[Maursault]

> Therefore, attempting to use DAC to mitigate climate change while fossil fuels are still being burned is pointless.

Because no one has suggested using DAC to offset fossil fuel use without reducing fossil fuel use, this is a straw man. DAC may very well be a valid strategy when used in conjunction with the reduction of fossil fuels to better reduce the amount of atmospheric carbon in a given time frame.

[Paul-Craft]

Nobody seems to be doing anything to reduce emissions, either. Except for the blip due to COVID, globally, we're still on the same trend we have been forever: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions

[bryanlarsen]

You're looking at absolute numbers. CO2 usage used to be accelerating rapidly. The first step to reducing the absolute number is to change the second derivative, the acceleration. We've done that, the second derivative of that graph is significantly negative. Once the area under the curve of the second derivative is negative enough, the first derivative, the velocity, will go negative. We're about there, the year on year change is now about zero. Once the first derivative is negative the absolute number starts dropping.

So yes, more than nothing has been done to reduce emissions, but you need to look at the right numbers and graphs.

[ZeroGravitas]

Your link says we've stabilized over the last decade.

> We see that while emissions from fossil fuels have increased, emissions from land use change have declined slightly in recent years. Overall, this means total emissions have roughly stabilised over the past decade.

There is some hope that fossil fuel emissions are peaking right around now. See the recent Ember info:

https://ember-climate.org/insights/research/global-electrici...

[Paul-Craft]

Look at the graph of global emissions. US emissions essentially don't matter in the big picture. This is why massive, coordinated, global action is the only thing that will save us.

This is not a fatalistic "oh, let's not even try then" statement. It's just facts. Yes, we should try. No, we won't succeed if it's just the US reducing emissions.

[Maursault]

> Nobody seems to be doing anything to reduce emissions,

No one is working on carbon-free renewable energy? Solar power hasn't doubled in efficiency since development began? No one is building wind farms? ICE vehicle fuel efficiency has not been massively increased? No one is making electric vehicles? Supply chains are not getting more efficient? There are no waste reduction strategies being implemented anywhere? There are no efforts to reduce methane emissions?

[throwaway5947]

That’s all well and good but you still have to account for Jevon’s Paradox, that it might not matter if consumption keeps rising. It seems really, really hard to do that in a socioeconomic system built upon continuous industrial growth and consumption.