Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

Climeworks is an Icelandic carbon capture company that promises to turn carbon dioxide into stone by injecting carbon emissions deep into the ground. The process originated out of the way geothermal power plants dealt with their dioxide emissions. The plants captured the carbon dioxide, dissolved it in water, and then sent it back underground, where it turned into rock. Climeworks applied this more broadly; people can pay to have their emissions scrubbed from the atmosphere.

The most significant way humans are reshaping the planet is climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels. From the time engineer James Watt developed a new kind of steam engine in 1776 to the present day, carbon dioxide emissions have gone from 15 million tons to 40 billion; at the same time, global temperatures have risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius. Already the effects are evident: more severe storms, longer droughts, intensifying heat waves. To avoid full global catastrophe, temperature rise must stay below two degrees, which means emissions have to drop almost to zero. “This would entail, for starters: revamping agricultural systems, transforming manufacturing, scrapping gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles, and replacing most of the world’s power plants” (149).

It will also, according to most scenarios, involve negative emissions—carbon dioxide pulled out of the atmosphere.