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This statement from the article cautions us that the economic incentives (which are also reasonably well described in the article) so far aren't promoting techn

This statement from the article cautions us that the economic incentives (which are also reasonably well described in the article) so far aren't promoting technical fixes like the one proposed by the inventors: "None of the world’s thousands of coal plants have been outfitted for full-scale capture of their carbon pollution. And if it isn’t economical for use in power plants, with their concentrated source of carbon dioxide, the prospects of capturing it out of the air seem dim to many experts. 'There’s really little chance that you could capture CO2 from ambient air more cheaply than from a coal plant, where the flue gas is 300 times more concentrated,' says Robert Socolow, director of the Princeton Environment Institute and co-director of the university’s carbon mitigation initiative." When I hear about plans to capture CO2, I wonder immediately about whether those plans will help enough if other gases (for example, methane) play a significant role in greenhouse effects. We may have to sequester more than one gas, in more than one way, to role back the accumulation of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, if that is considered a desirable worldwide goal.

mrfusion 12y ago
That's true, I've heard that methane is much worse than CO2. I wonder if methane can be pull out of the air?
- chriswarbo 12y ago
  Since methane is worse than CO2, it's actually better WRT the greenhouse effect to burn it and produce CO2 + water. Water's also a potent greenhouse effect contributor, but the atmosphere's already saturated with it, so the excess will just rain back down. Here's an interesting site found through Google: http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/methane.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/methane.shtml
  - mrfusion 12y ago
    Wouldn't extra water vapor end up as clouds and reflect sunlight away from earth?
    - Klapaucius 12y ago
      The atmosphere water content is self-regulating, since it works as a cycle (water evaporating, condensing and raining down, with the atmospheric content mainly regulated by how much vapor the air can hold). Not so with CO2. There is no similar "excess" threshold for CO2 after which it would "rain down".
- ThisIBereave 12y ago
  As the poster above mentioned, Methane has a greater immediate impact, but it only stays in the atmosphere "for 11-12 years"[1], making it a relatively short term problem. CO2 stays in the atmosphere for "approximately 100 years"[2]. 1: http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/methane.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/methane.shtml 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/carbon_dioxide.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/carbon_dioxide.shtml

mrfusion 12y ago

That's true, I've heard that methane is much worse than CO2. I wonder if methane can be pull out of the air?

chriswarbo 12y ago
Since methane is worse than CO2, it's actually better WRT the greenhouse effect to burn it and produce CO2 + water. Water's also a potent greenhouse effect contributor, but the atmosphere's already saturated with it, so the excess will just rain back down. Here's an interesting site found through Google: http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/methane.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/methane.shtml
- mrfusion 12y ago
  Wouldn't extra water vapor end up as clouds and reflect sunlight away from earth?
  - Klapaucius 12y ago
    The atmosphere water content is self-regulating, since it works as a cycle (water evaporating, condensing and raining down, with the atmospheric content mainly regulated by how much vapor the air can hold). Not so with CO2. There is no similar "excess" threshold for CO2 after which it would "rain down".
ThisIBereave 12y ago
As the poster above mentioned, Methane has a greater immediate impact, but it only stays in the atmosphere "for 11-12 years"[1], making it a relatively short term problem. CO2 stays in the atmosphere for "approximately 100 years"[2]. 1: http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/methane.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/methane.shtml 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/carbon_dioxide.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/carbon_dioxide.shtml