I’ve always been skeptical of scientific solutions to our global warming woes. By and large, they ignore the fundamental problem: we consume too much. But with things getting as dire as they are, it’s worth looking at some of the last-ditch rescue methods that science has presented us with. And just now, there’s a carbon-scrubbing machine in development in Canada that pulls CO2 out of the atmosphere, anywhere. (previous technologies pulled it out of the source of pollution, like smokestacks).
Of course, they way they’re talking about using this is all kinds of messed up: pollute in the first world, scrub in the developing world. But this thing is worth looking at, worth understanding. In the article, make sure to head down to the comments section: people really know what’s up, for the most part. We can’t count on science as a savior, but we can look to use it to make it through the worst of what lays in store for us.
(Of course, this thing isn’t scrubbing methane, so we’re pwned anyhow).
So, if the scientists aren’t exaggerating, these things could cancel 70% of North American carbon emissions (the estimate I personally adhere to of how much reduction is needed to prevent catastrophic climate change), with only 39.5 square miles of scrubbing surface.
And that’s just North America. Stats needed to do the math aren’t available for China.
Hope you can fit a lot of scrubbing surface in these things.