This article starts off with (quote) “”The oil and gas industry is banking on carbon capture as its “fix” for climate change. The IEA’s new report dispels that idea and offers real solutions.””
It’s much more than that. “The oil and gas industry is banking on carbon capture” as a magic wand that they can use to convince the public that it will save the world, and as long as this magic wand is available, the public can go on, business as usual, burning fossil fuels in transportation and industries without having to change. But that’s a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth.
The actual truth is if everyone on this Earth doesn’t do the most they can do to stop burning fossil fuels, and also reduce the carbon in the atmosphere, then most inhabited areas will become unliveable.
The fact is that if everyone stopped burning fossil fuels right now, there are still hundreds of gigatons of CO2 that are already released, and most of those must be removed in order to halt global warming.
In order to remove part of the hundreds of gigatons of CO2, everyone must plant hundreds of billions of trees. A hundred trees for every person would be a good beginning.
Another way to remove part of the CO2 is to build millions of giant machines that remove the CO2 from the air. This is already being done by Climeworks in Iceland. The building and running of the machines must create as little CO2 as possible, otherwise the machines would defeat their own purpose.
It has long been known and stated that it will cost much less to make the changes to prevent global warming than it will cost to adapt to the issues global warming will cause. The experts estimate that due to sea level rise, as many as 700 million people – about 10% of the world population – will have to move away from the flooded coasts due to sea level rise. The costs to adapt to global warming will be tens of trillions of dollars – much more than it will cost to remove the CO2 from the atmosphere by planting trees or by carbon dioxide capture and storage.
So we have a choice: remove CO2 from the atmosphere, which may cost trillions of dollars, or adapt to global warming, which may cost tens of trillions of dollars and cause hundreds of millions to become global warming refugees. If the human race is wise, they will remove the CO2. But humans are not known for making wise decisions.
The article said (quote): “”The amount of electricity needed to power these [carbon capture] technologies would be greater than the entire world’s electricity demand today.””
That may be true. The author tries to imply that it’s an impossible goal to meet. The author has failed to consider the other
Large amounts of carbon capture as a solution is an ‘illusion’ – IEA
