If you’ve been visiting the Texas Electricity Ratings site often, you’re probably one of those individuals who is aware that climate change is a serious issue, and that something should be done about it as soon as possible. That’s all well and good, but you’re probably wondering what is there to be done. Well, one of the things that we can do is use carbon capture technologies. Let’s explore this topic further.
Why Is This Important?
The issue the world is facing is bigger than ever before. Not only this, but it is estimated to grow even further, as in the next two decades, the world’s economy is predicted to double. Consider this against the fact that we should be cutting our emissions by over 50% during these two decades. All of this means that we should work to make considerable changes in many aspects of our lives, including how we live, eat, work, farm, and, of course, how we use energy.
Decarbonization
While everything mentioned above may sound difficult, or even impossible to achieve, there are ways in which we can help protect the world around us. We can do this by using decarbonization to our advantage.
What Are the Methods?
The ways in which we can try to achieve this are very diverse. They range from planting more trees, to using complicated machines that capture carbon from the air. Now, using such machines is not only difficult right now, but also quite expensive. However, keeping grasslands and forests around is neither, and the world is already quite proficient in this.
Progress is Being Made
While as previously mentioned, CO2 removing machines are quite expensive, and difficult to use, the technology has already come a long way, which gives everyone hope. Indeed, the cost associated with these machines is two-thirds lower than it used to be. Not only this, but there already are no less than 18 projects worldwide that capture carbon either from smokestacks of natural gas plants or coal, and either store it or use it for the creation of other products.
Of course, the removal of carbon dioxide from smokestack gases is not equal to removing it from the air. However, it is an amazing way of keeping new emissions from being thrown into the atmosphere. In addition, both of these methods use similar technology, and improvement in the technology used for removing carbon dioxide from smokestack gases can result in improvement in the technology used from removing carbon dioxide from the air.
Cutting on Deforestation: The First Step
The first step in this process is to stop all processes that lead to the need for removing carbon. Such examples include stopping massive deforestations, like the ones taking place in Brazil and Indonesia. This alone can lead to emissions being reduced by an equivalent of those produced by cars in the US.
Something else that can help in this regard is replanting trees. If the world works to restore the trees that were removed in Brazil, for instance, about 1.5 billion metric tons of CO2 will be removed from the air. Something else to keep in mind is that while it is true that trees have an easier time growing in the tropics, restoring forests should take place only there. For instance, if those living in the US would start managing their land while keeping carbon reduction in mind, they could cut back on CO2 emissions by as much as 21 percent.
In fact, keeping trees around doesn’t just help by removing CO2 from the atmosphere. When trees are removed, drought and fire can be brought about, which doesn’t just lead to the destruction of the remaining ecosystem, but also, to the production and release of even more carbon.
Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)
The most used process for CDR is bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, which refers to the burning of biomass for obtaining energy, and then obtaining and storing the emissions underground. Other forms of CDR would be direct air carbon dioxide capture and storage, soil carbon sequestration and ocean fertilization.
There are more and more methods of capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and removing it, which is a major point of hope for those who are worried about climate change. However, it is still important to start off with what the world has already known for quite a while, which is putting a stop to deforestation, and planting more trees.
