Reality check on technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the air
An MIT Energy Initiative study finds many climate-stabilization plans are based on questionable assumptions about the future cost and deployment of “direct air capture” and therefore may not bring about promised reductions.
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Kind reminder that the first solar panels had an efficiency of around 10%, and are now at 22%. The cost of photovoltaics has decreased 60% over the past decade alone.
Of course there is no 'silver bullet'. But the researchers of the original article still recommend working on projects like these.
Projects like this are completely necessary, for after we phase out fossil fuels. Not "while we ramp down" or "so we don't have to shut off this plant over here". Once the phaseout is complete these systems help reign in the overshoot.
Except in this case, the atmosphere is a known (huge) size, the number of points at which capture technology can be applied is not that great, and the more CO2 that's captured, the harder it will be to capture more. And the way gases circulate through the atmosphere, it'll be even harder to ensure that it flows past the places where the scrubbers are located.
Unlike battery tech, none of those factors has a technical solution.
The whole carbon-capture business model is a con. Stop pollution at source, it's the only way that actually works right now. Quit pissing away money, effort and precious time on displacement activities like this and hydrogen.
Nationalize the fossil-fuel companies and start an orderly shutdown. It's the only way we will survive.