| > carbon sequestration [will] likely require energy Yes, but that doesn't mean we won't need it. Take air planes. We can't just put batteries in there: too low energy density or something (I'm no physicist, but they won't fly very far is what I gather). But by capturing the CO2 (at exhaust, or atmospherically) that they put out, we can have both airplanes and a stable climate -- assuming it's all done right. Who wants to have a wind turbine in their back yard? A nuclear power plant? Who lives near that hydro plant in the middle of nowhere? We could instead capture CO2 away from people if power is cheap, before sending the rest down a slightly lossy transmission path. Driving regular passenger vehicles electrically is definitely less energy intensive than capturing the GHGs that a combustion engine produces, so it would obviously be counter-productive to use capture technology for those sorts of things. But we can use it for other things like chemical processes that produce a GHG as a byproduct where it's hard to capture (new buildings using concrete, for example) or when we don't have the technology to get rid of the emissions. Right now, the quickest wins are from emission reduction. This capture technology is something we need to have ready for the next phase of keeping our natural habitat stable. |
Here in Los Angeles we have honest-to-god oil derricks in our neighborhoods and the NIMBYs don't even notice. Apartments OTOH...