this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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The nation's first commercial carbon sequestration plant is in Illinois. It leaks. (grist.org)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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But if CCS operations leak, they can pose significant risks to water resources. That’s because pressurized CO2 stored underground can escape or propel brine trapped in the saline reservoirs typically used for permanent storage. The leaks can lead to heavy metal contamination and potentially lower pH levels, all of which can make drinking water undrinkable. This is what bothers critics of carbon capture who worry that it’s solving one problem by creating another.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

This is what bothers critics of carbon capture [...].

Far from the only thing that bothers critics, the part where CC results in more CO2 output for all the energy it needs is usually the first thing mentioned. Even if you run CC 100% on renewables, you would still be better of replacing fossil fuels in use elsewhere with renewables then using renewables on CC.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This.

Until the entire world runs on renewables and nuclear power it doesn't make any sense at all to do carbon capture as the energy used to capture would have been more efficiently spent on avoiding carbon release in the first place.

Been saying this for years here but it usually ends with a lot of downvotes

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Indeed, generally one stops the spill before starting clean-up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You're right of course, but the nuance is that research takes time. We need to start working on it now so we will be ready to scale the technology when we have surplus renewable energy. It's a tricky balance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Oh for sure, research on the topic is great, I'm just dumping on these stupid tech startups that claim they'll fix climate change by sucking up all carbon.

No you won't.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

the part where CC results in more CO2 output for all the energy it needs is usually the first thing mentioned.

If you're doing CC from air then yes but if you are using something like Exxon's CFZ technology then maybe not. CFZ is used on the production side to remove the "sour" stuff (like CO2) from natural gas before its burned.

BTW ExxonMobile built that CFZ plant in LaBarge, Wyoming and it's been operating for over a decade and its now being expanded.