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To halt climate change and prevent dangerous warming, we ultimately have to stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. While the world is making slow progress on reducing emissions, there are more radical options, such as removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and storing them underground.

In a paper published today in Science my colleagues and I report on a successful trial converting carbon dioxide (CO₂) to rock and storing it underground in Iceland. Although we trialled only a small amount of CO₂, this method has enormous potential.

Here’s how it works.

Turning CO₂ to rock

Our paper is the culmination of a decade of scientific field and laboratory work known as CarbFix in Iceland, working with a group of international scientists, among them Wallace Broecker who coined the expression “global warming” in the 1970s. We also worked with the Icelandic geothermal energy company Reykjavik Energy.

The idea itself to convert CO₂ into carbonate minerals, the basis of limestone, is not new. In fact, Earth itself has been using this conversion technique for aeons to control atmospheric CO₂ levels.

However, scientific opinion had it up to now that converting CO₂ from a gas to a solid (known as mineralisation) would take thousands (or tens of thousands) of years, and would be too slow to be used on an industrial scale.

To settle this question, we prepared a field trial using Reykjavik Energy’s injection and monitoring wells. In 2012, after many years of preparation, we injected 248 tonnes of CO₂ in two separate phases into basalt rocks around 550m underground.

Most CO₂ sequestration projects inject and store “supercritical CO₂”, which is CO₂ gas that has been compressed under pressure to considerably decrease its volume*. However, supercritical CO₂ is buoyant, like a gas, and this approach has thus proved controversial due to the possibility of leaks from the storage reservoir upwards into groundwater and eventually back to the atmosphere.

In fact, some European countries such as the Netherlands have stopped their efforts to store supercritical CO₂ on land because of lack of public acceptance, driven by the fear of possible leaks in the unforeseeable future. Austria went even so far as to ban underground storage of carbon dioxide outright.

Our Icelandic trial worked in a different way. We first dissolved CO₂ in water to create sparkling water. This carbonated water has two advantages over supercritical CO₂ gas.

First, it is acidic, and attacks basalt which is prone to dissolve under acidic conditions.

Second, the CO₂ cannot escape because it is dissolved and will not rise to the surface. As long as it remains under pressure it will not rise to the surface (you can see the same effect when you crack open a soda can; only then is the dissolved CO₂ released back into the air).

Dissolving basalt means elements such as calcium, magnesium, and iron are released into pore water. Basaltic rocks are rich in these metals that team up with the dissolved CO₂ and form solid carbonate minerals.

Through observations and tracer studies at the monitoring well, we found that over 95% of the injected CO₂ (around 235 tonnes) was converted to carbonate minerals in less than two years. While the initial amount of injected CO₂ was small, the Icelandic field trial clearly shows that mineralisation of CO₂ is feasible and more importantly, fast.

Storing CO₂ under the oceans

The good news is this technology need not be exclusive to Iceland. Mineralisation of CO₂ requires basaltic or peridotitic rocks because these types of rocks are rich in the metals required to form carbonates and bind the CO₂.

As it turns out the entire vast ocean floor is made up of kilometre-thick oceanic basaltic crust, as are large areas on the continental margins. There are also vast land areas covered with basalt (so-called igneous provinces) or peridotite (so-called “ophiolitic complexes”).

The overall potential storage capacity for CO₂ is much larger than the global CO₂ emissions of many centuries. The mineralisation process removes the crucial problem of buoyancy and the need for permanent monitoring of the injected CO₂ to stop and remedy potential leakage to the surface, an issue that supercritical CO₂ injection sites will face for centuries or even millennia to come.

On the downside, CO₂ mineralisation with carbonated water requires substantial amounts of water, meaning that this mineralisation technique can only succeed where vast supplies of water are available.

However, there is no shortage of seawater on the ocean floor or continental margins. Rather, the costs involved present a major hurdle to this kind of permanent storage option, for the time being at least.

In the case of our trial, a tonne of mineralised CO₂ via carbonated water cost about US$17, roughly twice that of using supercritical CO₂ for storage.

It means that as long as there are no financial incentives such as a carbon tax or higher price on carbon emissions, there is no real driving force for carbon storage, irrespective of the technique we use.

*Correction: The sentence has been corrected to note that gas volume rather than density decreases when it is compressed. Thankyou to the readers who pointed out the error.

Dom Wolff-Boenisch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Visits to Belize's reefs have been climbing, despite them being listed as World Heritage in Danger since 2009. Elizabeth Albert/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

In 2014, 1.88 million tourists visited the Great Barrier Reef, bringing an estimated A$5.17 billion into Australia’s economy and helping to employ some 64,300 tourism workers.

