Parkland High School students from all grades and science classes gained some insight into ongoing efforts to reduce the effects of global warming during a presentation on climate change and carbon capture processes on Nov. 25, 2019.

The guest speaker was John Cirucci, of North Whitehall Township, is an adjunct research professor at Arizona State University and a retired chemical engineer with Air Products.

The presentation was organized by Sean Flueso, physics teacher and high school science department chair.

To begin, Cirucci asked students; Is global warming happening, and is it primarily caused by humans emitting greenhouse gases?

Students overwhelmingly answered “yes” to both questions.

Cirucci acknowledged it took time for him to understand that global warming is occurring and driven by human-made emissions.

“I wasn’t there all along. I was a skeptic,” Cirucci told students, “And going back about 20 years, I didn’t really see how it mattered much to me, so it wasn’t something that I spent a lot of time with.”

However, after studying the scientific literature for several years and realizing the implications of climate change, Cirucci became convinced there is no doubt the two processes are connected.

He told students they should also become well-educated on the subject.

“I challenge you,” he said. This is an important issue and you should be informed about it, and you should approach it with critical thinking and a scientific perspective.

“The news and social media are not good places to get this scientific information.

“You need to peel back layers, and I encourage you to do that.”

Cirucci pointed to a 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which stated that global temperature rises should be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius in this century to prevent global climate-related risks.

The report stated significant, aggressive mitigation efforts need to be undertaken now to reduce the rate of warming.

“We have to go to zero emissions, and even into negative emissions, by 2070 to hold temperature rise this century to 2 degree Celsius and by 2040 to hold at 1.5 degree Celsius,” Cirucci said.

He said negative emissions actively remove carbon dioxide from the environment, and include strategies such as reforestation, biofuel and bioenergy source usage, and direct air capture, his area of research.

Direct air capture filters carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere for sequestration or reuse.

In his breakdown of direct air capture, Cirucci introduced students to different methods used to separate atmospheric carbon dioxide, discussed steps required to make the process cost-effective (economic viability, according to Cirucci, is a cost of $100 or less per ton of captured carbon dioxide), and detailed the workings of direct air capture test beds.

He also showed students proof-of-concept designs developed by Arizona State University, including the upcoming Tiburio prototype.

“We imagine that these collectors, these Tiburios ... there will be tens of thousands of them in the field, operating in tandem and capturing carbon dioxide,” Cirucci said.

Cirucci also made it clear that although direct air capture has its benefits, the technology is still in early development and is not the single, final key to solving climate change.

“I want to point out I focused on one solution,” Cirucci said,

“There are no silver bullet solutions. We have to be doing a lot of different things. We need right now to have as many different solution options as possible.”

Following the presentation, Flueso gave a quick recap to the students, saying he wanted them to learn how essential critical thinking, problem-solving and innovation are to science and technological developments.

“Hopefully you saw the importance of the design process, of looking at the aspects of identifying the problem, brainstorming all those solutions, the importance of developing and prototyping, the creativity that was involved in everything,” Flueso said.

Flueso told The Press he wanted the presentation to be more than just a science lesson on climate change.

He had invited students from different science classes and grade levels to attend Cirucci’s talk in order to encourage them to actively make a difference in the world.

“To me, it brings a message of hope to the kids,” Flueso explained. “We should teach kids to be good stewards of the environment, but I want them to leave here with hope and be mindful, get excited about getting out there, making a change, and hopefully they learned something to be inspired by.”