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THREAD: I'm part of a group that just published a commentary in One Earth as part of a special issue on carbon removal. Speaking for myself: I feel strongly about this for a number of reasons, but one stands out: the existence of African societies. 1/10 https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2590-3322%2820%2930359-6
That's not melodrama: those are the stakes of our current pace of warming. As @propublica recently points out, recent droughts have already claimed the lives of 100,000 in the Sahel and 65% of farmable lands have already been degraded. 2/10 https://features.propublica.org/climate-migration/model-how-climate-refugees-move-across-continents/
Things are similarly apocalyptic for South Asia, where 8.5 million people have already been displaced, and they report that the World Bank expects another 17 to 35 million. 3/10
So, what's to be done? Certainly not just (or primarily) CDR.
"Principle 1: Don’t Forget the Long Game ...CDR would be too slow, expensive, and technically uncertain to replace the need for rapid emissions reductions." 4/10
"Principle 1: Don’t Forget the Long Game ...CDR would be too slow, expensive, and technically uncertain to replace the need for rapid emissions reductions." 4/10
But: "Even if the world can completely decarbonize quickly without CDR, almost any path to decarbonization still leaves the world facing dangerous climate impacts. By cleaning up legacy carbon, CDR could lower carbon dioxide concentrations and reduce climate risk" 5/10
Principle 2: "It’s Not All about the Carbon: Second, social, economic, and environmental impacts matter."
Both interventions **and non-interventions** shape the social and political environment. IMO, we should think in grassroots and holistic terms about these. 6/10
Both interventions **and non-interventions** shape the social and political environment. IMO, we should think in grassroots and holistic terms about these. 6/10
Also, check out this discussion of CDR from the same issue, focused on the Global South context 7/10 https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(20)30352-3
"Principle 3: Split, Don’t Lump Third, assessing CDR requires going beyond technology-level analyses."
Different tech has different ecological and social effects - saying CDR will do this or that is likely too coarse-grained to be helpful in most conversations. 8/10
Different tech has different ecological and social effects - saying CDR will do this or that is likely too coarse-grained to be helpful in most conversations. 8/10
"Principle 4: Don’t Bet It All on Being Right: Fourth, climate policy needs to be resilient against unexpected outcomes."
This is crucial for me - if you oppose CDR because we *might* get our act together on decarbonization and not need CDR, you're betting a lot on that... 9/10
This is crucial for me - if you oppose CDR because we *might* get our act together on decarbonization and not need CDR, you're betting a lot on that... 9/10
And most people making this bet on CDR are not meaningfully accountable, in any way shape or form, to the people who have the most to lose if they are wrong.
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