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AUSTRALIA-ENVIRONMENT-CONSERVATION-REEF
Cloud brightening, ‘sun shields’ to save Barrier Reef
SYDNEY, July 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Australia announced plans Friday to
explore concepts such as firing salt into clouds and covering swathes of
water with a thin layer of film in a bid to save the embattled Great Barrier
Reef.
The UNESCO World Heritage-listed reef, about the size of Japan or Italy, is
reeling from two straight years of bleaching as sea temperatures rise because
of climate change.
Experts have warned that the 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long area could
have suffered irreparable damage.
While the government has pledged to tackle climate change — the greatest
threat to the world’s largest living structure — there has also been a push
to explore shorter-term measures to buy the reef some time.
Canberra in January offered Aus$2.0 million (US$1.5 million) to attract
innovative ideas to protect the site, which is also under pressure from
farming runoff, development and the predatory crown-of-thorns starfish.
Six schemes selected out of a total of 69 submissions will be tested to see
if they are feasible.
One selected concept is cloud brightening where salt crystals harvested
from seawater are fired into clouds, making them more reflective and
therefore deflecting solar rays back into space.
David Mead, a researcher at the Australian Institute of Marine Science,
said the idea might seem wacky but the proposal has real potential.
“The team have been looking at using a very fine nozzle to pump small
droplets of salt water at the rate of several billion per second,” he told
national broadcaster ABC.
“The water vaporises and you’re left with a salt particle which will float
around, and if you can introduce those into the system you can increase the
amount of sunlight reflected back.”
Another idea was a biodegradable “sun shield”, where an ultra-thin film
containing light-reflecting particles covers some reef waters to protect
corals from heat stress.
“The great thing about the film is it is only a molecule thick so you can
swim straight through it and it’ll just keep self-forming,” Andrew Negri from
the Australian Institute of Marine Science told the ABC.
Other short-listed projects include mass producing coral larvae with the
aid of 3D-printed surfaces to support new growth, and large-scale harvesting
and relocation of larvae.
The experimental commissions came as Canberra said Friday it was updating
its Aus$2.0 billion “Reef 2050” plan — first unveiled in 2015 — to protect
the reef, with further measures to improve water quality.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1120 hrs