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Suck it up, revisited
Taking carbon dioxide out of the air — an essential technology to curb climate change — is having a moment
Big technology companies, startups, investors and scientists are all getting serious about carbon removal, the technology for pulling heat-trapping carbon dioxide out of the earth’s atmosphere to head off the worst impacts of climate change.
It’s not a moment too soon.
Global climate emissions are rising again, post-Covid. Countries are backtracking on climate commitments. Since CO2 persists for centuries in the atmosphere, billions of tons will have to be taken out of the air to prevent dangerous warming or, in a worst case scenario, to return the planet to a safer climate after it overheats. Without carbon removal, we’re cooked.
On the other hand, a carbon removal technology able to cheaply suck CO2 out of the air would go a long way towards alleviating the climate crisis.
This need for what are often called “negative emissions” has been known for years. Climate scientists like Harvard’s David Keith and Stanford’s Ken Caldeira have studied carbon removal since the 2000s. By 2010, Bill Gates and Seagrams heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. had invested in startups that aim to pull CO2 from the air. In 2011, FORTUNE magazine published my…
