QUESTION: Is “carbon capture and storage” a conceivable and sensible solution to combat CO2 emissions?

ANSWER:

What climate science says is that the problem is fossil fuel emissions and that therefore the solution is for us to stop burning fossil fuels and move our energy infrastructure to renewables. An added complexity of this issue is what climate science calls the “TIPPING POINT”. It means that that if we don’t take climate action in time and allow the global mean surface temperature to keep rising, the GMST will rise to a point so hot that it will activate natural feedback warming that will take over the climate change job from fossil fuel emissions and the GMST will go haywire and out of control and no longer in the control of humans to moderate by cutting fossil fuel emissions. THIS SCENARIO IS A SERIOUS FLAW IN THE CLIMATE ACTION OF CUTTING FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS. IT HAS AN EXPIRATION DATE. IF IT IS NOT COMPLETED ON SCHEDULE, IT WILL NO LONGER WORK. THIS IS A FATAL FLAW IN THE CLIMATE SCIENCE VERSION OF CLIMATE ACTION IN THE FORM OF CUTTING FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS.

This flaw in climate science has motivated creative thinkers to come up with climate action methods that would work regardless of whether fossil fuels or natural feedbacks are driving the warming. Such a proposition on the table is geo-engineering. This method of climate action works regardless of whether the warming is driven by fossil fuel emissions or tipping point feedbacks.

The other alternative solution, as in this question, is carbon removal and sequestration. This alternative has two weakesses when compared with the geo-engineering option. First, sequestration is expensive and unreliable. More important, this alternative to the climate science call to stop burning fossil fuels suffers from the same tipping point weakness. Once we hit the tipping point the CO2 issue is a non issue.

In conclusion I propose that our options are to cut fossil fuel emissions if the tipping point issue is not a concern or to go with geo engineering if the tipping point issue is a concern. I see no advantage for carbon removal and sequestration in this context.

Postscript:

The other issue is that the current warming cycle of the Holocene is no different than the other warming cycles of the Holocene and the Eemian and that it is human caused because it happens to be preceded by the industrial revolution is undone by the ETCW issue in climate science. And that implies that fossil fuels are not the issue and that therefore neither cutting fossil fuel emissions nor carbon capture and sequestration will do the job and that geoengineering is therefore our only option.

Related post on the ETCW issue: LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2020/10/09/the-etcw-issue-in-climate-science/

EXTRACT: ETCW is an unresolved issue in climate science and is the likely motivation for climate scientists such as James Hansen, Peter Cox, and NASA to move their AGW timeline to begin in 1950 or later well after the ETCW period. Of note in the bibliography below is the paper by Tom Knutson in which he acknowledges that the ETCW is a serious issue in the theory of AGW. Tom Knutson of NOAA is a climate scientist with a degree of scientific discipline that appears not to be a common feature of climate scientists in general

Related post on GEO-ENGINEERING: LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2021/03/25/climate-fearology-vs-geoengineering/

EXTRACT: The threshold for dangerous global warming will likely be crossed between 2027 and 2042, research indicates. That’s a much narrower window than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s estimate of between now and 2052. In a study published in Climate Dynamics, researchers introduce a new and more precise way to project the Earth’s temperature. Based on historical data, it considerably reduces uncertainties compared to previous approaches. Scientists have been making projections of future global warming using climate models for decades. These models play an important role in understanding the Earth’s climate and how it will likely change. But how accurate are they? Climate models are mathematical simulations of different factors that interact to affect Earth’s climate, such as the atmosphere, ocean, ice, land surface, and the sun. In this and similar assessments by the IPCC and climate science publications we find that if the amount of warming since pre-industrial exceeds a threshold, natural feebacks will take over and climate change will become irreversible such that the climate action proposed by climate science will no longer work. This assessment revealls a serious weakness in the climate action proposed by climate science.

THE ETCW ISSUE IN CLIMATE SCIENCE