Project Earth

One of the consequences of global warming is that engineering projects which would have heretofore been considered impractical are now being given serious consideration. This Discovery Channel series looks at four of them in detail. One is creating a sunshield, by launching lenses into space. This fails mainly because of cost. One is using reflective material to reduce the melting rate of glaciers. Cost is a factor here as well. A third is floating wind turbines at high altitude. The engineering problems are considerable. The most promising idea is creating a solar power plant in space and beaming the energy back to earth using focused microwave beams. This is the one idea where the experiments were uniformly successful. The fifth episode reviews these, and considers some other ideas such as reforestation and extracting carbon from the atmosphere by stimulating plankton growth. These ideas are interesting, but not all of them could be implemented cost-effectively.

Good episodes. Combines Mythbuster-like problem solving and climate change. BUT incomplete. This DVD only had roughly half the number of episodes broadcast during the period.

Excellent DVD!

Thinking out of the box and proving the ideas may have some merit! Should be interesting to teenagers.

I watched today the orbital power plant episode, with specific details of researchers attempting to make a difference with a potential solution for big energy problems