Environment
John Kerry: We need to remove CO2 from the atmosphere
John Kerry, President Joe Biden‘s climate czar, during the world leaders’ virtual climate summit on Thursday talked about how getting carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere will be critical in combatting climate change, even if the United States achieves net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
“You said twice [that] getting to net-zero is going to be hard, really hard,” Biden’s Special Envoy for Climate said to a reporter at one point during the summit, on Earth Day. “And I would just remind everybody that that will depend on whether or not we have some breakthrough technologies and breakthrough innovations.”
“But even if we get to net-zero, we still have to get carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere,” he continued, adding that “this is a bigger challenge than a lot of people have […] really grabbed onto yet.”
Along with reducing carbon dioxide emissions to reach net-zero, environmentalists and scientists have said that removing the massive amount of carbon dioxide that humans have already been emitting into the atmosphere will be critical in fighting climate change. The goal would be to reduce the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere to a “safe” level, which scientists have generally placed around 350 parts per million. According to Carbon Brief, the concentration as of March 2021 has reached about 417ppm, a 50% increase over the 1750-1800 average.
The World Resources Institute, a global environmental nonprofit, illustrated six possible ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere. These include: a variety of ways to increase the amount of carbon stored in soil, Bio-energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), direct air capture technology, carbon mineralization, a number of ocean-based carbon removal concepts, and planting more forests.
There also exists a possibly lucrative opportunity for certain businesses to make lots of money by utilizing air-captured carbon in certain products and services, which, according to a 2019 report from Vox, could potentially create a $1 trillion market by 2030.
Kerry’s comments came on the same day that Biden pledged to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52%—compared to 2005 levels—by 2030, as part of a broader goal of achieving net-zero emissions in the country by 2050.
RELATED: Biden vows to cut nearly half of greenhouse emissions by 2030
You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @DouglasPBraff.
Environment
Major border town on ‘brink of collapse’ as migrants ruin agriculture, overrun hospitals and resources
“It will only get worse with Biden’s policies” is the message from a border town that is on the “brink of collapse.” Yuma, Arizona is suffocating under a surge of hundreds of thousands of migrants overloading the area’s resources.
Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines told Fox News that “policies need to be changed when you see an unprecedented amount of people coming across the border that even supersedes what we saw under any of the other presidents for the past 30 years.”
“And they’re coming because they said that Biden told them to come, that we have an open border” Lines continued, as overcrowded and overloaded food banks, hospitals and shelters threaten food security.
Customs and Border Patrol sources told Fox News on Sunday 1.2 million illegal migrants have escaped Border Patrol since Biden took office.
“The problem that we’re foreseeing right now is there’s a couple of big waves coming,” a Yuma resident and fifth-generation farmer, Hank Auza, told Fox News. “Yuma can’t support that. It will overwhelm the system here.”
In December, another border town El Paso, Texas, declared a state of emergency as thousands of migrants camped in the streets during below-freezing temperatures. “Many migrant shelters were over capacity, leading the city to use the local airport for temporary refuge” reports Fox News.
A crucial aspect of the crisis that many do not consider and the mainstream media does not cover is the damage done to agriculture. “Our fields are monitored and audited and tested for different pathogens,” Yuma farmer Alex Muller told Fox News. “You can’t have people walking through the field.”
A fifth-generation farmer and resident Hank Auza said Yuma’s fields, which produce 93% of the nation’s leafy greens in the winter months, have faced a fair amount of migrant traffic, risking damage to their crops due to foodborne illness concerns. He also said many residents can’t get into the city’s only hospital.
“People have had a hard time getting into the hospital because the hospital has been so full of” illegal immigrants, Auza told Fox News.
-
Featured4 days agoREPORT: Exorcists called to drive out demons from Nancy Pelosi’s home
-
Middle East6 days agoFormer Marine on Afghanistan: ‘Biden lied…Americans still there that want to get out’
-
Immigration2 days agoNYC Mayor turning cruise ship terminal into migrant shelter, ‘our city is at its breaking point’
-
Environment3 days agoMajor border town on ‘brink of collapse’ as migrants ruin agriculture, overrun hospitals and resources
