2023-12-12
28 分钟How do you solve a problem like CO2? As the curtain closes on the world’s most important climate summit, we talk to a scientist who was at COP 28 and is working to solve our carbon dioxide problem. Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer thinks saving the planet is still Mission Possible - but key to success is turning the climate-busting gas, CO2, into something useful. And as Director of the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions at Heriot-Watt University and the UK’s Decarbonisation Champion, she has lots of innovative ideas on how to do this. She also has a great climate-themed suggestion for what you should say when someone asks your age… Produced by Gerry Holt
Hello and welcome to the podcast edition of the Life Scientific.
I'm Jim Al Khalili and this is the show where I get to talk with some of the world's leading scientists and you get to find out what drives them.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
Hello.
What comes to your mind when you hear the word carbon?
You may picture the beauty and richness of life on Earth.
We are after all, carbon based life forms.
Without carbon chemistry there would be no life on this planet.
But your thoughts might also turn to smoking factory towers, traffic, pollution, decimated rainforests and raging seas wrought by the latest climate related disaster.
When a carbon atom bonds to two oxygen atoms, it becomes carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, the rapidly rising concentrations of which in the atmosphere are causing our planet to warm towards catastrophic levels.
Carbon has become a dirty word in the current climate.
As COP28 draws to a close, the focus has been squarely on global emissions, including CO2.
But my guest today is on a mission to change how we think about this compound.
Mercedes Marotto, Valor wants to turn this climate changing gas into a climate saving one.
Capturing it from the air and converting it into fuel or finding ways to lock it safely away.
For Mercedes, who is director of the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions at Heriot Watt University and the UK's decarbonisation champ, making CO2 useful is the holy Grail.
Today she's sitting opposite me in the studio holding a small piece of rock in her hand.
We'll talk about why a little later, but first, Professor Mercedes Marotto.
Valla, welcome to the Life Scientific.
Thank you very much.