10bn tonnes must be captured from the air every year to limit global heating to 1.7C, says Johan Rockström
Problem is this part:
To achieve this through technological means, such as direct air capture, would require the construction of the world’s second biggest industry, after oil and gas, and require expenditures of about a trillion dollars a year, scientists said. It would need to be done alongside much more drastic emissions cuts and could also have unintended consequences.
That makes it incredibly unlikely that this kind of removal will be done.
I’m not a climate scientist, but my understanding is that oil is matter that was previously part of the climate cycle that was buried, and thus removed from the wheel.
Then we dug it up and burned it, reintroducing it to the cycle for the first time in many millions of years.
So if we stop emitting now, that would be better than not emitting. Not making things worse is a great start. But I think to “fix” it, we need to spend a boatload of money taking all that extra carbon we spent the last hundred years releasing, and put it back in the ground where we found it. Or a big box, or space, or whatever. It needs to be removed, or else this level is the new normal.
Yuppers, net zero is a (useful target) boondoggle, back to where we were (sequestration, net negative, reforestation) should be the actual goal…