Various methods of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) are being pursued in response to the climate crisis, but they are mostly not proven at scale. Climate experts are divided over whether CDR is a necessary requirement or a dangerous distraction from limiting emissions. In this Viewpoint, six experts offer their views on the CDR debate.
I’m all for (re)planting forests, but for the purpose of biodiversity loss. It won’t put a dent in our carbon problem. It can’t…we’ve released millions of years of plant life carbon collection in a century. Which is why CDR is also a fallacy as a solution, it cannot scale to even balance out yearly emissions, much less what’s already in the air and oceans that’s driving all the problems we face.
Prediction - we as a global society won’t change until we’re forced to by necessity (probably scarcity of resources), and even then we’ll try and fight it with measures like geoengineering to keep doing things a little longer. As individuals we just have to do the best we can locally to prepare and adapt for a changing future, don’t expect help from the powers that be or some future tech that circumvents physics.