this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025
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The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, found that global carbon storage capacity was 10 times less than previous estimates after ruling out geological formations where the gas could leak, trigger earthquakes or contaminate groundwater, or had other limitations. That means carbon capture and storage would only have the potential to reduce human-caused warming by 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.26 Fahrenheit)—far less than previous estimates of around 5-6 degrees Celsius (9-10.8 degrees Fahrenheit), researchers said.

"Carbon storage is often portrayed as a way out of the climate crisis. Our findings make clear that it is a limited tool" and reaffirms "the extreme importance of reducing emissions as fast and as soon as possible," said lead author Matthew Gidden, a research professor at the University Maryland's Center for Global Sustainability. The study was led by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, where Gidden also is a senior researcher in the energy, climate and environment program.

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Just do an atmosphere transplant, terraform the moon, and have space surgeons swap out the atmospheres

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 3 hours ago

Ive never seen a carbon capture that would seem to be a net positive. Much less better than renewables or efficiency. Requiring insulation in new construction and subsidizing adding it to current is so straight forward.

[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 6 points 9 hours ago
[–] tomiant@programming.dev 15 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Breaking News! The thing we told you was going to happen for the past 50 years is definitely still happening!

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago
[–] hamFoilHat@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Honest question, does "10 times less" mean 1/10th? It makes no sense to me mathematically.

[–] tomiant@programming.dev 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

"We thought it was 10. Turns out it was 1."

Ten times less: x * 0.1

[–] hamFoilHat@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

Okay, so it does mean "1/10th of". If words still had meaning then "ten times less" would mean "we thought we had 10 but we actually have -90".

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 29 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

they'll do anything to save us from the climate - create new technology, reinvent the wheel, anything anything EXCEPT LIMITING THE FUCKING EMISSIONS THAT ARE GOING TO KILL US.

Can't do that, nah, bro... just a few more hundred billions gallons... bro come on, just a few more...

[–] bestagon@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

You’re obviously not considering the economy. We have to find a way to consume our way out of this problem

[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 74 points 2 days ago (2 children)

No one who is serious about carbon capture technologies expects that it is feasible to store it underground in gaseous form and that has been known for two decades.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago (11 children)

What if we liquify it into a black gooey form first?

[–] MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca 4 points 17 hours ago

That's the thing you do after 2080 when you have too much energy. Because you have to add in all the energy from burning it, and it's very unproductive.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

It would actually be simpler to go straight to soot and rebuild the coal beds. Electrolysis to CO followed by reverse Boudouard reaction. EZ.

E-fuel is an important technology of it's own, because planes basically don't work without the energy density burning oil has, but stopping the reduction at hydrocarbons has proven a lot trickier.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 4 hours ago

Like, a lot more energy. You're literally burning fossil fuels in reverse. And the electrolysis part is way more involved, even if it does exist on small scales for, like, space travel applications.

EZ, but yes, totally economically unfeasible any time soon.

[–] PanGodofPanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Now I'm imagining a world where we produce coal in a factory from the air using solar power at peak times in the desert, the send the coal where it's needed and burn it again later. Literally renewable coal nonsense.

(not a serious proposal btw it just seemed really funny to imagine we're so addicted to the stuff we start making more just to keep using it)

[–] cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

It will either be fusion or nothing.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If I'm reading correctly, producing CO at room temp in a sealed vessel would essentially immediately produce soot and more CO2 to pump back through the system?

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You need a catalyst and/or slightly elevated temperature for soot formation to actually happen, but yes. Information on what catalysts are the best is actually hard to come by, because this is usually a bad, accidental thing that happens and gums up your blast furnace. It sounds like just iron works to some degree, though.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Looks like gold and silver are the best for producing CO from electrolysis, wonder how they go for making soot

[–] mitch@piefed.mitch.science 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ah, good thing those are cheap materials, then!

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

As somebody pointed out, burning fossil fuels in reverse also takes just as much energy as you'd expect. I never said the general idea was actually practical. Certainly not right now, anyway.

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well hopefully we don't try to do that while actively digging up more black gooey form to burn. If it was thought to be economical at any point in the future nobody would give a shit about hydrogen after all.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We have to get rid of the old gooey black stuff to make room for the new gooey black stuff. Obviously.

[–] mitch@piefed.mitch.science 6 points 1 day ago

Goo in, goo out.

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They do mention serpentisation in the article as an alternative, but point out almost none of the current projects are bothering with that, and are just going for immobilised storage in sedimentary rock instead.

[–] allo@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

what about storing it in plants like forests and jungles and algae? honest question; im a noob

edit: and bogs

[–] SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works 2 points 12 hours ago

What others have mentioned here, plus seagrass and kelp. There is a lot of recovery to do of these once massive ecosystems, thus a lot of carbon to tie up.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 5 points 1 day ago

It's all about quantity.

The fossil fuel industry is digging up the plants of forests and jungles and algae that have existed over millennia, then died and decomposed into oil, coal, gas. When you then burn it you release the carbon of hundreds of generations of plant life.

Fossil fuels are dead plant concentrate.

[–] ValiantDust@feddit.org 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Add bogs to that list. Worldwide, bogs store more CO2 than forests. Restoring them and making sure they don't dry up (which also would release a lot of gases harmful to the climate) would be a good way to capture CO2.

I don't have any numbers to compare it to other techniques though, sorry.

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[–] SacralPlexus@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think one problem with this is that there is only so much land/sea on earth. Once all available land is forested you have completely maxed out this option. Then when a tree dies and falls over most of its carbon begins to be released back into the atmosphere by decomposing organisms so you are reliant on another tree taking its place to maintain status quo. Same for any biological solution (algae dies/eaten -> carbon released).

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

We have to complete the gas/crue oil cycle: we must make a freaking pit and beging throwing trees in to free space for more trees

Oil is cursed

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[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 15 points 2 days ago (2 children)

So all that billions of tons of carbon we dig up from the ground, sequestered for 300 million years, doesn't just make it's way back there?

Well fuck!

[–] IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz 2 points 20 minutes ago

doesn’t just make it’s way back there?

Well, it kind of does, just like it did before. It's just way too slow for us hairless monkeys to see it happening, we're all gone well before that happens. Eventually some other lizard will crawl up to the land from the sea and maybe it's a bit wiser than us.

[–] seaQueue@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Who could have possibly guessed?

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Who knew? Shame that this is the first time we're hearing this

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 18 points 2 days ago

Anybody serious already knew carbon capture is not a solution. Reducing CO2 and electrifying with clean power is always cheaper than generating a lot more additional power for capturing CO2. It's how the physics work out. It could've worked for cleaning up afterwards when all the rest was already clean and green.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] seaQueue@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Don't worry, at least the billionaire parasites and their offspring will survive in their underground shelters!

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Not if we dump concrete in the intakes for their fresh air conduits! Hope they enjoy their tomb!

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