In 2016, the world moved permanently above 400 parts per million. The 400 ppm milestone is a symbolic and necessary reminder that we, as humans, are reshaping Earth in profound and unsustainable ways.
NASA, with its carbon monitoring system, shows the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere decreases in the spring and summer. In spring and summer, plants in the oceans and on land pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In the fall and winter, CO2 increases because plants and animals release the carbon dioxide that captured during the growing season.
Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve been burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, or natural gas) for energy. Fuels release into the atmosphere significantly faster than the plants in the oceans and on the land can take out the CO2. This is moving the Keeling curve up.
I have been watching the images of fires burning in the Amazon with horror. Not only are trees that are hundreds of years old burning, and the animals that live in them, but the forest homes of the Indigenous people are burning, too.
Losing parts of the Amazon rainforest affects the whole planet. The Amazon rainforest is one of the most unique, bio-diverse ecosystems on the planet, and it absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, something that helps reduce climate change. So, when we lose parts of the forest we lose something that helps sustain our planet. The fires burning in the Amazon are not due to climate change.
The fires are being started by people who want to clear the forest so they can grow soy and raise cattle. And these people are emboldened by the President of Brazil, who wants the forest to be cleared to increase economic activity. He said he wants to weaken the rights of Indigenous people who live in the forest and he wants to reduce the amount of their land.
The choices we make can make a difference. It’s not enough to be outraged at the loss of the forest and the cruelty to the Indigenous people. But reducing the amount of beef that we consume we will reduce the incentive to burn forest land. And, it turns out, reducing our consumption of beef will also dramatically help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which will make a huge impact on climate change.
By making smart decisions and changing our lifestyles we will be able to look our kids in the eyes and say that we are doing everything we can to help pass on a healthy planet. And we will be supporting Indigenous people who are asking for our help. I am compelled to walk upon this Earth more gently and I hope you will join me, too.
Jean-Michel Cousteau, President, Ocean Futures Society
If we already know how to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and turn it into fuel, why aren’t we doing more of it? –M.N. Daly, Springfield, MA
With
recent measurements detecting the highest levels of atmospheric CO2 in
human history—and experts warning we have less than a dozen years to turn
around our profligate emissions to avoid cataclysmic changes—the time is nigh
to start ratcheting down our carbon footprints. One solution that seems obvious
but has been slow to get out of the starting gate is scrubbing large amounts of
CO2 from the air and recycling it as a feedstock to produce
carbon-neutral fuels to power our machines.
We
have known how to capture CO2 from the air at large scale since the
1950s, but it wasn’t until the late 1990s that environmentalists started
looking to so-called “Direct Air Capture” (DAC) as one of a suite of tools at
our disposal for dealing with the greenhouse effect. Since then, researchers
have been scrambling to come up with the most efficient ways to capture CO2.
Massachusetts-based
start-up Carbon Engineering formed in 2011 in an effort to produce and
eventually commercialize DAC technology that can use captured CO2 to
make fuel at costs competitive with producing conventional fossil fuels. After
several years of research and development and implementation of its
technologies at a pilot plant in British Columbia, the company has been able to
get the costs of capturing CO2 down to ~$100/ton—six times less than
previous models predicted was possible.
Carbon Engineering has proven at its Canadian pilot plant in Squamish, British Columbia that it can suck greenhouse gases out of the air through so-called Direct Air Capture (DAC) and process them into liquid fuels at a cost nearly as cheap as producing fossil fuels.
But
it’s what happens next that has environmental advocates jazzed. Carbon
Engineering’s solar-powered electrolyzer splits water into hydrogen and oxygen,
and then combines the hydrogen with previously captured CO2 to make
carbon-neutral gasoline, diesel or even jet fuel. Assuming a $100/ton cost for
capturing atmospheric CO2, the company can produce these
eco-friendly fuels for about $1/liter, which is only marginally more expensive
than their fossil-fuel counterparts. The hope is that costs will come down to
below fossil fuels as demand grows and facilities scale up. Also, as more
states follow California’s lead in requiring increasingly significant portions
of their fuel mixes to come from “low-carbon” sources, demand for these green
alternative fuels will rise and prices will likely drop even more.
R&D
like this isn’t limited to the U.S. Spain’s SUN-to-LIQUID project uses unique
solar concentration technologies that combine sunlight with oxygen and
atmospheric CO2 to get three times as much energy out of the sun’s
rays as existing solar “reactors.” The resulting “synthesis fuel” combines
hydrogen and carbon monoxide and could be used to power vehicles or any type of
engine equipped to deal with it.
And a
team of Swiss and Norwegian scientists wants to put such technologies to use on
millions of solar-powered floating islands at sea that could suck CO2 out
of the air and turn it into fuel without taking up any land or bothering human
neighbors. Such a plan may seem far-fetched, but we need to be open to new idea
if we are going to turn the tide on climate change before we reach the dreaded
“point of no return.”
