Eureka! CO2 Storage Problem Is Solved

August 7, 2006 may someday go down as one of the most noteworthy days in the fight against global warming. That was the date that scientists from MIT and Columbia published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which they showed that by injecting carbon dioxide into deep-sea sediments several hundred meters below the sediment surface that carbon dioxide could be permanently stored regardless of geological events due to physical and chemical changes which occur at high pressures and low temperatures. According to these scientists, using their method would make it essentially impossible for carbon dioxide to escape. Moreover, they claim that the storage capacity of the deep-sea sediments is so large that carbon dioxide emissions at current levels in the United States could be stored for thousands of years. Further studies will be carried out to test the method and other scientists may find holes in their arguments so there is a long way to go before anyone can announce that there is feasible method for storing carbon dioxide emissions. However, let's hope these guys are on to something. With news on global warming getting grimmer and grimmer this appears to offer at least some hope that there could actually be an exit out of this mess.