The tricky plan to pull CO2 out of the air

Artificial CO2 removal isn't a technology that is currently viable in any way unfortunately. Don't let big-oil convince you otherwise.

A more accurate bathtub metaphor would be adding food coloring to the tub and then trying to extract it back out. Extraction is a lot more difficult and energy intensive than prevention.

The first lie I remember my government telling me was twenty years ago when the UK pledged to net zero by 2020. That goal just got pushed back another thirty years. I wonder if in 2050 they'll all say "We promise to hit net zero by 2100"?

CDR does just seem like an excuse for companies to not have to turn off the tap, or in some cases even increase the amount coming out if they think they can "buy down" their emissions for a lower cost than what they can make by increasing emissions

Carbon capture has another big problem not mentioned in the video: CO2 is not the only pollutant created by carbon intensive heavy industry. Only capturing carbon leaves poor communities located next to factories stuck with all the NOx, PM2.5, and other toxic products that aren't captured.

Maybe I missed the part where they talk about how many of the carbon capture technologies require more energy than they save and that was rolled up into the "we gotta turn off the tap" line.

I think it's super dangerous to present it as a real option. We just don't know if it is viable, and the fact we are already relying on it in our plans is just a way to launder saying that we won't hit our goals. We need to be realistic about how badly we are doing, otherwise we'll never actually do what we need to. Not to mention that this is yet another way for extremely profitable corporations to push their costs into externalities we all have to pay for.

Funny how you've left out the part where all those CDR payment those companies like Meta do are done in vain into a scam of a process just to get a green logo on their website.

the sincerity in the almost deflated, apologetic, sadness of the statement at the end .. i felt that, like a big sigh same feeling when the toys in toy story 3 accepted their fate - too. soon.

Big part of sequestering forest carbon is that you have to do something with the trees. A tree falls in the woods, it rots and releases Co2 back into the environment. You harvest timber in a sustainable and silviculturally sound way, then you get products that store Co2 in them. Ideally for this you want structural and architectural products that are durable and last hundreds of years. Not toilet paper and fast fashion construction.

Hi, I loved the presentation, but I must say I have a few notes and requests. With planting trees, the young can’t quite capture the same amount of CO2 that older trees can. And the older trees also emit more CO2 once dead. I’d love to hear more about how forest protection is equally important as reforestation & what’s happening around the world regarding that. And the other point is the continents most responsible for CO2 emissions. Is it really the countries or is it specific companies? How is CO2 emitted, what’s the root cause? Who are the biggest players? I’m sure some other channels (like The Story of Stuff) have already touched on these, but maybe we need to get the emitters to be more accountable by mentioning them.

Big friggin problem: The massive amount of energy that it takes to remove that teeny tiny bit of CO2 is just going to lead to more demand for fossil fuels, so this WILL make the problem worse.

Coming back to this comment in 2070 to see if it's still up

I probably shouldn't have started my day with this

I need more Joss Fong videos.

“Should we change our economy to avoid destroying the world?” “No, it’s too expensive.”

In chemistry labs, there’s something called green chemistry which focuses on using renewable resources to make reactions rather than use many chemicals for the starting reactant. Not a lot of labs use it but many chemists really value synthesis that use solid CO2 to make their product since it contributes to healthy environment even if very little

CO2 capture/removal only makes sense for things like concrete where emmisions aren't avoidable because of the chemical reaction that happens during production and once you stopped emitting CO2 in the first place. Direct air capture takes energy in the form of electricity, so even if you power it exclusive with green energy that electricity could have been used to replace fossil fuels in the electricity grid instead. Which means you didn't actually remove any CO2.

Watch how in 47 years youtube starts randomly putting this in everyone’s recommendations lol

"We were committing to net 0." No 🤣. We told that we're committing to net 0, but based on the current trend (at least for Canada and the US), we're not even gonna get close to net 0 😐.