Carbon technology is a new quirky buzzword booming in the start-up world. According to Wikipedia, carbon tech is a “group of existing and emerging technologies that are rapidly transforming oil and gas to low emissions energy.” What does this mean? New innovations are exploring how to utilize a circular economy philosophy to manage existing and new carbon emissions.
Or so they say.
It’s known fact that oil companies have hidden knowledge of global heating and its consequences for decades. In recent years, they have partnered up with ESG practices and firms to “address” climate issues while continuing to increase oil production. They invented “net zero” to put on a show of halting global heating (so they can run their business, business as usual). And now their newest scam: carbon capture and storage.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the newest, “hottest” carbon tech on the block. These technologies are designed to trap and remove carbon emissions from highly concentrated point sources (power plants) and lower concentrated point sources (open air). This new industry claims that it can store carbon deep underground… forever. Or reuse it to continue their GHG practices. 95% of carbon currently captured has been rerouted back into the oil industry for enhanced oil recovery. Long-story short, Big Oil are tricking the public into allowing them to extract and pump more toxins to fuel their billionaire fantasies.
This scam is another form of greenwashing, where companies pretend they are supporting more sustainable practices to keep their polluting-work afloat. And it’s working. Inherently, drilling and using oil is killing our planet. Anything EXCEPT eliminating this practice altogether is hard coping that something else can be done to decrease the consequential warming of the Earth.
Anything EXCEPT eliminating this practice altogether is hard coping that something else can be done to decrease the consequential warming of the Earth.
Let me explain how they’re lying to you.
POINT 1: These projects are on such a small scale compared to Big Oil — their success is inconsequential. It has been a point made over and over again, we need rapid decarbonization and we need it now. In 2022, the world emitted 40.5 billion tonnes of CO2. However, each proposed carbon dioxide removal (CDR) facilities are expected to only extract one million tonnes of CO2 each year. At this rate, for every year of operation at its full potential, each hub would only have the ability to take the atmosphere back in time by almost 13 minutes of the 535,600 minutes in a year. Except, in the time it took to remove those 13 minutes of CO2, the world has spewed another full year of CO2 into the atmosphere.
lol.
This is the new technology that even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has propagated?
Alternatively, if 8 billion people planted 1 tree — 8 BILLION TREES — it would bring us back in time by 43 hours once the trees have matured. This analogy shows that the new CDR technology is futile if not complemented with the elimination of carbon emissions altogether. It cannot be seen as a new replacement to radical, immediate emission cuts. The current planned Regional Air Direct Air Capture Hubs the US Department of Energy is supporting only captures one million metric tonnes of CO2 every year. Reminder, the world admitted 40.5 billion metric tonnes in 2022.
One facility to remove the world’s 0.00247% of carbon in one year, only for 40.5 billion times that to be emitted in the same year.
POINT 2: These new hubs are too expensive for every ton of CO2 removal. They cost thousands of dollars to deploy, and other climate solutions (e.g. energy efficiency, renewable energy) are more cost-effective. CCS costs range fro $15 to $120 per metric ton of captured carbon, and the Direct Air Capture (DAC) projects can cost between $600 to $1,000 per metric ton due to the amount of energy needed. Subsidies and grants have been rolled out for these projects due to the financial burden.
Relatively, natural CDR solutions such as afforestation or agricultural practices cost less than $100 per metric ton of carbon. PLUS! They provide additional benefits like improved soil health, resiliency to increased heat, and biodiversity enhancement.
Why are we trying so hard to find expensive, inefficient ways to decarbonize our world?
Because Big Oil wants to continue polluting the environment to fill their pockets.
Why are we not focusing our energy, start-up funds, and government money for natural CDR solutions? Companies world-wide have committed to going “net-zero” by 2030, mostly relying on “carbon offsets.” As in, continuing to run their business emitting the similar or less GHG, but paying off whatever they weren’t able to eliminate. They sprout out nonsense and pay large advertising dollars to put these scams into play at climate gatherings such as COP29.
Big Oil is basically kicking Earth in the shins but promising $1 in return to make up for the pain. Why? Because it costs less money to make up for the pain than refraining from kicking Earth in the shins.
Want to know the kicker? CCS, CDR, and any other “carbon removal” technology that does not focus on the use of ELIMINATING GHG emitters, are not the only scam techniques these companies are pushing out at you.
Introducing, carbon credits! Carbon credits are also a new fun toy companies are playing with to scam the public into “offsetting” their carbon emissions. Carbon credits are permits that are purchased by an owner to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.
So… now we’re paying to essentially have permission to emit more pollution. Because we have the money? And obviously, this money can’t go anywhere else to… eliminate carbon emissions overall. Because that idea is CRAZY.
double lol.
A nine-month investigation led by The Guardian revealed that more than 90% of rainforest carbon credits by the world’s biggest certifier (Verra), are worthless.
Each credit equal to one metric tonne of CO2 shows that at least 90% of Verra’s rainforest carbon credits don’t represent real emission reductions.
So not only are they scamming, they’re also lying.
triple lol.
I’m not trying to say that any new carbon tech is a scam, but rather, they have become a prominent method in setting aside responsibility for ruining the planet. They play on the psychology that if we’re doing something, we can continue business as usual. We need to look past these greenwashing scams, and continue to pressure on creating a solid foundation or converting to a more sustainable, regenerative alternatives.
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