With those numbers, it’s easy to see how threats to the Reef’s future, such as the recent mass bleaching event, are confronting for the tourism sector. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many tourism operators have chosen to remain quiet about their concerns or downplay the issue, fearful that mentioning the threats would turn tourists away.

The federal environment department evidently felt the same way, judging by its request that all references to Australian World Heritage sites, including the Reef, be removed from a UNESCO report on climate change and World Heritage tourism.

But does this reasoning stack up? Three other famous tourist destinations have also been in the spotlight of the World Heritage Committee, with little indication that this has turned visitors away.

Galápagos Islands

Galápagos was listed as World Heritage In Danger from 2007-10, primarily because of the impacts of tourism, and was taken off again once the World Heritage Committee was satisfied that its concerns had been addressed. The area is now facing other issues, including biosecurity, sustainable development and fishing, but Galápagos tourism continues to grow, as shown in the graph below, with almost 225,000 visits in 2015.

Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park was listed as World Heritage In Danger in 1993, and remains on the list today (although it was briefly taken off in 2008 before being reinstated in 2010). Annual visitor numbers have fluctuated around the 1 million mark, although official figures count only those who pass through the park’s entrance stations, and many more people enter through the miles of surrounding waters.

Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System

Belize’s reefs have been on the World Heritage In Danger list since 2009, due to a range of issues including invasive species, oil and gas exploitation, and inappropriate visitor accommodation and associated infrastructure. Tourist numbers recently reached a high of 968,131 cruise arrivals in 2014.

Data compiled by author What can we learn from these numbers?

The first thing to note is that the Great Barrier Reef has, to date, avoided being listed as World Heritage In Danger, thanks to last year’s successful campaign by the federal and Queensland governments – although there is no guarantee it will not be added in the future.

But what do the statistics above tell us about what happens to tourism numbers when World Heritage sites are officially listed as “In Danger”?

Galápagos suffered a very slight downturn in tourism after it was added to the In Danger list in 2007, but since then tourism has continued to grow, and today numbers are higher than they have ever been.

In Belize, tourism has fluctuated since the site was listed as World Heritage In Danger in 2009, but here too, tourist numbers today are at record highs despite the fact that these reefs remain on the In Danger list.

Finally to the Everglades, which has been placed on the World Heritage In Danger list twice – both times at the request of the US government. This shows that, while sites can be taken off the list if their prospects improve, not all governments think that an In Danger listing is itself a bad thing. Certainly, Everglades tourism numbers do not seem to have suffered since it was placed back on the list in 2010.

Airboating in the Everglades: still a popular jaunt. chensiyuan/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Why did the United States lobby to have the Everglades officially described as In Danger, while Australia fought to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the list? As Carol Mitchell, Deputy Director of the South Florida Natural Sciences Center, has explained, the In Danger listing makes it clear to the national and international community that the Everglades still needs attention. Mitchell wrote to me:

It helps to keep some external pressure on both the federal and Florida state governments in their efforts to restore the park … both governments are strongly committed to Everglades restoration; nevertheless … the ability to call upon important, very visible international designations … does help to maintain those commitments.

Tourists already know the Great Barrier Reef is threatened

Despite what the Australian government and many tourism operators would like to believe, the threats to the Great Barrier Reef are already widely known, because they have drawn global media attention.

How this translates into the perceptions of prospective tourists in not yet clear. But the indications from elsewhere around the world is that In Danger listing does not have a significant impact on tourism, and presumably we could say the same about inclusion in documents such as UNESCO’s tourism report.

Many other factors are far more important to tourists, including the economic situation, access, weather events, service quality and, importantly, a site’s relative quality compared to alternative destinations.

Tourism operators are increasingly recognising that the Great Barrier Reef faces myriad threats, and that its outlook is poor. Many people agree with Tony Fontes, a dive operator from the Whitsunday Islands, who previously told me that an In Danger listing “might actually be the catalyst to ensure the GBR is properly protected”.

Recently, other GBR tourism operators have spoken out about the worst crisis ever faced by the GBR, with some 200 businesses and individuals pleading with the government to tackle climate change and the many other threats that together threaten the Reef’s future.

What needs to be done?

Ignoring the indisputable fact that the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem is under unprecedented pressures will help neither tourism nor the environment in the long term. A more effective strategy would be for the relevant agencies and operators alike to create realistic expectations, and responsibly inform tourists of the real situation.

