Geologists know that when carbon dioxide contacts the igneous rock peridotite, a spontaneous chemical reaction results. The reaction produces limestone and eliminates carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, so people thought why not grind up some peridotite, transport it to power plants and line smokestacks with the stuff to trap CO2 before it’s released into the atmosphere?

A good thought, but one that proved too costly and energy intensive.

Now, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concludes that the miracle stone’s gas trapping abilities can be enhanced a million-fold by simple methods, and the whole CO2 sink idea suddenly has legs.

Peridotite normally resides in the Earth’s mantle 15 miles below the surface. Sometimes though, plate tectonic collisions push peridotite to the surface. That’s what happened eons ago in Oman which is now home to an exposed patch of peridotite the size of Massachusetts.

After 5 years of field work in the Omani desert, Peter Kelemen and Juerg Matter concluded that its peridotite patch is naturally absorbing 10,000 to 100,000 tons of carbon a year–far more than previously thought.

This means it may be feasible to pump CO2 from regional power plants to specially prepared peridotite fields resulting in “a low-cost, safe and permanent method to capture and store atmospheric CO2,” according to Kelemen.

The process would involve boring holes into the rock and injecting warm water containing pressurized CO2. Once started, the reaction would generate heat that would further accelerate the reaction. Fractures would form exposing new peridotite to the soda. The man-made gas trap would keep going as long as fresh CO2 was supplied.

The scientists assert that Omani peridotite alone can absorb some 4 billion tons of carbon a year—that’s 13% of the total spewed into the atmosphere each year.

Peridotite fields also exist in Papua New Guinea, Greece and Croatia. There are small deposits in the western United States as well.

And it turns out that ubiquitous basalt may have similar greenhouse gas gobbling characteristics. Scientists in Iceland are pursuing that lovely possibility right now.

In response to a downpour of lead-laced toys, contaminated food and counterfeit drugs that have been exported to the US in recent years, the FDA is deploying staff overseas. The FDA staff will work with foreign regulatory agencies, importers and whoever else they can find.

This week in fact, the FDA opened a foreign bureau in China, the country that exported tainted pet food to the US killing thousands of dogs and cats, and couldn’t prevent melamine-laced milk from sickening 54,000 of its own children.

The FDA’s China bureau will have 8 US employees and a Chinese staff. Its job is to certify inspections of Chinese exports headed for the US. The bureau will subcontract the work to private and commercial labs and liaise with several Chinese government agencies, where it hopes to establish quality standards.

Which raises the question, how does the FDA plan to assure that all items in a $320 billion stream of products are safe and fit for use?

Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt seemed realistic when he told the Washington Post, “we…cannot inspect everything (but) we believe very strongly that we can, through independent certification, assure that someone we trust is overseeing products that come into the United States.”

But Jiang Weibo is circumspect.  The professor at China Agriculture University’s School of Food Sciences told the Post, “The FDA can never find all the potential poisons in Chinese-exported food products. There are dozens of pesticides used. Each product might have more than a thousand different poisonous possibilities.”

Oh great.