DailyDirt: Fixing A Hole Where The Rain Gets In...

Pollution from energy generation is an enormous problem that will probably require an expensive solution -- which, thankfully, billionaires like Bill Gates are willing to fund. However, we're already spending billions on energy R&D, but progress seems slow when the doomsday clock appears to be "catastrophically" close to midnight. The option of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere might give us some additional time, though, even if global-scale geoengineering sounds like it might have its own unintended side effects.

• Carbon dioxide sequestration at an industrial scale -- removing a ton of CO2 from the air per day -- is a step towards a carbon-neutral industry that might be economical. Carbon Engineering has a pilot plant that hasn't quite produced a carbon-neutral fuel for $1/liter, but it might someday (before we figure out how to generate power from fusion reactors?). [url]
• Carbon dioxide can be turned into carbon and molecular oxygen by zapping it with a UV laser. This probably isn't the most effective way to break down CO2, but it could also explain how non-biological oxygen appears on other planets. [url]
• Capturing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and fluorocarbons can be accomplished using certain porous materials that trap these gases. The problem remains: how can we reliably store vast amounts of greenhouse gases -- and do so economically? [url]

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