The Key to Fighting Climate Change is Direct Carbon Removal from the Atmosphere

The Time Has Come to Focus on Direct Carbon Removal in Reducing Global Warming Global warming is an intensifying global problem. No individual city, state, or country can unilaterally reduce the rise in global temperatures. Countries have reached agreements to reduce CO2 emissions. However, the international agreements have failed. The Paris Accords, signed by 195 nations on Earth Day 2016, set a goal of limiting global warning to 1.50C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. It contained detailed steps in reducing CO2 emissions. 2024 averaged the highest recorded temperatures in history. The World Meteorological Society said it reached 1.550C in the past year. Dr. Charles Keeling of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography devised an infrared gas analyzer to measure CO2 atmospheric levels. He set it up on the Moana Loa Observatory on the Big Island of Hawaii. The continuous readings form the Keeling Curve. The pre-industrial level was 280. The initial 1958 reading was 313. Earlier this year, it reached 424.81, up 3.53 in one year. The Keeling Curve warns us global warming will continue to rise. The Paris Accords failed, as did the earlier 1992 Rio Convention, 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and 2009 Copenhagen Accords, all with the same internal flaw. None are self-executing. No penalties or sanctions are imposed against violators. None of the 195 signees surrendered their sovereignty. Countries are thus free to violate the accords. China and India are the largest violators. China leads the world in alternative energy, but its insatiable demand for electricity is unsatisfied by alternative energy and EV’s. China and India are increasing their emissions at a greater rate than the United States is decreasing its emissions. For example, the United States’ emissions dropped 12% from 2020 to 5,007 metric tons in 2021 while China’s rose 33% to 11,472 metric tons. India announced it had to postpone the Paris Accords’ 2050 deadline to 2070. The International Court of Justice unanimously held on July 23, 2025 that the urgent and existential treat of climate change exists. All nations have the obligation to limit global warming to the 1.5oC increase of the Paris Accords. The failure to act constitutes intentional wrongdoing. The decision will not reverse global warming, but will unleash a further global flurry of climate change litigation. H.L. Mencken, the great columnist and humorist, wrote in 1920 this pithy comment: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.” Once CO2 was recognized as the primary cause of global warming, the simple solution was to drastically reduce CO2 emissions on the assumption that cutting CO2 emissions will reverse global warming. Fossil fuels were identified as the primary source of CO2 emissions. Fossil fuels, whether from oil and its derivatives, coal, and natural gas, were to be replaced by alternative fuels. Clean energy became the apparent solution. California jumped aboard the anti-carbon bandwagon. New cars by 2035 would be all electric, gas appliances, hot water heaters and home furnaces eliminated, and diesel locomotives converted to electric. Solar installations are required on new homes while fireplaces are banned in new construction. The forest is a CO2 sink. Wildfires release millions of metric tons of stored CO2 in the trees and other vegetation. For example, California’s CO2 emission cuts are offset by California’s wildfires. A UCLA and University of Chicago 2022 study of the large 2020 California wildfires found California generated 127mmt (million metric tons) in the 2020 wildfires, roughly double California savings of 65mmt between 2003 and 2019. Wildfires are a global problem. Some nations imposed draconian restrictions, which increasingly ignored reality. The world is dependent on fossil fuels for the generation of electricity. Natural gas is the cleanest burning, but coal is plentiful, accessible and economical in much of the world. Underdeveloped countries are turning to coal. The reality is that even if the global community achieved NetZero, global temperatures would continue to rise because of the rising atmospheric CO2 levels. Nature removes about 20-80% of the CO2 emissions through ocean absorption and photosynthesis in 20-200 years. It gives back large amounts of CO2 through wildfires. The remaining CO2 molecules can remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years. The normal inclination now will be to unsuccessfully double down on failure. The reaction will be increased political resistance and litigation, The United States since 1970 has created a legal and regulatory regime of resistance to infrastructure improvements. Reducing CO2 emissions and capturing emissions at the source and injecting into the ground may reduce CO2 emissions entering the atmosphere, but not the CO2 levels currently in the atmosphere and rising. Clean energy has several environmental attributes, but it is not a panacea