Climate watch: Will technological solutions solve the climate crisis?

The headlines announce technological solutions and research breakthroughs regarding climate problems. It is important to put the information in context. Is there really a “silver bullet” to solve the climate crisis? Let’s look closer.

Electric Cars

Electric vehicles charged with power generated from wind and solar will help. If the electricity to power electric vehicles continues to come from fossil fuels, however, progress will be hampered. The change to electric cars and trucks will take time as our current vehicles wear down. The allocation for charging stations in the Infrastructure & Jobs Act was $7.5 billion. But much more will be needed to meet future demand.

Solar Panels

Solar panels are a good way to reduce the use of fossil fuels and sell excess power generated to electric companies. Also, the cost of installing solar panels dropped 89% between 2009 and 2019.

Nuclear Fusion

Scientists in the United Kingdom have produced electricity from nuclear fusion, which is essentially the same reaction that powers our sun. JET — the name for the device — production was around the same as a wind turbine and could power one house’s energy for a day. Experts say the results prove that nuclear fusion is possible. JET produces high power, but right now it only lasts for five seconds. A much longer burn will be required. If ever feasible, this technology will take many years to scale up.

Nuclear Plant Expansion

Nuclear energy emits no greenhouse gasses. Some electricity producers propose developing small “modular” nuclear power plants. Nuclear could be part of a group of energy solutions if society is willing to accept environmental costs such as the handling of radioactive waste and the risk of radiation damage near the plants. Economic modeling suggests, however, that nuclear energy competes directly with renewable energy in the marketplace.

Planting trees

After 10 years of growth a tree stores 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. One-hundred ninety trees will absorb the amount of CO2 that one gasoline-powered car engine produces in a year. Trees do capture carbon and if harvested as lumber for construction they also store it. But it takes a long time to grow forests and a lot of land — some scientists say a land mass the size of India — to eventually impact temperature. Planting trees is a very good thing to do, where possible, but don’t expect a quick payoff.

Carbon capture technology

One “direct air capture” plant recently built in Iceland removes 10 tons of CO2 daily, equal to the carbon output of 800 cars. This technology is, right now, prohibitively expensive. And many environmentalists consider this, and other carbon capture technologies to be “dangerous distractions” that simply give cover to energy companies. Because so much greenhouse gas is now “baked in” to our climate, however, we will, at some point, need to find effective and scalable ways to remove it.

Conclusion

A variety of efforts — call it “silver buckshot” — will be needed to limit and remove greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Immediately, however, the best single thing we can do is to keep fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — in the ground.

A law putting a fee on carbon at its source would discourage the use of fossil fuels and encourage development and production of sources of clean, renewable energy and new jobs. A dividend to every household from the fee would help adjust to temporary energy cost increases. And a border adjustment on imports will protect American businesses.