Keeping Alliance beautiful takes into account what you see – well-kept streets, parks and yards, and what you do not see – litter, graffiti and vandalism. Other parts of the environment are invisible yet influence our daily lives.
The air we breathe comes to mind whenever the wind blows dirt, pollen or, more often than we like, smoke from far off wildfires. Western Nebraska skies are not exempt from global changes in the atmosphere either. Even when we strive to cut down on our individual carbon footprint, greenhouse gasses continue to rise. A dramatic commitment to switching from fossil fuels to renewables worldwide coupled with removing existing carbon dioxide from the air could turn the tide.
News stories over recent weeks and months have described a technology that promises to be a viable method for pulling out carbon dioxide. This gas (from what I found) only accounts for .3 to .4 percent of Earth’s atmosphere, yet holds the heat of the sun’s rays longer than nitrogen (78 percent) and oxygen (20.9 percent). The method is called direct air capture, which employs chemical reactions to remove the gas for storage underground or for use in products including fuel, plastic and concrete.
It is too early to tell what magnitude direct air capture would need to attain for a shift in global warming, however private, corporate and government support is promising. The Department of Energy, as part of the Biden Administration’s Investing in America agenda, announced last month as much as $1.2 billion to develop two commercial-scale direct air capture facilities in Texas and Louisiana. Combined, the sites expect to remove 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually. This is part of the president’s goal for a net-zero global economy by 2050. The DOE estimates achieving the goal would mean removing somewhere between 400 million and 1.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually from the atmosphere and emissions sources by 2050, according to a news release.
There was a nagging “too good to be true” feeling reading about the government’s support. Both facilities mentioned will store the gas securely underground. On the other hand, the oil industry is interested in using the carbon dioxide to aid in producing more crude. While this cuts down on energy it still produces fossil fuels that will be burnt and release greenhouse gasses.
As technology advances, units are expected to be portable – able to fit into a shipping container for transport and glean one ton a day of carbon dioxide a day. The process, though, requires significant energy. I think these units should be powered by renewable sources to ensure the process is as green as possible. Every sizeable town, including Alliance, could operate a unit as part of the municipal infrastructure. A whole industry would accompany the building and operating of direct air capture units with a need to also transport and store the gas.
One article I came across compared this technology to how trees take in carbon dioxide. We always should be open minded when it comes to the environment. New developments may be what it takes to tip the balance or reach net-zero by 2050, but always keep in mind what you can do. We can all reduce, reuse and recycle. Plant a tree, walk instead of drive. Take an idea for a healthier planet and spread it around.