for global warming. The subsidies and regulations, the ICJ, green architecture and building codes, compensatory and regulatory litigation and regulation, EV’s, clean energy, alternative fuels, and NetZero will not lower global temperatures. Only refocusing on direct carbon removal can temper the rising climate change. The key to controlling global warming is degasification of the atmosphere, direct carbon removal. The moneys to be spent on research and subsidies on the way to NetZero can better be invested, redirected and focused on degasification. The technology exists, but is not commercially viable today. The Paris Accords failed, as did the earlier 1992 Rio Convention, 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and 2009 Copenhagen Accords, all with the same internal flaw. None are self-executing. No penalties or sanctions are imposed against violators. None of the 195 signees surrendered their sovereignty. Countries are thus free to violate the accords. China and India are the largest violators. China leads the world in alternative energy, but its insatiable demand for electricity is unsatisfied by alternative energy and EV’s. China and India are increasing their emissions at a greater rate than the United States is decreasing its emissions. For example, the United States’ emissions dropped 12% from 2020 to 5,007 metric tons in 2021 while China’s rose 33% to 11,472 metric tons. India announced it had to postpone the Paris Accords’ 2050 deadline to 2070. The International Court of Justice unanimously held on July 23, 2025 that the urgent and existential treat of climate change exists. All nations have the obligation to limit global warming to the 1.5oC increase of the Paris Accords. The failure to act constitutes intentional wrongdoing. The decision will not reverse global warming, but will unleash a further global flurry of climate change litigation. H.L. Mencken, the great columnist and humorist, wrote in 1920 this pithy comment: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.” Once CO2 was recognized as the primary cause of global warming, the simple solution was to drastically reduce CO2 emissions on the assumption that cutting CO2 emissions will reverse global warming. Fossil fuels were identified as the primary source of CO2 emissions. Fossil fuels, whether from oil and its derivatives, coal, and natural gas, were to be replaced by alternative fuels. Clean energy became the apparent solution. California jumped aboard the anti-carbon bandwagon. New cars by 2035 would be all electric, gas appliances, hot water heaters and home furnaces eliminated, and diesel locomotives converted to electric. Solar installations are required on new homes while fireplaces are banned in new construction. The forest is a CO2 sink. Wildfires release millions of metric tons of stored CO2 in the trees and other vegetation. For example, California’s CO2 emission cuts are offset by California’s wildfires. A UCLA and University of Chicago 2022 study of the large 2020 California wildfires found California generated 127mmt (million metric tons) in the 2020 wildfires, roughly double California savings of 65mmt between 2003 and 2019. Wildfires are a global problem. Some nations imposed draconian restrictions, which increasingly ignored reality. The world is dependent on fossil fuels for the generation of electricity. Natural gas is the cleanest burning, but coal is plentiful, accessible and economical in much of the world. Underdeveloped countries are turning to coal. The reality is that even if the global community achieved NetZero, global temperatures would continue to rise because of the rising atmospheric CO2 levels. Nature removes about 20-80% of the CO2 emissions through ocean absorption and photosynthesis in 20-200 years. It gives back large amounts of CO2 through wildfires. The remaining CO2 molecules can remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years. The normal inclination now will be to unsuccessfully double down on failure. The reaction will be increased political resistance and litigation, The United States since 1970 has created a legal and regulatory regime of resistance to infrastructure improvements. Reducing CO2 emissions and capturing emissions at the source and injecting into the ground may reduce CO2 emissions entering the atmosphere, but not the CO2 levels currently in the atmosphere and rising. Clean energy has several environmental attributes, but it is not a panacea for global warming. The subsidies and regulations, the ICJ, green architecture and building codes, compensatory and regulatory litigation and regulation, EV’s, clean energy, alternative fuels, and NetZero will not lower global temperatures. Only refocusing on direct carbon removal can temper the rising climate change. The key to controlling global warming is degasification of the atmosphere, direct carbon removal. The moneys to be spent on research and subsidies on the way to NetZero can better be invested, redirected and focused on degasification. The technology exists, but is not commercially viable today.