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As more heat-trapping carbon dioxide continues to concentrate in our atmosphere — and to wreak havoc on our climate — scientists are desperately seeking solutions. Some are looking for ways to limit the greenhouse gas we spew from smokestacks, tailpipes and the like; others, whose efforts remain largely under the radar, are aiming to thin the layer of gas that already blankets our planet.
随着越来越多的温室气体二氧化碳持续富集在我们的大气中 - 并且对我们的气候造成严重破坏 - 科学家们也在拼命寻求解决方案。有些人正在寻找限制我们从烟囱、排气管中排放温室气体的方法；另一些人，他们更多的是在雷达后努力，目的是减少已经覆盖我们星球的温室气体。
One group of researchers in Canada, taking the latter approach, may have hit upon a novel yet ancient idea: harness and accelerate the carbon-absorbing power of rocks.
加拿大的这组研究人员属于后者，他们有一个新颖而古老的想法：利用并加速岩石吸收碳的能力。
"We have to learn how to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, because we've already put too much into it," said Roger Aines, a senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's energy program, who was not involved in the research. "Just making everything electric. Just making everything renewable. We have to do that, but that's not enough."
“我们必须研究如何从大气中去除二氧化碳，因为我们已经过多地排放了二氧化碳，”劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室能源项目的资深科学家罗杰艾因斯说，他没有参与这项研究。 “将一切电气化，将一切循环起来。我们必须这样做，但这还不够。”
Throwing rocks at the problem, in other words, could make a significant dent.
用石头去解决问题，或许会很不一样。
The oceans, soils and trees aren't the only tools nature employs to capture and store away carbon dioxide. Minerals soak up the gas, too. Just one cubic kilometer of rock laden with magnesite and other carbonate minerals — about the size of a medium-sized mountain — could lock down a billion tons of carbon dioxide.
海洋、土壤和树木并不是大自然用来捕获和储存二氧化碳的唯一工具。矿物质同样也吸收气体。仅仅一立方公里的富含菱镁矿和其他碳酸盐矿物的岩石 - 大约相当于一座中型山的大小 - 就可以固定十亿吨二氧化碳。
But this occurs over extremely long time frames — far too slow to keep up with the rate at which the world emits carbon dioxide, which is estimated to be about 40 billion tons a year.
但这种情况发生在极长的时间尺度内 - 这个速度太慢而无法跟上我们排放二氧化碳的速度，二氧化碳每年的排放量估计约为400亿吨。
Now, the Canadian team has devised a recipe to speed up the formation of magnesite, or magnesium carbonate, from hundreds or thousands of years in nature down to just 72 days in the lab. The key ingredient: tiny polystyrene microspheres — essentially latex beads — coated with charged molecules that help magnesium ions bond with carbonate ions to create magnesite.
现在，加拿大的团队已经设计出一种配方，其可以加速菱镁矿或碳酸镁的形成，从自然环境中数百年到数千年缩短到实验室中的72天。其关键成分是涂有带电分子的微聚苯乙烯颗粒（本质上是乳胶颗粒），其可以帮助镁离子与碳酸根离子结合形成菱镁矿。
Compared to other carbonate minerals common near the Earth's surface, magnesite is particularly reluctant to form, and is therefore an apt target for the chemical cajoling. And once formed, the mineral is very stable. One ton of magnesite securely holds about a half ton of carbon dioxide.
与地球表面常见的其他碳酸盐矿物相比，菱镁矿特别不易形成，因此是化学固碳的合适目标。一旦形成，矿物质就非常稳定。一吨菱镁矿可以牢固地容纳约半吨二氧化碳。
"It's a great way of storing carbon dioxide for a long period of time," said Ian Power, an environmental geochemist at Trent University in Canada, who presented his team's research at the Geochemical Society's Goldschmidt Conference in Boston on Aug. 14.
“这是长期储存二氧化碳的好方法，”加拿大特伦特大学的环境地球化学家伊恩·鲍尔说，他于8月14日在波士顿地球化学学会的Goldschmidt会议上展示了其团队的研究成果。
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