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jchexl t1_j60jz3b wrote

Reply to comment by bishopcheck in World’s largest direct air carbon capture facility will reduce CO2 by .0001% by Overthrow_Capitalism

Tf are you talking about lol, I’m a supporter of renewable energy and other sustainability projects. But these carbon capture plants are the opposite of sustainability unless we are already at 100% renewables, which we aren’t.

To take one ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere it uses 2650kwh of electricity. If that was powered by coal the average power plant would emit 265 tons of CO2 to take out 1 ton out of the atmosphere.

So the alternative is renewables, which also makes no sense because you can use that renewable energy to cut coal usage and end up with 265x as much reduced emissions compared to if you use the electricity to take carbon out of the air.

Whatever way you look at it they make 0 sense. They are just a way for companies to buy carbon credits so they can pretend to be green.

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bishopcheck t1_j60lax8 wrote

We need carbon capture no matter how you look it. Even if we went 100% sustainable tomorrow, the already released greenhouse gases will effect the climate for centuries.

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jchexl t1_j60m7t1 wrote

Carbon capture is literally just delaying our transition to renewables, the more electricity we waste on carbon capture the longer it will take to eliminate fossil fuels. It’s a massive net loss, maybe there’s a place for carbon capture in the future when we have an excess of renewable energy, but it’s hurting our planet in its current state.

There are still countries building new coal plants, why should we be wasting renewable energy to take 1 ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere, when we could use it to prevent 265 tons from ever being emitted?

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