41. Is Carbon-Capture-and-Sequestration a Thing?
Is Carbon-Capture-and-Sequestration a Thing? Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the primary driver of the “greenhouse effect,” that condition in which CO2 forms a nice blanket around the biosphere, keeping it warm enough for life to have evolved as it has. For a million years or so, atmospheric CO2 levels were relatively stable, fluctuating between 200 and 300 parts per million, and all life as we know it was maintained. Small human-caused increases in CO2 began with agriculture, but the industrial revolution triggered an abrupt and profound rate of CO2 increase, from roughly 280 parts per million to around 420 today. In just over 200 years we have released the carbon from fossil plants and animals that took several hundred million years to form. To prevent catastrophic warming, we need to stop emitting CO2. And since we didn’t start cutting back 20 or 30 years ago, we will likely also have to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Even if the world achieves its net zero 2...