More startups are investing in the EXPENSIVE and UNNECESSARY task of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

03/11/2024 / By Ava Grace

The carbon dioxide removal (CDR) industry has exploded in recent years. But removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is ridiculously expensive and completely unnecessary.

Nearly 800 companies around the world are exploring a wide variety of methods for drawing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and storing them away or putting them to use. This is a gigantic leap from 2019, when there were only a handful of startups that were interested in exploring the task of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In 2021, the MIT Technology Review published an article discussing how the “hype” behind carbon removal “is becoming a dangerous distraction.”

“Carbon removal hype is becoming a dangerous distraction. Corporations and nations are touting plans to suck greenhouse gases out of the air … The noise, news and hype are feeding a perception that carbon removal will be cheap, simple, scalable and reliable – none of which we can count on,” the article said. (Related: CNN writer suggests forcing “carbon passport” on travelers to meet carbon footprint target by 2050.)

Venture capital firms that have already begun researching carbon removal have invested tens of millions of dollars into early-stage startups promising to use technology, minerals and microbes to draw carbon dioxide and promising to verify and certify that all the removal is really happening.

“You are seeing lots of people making big promises right now, and they don’t quite know how to keep them,” said Klaus Lackner, director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University.

Even the most “natural” method of sequestering carbon – by getting carbon emissions sucked out of the air by trees or not released because they were captured by forests – is significantly higher, especially if governments and corporations force private citizens to bear the ongoing costs of monitoring carbon levels and the liabilities for additional carbon removal should trees die.

Carbon dioxide removal tech a growing area of research in climate studies

CDR technologies, which provide a means of sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, are one of the hottest areas of climate research, but also the most controversial.

This industry has seen new life following the release of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which claims that ways of capturing and storing carbon dioxide, though expensive, might be necessary to keep global temperatures from changing too drastically.

But scientists and policymakers are divided. Some say that technology must be the immediate priority for research. Others urge caution and warn against putting faith in untested technology.

Large technological and corporate interests have invested in the kind of money that is involved in solving the “climate change” problem but not in an inexpensive way.

Research-based organizations have invested time, money and reputation in this issue so that having it cheaply eliminated would not be in their best interest.

A rash of new tech startups are cashing in on the perceived opportunity many companies and investors see in CDR. These fledgling companies are exploring “scrubbers” that can chemically remove carbon dioxide from the air.

Other startups are researching “biochar,” which creates fertilizer from burning wood waste without oxygen, and even more are focusing on carbon capture and storage tech, which liquefies carbon dioxide and pumps it deep into the earth in geological formations where it can stay forever. The IPCC’s report has been seen as a stamp of approval to continue their research and to keep lobbying for investments.

Watch this video discussing the challenges of carbon capture and removal, and how carbon sequestration is sometimes unsustainable.

This video is from the Finding Genius Podcast channel on Brighteon.com.