The Carbon Harvest
Article

The Carbon Harvest

Vast bioenergy plantations could suck up carbon and stave off climate change. They would also radically reshape the planet.

Julia Rosen
Science, 2018
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Recommendation

To avoid a dangerous rise in global temperature, researchers believe it essential to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a promising technology that accomplishes this with the bonus of energy production. Science journalist Julia Rosen writes that despite the promise of BECCS, its large-scale implementation is not without ecological and economic challenges. She outlines concerns researchers have on the impact of BECCS to ecosystems and the world. The article will engage and inform anyone concerned about climate change.

Summary

Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs) will help reduce global warming.

Negative emissions technologies (NETs) are ways to counter global warming by actively removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. These technologies are becoming essential to prevent the accumulation of atmospheric CO2 to levels that will cause a dangerous rise in global temperature.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage is a promising NET.

BECCS is a NET that combines energy production and carbon removal. Biomass such as trees and grasses take up CO2

About the Author

Julia Rosen is a freelance science journalist based in Portland, Oregon. She has written for Science, Nature and the Los Angeles Times.

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