''Project Earth'' is a 2008 reality TV series, hosted by Kevin O'Leary, Jennifer L. Languell, and Mocean Melvin, on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

in which several groups of scientists experiment with radical ideas to slow and/or stop

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

using

geoengineering Climate engineering (also called geoengineering) is a term used for both carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM), also called solar geoengineering, when applied at a planetary scale.IPCC (2022Chapter 1: Introduction and F ...

methods.

Projects

The show consists of eight experiments to weigh pros and cons of ideas on how to reduce global warming. The projects are as follows:

Wrapping Greenland

Seeing if glacier melting on

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

can be prevented by covering them with insulating sheets.

Raining Forests

Led by scientist Mark Hodges, they attempt to reforest areas of bare

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

from helicopters using canisters holding a tree seedling.

Brighter Earth

Led by atmospheric physicist John Latham and engineer

Stephen Salter Stephen Hugh Salter, (born 7 December 1938) is Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design at the University of Edinburgh and inventor of the eponymous Salter duck wave energy device. Salter is also a proponent of geoengineering and is responsib ...

, the team attempted a Cloud reflectivity enhancement experiment. Their goal was to make clouds more reflective to bounce more of the Sun's heat generating rays back into space as a stop-gap against global warming. By changing the size of water droplets within a cloud, they make clouds brighter and reflect the Sun's heat into space. They choose to seed marine stratocumulus clouds because of their commonality around the world and the fact that they are low-lying, making it easier for man-made droplets to reach them. The Project Earth team uses the potassium chloride and sodium chloride from (salt-based)

flares A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala in some Latin-speaking countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illumination, o ...

to form droplet particles that are one micrometre in diameter, and that can rise to , even in adverse (cloudless) conditions. The experiment proves that man-made droplets can indeed seed stratocumulus clouds. The team is also charged with creating a delivery system for the cloud creation mechanisms that allows for low carbon emission, remote controlled vessels. They employ the concept of the

Flettner rotor A Flettner rotor is a smooth cylinder with disc end plates which is spun along its long axis and, as air passes at right angles across it, the Magnus effect causes an aerodynamic force to be generated in the direction perpendicular to both the l ...

by fabricating rotors and installing them onto a reinforced/ retrofitted

trimaran A trimaran (or double-outrigger) is a multihull boat that comprises a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls (or "floats") which are attached to the main hull with lateral beams. Most modern trimarans are sailing yachts designed for recreati ...

. After a series of computer simulations based on current and rising CO₂ levels, Basil determined that without the proposed fleet of ships, the average global temperature would rise 2.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st Century; enough to melt glaciers that are important to the freshwater needs of Asia and Africa and the hydro-electric power needs of Europe. Using a fleet of 1500 cloud enhancing ships employing the recently discovered technologies would reduce that average global temperature change to only 1 degree Celsius by the end of the 21st century. The slower rise in temperature would grant humanity more time to reduce carbon emissions before a major climate related catastrophe was likely to strike. The estimated cost of the fleet of remote-operated cloud enhancing vessels would was valued at $5.8 billion US, a fraction of the $44 trillion US

world economy The world economy or global economy is the economy of all humans of the world, referring to the global economic system, which includes all economic activities which are conducted both within and between nations, including production, consumption, ...

that would be irreparably damaged if climate change were to continue unchecked.

Infinite Winds

Testing of a revolutionary wind turbine led by Inventor and lead engineer Fred Ferguson (Magenn Power) in an attempt to harness the energy of high-altitude winds. The team will test a prototype attached to a blimp over The Appalachians to harness the endless supply of wind.

Hungry Oceans

Dr. Brian von Herzen and the Discovery team join Professors David M Karl (University of Hawaii) and Ricardo M Letelier (Oregon State University) to test wave powered pumps in an effort to bring nutrients from the depths of the oceans to the surface. This nutrient enrichment of the open ocean's well-lit surface layers is needed to enhance

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...

and trigger large blooms of

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. Ph ...

that could increase the role of vast oceanic regions in the sequestration of anthropogenic

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

. However, before producing large scale perturbations using these pumps, the scientific team from Hawaii and Oregon wants to better understand the risks and benefits of such large scale perturbations by looking at the effect that the deployment of a few pumps may have in the environment.

Space Sunshield

Attempting to create a sunshade by placing trillions of lenses in space, led by astronomer and professor Roger Angel. Angel has developed a diffraction pattern by etching onto a lens, which will deflect the Sun's rays.

Orbital Power Plant

Former NASA physicist

John C. Mankins John C. Mankins is a former NASA physicist known for his work on space-based solar power. Mankins holds a Bachelor of Science from Harvey Mudd College, a Master of Science in physics from UCLA, and an MBA in Public Policy Analysis from The Drucker ...

's vision of launching thousands of satellites into space, gathering solar energy from the Sun and beaming it down to Earth as microwave energy. The energy will then be collected by antennas on the ground, which will convert it into electricity.

Fixing Carbon

Testing to see if the air can be scrubbed clean of its

David Keith David Keith may refer to: * David Keith (novelist) (1906–1994), pen name of American scholar Francis Steegmuller *David Keith (actor) (born 1954), American film and TV performer and director *David Keith (physicist), Canadian-born Harvard Profess ...

builds a machine prototype that sucks air into one end and sprays with a

sodium hydroxide Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions . Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and alkali ...

solution, then expelling clean air out.

References

{{reflist

External links

Project EARTHProject Earth Blog
Watch full episodes here - https://web.archive.org/web/20080916234809/http://video.discovery.com/player.html Discovery Channel original programming 2000s American reality television series