University of Queensland professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg has summed up the situation:

The reef is in dire trouble, but it’s decades away before it’s no longer worth visiting. That’s the truth. But unless we wake up and deal with climate change sincerely and deeply then we really will have a Great Barrier Reef not worth visiting.

Australia has an international obligation to safeguard the Great Barrier Reef for future generations. As a relatively rich country, Australia needs to show global leadership, but this will require more government assistance, leadership from industry and, crucially, widespread public support for action. If reef tourists from around the world know the real situation, they might be able to help too.

Jon C. Day does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Miners were fired by a sense of solidarity but also by dangerous working conditions, which produced high death and injury rates. Janet Lindenmuth/Flickr, CC BY-SA

As the world moves to combat climate change, coal is becoming increasingly vilified for its greenhouse gas emissions. But coal played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution, and continues to fuel some of the world’s largest economies. Our series examines coal’s past, present, and increasingly uncertain future, and today we turn to its role in the development of industrial relations.

Coal mining, major industrial disputes, and the coal miner himself, are iconic representations of the industrial age. Demand for coal came from expanding urban centres as a result of the Industrial Revolution, and new coal-fired factories, mills and furnaces.

Miners were among the first workers to organise into trade unions from the middle of the 1700s, battling a lack of legal recognition and resistance from the mine owners.

By the 19th century, there were numerous attempts to combine and organise what were often local trade unions. By the beginning of the 20th century, lasting national bodies of miners had been formed in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States.

Origins of mining communities

Small pit-top communities emerging in the 1800s created bonds of association that flowed into newly established trade unions. Mines tended to concentrate in distinct regions following coal seams.

Miners were fired by a sense of solidarity but also by dangerous working conditions, which produced high death and injury rates. Proper records were not kept in the early period, but in the United Kingdom, for example, at least 90,000 miners died between 1850 and 1914.

Disasters were common in the industry. Their collective impact and lasting grief created a long tradition of anger over working conditions. The prevalence of occupational diseases – especially respiratory ailments – further encouraged union formation, and was a rallying call for organisation and political change.

Starting in the late 19th century, mechanisation not only reduced the total number of miners needed to raise a tonne of coal, it also introduced new hazards into the workplace. Machines with high-speed moving parts could catch clothing and limbs, causing serious injury or death.

In Australia and the UK, regulation usually followed major disasters. The US mining industry was more lightly regulated and only serious disasters prompted concerted federal government action; a situation that was unfortunately mirrored in other parts of the world. From 1900 to 1947, more than 90,000 US miners died at work.

Industrial conflict

By the late 19th century, the industry was characterised by uncertain profit margins, seasonal shifts in demand, uncertain supply lines, and owners who increasingly resented the rise of unions.

Mine owners were pressing for lower wages or faster work rates, and industrial conflict was common. And as older, more paternalistic forms of management of the early 1800s began to recede, the industry was characterised by major industrial battles.

Disasters were common in the mining industry. Orin Blomberg/Flickr, CC BY-ND

On the eve of the Great Strikes of the early 1890s in Australia, for instance, there was evidence that mine owners, in league with other employer groups, had decided to make a stand against the rising tide of union power.

Miners had joined other workers in asserting the right to form their own associations. They encouraged unions in new secondary industries and in other mines. In places such as the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, coal miners helped workers organise in the new base metal mines of the 1880s, and later in the Newcastle iron and steel industry from 1915.

In the US, there were violent and deadly clashes between miners and state and federal militia including the infamous 1914 Ludlow massacre in Colorado, where more than 60 strikers were killed.

In Australia, a seven-week miners strike in 1949 over wages and conditions but made worse by Cold War fears, saw federal government intervention and soldiers working in the mines.

Mining communities

Miners were also important in the development of the labour parties in Australia and the United Kingdom.

In the 1930s and 1940s, coal-mining communities in Australia, Wales, and England included members of the Communist Party. But the Labour parties were by far the dominant group, and mining communities would supply staunch Labour party politicians for many decades.

There was strict gender division of labour in coal-mining communities with men as breadwinners and women as wives and helpers. If women organised, it was in an “auxiliary” role.

Religion was often an important part of mining communities and this usually took the form of Protestantism that preached an acceptance of one’s fate; hyper religiosity in the face of the deadening weight of wage labour and the daily possibility of injury or death prevailed.

By the 1950s and 1960s, unionised coal miners had won better pay and conditions. In conditions of low unemployment and with the prestige garnered by their national organisations, coal miners had significant industrial power.

