As shown by Elizabeth Kolbert  in this brilliant article in the November 20, 2017 issue of The New Yorker, of all the scenarios projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “virtually every one needed some magic touch of a negative emissions.” “Negative emissions” is the process of capturing CO2 (directly from the air, or immediately after combustion) and somehow storing it in the earth. The pioneer of this branch of studies is Klaus Lackner, who works at Arizona State University, in Tempe, where he runs the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions. According to Lackner, “the power generated by a Nigeria-size solar farm would be enough to remove all the CO2 emitted by humans up to that point within five years. Ideally, the CO2 would be converted to rock (…) enough would be created to cover Venezuela in a layer a foot and a half deep.”
But how to capture this CO2 without generating other CO2? And where to store it?
Keep reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s article in the newyorker.com