Seeking Technological Solutions to the Climate Crisis

Re (Buying Time series, front page, March 31): The fact that the fossil fuel industry is seeking to rebrand the concept of geoengineering with terms that sound more palatable should tell us all we need to know about the validity of these foolish, unworkable false solutions to our climate crisis. Carbon capture and storage and direct air capture may sound like pleasant, productive endeavors. But the truth is, they are indeed a wasteful distraction, doing more harm than good. from Food & Water Watch indicates that direct air capture is both preposterously expensive and ultimately pointless. Capturing just a quarter of our countrys annual carbon dioxide emissions would cost around a trillion dollars a year money much better spent on replacing oil and gas power with clean, renewable alternatives. And the process of capturing the carbon is extremely energy-intensive itself. Powering a direct air capture operation via traditional methods would create over three times more carbon emissions than it actually captured. Meanwhile, diverting wind and solar energy to run carbon capture facilities would be like using clean water to power a desalination plant a wasteful loop of stagnation. Unfortunately, there are no fanciful, futuristic escapes from the deepening crisis we face. There is only this simple fact: In order to avoid the worst of fossil-fuel-driven climate chaos, we need to quit fossil fuels quickly. Wenonah Hauter Washington The issue is not can we but we must engineer our way out of earths climate crisis. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and your Times account, or for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? . Want all of The Times? .