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Carbon capture may be useful, even necessary, but the amounts needed to make any difference means that massive industrial processes are needed. As a species we

Carbon capture may be useful, even necessary, but the amounts needed to make any difference means that massive industrial processes are needed. As a species we emit 35 billion tons of CO2 per year. So I would think we're talking capture in at least the hundreds of millions tons a year range.

wkat4242 3y ago
And also massive amounts of energy and materials required to build all the equipment to do it at that scale, and the land to place it. I don't see this being viable at a scale that matters until we've solved a lot of other problems first.
- BurningFrog 3y ago
  The material already is somewhere. Why would it need to move?
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    I was thinking more of the electric carbon capture methods, building the machinery is a huge job that takes lots of material, at the scale needed to actually make a contribution that matters, we'll have to make so much energy and build, transport and maintain so much machinery that we'll change the face of the planet, causing its own huge negative effects. This volcanic rock thing doesn't sound like it is capturing enough to matter anyway as some people have already calculated.
lumost 3y ago
Rocks are very dense. We are extremely good at mining and moving rocks. We produce 30 billion tons of concrete per year. Naively, you would expect that producing and distributing crushed rocks sufficient to capture carbon would be equivalent to at most 10x the concrete industry. In practice, it’s likely closer to 1x.
- GeoAtreides 3y ago
  > Rocks are very dense Slighty off-topic, but I'm curious: what do you think requires more energy to move, 35 billion tons of steel or 35 billion tons of feathers?[*] [*] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg
  - lumost 3y ago
    heh - I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it takes more vehicle volume to move 35 billion tons of feathers. As Vehicle volume is correlated to vehicle weight, moving feathers will be more expensive :P but in all seriousness, the correspondence to rocks is beneficial as it's not obvious just how much mass industry moves in 2023. If you add in waste rock at quarries the numbers rise precipitously. A single shovel bucket can move 20 tons.

wkat4242 3y ago

And also massive amounts of energy and materials required to build all the equipment to do it at that scale, and the land to place it. I don't see this being viable at a scale that matters until we've solved a lot of other problems first.

BurningFrog 3y ago
The material already is somewhere. Why would it need to move?
- wkat4242 3y ago
  I was thinking more of the electric carbon capture methods, building the machinery is a huge job that takes lots of material, at the scale needed to actually make a contribution that matters, we'll have to make so much energy and build, transport and maintain so much machinery that we'll change the face of the planet, causing its own huge negative effects. This volcanic rock thing doesn't sound like it is capturing enough to matter anyway as some people have already calculated.

lumost 3y ago

Rocks are very dense. We are extremely good at mining and moving rocks. We produce 30 billion tons of concrete per year. Naively, you would expect that producing and distributing crushed rocks sufficient to capture carbon would be equivalent to at most 10x the concrete industry. In practice, it’s likely closer to 1x.

GeoAtreides 3y ago
> Rocks are very dense Slighty off-topic, but I'm curious: what do you think requires more energy to move, 35 billion tons of steel or 35 billion tons of feathers?[*] [*] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg
- lumost 3y ago
  heh - I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it takes more vehicle volume to move 35 billion tons of feathers. As Vehicle volume is correlated to vehicle weight, moving feathers will be more expensive :P but in all seriousness, the correspondence to rocks is beneficial as it's not obvious just how much mass industry moves in 2023. If you add in waste rock at quarries the numbers rise precipitously. A single shovel bucket can move 20 tons.