Alexandra Scherer 🦋

For decades we were told that this plant could exist because “carbon capture and storage” was going to sequester carbon in bedrock — Dear Reader, they told that lie so they could sell gas.

New data confirm carbon capture & direct air capture are useless opportunity costs At the capture rate (0.59 MTCO2/y) from new CC/DAC in 2026 where the CO2 isn't used for EOR, it will take 81,000y to build enough CC/DAC to capture the current CO2 emis from fossils & land-use change (47,200 MTCO2/y)

The report also looks under the hood and tracks progress in underlying economic transformations. We check how trends match up with the goals set out under the first Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement. Except for a few notable exceptions related to renewables, none are on track

Growth often hurts.

@uedio.bsky.social Moore haben zwar viel CO2 gespeichert (Absterbende Biomasse+Bakterien in passiven Langzeitlagern), aber sie speichern nicht aktiv (!) viel CO2 wie z.B. Wälder (aktive CO2-Aufnahme), sondern sind nach Entwässerung Emissionsquellen (4-7% global / Deutschland aller CO2 Emissionen)

I often see it said that CO₂ removal (CDR) is needed ALONGSIDE drastic emissions reductions to reach net zero. I think this is incorrect. I think CDR is needed AFTER drastic emissions reductions. The distinction is important as it specifies when we use renewable energy to deploy CDR at scale.

"Starke El Ninos erhöhen die globale Temperatur um 0,2°C - dieses Jahr könnten es 0,3°C sein [insb. 2027]". Durch menschliche Emissionen addieren wir also einen permanenten Super El Nino [0,2°C alle 8 Jahre] an Hitze zum Klimasystem durch Kohle/Gas. " @uedio.bsky.social @kachelmann.bsky.social

European carmakers: "Demand for EVs is lower than what we expected, which is why the EU should postpone the phase out of combustion engine vehicles sales" Also European carmakers: "You want to buy an EV from us? Sure thing, we can deliver it to you in 2 years from now!"

Wie funktioniert es denn nun genau? Warum ist EOR-CCS mit überkritischem CO2, das 10000 Jahre Überwachung braucht, aber nach 30 J Haftung wegfällt, mind. 1% Leaks zur lokalen Ozeanversauerung führen (Planetare Grenze 9 nach @pik-potsdam.bsky.social ), besser als Mineralisierung (Carbfix)?

"We conclude that OAE deployment as currently envisioned is likely unfeasible, founded on unrealistic assumptions regarding scale and logistics" @zekehausfather.com @davidho.bsky.social @aoschlies.bsky.social Thanks for this comprehensive first paper addressing real-world implementation!

In a new paper now available as a preprint, CDRmare experts present a comprehensive #OAE process chain. They identify the environmental, technical & social considerations for mineral-based OAE in coastal, river & open-ocean settings. Read it here: cdrxiv.org/preprint/554... #mCDR #CDRatlas #RETAKE

Here is an interesting brand new paper to OAE and its constraints in reality. doi.org/10.70212/cdr...

Beef production has been the largest driver of deforestation this century. Over the last two decades, around 128 million hectares of forest have been cleared to make way for agriculture and forest plantations. That’s an area five times the size of the United Kingdom.

This piece I wrote on CO₂ removal (CDR) is probably the most widely read work on the topic, but it's definitely the most impactful thing I will ever write. Please read it to see how I think about CDR (and how I think you should think about it too). rdcu.be/dbFbB

NB @zekehausfather.com's excellent explainer does state: "It is worth noting that the amount of CDR deployed in these scenarios would require planetary-scale engineering at the cost of trillions of dollars, while many of the engineered CDR approaches are still relatively early-stage technologies."

Even if we are able to capture all CO₂ emitted at point sources with CCS and scale atmospheric CO₂ removal (CDR) to billions of tonnes per year (we can't and never will), continuing to burn fossil fuels means that millions of people will continue to die from air pollution each year.

