Science students from Stamford Welland Academy have captured the carbon dioxide driving climate change in a solution in a bottle, to present to the world’s leaders coming to COP26 in Glasgow in November.
They’ve invited Alok Sharma, president of COP26, to receive the bottle, in the hope it can sit on his table throughout the conference making this invisible gas visible to all.
Their school climate project was steered by planetary scientists Claudio Vita-Finzi and John Marshall, of the SETI institute in California, to show one of the ways that carbon dioxide can be recaptured directly from the air.
The students designed their experiment around everyday household objects, including a simple solar powered garden pump and a solution of the drain cleaner – caustic soda. What’s more, the biproducts of their experiment could be reused by the food, paper and glass industries.
Stamford Welland Academy head of science John Hickman said: “I’m thrilled that the students have embraced this experiment which such enthusiasm. Using their science knowledge in this way is heartening to see.”
Ruby a 15 year old science student at Stamford Welland Academy says: “Our generation is often accused of jumping on the save-the-planet bandwagon, whilst not having realistic solutions to the problem. But we probably know more science than most of our parents.”
Professor Peter Styring, a leading researcher in carbon capture and a delegate at the COP26 conference says: “It’s vital that any sort of carbon capture solution like this harnesses a circular chemical economy, where the biproducts of the process are also put to good use. And whilst carbon capture technology alone is not going to save us from the effects of climate change, it must be in the mix for reaching our carbon zero target in the decades ahead.”
Stamford Welland Academy head Victoria Lloyd says: “We always encourage our students to look beyond Stamford and this has been a superb opportunity for them to get involved in a project which impacts the whole world. They are the generation whose lives will be most disrupted by climate change, which is why they have written to Alok Sharma in the run up to COP26, to have their voices heard as representatives of this generation.”
Thank you to The SETI Institute / I AM SWEE for the opportunity.