Sometimes the best solutions might be the most ambitious ones. And if we're dealing with the global threat of climate change due to carbon emissions and other human activities that contaminate the Earth's atmosphere, we might need something beyond the ordinary. Something like big, floating islands made entirely of solar panels.
Imagine an open ocean, Sun beating down overhead, with 70 islands of solar panels, each 100 meters (328 feet) in diameter, bobbing silently out toward the horizon. The cluster of islands is churning out electricity and sending it to a hard-hulled ship that acts as an oceanic factory.
With the compounds extracted from these panels, we can then harness them to produce methanol, which would be a great alternative to burning fossil fuels. This could then help reduce the rate at which climate change takes its toll on the Earth.
This plan was outlined in a PNAS paper published this week, which suggests it's an option for addressing the global economy's over-reliance on liquid fossil fuels. Removing excess carbon dioxide from our environment is crucial to mitigating the effects of climate change.
(Image credit: Novaton/Ars Technica)