Nepals Außenminister Shisir Khanal fordert globale Anstrengungen zur Bekämpfung des Klimawandels. Er macht den Klimawandel für die Sturzflut mit 675 Toten verantwortlich @uedio.bsky.social (Pressekonferenz auf seinem Facebook-Account)

"Wir halten Kurs beim Klimaschutz und gehen beim Umgang mit den Klimafolgen engagiert weiter voran!" 💚💪 Bundesumweltminister Carsten Schneider zur aktuellen Kabinettsklausur der Bundesregierung in Neuhardenberg.

A climate tragedy? The immediate trigger appears to have been a catastrophic glacier collapse. But Nepal has lost nearly a third of its ice in just over three decades as the Himalayas warm. The climate connection is potentially real. news.sky.com/video/nepal-...

Temperatures in the area of the #Glacier Collapse have been increasing at about 2X the average global warming rate… about 5°F since 1940. While we need further investigation on this particular event, it’s clear glaciers around the World are becoming less stable. 1/

Das RKI meldet 15800 hitzebedingte Sterbefälle bis 16.08.

Privileg: @uedio.bsky.social & ich hatten ne gute Stunde, mal aufzudröseln: Wie gehen Bundesregierung, Opposition mit Hitze-Dürre-Waldbrandsommer um? Warum schweigt Merz? Warum kämpft Klingbeil jetzt für Klimaschutz? Wie aussichtsreich, glaubwürdig ist das? 🎧👇🏻🙏🏻 www.deutschlandfunk.de/extremsommer...

Während der Bundeskanzler noch eine Woche Urlaub macht, können wir ja schonmal nachdenken, wie Dinge besser gehen könnten steady.page/de/der-uuber...

The Pyrocene

So I modified, the carbon cycle of the global carbon budget 2025 (Graphik 2) a bit - including carbonate rock and what we should reduce. I might have made some mistakes, though - sorry. Check out their amazing work yourself: globalcarbonbudget.org/gcb-2025/

“DAC at the scale needed is mostly a fantasy” It is VERY USEFUL for scientists to say this out loud, as much as possible, since blind faith in carbon removal is one of the baseless ideologies justifying the continuation of fossil-fuel use among global policymakers.

"The seas are running a fever, too." via @grist.org at grist.org/climate/heat...

VW ist nicht Opfer der Energiewende, sondern des Kurzschlusses, zu lange am Verbrenner festzuhalten. Wer heute noch von „hocheffizienten Verbrennern“ träumt, verpasst die Zukunft. Sie fährt elektrisch. #VW #Elektromobilität #Verkehrswende #Transformation #Innovation #Batterien #ZukunftDerMobilität

In our latest podcast, @davidho.bsky.social talks to @bertiehb.bsky.social about marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR). They discuss risks and challenges with ocean CDR, politics and debates within academia, and the overreliance on startups to save the planet. Listen here: landclimate.org/mcdr/

People think Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) is a promising CO₂ removal method because in ocean models, we just magically increase alkalinity with no consequences. In reality, excessive alkalinity addition can lead to calcium carbonate precipitation, drastically reducing OAE efficiency. 🌊🧪

Growing kelp might not be a viable CO₂ removal technique.

We got a big bump in traffic yesterday when people learned about us on NPR. Thank you to @npr.org for covering our launch and bringing our story to people's attention! And thank you to all our new followers. We can do this together! 🌍️🧪💪 #ClimateAction #ClimateForUs #ProtectScience

A good explainer about why it’s wise to be very skeptical of industrial carbon capture schemes…. projects.propublica.org/why-carbon-c...

Interesting how widespread subsidies and support for carbon capture and synthetic direct air capture are when not one peer-reviewed paper in the world shows, when the whole system and opportunity costs are considered, either reduces any CO2 from the air. Multiple papers show CC+DAC increase CO2.

Methane is responsible for about a third of today’s global warming. UNEP and @bloombergdotorg.bsky.social are stepping up efforts to help countries investigate and act on major methane leaks detected from space, with a goal of reaching an 80% response rate by 2030. www.unep.org/news-and-sto...