harness solar energy from the Sahara and the Arabian deserts to create "permanent low-pressure zones", which would trigger continuous winds to generate zero-carbon electricity.
He proposes to develop ten 300-gigawatt low-pressure zone plants each year, between 2014 and 2021. According to him, a total of 71 such plants would in essence phase out carbon fuel completely and "achieve zero CO2 emissions."
As for the cost, Elarbash said zero carbon emissions by 2021 would cost $20 trillion in a best-case scenario -- that of halving emissions by 2050, as proposed by climate control negotiations, which would still cost $45 trillion.
However, cutting emission down to half by 2050 would only postpone the onset of fatal global warming by a mere nine years, according to the Libyan scientist.
Stressing that global warming and its effects are progressively getting serious, Elarbash warned that by his calculations the growth of wheat would begin to slow by 2036, and eventually stop if nothing was done to stop global warming.
But if his proposal is accepted, Elarbash said, "A total course reversal will be achieved 15 years earlier than the day when the breeze of hell is felt, if we continue on the current course."
More than 190 nations are meeting in Durban, South Africa, to try and hammer out a strategy after the first stage of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. The experts are also deliberating on a Green Climate Fund to channel billions of dollars to poorer nations to green their economies, and help them protect against the effects of climate change.
Bangladesh, alongside India, Madagascar and many other countries with low coastlines, are at the extreme risk of climate change impacts, with the possibility of displacement of at least 20 million people if water levels rise.
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