Carbon dioxide removal will need to scale faster than solar to meet climate targets

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Oh, I'm not too worried about rising levels of CO2 making us more stupid.

That sounds like Elon Musk, in his “interview” with a certain orange former president.

https://www.rev.com/transcripts/elon-musk-and-donald-trump-interview

…

(01:07:20)
I think the risk is not as high as a lot of people say it is with respect to global warming. But I think if you just keep increasing the cost per million in the atmosphere long enough, eventually it actually simply gets uncomfortable to breathe. People don’t realize this. If you go past a thousand parts per million of CO2, you start getting headaches and nausea. And so we’re now in the sort 400 range. We’re adding, I think about roughly two plus per million per year. So it still gives us… What it means is we still have quite a bit of time, so it’s not like we don’t need to rush and we don’t need to stop farmers from farming or prevent people from having steaks or-

Donald Trump (01:08:08):

Right. Right.

Elon Musk (01:08:08):

… basic stuff like that. Leave the farmers alone.

…

His figures were wrong of course, we’re well over 400 ppm, and levels are increasing faster than 2 ppm/year.

He’s citing HVAC figures (I expect a consultant informed him of the 1,000 ppm guideline.) I’ve worked in a building where CO₂ levels got to be in excess of 1,000 ppm. We were all falling asleep at our desks.

If atmospheric CO₂ levels get to 1000 ppm, being increasingly stupid won’t be our biggest problem.