Facing climate change due to increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, people have been inventing ways to possibly slow or even stop the onset of climate change. In the past few months, important figures such as Elon Musk and the Biden Administration and companies like Alphabet and Meta have been discussing a solution to climate change that is becoming increasingly popular. That solution is carbon-capture technology.
There are many different ways this idea could be implemented. One notion puts an industrial carbon-capture plant right next to factories, to reuse or move carbon pouring from smokestacks. A different approach has large facilities that take in air, separate out the carbon dioxide, and bury it underground. The carbon-capture concepts have come at the exact moment when they are needed. The United Nations said back in February that “climate change has reached a tipping point, where island nations could soon be flooded, millions may have to flee their homes in the face of drought and famine, underwater habitats would wither, and deaths related to heat, pollution and malnutrition will rise.”
Despite the appearance of a quick, simple solution, carbon-capture devices are not easy or cheap to design and manufacture. Critics say that carbon-capture technology isn’t effective and is very expensive. Detractors claim that proven solutions, like renewable energy, should be used, while letting gas and oil companies continue to run their businesses.
Carbon capture uses processes like photosynthesis, the process that allows trees and other plants to take in carbon dioxide. Back in the 1970s, oil and gas companies disposed of carbon dioxide by using a process to separate CO2 from the gas and put it back into the oil fields so they could get more oil. Getting the most out of waste like CO2 was the main way to slow climate change. Plants were built that could take carbon dioxide out of the air.
Carbon-capture devices may offer a promising solution to climate change, but there could be better answers coming around the bend. If so, they had better hurry up! Climate change is already happening.
There are many different ways this idea could be implemented. One notion puts an industrial carbon-capture plant right next to factories, to reuse or move carbon pouring from smokestacks. A different approach has large facilities that take in air, separate out the carbon dioxide, and bury it underground. The carbon-capture concepts have come at the exact moment when they are needed. The United Nations said back in February that “climate change has reached a tipping point, where island nations could soon be flooded, millions may have to flee their homes in the face of drought and famine, underwater habitats would wither, and deaths related to heat, pollution and malnutrition will rise.”
Despite the appearance of a quick, simple solution, carbon-capture devices are not easy or cheap to design and manufacture. Critics say that carbon-capture technology isn’t effective and is very expensive. Detractors claim that proven solutions, like renewable energy, should be used, while letting gas and oil companies continue to run their businesses.
Carbon capture uses processes like photosynthesis, the process that allows trees and other plants to take in carbon dioxide. Back in the 1970s, oil and gas companies disposed of carbon dioxide by using a process to separate CO2 from the gas and put it back into the oil fields so they could get more oil. Getting the most out of waste like CO2 was the main way to slow climate change. Plants were built that could take carbon dioxide out of the air.
Carbon-capture devices may offer a promising solution to climate change, but there could be better answers coming around the bend. If so, they had better hurry up! Climate change is already happening.
