The man who would save the planet with a hosepipe

"Global warming can be reversed very quickly, possibly within a year," says Torfinn Johnsen, an independent researcher based in Sandnes, southern Norway.

A bold statement, but for the last seven years Johnsen has been working to save the world from global warming with what he calls an albedo bio-membrane. He claims that it can reflect the sun’s energy back into the atmosphere.

The idea of reflecting the sun’s energy back into space is not in itself new. There have been other suggestions for geo-engineering to redress global warming such as mirrors or artificial volcano eruptions to create a sulphur ring around the earth. But Johnsen’s albedo membrane is more modest - at least in its method, if not in its ambition. Applied as a fertilizer, the membrane would increases crop-yields in disadvantaged areas, but also change the ground-level temperature.

Made from grinding organic waste into a powder, with either black or white pigments, it is to be mixed with water and then sprayed on the ground. The result is a (bio-degradable) layer that forms a sponge in the upper soil, which in turn either reflects the sun’s energy back into space, or conserves the energy on the ground.

But can a fertiliser really help the world in its battle against climate change? According to Johnsen, there is no doubt that it can and will.

He says that as the membrane can either increase the soil’s uptake of heat from the sun or reflect the sun, it is possible to increase or reduce the temperature of the soil’s upper layers. "The bio-membrane can be adjusted to different climates," says Johnsen, adding that "it can reflect or absorb the sun’s energy, be adjusted to local conditions and we can also adjust how much water is absorbed by the ground or how much is vaporised".

The big-picture effect of the bio-membrane would be to affect the balance between the earth’s surface and the energy received from the sun, so that, Johnsen argues, under given circumstances and if used on a large scale it could affect the climate globally. "With the membrane we can alter the albedo [the amount of energy reflected by the ground] on the earth’s surface by possibly 80%, on perfect surfaces," says Johnsen. Tests done by Johnsen’s company Albedo Tech have found that, under optimal conditions, applying the bio-membrane to soil can alter the earth’s uptake of energy from absorbing 800 watt per square metre and reflecting 200 watts, to absorbing 200W and reflecting 800W per sq. m. This in turn decreases the ground-level temperature and reduces evaporation, which means that the soil’s absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) increases, hence less CO2 is released into the atmosphere.

But by altering the ground’s temperature the bio-membrane has another effect: it can help prevent water loss, stop erosion and increase agricultural crop yields.

Tests on a cabbage crop in Murcia, Spain, for example, saw a 38% increase in yields. Similar tests in Nigeria, the Middle East and Central America have all shown increases in crop yields too.

Although dry areas - such as southern Spain or sub-Saharan Africa - have the most to gain, the bio-membrane can also help cultivation in colder climes too.

Some of the latest tests carried out by Albedo Tech with the membrane on grass saw a five-fold increase in yields - from 120 gram per sq. mwithout the membrane to 600g per sq. m with the membrane.

Which, in theory at least, suggests that by using the bio-membrane farmers do not have to increase the amount of land used for food production in order to feed a growing population.

Currently Cicero, the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo, is carrying out tests to see if the bio-membrane does live up to the promises made by Johnsen. According to Gunnar Myhre, a senior research fellow with Cicero, the tests include the use of NASA satellites to document whether the bio-membrane actually does reflect the sun’s energy back into space and alters the ground’s albedo. But Myhre adds that, although the theory behind the product holds true, large-scale testing is still needed.

Whether the bio-membrane can have an effect on global warming has yet to be proved, but other aspects of its effects suggest that it might at least have a future as an environmentally friendly product for farmers across the world.

"Global warming can be reversed very quickly, possibly within a year," says Torfinn Johnsen, an independent researcher based in Sandnes, southern Norway.