When you think of climate change-fighting technology, your first thought might be glittering solar panels or futuristic vehicles that run without combustion. But some of the most important pieces of eco-friendly tech are relatively understated.
Using a cotton textile and an enzyme called carbonic anhydrase—which exists in the human body and helps us regulate carbon dioxide—North Carolina State University’s Jialong Shen and Sonja Salmon created a piece of fabric that can effectively scoop up and capture emissions. They published their new findings in the journalThe material is wrapped into a roll which is then put inside a tube, almost like wet paper towels inside of a glass funnel.
While some carbon capture technologies may utilize rarer materials or trickier methods, the process of making cotton fabric is about as old as time. Not to mention, we already produce and make a ton of it, whether for clothes or industrial purposes, which means the supply chain that would create these filters more or less already exists.
Carbon levels during the dinosaurs era were up to six times what we have today, and global temps as hot as our hottest deserts. Maybe *that* is the normal for Earth, and arrogant humans are meddling...?
Should we use this in China?
El stupido.