The New Climate Gold Rush: Scrubbing Carbon From the Sky

The New York Times ^ | Dec. 22, 2024 | David Gelles and Christopher Flavelle

[E. Pluribus Unum]

This summer, Bill Gates huddled in London with representatives of some of the world’s wealthiest people, including the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, the SoftBank founder, Masayoshi Son, and Prince al-Waleed bin Talal Prince of Saudi Arabia.

They were evaluating their joint investments in companies that could help the world combat climate change. Among the businesses in their portfolio, four stood out as having a particularly audacious goal: They were working to strip carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, for a profit.

As countries around the world continue to pump planet-warming pollution into the skies, driving global temperatures to record levels, the financial world is racing to fund the emerging field of carbon dioxide removal, seeking both an environmental miracle and a financial windfall.

The technology, which did not exist until a few years ago, is still unproven at scale. Yet, it has a uniquely alluring appeal. Stripping away some of the carbon dioxide that is heating up the world makes intuitive sense. And with a small but growing number of companies willing to pay for it, investors are jockeying to be first movers in what they believe will inevitably be a big industry that is necessary to help fight global warming.

Companies working on ways to pull carbon dioxide from the air have raised more than $5 billion since 2018, according to the investment bank Jefferies. Before that, there were almost no such investments.

“It’s the single greatest opportunity I’ve seen in 20 years of doing venture capital,” said Damien Steel, the chief executive of Canada-based Deep Sky, which has raised more than $50 million to develop carbon dioxide removal projects. “The tailwinds behind the industry are greater than most industries I’ve ever looked at.”

The group assembled by Mr. Gates, known as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, is among the biggest backer of the more than 800 carbon...

[Tom Tetroxide]

Currently the level of CO2 is about 421ppm. In the past it has been as high as 7,000ppm and everything was fine.

Near the end of the Little Ice Age in 1800 the CO2 level was 283ppm. When the level of CO2 reaches 150ppm or lower ALL life ceases to exist. Yes, CO2 is a life-giving gas and we came to within 133ppm of complete extinction of everything.

The best thing we can do is make more CO2!

[dinodino]

Can’t these bastards just be satisfied with planting some trees and calling it a day?

[metmom]

Yet, it has a uniquely alluring appeal. Stripping away some of the carbon dioxide that is heating up the world makes intuitive sense.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.....

It's too bad that such stupid evil people have so much money with which to screw up the planet for the rest of us.

As far as carbon capture devices, we have 20+ acres of them here in NH.

This idea of wasting resources and using energy to allegedly remove CO2 from the atmosphere is ludicrous. As with anything else the left does, it will probably create more CO2 than it captures.

And besides, if they want to end all life on earth, they're going about it the right way. A certain level of CO2 is needed for photosynthesis. If plants don't get enough, they die. If plants die, no O2 or food, and we die.

[Maskot]

Wipe it, like, with a cloth? That’ll work 🙄

[blitz128]

Recall a carbon removal project in Europe. Guess what they did with the CO2, and your gonna love this
Piped it to greenhouses and sold to drink companies for carbonation lol

Really saving the world 😎

[rbg81]

Facepalm.

[wjcsux]

“Yes, CO2 is a life-giving gas and we came to within 133ppm of complete extinction of everything.”
I remember when we were taught in high school biology that CO2 was an essential element for life on Earth.

[eclecticEel]

In reality, they were discussing how to siphon everyone else’s money into their own bank accounts.

[No name given]

Such con artists.

[StAnDeliver]

"If the Trump administration this time around doesn't put an outright end to this racket, tearing out the "climate agenda" by the roots, then we'll know we've been had. Trump failed spectacularly in this regard the first time around. He pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, yes, but otherwise kept the domestic carbon racket up and running"

Gosh, it's almost like, Trump causes you Derangement. Over and over and over, like, a Syndrome!

You TDS pos, run run run...

[ChildOfThe60s]

Agreed.

All life on Earth is carbon based. So what does that tell us about the people who want to eliminate carbon from the environment?

[The Great RJ]

A company is already planning to capture carbon dioxide scrubbed from Iowa corn ethanol plants a ship it by high pressure pipeline across Iowa and South Dakota to be released in deep underground rock formations in North Dakota. The company is causing a stir in South Dakota by using eminent domain to force farmers to allow these pipelines across their property.

[blackdog]

What? Are they putting plant life on Food Stamps?

[Organic Panic]

Taxpayers get fleeced to line the pockets of the wealthiest people in history. What a deal.

[Disambiguator]

The company is causing a stir in South Dakota by using eminent domain to force farmers to allow these pipelines across their property.

It would be a real shame if those pipelines were constantly rupturing. Just sayin'.

[jonrick46]

The CO2 you pull from the atmosphere today may be the CO2 you need to prevent an Ice Age, tomorrow.

[Vaduz]

Climate change hoaxers

A reminder of how many stupid people have money no need to hate think of it of easy money gold mines.

[arthurus]

That one sounds like a population reduction plan with famine.
That CO2 is what keeps crops growing. If thy manage to remove the CO2 from the atmosphere crop failure would be the norm and would quickly be the agricultural norm rather than “failure.” I suppose that Gates et al think that they will compensate by making all food with vats and 3d printing. It will be simpler, I guess when the populaion of we useless eaters is reduced by 90%. There will be another upsurge in CO2, though when 7 billion dead bodies are decomposing, most in the open as there will be nvery few left to cremate or bury them.

[smokingfrog]

Before the cattle, there were a whole bunch of bison, so not much has really changed.