Be Prepared
Be prepared
Be very prepared
Be very very prepared
1. Get Co~2~ Out Of The Air
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Not undoing combustion: CO~2~ → C + O~2~.
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Instead:
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Sequester CO~2~ into underground reservoirs.
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Speed up natural sequestration:
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Rock weathering.
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Ocean CO~2~ absorption.
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Social Cost Of Carbon
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Logically, sequestration cost is the upper limit to IAMS’ Social Cost of Carbon (SCC).
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Of course, there is no world government.
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SCC and sequestration cost are both intellectually interesting,
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but practically irrelevant for the real world.
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What would $20/tCO~2~ say about the world’s free-rider problem?
- When do you think it will change?
Lumber
Cheapest Sequestration Process:
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Foresting with lumber harvesting.
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Local benefits of trees on water, air, etc.
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As cheap as $10/tCO~2~!
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on the margin, even cheaper, and
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probably for the first 1 GtCO~2~/year.
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Nevertheless, not pursued at large scale.
- Instead, poor farmers burn Brazilian forest.
Environmentalists won’t like tree-felling.
Lumber Farming
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Needs more research:
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What trees where for most efficiency?
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How much sequestration at what cost?
- Is 20 GtCO~2~ feasible at $40/tCO~2~?
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Local benefits can justify local subsidies.
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Easy US suggestion:
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Grant free Federal shrub lands to purpose.
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Tie Brazilian and Indonesian trade to satellite-measured forestation.
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Other Processes
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Algae are potentially even more efficient.
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Yet perhaps not as economical.
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Needs more research first.
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Ocean liming
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Crush and shovel chalk into ocean.
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Needs more research first.
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Sequester on top of coal smokestack?
- Maybe yes. Maybe never. Cost?
Crazy Ideas — Why?
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Industrial processes (e.g., Climeworks)
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Wrestling towards $200/tCO~2~.
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Business Model: Sell carbon credits to environmentalists.
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What?
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Enhanced rock weathering
- Wrestling towards $150/tCO~2~.
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Research only if cost can go to <$50/tCO~2~.
- (I don’t mean alternative cement research.)
Usually, I am for research, but this seems still-born.
2. Change Solar Radiation
(Reduces warming only, not ocean acidification.)
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Star Trek Space Shield?
- Nonsense, too expensive.
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Sulfur particles into stratosphere.
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Feasible, cheap, think 1% of CO~2~ removal;
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circulates for 2-5 years.
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Cloud Seeding.
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Potentially cheaper yet, shorter-term,
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but not much known.
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Radiation Management Problems
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Dangerous unknown unknowns,
- but modest interventions can and should be researched.
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We don’t even know for sure if it works
- though volcanoes have suggested it would.
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Many possible unintended consequences,
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but so does the current alternative:
global warming.
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Global Cooling
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We may also need solar radiation capture on demand:
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i.e., heating up earth, e.g., reducing albedo.
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Think Asteroid Apophis 99942.
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We don’t know enough about this either!
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Much less urgent for now.
Be Prepared
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Solar radiation management is dangerous!
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It is also potentially the only way to stop a run-away loop (e.g., Permafrost Methane melting) in its tracks,
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to buy humanity some time.
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Do not deploy!
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But research and understand,
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and think about acceptable use scenarios.
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Conclusion
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Subsidize lumber farming.
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Research intelligent sequestration.
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Research solar radiation management.