Why Do We Need to Capture and Sequester Carbon?

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) , the global average atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2019 was 409.8 parts per million (ppm), with a range of uncertainty of plus or minus 0.1 ppm, which is a slight increase from the 2018 value of 407.4 ppm. They go on to say that CO2 levels today are higher than at any point in at least the past 800,000 years. The Paris Agreement, which is the most relevant international climate agreement, sought to keep the world's temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels this century. It also aims to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the long term. Before the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere stood around 280 ppm . To meet the goals of the Paris Accords, most scientists agree that we will have to shoot for global atmospheric carbon levels of about or under 350 ppm . The target of 350 ppm will not stop climate change but instead will (hopefully) limit it to a supposedly manageable temperature increase of 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius. Also, by keeping atmospheric CO2 below 350 ppm, scientists hope to avoid positive feedback loops that could lead to runaway climate change with unpredictable results. One example of a positive feedback loop could be a warming Arctic region that thaws the permafrost. This thaw would allow enormous amounts of methane gas to seep into the atmosphere. There are, unfortunately, examples of positive feedback loops already in action. The discovery of methane bubbling up from seeps in northern lakes is not a good sign. All this data shows that if we are going to be able to maintain temperature increases to a manageable 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius, we need to stop burning fossil fuels and need to sequester carbon dioxide that is already in our atmosphere. A 2019 report by The Guardian found that significant oil and gas companies have invested $50 Billion in fossil fuel projects. That shows that, sadly, the fossil fuel era is sadly far from ending. Strategies for capturing and sequestering carbon, then, will need to increase drastically in the coming years.

How Does Capturing and Sequestering Carbon Work?

Carbon dioxide accounts for about 80 percent of all greenhouse gasses. Methane emissions are another dangerous (and growing) greenhouse gas associated with our current society. But, carbon dioxide is unique - carbon is the sixth-most abundant element on earth - and the molecular key to life. Carbon can be captured from our atmosphere and stored in different life forms, such as trees, vegetation, soils, and aquatic ecosystems. As a definition , carbon sequestration refers to the long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon. This long-term storage serves to mitigate or defer global warming to avoid or lessen climate change. This method has been proposed as a way to slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases stemming from the burning of fossil fuels in both the atmospheric and marine environments. The most common example of carbon sequestration is the process wherein trees use carbon dioxide to grow new vegetative growth. In this process, the carbon dioxide utilized by the growing tree is converted into carbon within the tree structure as it removes CO2 from the atmosphere.