Ask Lemmy

From another thread on the subject -

Literally all ideas about carbon capture are quickly revealed to be cynical greenwashing if you think about one simple thing: how much CO2 do we need to store to offset global emissions?

The answer is that we need to store almost 40B tonnes of CO2, or around 10B tonnes of C if we break that down, every year. That's something on the order of 1500 great pyramids of Giza (which weighs 6M tonnes) worth of carbon every year.

Basically, whatever method you dream up of, it's gonna need to account for this

CEO must hold all meetings in a room filled with all the CO2 and other pollutants they produced that quarter.

One time, and I wasn't even high, I was thinking we could build solar panels that power machines that pull CO2 from the atmosphere and build solid bricks of graphite that could be used to build buildings or whatever. Then I realized I had basically reinvented the tree.

The only silly amd serious easy solution, don't produce CO2 when not needed.

People in the west don't need a new smart phone every 6 months, don't need a new car every 4 year, don't need new clothes every year just to follow fasion.

Repair what needs repairing, use what you have and still works, don't buy new just because some sales idiot tells you it's better. At this moment we have huge waves of replacement of goods that function perfectly, but a new one is slightly more economic with the energy, ignoring the energy that is needed for production and transport. In the west we consume waste, not use products to their maximum potential.

Start planting trees. Keep planting trees. Allow forests to grow and build soil. The natural rot of deadfalls and other plant matter will not come close to the energy costs of burying things.

Figure out what species of kind of bamboo grows the fastest, grow a shitton of it, bury and seal it in old coal mines

A huge ring in the ocean, probably built of ice.

Hoists are used to dredge up nutrient rich sediment from the ocean floor, and mix them with surface water within the ring.

Grow some weedy oligotrophoc plant or algae on the surface, and collect it.

It’s then sunk down to the cold seafloor where it won’t decompose, so the carbon is captured.

You can grow the ring by using solar stills to create fresh water from salt, and since it has a higher freezing temp, just dump it on the ring after sailing to colder waters. You move around slowly via planned currents and big ol sails.

You could cheaply build many of these and they could be mostly autonomous.

Some wiki links to demonstrate proof of concept:

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonic_acid
• Https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_saturation

Ill go first.

Water has "carbonic acid" dissolved in it always aka carbon dioxide holding potential. (It is why distilled water never has a pH of a perfect 7 in a open air environment) set up a filter in the ocean that separates high density carbon from the acid next to a renewable power source like a wind turbine. Concentrate the carbon into something to stick on a tugboat, and store it somewhere that it won't turn to a gas again.

Sewage has a lot of carbon. Separate sewage like we do ewaste and store the tonnes of carbon. Let plants and other food get from the air.

Three words: adjustable space mirrors.

Put it on Mars!