The 75 year cycle that might save the equatorial pacific from climate change
Lake Matano lies in the middle of the Island of South Sulawesi, in the equatorial Pacific. At a location two and a half degrees south of the equator, it is deep and beautiful lake, and is surrounded by mountains that channel the abundant rain. And fill the lake with fresh water. The waters of this large lake are teaming with aquatic life, a life teaming with a unique biodiversity and endemic species found nowhere else.
The naturalist Wallace once described the Island and lake, and wrote that because of its unique nature (in an 1859 paper), its inhabitants, its unique evolutionary, and adaptation to patterns of nature influenced by a position between Asia and Australia should be preserved.
Around this beautiful island are hot seas, around 30 degrees Celsius on average in summer and peaking around 34. These seas are primarily warmed by the equatorial sun, and additionally by the reflection of radiation from the atmosphere due to the greenhouse effect. We know that emissions are trending upward, and the effects are amplified due to water vapour.
Fortunately seasonal changes are our friend. There are multiple harmonic modes of 7.5 years in this area (1,2,10), and gases such as carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere only partially cause climate changes. It is a process that started millions of years ago and has always regulated the weather, because of cosmic motion. The seasonal cycle currently rises, however there is hope, because after 2030 it declines for a another decade. This is our window of opportunity.
This is a time when natural variance can works for mankind. Providing time for us to reduce emissions, before the natural cycle rises again. Like so many things in human history timing matters and we have a chance.
The seas like the land heat and cool with the cycle and cycle over years. The La Niña and El Niño, or southern oscillation is the result. These hot seas vaporise water and make rain fall, the amount depending on the sea surface temperature. The clouds and sun and sea temperatures regulate the solar energy available on the island.
We chose to study the solar energy potential of this fantastic island because mining occurs on it shoreline. We ask if sustainable mining is possible here. With a method using the sun, solar farms, micro algae and batteries. And we have investigate methods of capturing heavy metals before they enter the lake and damage the ecosystem. It just seemed to us that this beautiful place was the best place to start sustainable mining research. Partly because there is so much to protect and partly because around those shores they farm algae. And algae may be the key, was ask the question, is it nature’s way of protecting itself from pollutants like heavy metals.
Now during the monsoons it is very cloudy. Not ideal conditions for solar energy but the algae beside capturing heavy metals can b burned as fuel. That is how we propose to keep the mine operational when the batteries are flat and the sun isn’t shining. The miners may still disturb the ground where the metal is stored, but the damage will be contained. Emissions and heavy metals will not be added to the environment.
What algae in the lake may do is accumulate heavy metals and crabs and fish that eat the algae, which concentrate the heavy metals and then people eat the fish and crabs causing cancer and other diseases. But we don’t have abundant data to prove this hypothesis. Not like the hourly solar, temperature data we use to train prediction models. What we need is underwater satellites patrolling the lake, that provide streams of data for predicting the impact of mining on the environment.
Why not ban mining in such a place? That is an alternative. But a question for a politician not an engineer. What engineers are trained to do is solve problems and this problem can be solved. We can mine without harming the environment. And when the question of economic sustainability becomes more urgent we will be ready.
Nature has after all has been excavating minerals from the ground for millions of years and life flourishes. Maybe algae has always protected Mother Earth and humans. All we have to do is learn the secrets from nature and then adapt them to our human needs and then society can have the metal it needs to thrive without destroying the planet.