If Cutting Carbon Emissions Isn't Working, What's Next?

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Xholon
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Title: If Cutting Carbon Emissions Isn't Working, What's Next?
Description: Marc Gunther, a journalist, blogger and speaker, has written a new book called "Suck It Up".
Url: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/if-cutting-carbon-emissions-isnt-working-whats-next/
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My Notes
--------
March 13, 2012
The New York Times blog, by Matthew L. Wald, doesn't provide many details. One of the possibilities is generating fuel from carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air. The main point for my purposes is::
  "Factories that scavenged carbon dioxide could be located in sunny deserts, and the energy to run them could come from mirrors that concentrate the sun’s heat, he points out. If some of the solar energy were used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, the carbon dioxide could be combined with the hydrogen to create new hydrocarbon liquids –- that is, motor fuel -– without drilling new oil out of the ground."
Wald suggests that Gunther is just exploring this and other ideas, and isn't necessarily sold on any particular approach.

I've looked briefly at Marc Gunther's page::
  http://www.marcgunther.com/2012/03/02/suck-it-up-my-book-about-climate-change-geoengineering-and-air-capture-of-co2/

The ebook can be purchased at::
  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007G1CZ0E
The summary at Amazon mentions "direct air capture of carbon dioxide".

National Geographic has also looked at this::
  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/08/110811-turning-carbon-emissions-into-fuel/

From my quick survey it seems that the biggest issue with direct air capture of carbon dioxide is where to get the energy to turn CO2 back into human-usable energy. Solar energy is suggested as a likely source. On this page I'll explore the structure of the problem.

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