Going underground

Don't know how long the URL will last, but this is as good a time as any to have a ponder on the 'next big thing', planet-saving-wise.

 http://www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782,69711,00.html

And in case the URL drops here's the salient bit:

The energy industry has found a new way to dispose of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide: pump it back into the underground oil reservoirs from whence much of it came.

Now I'm all for innovative solutions, but I have watched Total Recall. So there's something about vast reservoirs of a totally different gas in solid state lying latent in the earth, ready to swap itself with the current atmosphere, which makes me a tad anxious. 

However, there is some reassurance that some mighty minds are aware of that:

However, not all oil fields can be used for CO2 injection and storage, so there is a need for other gas-storage sites. CO2 storage has been tried only in sedimentary rock, but the Northwestern and Southeastern United States are made mainly of basalt rock

And a bit of pragmatic caution as well:

However, the technology is no "silver bullet" in the fight to dramatically reduce greenhouse gases, says Matthew Bramley of The Pembina Institute, a Canadian environmental organization: "Energy conservation and efficiency and investments in renewable energy should come before expensive carbon-capture and storage technologies," Bramley said.

So for now I'm still favouring using a lot less of the stuff on top of producing none at all when we do. So solar, waves and a few other get my vote for now.