First, the story, from a report out at The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:
In May this year, on the flat plains of an Icelandic geothermal reserve, a gigantic vacuum cleaner designed to suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the sky was switched on.
The machine, called Mammoth, would not be entirely out of place on a Mad Max set. It will soon start extracting up to 36,000 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere a year to be fossilised, locking it safely and permanently underground.
And, here’s some context, from one of my favorites, the Jo Nova blog:
In a world where humans make 37 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually the project will be able to remove 36,000 tons of CO2 each year, which is approximately one millionth of human annual emissions.
Cost estimates are said to be ‘closer to $1,000 a ton’ to remove the CO2. Effectively, we’re spending 36 million dollars US to convert one millionth of human annual emissions of a fertilizing gas into limestone rock we don’t need.
Call me crazy, but it seems like if the goal is creating superior air quality, and doing it as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, which should be the goal for any government or “private” (air quotes because this is crony capitalism) business, then the solution is trees… right?
I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again—this is not to suggest that high carbon levels in the atmosphere makes for dirty air as it’s a requirement for every living thing on the planet, and the lower the carbon levels means the less plant growth we have, from crops to grasslands, and from biodiverse jungles to kelp forests. Carbon is a “building block of life” after all, with the American Chemical Society declaring it “impossible to live without.” Which is why, from the leftist cultists that spread death everywhere they go, it’s easy to see why carbon is Public Enemy No. 1.
I’m also not suggesting that planting trees on an Icelandic geothermal reserve is a possibility, but these greenies could stop chopping down the Amazon (which captures hundreds of millions of tons each year) to fuel the wind energy industry, and they could have left 1,000-year-old forests—which serve as “carbon sinks” and sequester billions of tons of the gas each year—still standing instead of razing them for the construction of wind turbines.
What has the destruction of balsa trees in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest got to do with the wind power industry in Europe?
As the international commitment to renewable energy has grown in recent years, the increase in wind farms has triggered a huge demand for balsa wood, leaving a trail of deforestation in its wake.
Say ‘verabschiedung’ to the magical woodlands that inspired the backdrop for many a Grimm’s fairy tale … as the German government has officially commenced a controversial deforestation initiative.
But, there’s no money in pretending that “net zero” technologies are the answer, and can make a dent in natural and cyclical environmental patterns, certainly not the $600 million in taxpayer funds that the company behind Mammoth (Climeworks) received from Joe Biden’s Department of Energy to build similar facilities in the U.S. Here’s this, from the company’s own website:
Climeworks is part of three megaton direct air capture hub proposals in the U.S., all of which were selected by the US Department of Energy for public funding for a total of more than 600 million USD. The largest one, Project Cypress in Louisiana, was granted an initial 50 million US dollars in March to kickstart the project.
Somehow the company received three out of three contracts, snagging more than half a billion dollars of taxpayer money? Smells like cronyism to me.
But that’s all the “green” industry is—a massive slush fund for supporters of big government.
Like George Carlin said, “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.” But, you’re funding it!
Hat tip: John McMahon, Kolonga, Qld Australia.
Image: Free image, Pixabay license.