{"id":38099,"date":"2022-06-05T22:22:38","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T22:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/is-carbon-removal-a-realistic-climate-solution\/"},"modified":"2022-06-05T22:22:38","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T22:22:38","slug":"is-carbon-removal-a-realistic-climate-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/is-carbon-removal-a-realistic-climate-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"Is carbon removal a realistic climate solution?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe 360\u201d shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.<\/em><\/p>\n

What’s happening<\/h2>\n

Humans have pumped so much carbon into the air that climate experts now believe even a dramatic reduction in fossil fuel emissions won’t be enough. They say we’ll also have to that’s already in the atmosphere if we want to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n

Plants do this naturally, but most scientists say the sheer volume of carbon that must be sucked out of the air means that simply planting more trees won’t be enough. That view has led to huge investment into potential technologies that – if proven effective and utilized at a massive scale – could help achieve global climate goals in the coming decades.<\/p>\n

In the past few years, huge sums of money have been invested into what’s known as (DAC), a controversial new process that uses giant fans to drive air into facilities that use chemical reactions to pull carbon out of the air and store it – either in the ground or repurposed to create certain products.<\/p>\n

There are currently about 20 DAC plants in operation around the world. Together, they are capable of out of the air per year, a tiny fraction of 980 million metric tons that will be needed each year by 2050, according to an estimate from the International Energy Agency.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Department of Energy announced a plan to the construction of four new DAC plants in the United States. There has also been, including from Google, Facebook, Tesla’s owner, Elon Musk, and a long list of major investment firms.<\/p>\n

Why there’s debate<\/h2>\n

Despite the dire predictions of what will happen without carbon removal and the potential promise of the technology, there’s deep division among experts over whether Direct Air Capture is a legitimate answer to the world’s climate challenges.<\/p>\n