Carbon Capture
A new study shows fundamental components of the human caused global warming narrative fail molecular chemistry. According to the study, the notion that we can and must reduce atmospheric CO2 to avoid climate catastrophe does not withstand probing academic scrutiny. (9)
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a mitigation strategy proposing to sequester CO2 underground to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. The practice is poised to cost tens of trillions of dollars over the coming decades. New analysis suggests high or ambitious CCS scenarios are presumed to mitigate about half of today’s emissions by 2050. But these economically draconian CCS scenarios are projected to cost US $30 trillion more than those that only mitigate about one-tenth of today’s emissions. Either way, the costs of CCS are astronomical.
But can CCS actually do what is intended and reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations? Chemistry says no, CCS will not reduce the atmosphere concentration of CO2 at all. (9)
Earlier Warming
Studies from Central China, Russia, and Central Europe indicate there was just as much (or more) warming and drought before 1900, or when CO2 concentrations were under 300 ppm. (10)
A recent 1606 to 2016 Central China minimum temperature reconstruction reveals cold periods only occurred in nine years of the 1600s (1663-1672), but there were 71 years of cold periods during the 20th century (1900-1942, 1959-1979, 1985-1994). (11)
Notably, CO2 hovered around 278 ppm during the 1600s and 1700s, but it rose from 290 ppm to 370 ppm during the 1900s. From 1650-1750, the winter temperatures in Central China were 0.44 C warmer than they were during the 20th century. Finally, it should be noted that the year 1719 was 1.4 C warmer than the 1961-2016 average.
An 1805-2020 Central Europe precipitation reconstruction determines drought were more prolonged and pronounced during the 1880s than in the 1900s, as the 1900s were relatively wet. (12)
Finally, another new precipitation and temperature reconstruction from the Russian Altai Mountains suggests ‘stable summer temperature signals’ since the 1500s, with no obvious trend changes falling outside the long-term average. (13)
Methane
Methane is responsible for around 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times. Although most methane is removed by processes in the atmosphere, soils are full of bacteria that absorb the gas and break it down for use as energy. Soil has been thought of as the only terrestrial sink for methane, but scientists say that their research suggests that trees may be as important, perhaps more so. (14)
Understanding how much carbon can be stored in land ecosystems, especially in forests with their large accumulation of biomass in wood is essential to making predictions of future climate change. (15)
Tree bark in the world’s forests absorbs the greenhouse gas methane on a global scale—a discovery that could have big implications for tackling climate change.
As trees photosynthesize, their leaves take up carbon dioxide and lock it away as biomass in their trunks and branches providing a long term store of carbon. But now, a large-scale study proves that there is another way that trees absorb greenhouse gases—so forests can be 10% more beneficial for climate overall than previously thought.