The withdrawal of their labour could bring an economy to a standstill as coal was required for factory machinery and transport. But towards the end of this long boom period, coal began to lose out to oil and gas.

The radical miner?

There is a common misconception that most coal miners were militant socialists. But miners and their communities could be socially conservative moderates who worked within the capitalist system.

Pit-top communities were homogeneous, and solidarity was often enforced through intimidation and exclusion, as well as moral consensus.

Working in a coal mine did not inevitably produce a radical political consciousness. Where strong union organisation was present, it was the result of hard work and efforts to organise members focused on protection rather than revolution.

Where strong union organisation was present, it was the result of hard work and efforts to organise members focused on protection rather than revolution. Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales/Flickr, CC BY-NC

The UK miners' strike protesting mine closures in 1984-85 was an occasion when, in the face of strong external threats, communities did come together powerfully.

With long memories of successful miners’ strikes in the early 1970s, Margaret Thatcher’s government embarked on a concerted attack on coal communities. This included plans to call in the military if needed, and reduce the power of the coal miners by encouraging nuclear energy.

But even in this case, the ultimately unsuccessful strike also produced internal dissent, a rival workers' organisation, and broke the exclusive coverage of the union in mining jobs.

Recession and globalisation

Coal mining continued to offer good jobs for working class communities but, increasingly, the jobs were being shifted to the developing world. And miners were losing their industrial and political muscle.

By 2007, there were 41,000 coal miners in the United States but only 22% were unionised. Recent high-profile bankruptcies of major US firms have again highlighted this development.

The centre of the global coal industry is now China. It accounts for 40% of global production; up to 80% of global coal mining fatalities; and no independent union representation.

Away from the spotlight of large mines, informal or artisanal coal mines are important in the developing world. While these small mines are important sources of income for poor communities (especially for women and children), conditions are squalid, safety unregulated and figures on the loss of life or serious fatalities largely unknown.

The reality of climate change has transformed the standing of coal mining. Those on the left were once unfailingly proud of their militant tradition. But as coal became associated with human-induced climate change this became less tenable.

The industry that spawned major unions, heroic though often unsuccessful industrial action, and transformed the political makeup of the UK and Australia, is now increasingly struggling. While the UK has only a handful of operating coal mines, the Australian situation is complicated by the renewed expansion of mining, including coal mining, from 2001.

This is the third article in our series on the past, present and future of coal. Look out for others in the coming days.

Erik Eklund does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Scientists think they have found a smart way to constrain carbon dioxide emissions - just turn them to stone.

Radical new technique promises a cheaper and more secure method of burying CO2 emissions underground instead of storing it as a gas

Carbon dioxide has been pumped underground and turned rapidly into stone, demonstrating a radical new way to tackle climate change.

The unique project promises a cheaper and more secure way of burying CO2 from fossil fuel burning underground, where it cannot warm the planet. Such carbon capture and storage (CCS) is thought to be essential to halting global warming, but existing projects store the CO2 as a gas and concerns about costs and potential leakage have halted some plans.

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Tiny Spanish island takes first delivery of electric vehicles as it sets out to become the first in Europe to banish petrol and diesel cars from its shores

The tiny Mediterranean island of Formentera has taken delivery of six electric cars as part of an ambitious plan to be the first island in Europe to banish traditional cars from its shores.

At 12 miles (19km) from end-to-end and with a population of about 12,000, Formentera is the smallest of Spain’s Balearic Islands. In summer, however, 15,000 cars are in circulation, arriving by ferry or rented on the island.

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Toxic air set to cause as many as 9 million premature deaths a year around the world in the next four decades, with economic costs rising to trillions a year

Air pollution is becoming a “terrifying” problem around the globe, one of the world’s leading economic organisations has warned, and will get much worse in the coming decades if urgent steps are not taken to control the pollution.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday that pollution of our air from industry, agriculture and transport was set to cause as many as 9 million premature deaths a year around the world in the next four decades, and the economic costs are likely to rise to about $2.6 tn (£1.8tn) a year over the same period.

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Wildlife hospital uses washing-up liquid to clean bird that was scavenging for food at factory

A seagull turned bright orange after it fell into a vat of chicken tikka masala.

The bird fell into the container while trying to scavenge meat from a food factory bin on Monday. It was rescued by workers at the site in Wales, and picked up by a volunteer for Vale wildlife hospital, near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.

