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> There's a very important difference in not emitting carbon into the atmosphere and actively removing carbon from the atmosphere. The phrase "removing a megat
by hwillis 4y ago
> There's a very important difference in not emitting carbon into the atmosphere and actively removing carbon from the atmosphere.
The phrase "removing a megaton of carbon from the atmosphere every week" is globally syntactically ambiguous. It can be read as "removing [a megaton of carbon from the atmosphere] every week" or as "removing [a megaton of carbon from the atmosphere every week]". The second interpretation means removing a source. Both interpretations are roughly equally valid, although "eliminating" would sound better.
"eliminating the emission of a ton of CO2 every week" is a similarly ambiguous phrase which can be interpreted as [the emission of a ton of CO2 every week] or [the emission of a ton of CO2], every week.
- franky47 4y agoPunctuation is key, as your second example emphasises. In this case, a better wording would have been: "removing the source of a megaton a week of carbon emissions".