Big oil helped shape Stanford’s latest climate-research focus
Can we stop the anti-sequestration movement? Let&#x27;s just think about it for a second. How do we get to net zero if we account for lifetime emissions of energy sources? Even solar has lifetime emissions. You have to remove it from the atmosphere. (We&#x27;ll ignore processes that can&#x27;t be decarbonized, but that just adds to the problem)<p>So what do we know? We know that forests are hard to plant and that their early lifecycle is a carbon source. Still, we should plant trees. Ignoring this, US citizens alone would need to plant 500 trees per year to offset their current footprints[0]. That&#x27;s 165 billion trees a year, and a densely packed forest has 4-6 sqft per tree. The US has just over a trillion square feet. You do the math. (even dramatic reductions in footprints don&#x27;t solve this problem)<p>Okay, so trees aren&#x27;t enough. Luckily we know land management is one of the best carbon sink techniques available. But we run into a similar problem, just with more efficiency than above. So what is the result? We have to use a variety of techniques, both natural and artificial, to scrub carbon from the air. Not to reach net negative (which should really be our goal), but just to even reach net zero! Yes, big oil is going to fund this. Why? Because when carbon taxes come in, they can keep their plants up by scrubbing a percentage of their carbon to match that tax. (They also want PR and this is cheap PR) If they somehow could scrub all the carbon (they won&#x27;t), then what do we care?  The goal is about carbon emissions, not source of energy. I just don&#x27;t see them surviving, but of course they&#x27;re going to try to hold on as long as they can instead of adapting and surviving. Their loss.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;8billiontrees.com&#x2F;carbon-offsets-credits&#x2F;reduce-co2-emissions&#x2F;how-many-trees-offset-carbon-emissions&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;8billiontrees.com&#x2F;carbon-offsets-credits&#x2F;reduce-co2-...</a>