Storing carbon underground? There's less room than we thought, new study suggests

[NickB79]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/carbon-storage-underground-1.7624319

Many countries, including Canada, are counting on some kind of underground carbon storage to keep planet-warming greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and avoid the most catastrophic climate projections.

But a study published this week in the journal Nature is raising a new issue with what is already a mostly unproven technology.

The study, led by researchers in the U.K., Austria and the U.S., analyzed a wider range of risk factors than conventional assessments of carbon storage potential.

They found that globally, about 1,460 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide can be safely stored underground. That's significantly less than current projections of around 12,000 billion tonnes. That means using all the safe areas for carbon storage would cut global warming by only 0.7 C, much less than previous estimates of around 6 C.

Bold is mine. Even if we could store all the carbon we could, it won't even get us back to where we were 50 yr ago, much less the 3C or worse future we're looking at by 2100.

[Submariner]

1. That seems almost a waste of time now

There are tundra methane explosions and nonstop methane gas leakage from permafrost melting will likely exacerbate warning, and we should probably expect stronger and fiercer storms year after year.



https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/siberia-massive-craters-frozen-ground-permafrost-methane-gas-explosion-rrc/

Permafrost is releasing methane where you don't expect it

https://fm.kuac.org/science-and-technology/2024-08-13/permafrost-releasing-methane-where-you-dont-expect-it

[NNadir]

2. Like the hydrogen scam, the whole idea is simply fossil fuel greenwashing. It never was serious because it's not...

...technically or economically feasible.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. I've always thought of it as sweeping the problem under the rug -- turns out we don't have a big enough rug, anyway. nt