{"id":57557,"date":"2021-04-25T11:33:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-25T16:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57557"},"modified":"2021-04-25T11:33:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T16:33:30","slug":"climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57557","title":{"rendered":"Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous\u00a0trap"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"magazine\">\n<div class=\"magazine-title\">\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header class=\"content-header-container grid-twelve large-grid-eleven\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"content-header-block\">\n<h3 class=\"legacy entry-title instapaper_title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368?fbclid=IwAR0kRQdh5v4tzFGvdnrD_Vjgnigd-qdc77I0IXfN5uqKOr6RFpraUbkdugE\"><strong>Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous\u00a0trap<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2021-04-22T04:25:34Z\"><\/time><\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<div class=\"grid-twelve large-grid-eleven\">\n<div class=\"grid-ten large-grid-nine grid-last content-body content entry-content instapaper_body \">\n<p>Sometimes realisation comes in a blinding flash. Blurred outlines snap into shape and suddenly it all makes sense. Underneath such revelations is typically a much slower-dawning process. Doubts at the back of the mind grow. The sense of confusion that things cannot be made to fit together increases until something clicks. Or perhaps snaps.<\/p>\n<p>Collectively we three authors of this article must have spent more than 80 years thinking about climate change. Why has it taken us so long to speak out about the obvious dangers of the concept of net zero? In our defence, the premise of net zero is deceptively simple \u2013 and we admit that it deceived us.<\/p>\n<p>The threats of climate change are the direct result of there being too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So it follows that we must stop emitting more and even remove some of it. This idea is central to the world\u2019s current plan to avoid catastrophe. In fact, there are many suggestions as to how to actually do this, from mass tree planting, to high tech\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20210310-the-trillion-dollar-plan-to-capture-co2\">direct air capture<\/a>\u00a0devices that suck out carbon dioxide from the air.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"noa-web-audio-player\" src=\"https:\/\/embed-player.newsoveraudio.com\/v4?key=x84olp&amp;id=https:\/\/theconversation.com\/climate-scientists-concept-of-net-zero-is-a-dangerous-trap-157368&amp;bgColor=F5F5F5&amp;color=D8352A&amp;playColor=D8352A\" width=\"100%\" height=\"110px\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe>The current consensus is that if we deploy these and other so-called \u201ccarbon dioxide removal\u201d techniques at the same time as reducing our burning of fossil fuels, we can more rapidly halt global warming. Hopefully around the middle of this century we will achieve \u201cnet zero\u201d. This is the point at which any residual emissions of greenhouse gases are balanced by technologies removing them from the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"align-center \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/393126\/original\/file-20210401-23-w5tbv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/393126\/original\/file-20210401-23-w5tbv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/393126\/original\/file-20210401-23-w5tbv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/393126\/original\/file-20210401-23-w5tbv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/393126\/original\/file-20210401-23-w5tbv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/393126\/original\/file-20210401-23-w5tbv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/393126\/original\/file-20210401-23-w5tbv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w\" alt=\"Climeworks factory with tractor in foreground.\" \/><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">A facility for capturing carbon dioxide from air on the roof of a waste incinerating plant in Hinwil, Switzerland July 18, 2017. This is one of the handful of demonstrator projects currently in operation.<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"attribution\"><a class=\"source\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alamy.com\/a-facility-for-capturing-co2-from-air-of-swiss-climeworks-ag-is-placed-on-the-roof-of-a-waste-incinerating-plant-in-hinwil-switzerland-july-18-2017-picture-taken-july-18-2017-reutersarnd-wiegmann-image375399414.html?pv=1&amp;stamp=2&amp;imageid=3A64AC98-CF7B-4161-88D5-D0BF468EE239&amp;p=1323510&amp;n=0&amp;orientation=0&amp;pn=1&amp;searchtype=0&amp;IsFromSearch=1&amp;srch=foo%3dbar%26st%3d0%26pn%3d1%26ps%3d100%26sortby%3d2%26resultview%3dsortbyPopular%26npgs%3d0%26qt%3dclimeworks%26qt_raw%3dclimeworks%26lic%3d3%26mr%3d0%26pr%3d0%26ot%3d0%26creative%3d%26ag%3d0%26hc%3d0%26pc%3d%26blackwhite%3d%26cutout%3d%26tbar%3d1%26et%3d0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3d0%26loc%3d0%26imgt%3d0%26dtfr%3d%26dtto%3d%26size%3d0xFF%26archive%3d1%26groupid%3d%26pseudoid%3d%26a%3d%26cdid%3d%26cdsrt%3d%26name%3d%26qn%3d%26apalib%3d%26apalic%3d%26lightbox%3d%26gname%3d%26gtype%3d%26xstx%3d0%26simid%3d%26saveQry%3d%26editorial%3d%26nu%3d%26t%3d%26edoptin%3d%26customgeoip%3dGB%26cap%3d1%26cbstore%3d1%26vd%3d0%26lb%3d%26fi%3d2%26edrf%3d0%26ispremium%3d1%26flip%3d0%26pl%3d\">REUTERS\/Arnd Wiegmann<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous\u00a0trap Sometimes realisation comes in a blinding flash. Blurred outlines snap into shape and suddenly it all makes sense. Underneath such revelations is typically a much slower-dawning process. Doubts at the back of the mind grow. The sense of confusion that things cannot be made to fit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[3193,141,2956,1004,386,12993,30673,31146,8487,31145],"class_list":["post-57557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-carbon-dioxide","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-science","tag-co2","tag-greenhouse-gases","tag-james-dyke","tag-net-zero","tag-robert-watson","tag-the-conversation","tag-wolfgang-knorr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57558,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57557\/revisions\/57558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}