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Understand changes to classification and working with dangerous chemicals in Australia

New low-carbon heating network is first stage of a plan to transform Bristol into a carbon-neutral city by 2050, reports BusinessGreen

Bristol’s newly elected mayor, Marvin Rees, has approved the city’s first major step towards becoming carbon neutral by 2050, giving the go-ahead for £5m in capital funding to build a low-carbon district heating network to serve the city.

The first phase of the heat network, which was approved earlier this week, will supply low-carbon heat to buildings throughout Bristol via a network of underground pipes connected to a number of energy centres, including biomass boilers and gas combined heat and power plants. Over time the city plans to phase out the use of natural gas in favour of renewable alternatives.

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Sixty years on since the introduction of measures to reduce air pollution we’d like to hear your smog recollections

In 1952 the great smog of London saw a week-long pea-souper take over the capital which contributed to the deaths of at least 4,000 people. In response to the disaster, the government passed the Clean Air Act of 1856 aimed at reducing air pollutants.

Recently, the new mayor of London Sadiq Khan unveiled plans to substantially increase the size of London’s clean air charging zone to tackle the capital’s illegal air pollution levels.

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Scientists hope large-scale maps will offer new insight into effects of warming and pollution as previous studies have almost always been done up close in the water

Coral reefs have almost always been studied up close, by scientists in the water looking at small portions of larger reefs to gather data and knowledge about the larger ecosystems. But Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is taking a step back and getting a wider view, from about 23,000 ft above.

Nasa and top scientists from around the world are launching a three-year campaign on Thursday to gather new data on coral reefs like never before.

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Warmest spring on record helps push states’s year-to-date temperature more than 5.5C above average, reports Climate Central

Alaska just can’t seem to shake the fever it has been running. This spring was easily the hottest the state has ever recorded and it contributed to a year-to-date temperature that is more than 10°F (5.5°C) above average, according to data released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).

The Lower 48, meanwhile, had its warmest spring since the record-breaking scorcher of 2012.

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Rolling sand dunes of Arabia, thinning glaciers of Greenland and wildfires of Fort McMurray in Canada were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month

Nasa astronaut Jeff Williams captured this image of the ancient Potidea canal in Greece from the International Space Station. For 2,000 years this canal has connected the Thermaikos and Toronaios Gulfs. Williams posted the photograph on Twitter, saying: ‘Coastal currents and erosion over 2,000 years appear to have displaced the two sides of this isthmus, which may explain the coastline’s misalignment.’

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Huge sections of the UK coastline were too polluted for swimming until EU legal action forced the government to clean up

In the 1980s, the British government tried to claim that the beaches of Brighton, Blackpool, Skegness and many other resorts weren’t used for bathing, to avoid dealing with the sewage, condoms and tampons that polluted them. Of the 27 beaches it agreed were used for swimming, nine were too dirty to reach the minimum bathing standard.

Today, after legal action from the EU and directives on bathing water and urban waste water, 99% of the UK’s 632 designated beaches have been deemed safe for swimming.

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Environment committee report criticises lack of long-term planning and raises doubts whether target of protecting 300,000 homes by 2021 would be met

The government is failing to protect communities at risk of flooding, according to a highly critical report from MPs, who said they were sceptical that the target of protecting 300,000 more homes would be met.

Ministers react after severe flooding rather than planning ahead for the long term, according to the cross-party environmental audit committee (EAC), which said flood defences are not sufficiently maintained.

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Dartmoor, Devon The beetle’s forelimb seemed to give a cheery wave to the world as it scooped at thin air then arced forward

Wider than a thumbnail, almost as thick as a thumb, a black beetle with a shell like polished shoe leather was lumbering along a well-trodden path.

Striking out in slow motion for the grassy edge with a six-legged doggy paddle, this bloody-nosed beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa) gave the impression of a wind-up toy winding down. Watching this great tank on sticks was akin to seeing the open workings of a mill – a collection of mechanical parts moving in sequence to drive the greater whole.

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Greg Hunt defends conservative government’s actions in torrent of posts to the Finding Dory star

The Australian environment minister, Greg Hunt, has bombarded Ellen DeGeneres with tweets after she appealed to Australia to do more to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

Following news of the death of almost a quarter of the coral on the reef this year, DeGeneres, who plays the fish Dory in the 2003 film Finding Nemo and its upcoming sequel, Finding Dory, released a video message as part of a campaign called Remember the Reef.

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OLD BONES: A 700,000-year-old hobbit has been discovered by a team of Australian-led researchers on the Indonesian island of Flores, shedding new light on human evolution.

The government is failing to do enough to protect communities at risk of flooding and needs to do more long-term planning, MPs say.