Transcript

ANNE JAY:

We are a bit hooked on oil, aren’t we?

NEIL EDWARDS:

We are a bit hooked on oil, indeed. So, the question now is, can we get off that addiction quick enough to save the planet, basically?

ANNE JAY:

So, if we can’t get off the oil, is there anything that we can do to tweak the climate, change the atmosphere, that might actually reduce the CO₂ around the place?

NEIL EDWARDS:

So there are various possibilities being discussed of how to remove carbon from the atmosphere. And the one that we’re interested in is actually something that the Earth system does all the time. So all the time, plants are taking carbon out of the atmosphere, carbon is being drawn down, reacting with rocks and the landscape, and that’s part of the natural carbon cycle. So the question is, can we accelerate that natural carbon cycle and make this carbon drawdown happen faster than it naturally would?

ANNE JAY:

I have heard something about my favourite type of volcano being used. I study a type of volcano called a large igneous province. And these are massive. The one I study covers a quarter of the peninsula of India. And I have a bit of it here. Are you going to take it away?

NEIL EDWARDS:

Well, that’s a good question. So those rocks are actually very important to this proposal of what we call enhanced weathering.