I just thought of another possible topic that isn't on my mind map. It relates to the pollution/greenhouse gases heading.
It's all very well to say "we need to stop polluting", and the ways to do so seem logical enough: use less energy and switch to more sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources. But what about the gases that are already in the atmosphere? I acknowledge that if we suddenly stop releasing greenhouse gases the threat of global warming will be a, well, a lot less threatening. But even so the effects of global warming have already started. Glaciers are already melting at an increased rate, the world is already experiencing more extreme weather and more ferocious storms. Even if we stop heating up the world now, we've already made a difference, so it seems the next step would be reversing the damage we've already done.
Last year, milllions of people from around the world united for one purpose, to highlight the need for reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million. And nature has provided us with a way of doing so, trees! So if we plant lots and lots of trees instead of cutting them down, the carbon dioxide level in our atmosphere will go down as well, right?
But what about the other gases? Gases like carbon monoxide, methane and nitrous oxide? How do we get rid of those? Trees don't absorb those too.
I haven't done any research into this specific topic yet, so for all I know, there could already be a way to get rid of them or, at the other extreme, scientists and environmentalists could have no clue whatsoever and there would be nothing for me to test in my research task. I'm hoping that there are a few theories circulating as to how to deal with these gases which I can compare and test.