Essay by Eric Worrall
The demand for $100 billion per year, to fix a problem which only exists in the fevered imagination of broken computer models, is beyond parody.
The U.S. Will Need to Spend $100 Billon a Year on Carbon Removal
APRIL 11, 2024
BY CORBIN HIAR & E&E NEWSThe U.S. needs to vastly increase taxpayer spending on direct carbon removal technology to meet President Biden’s climate goals, the Rhodium Group says.
CLIMATEWIRE | The U.S. government needs to spend roughly $100 billion annually on carbon dioxide removal by 2050 to help the world avoid extreme climate change, according to an analysis released Wednesday.
That’s 20 times more than what lawmakers committed to in landmark climate bills that aimed to jump-start the development of carbon removal technologies and companies, the Rhodium Group estimated. For context, the sum is also about as much as the entire budget of the Department of Agriculture.
The new analysis comes amid a fierce battle for control of Congress, the White House and the future of U.S. climate policy. The Republican Party is rallying behind former President Donald Trump, whose campaign has promised that if reelected he would “oppose all of the radical left’s Green New Deal policies.”
But Rhodium’s calculations could also bolster progressive critics of carbon dioxide removal who view government subsidies for the costly technology as a distraction in the fight against rising temperatures. Carbon removal companies use a variety of natural and engineered approaches to boost the carbon absorbing capacity of the planet.
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Read more: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-carbon-removal-needs-have-a-usd100-billion-price-tag-per-year/
Even Dr. Evil didn’t have the arrogance to demand annual payments of $100 billion, he just wanted a one off payment.
I used to wonder why the ancient Egyptians wasted so much money and effort building pyramids, when they could have used those resources to better the lives of their people.
I guess we all have the answer to that question now: Some ancient Egyptian claimed their computer model said it was necessary to spend vast resources on pyramid building, that the gods would be angry if they didn’t provide for their pharaohs in the afterlife. And for 1200 years, between 2700BC to 1500BC, nobody questioned the computer model prediction.
Let us hope the people of our society prove a little more adept at asking the right questions.
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