Photo courtesy of CBS News
As a tool to address rising greenhouse gas emissions, carbon capture chemically removes carbon dioxide from the air, to store or recycle into products. The company behind a new plant to be opened this summer claims the facility will remove 500,000 tons of CO2 a year. But is this form of carbon capture – underwritten by the fossil fuel industry – an effective means to address climate change? Correspondent David Pogue looks at the technology behind this initiative, and the controversy it has raised.
“We’re currently emitting about 6 million tons per hour, and it’s like pulling a warm blanket over us, it’s causing climate change,” says Lori Guetre.
Lori Guetre runs commercial strategy for a company called 1PointFive, a company with a radical idea.
“In essence what we’re building is a big vacuum cleaner for CO2 molecules in the air.”
It’s a technology called direct air capture, and it sounds like magic.