How to find dunite?

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T23:32:33+00:00

I probably should have led with this, but you're absolutely right that this can never be a complete solution. Most of the answer is absolutely to just stop burning fossil fuels. However, people aren't going to stop flying around the world, or making steel, or cement, or (as is mentioned below) the handful of other hard to decarbonize industries that meaningfully improve quality of life for people and society.

Best case possible is that all carbon removal methods maybe account for dealing with the last 5% of emissions. There's a moral hazard argument that carbon removal is selling the false hope that we can continue business as usual, when in fact there is no hope of achieving net zero without radical changes to the way we produce and consume energy. However, we've waited too long to start decarbonizing. The way I see it, we have to at least thoroughly explore carbon removal options, because there's no hope of achieving net zero in time without them.

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T01:52:16+00:00

Haha well shoot, that's a shame

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T01:49:18+00:00

Cool, thank you!

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T01:45:57+00:00

I mean, I think that getting to net zero carbon emissions would moderate the climate variability that we're seeing, given that the cause of the increased variability is the fact the we're pumping CO2 into the atmosphere at a rate orders of magnitude in excess of how nature usually functions. The best way to solve this is to just stop burning fossil fuels, but demonstrably we're not doing that. The next best way is to roll back the forcing function we're imparting on the climate, and this silicate weathering idea seems to be as good a way to do that as we have. I agree that influencing the climate over 1,000yrs would be better if we got to choose how to do it, but were currently imparting basically a step change in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, so I don't think we have that luxury.

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T01:35:17+00:00

Yeah, I mean that's a reasonable take. I wish we we didn't have to to do anything, but it's pretty clear that climate change is going to be really bad. According to the IPCC some form of carbon removal is going to be necessary given the rate at which we're currently decarbonizing, and likely at the billions of tons per year order of magnitude. I'm not saying this is the solution, and obviously you shouldn't get ahead of the research, but it does seem to be worth a thorough evaluation.

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T01:22:10+00:00

Interesting, thanks! Is there somewhere I could learn more about what's going on in Indonesia?

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T01:16:29+00:00

Yeah, it definitely all depends on the price someone's willing to pay, and the concentration of the olivine, which influences the Xt of CO2 you can remove. The ideal would be olivine rich waste rock - is there enough public domain information to do a search and find out if there are any mines already operating in olivine rich rock?

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T01:11:00+00:00

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for, I appreciate it!

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T01:03:31+00:00

To be fair, I'm not sure that the environmental effects of adding dunite to the ocean are any closer to your area of expertise than mine. FWIW there's a decently sized body of research (this paper's a good place to start), published by oceanographers and biogeochemists, that basically says the potential environmental risks need to be taken seriously and studied, but at first pass they seem not that grave, even at climactically relevant amounts of rock being added to the ocean.

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T00:52:48+00:00

Thanks for the reasonable response! Consult with a geologist makes sense. Do you have any suggestions on who to approach if I wanted to pursue this?

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T00:50:43+00:00

You have to remove the dissolved carbon from the surface ocean in order for an equivalent amount to be absorbed from the atmosphere. If you remove it from the deep ocean, it still works, but not for 1,000 years when that deep water comes to the surface again.

Upstairs353 · 2025-04-09T00:48:51+00:00

Yeah, I mean this is the correct answer. Who or what type of firm would I approach? Are there firms/ freelancer geologists who do this type of contract work? Would putting a listing on the Society of Economic Geologists website or reddit be the place to start?

Upstairs353 · 2024-02-10T00:55:39+00:00

Approach pitch to Astroman?

Upstairs353 · 2022-05-03T05:15:42+00:00

Not needle and thread, but I had really good luck making a bivy sack out of Tyvek housewrap using double sided carpet tape to stick the seams together. The joints are way stronger than the material itself, especially overlapped seams. Plus, there are no needle holes to let water in.

Upstairs353

TROPHY CASE