Susan Solomon and colleagues have a new paper out in PNAS that says that some climate change effects irreversible, and the higher that carbon dioxide levels get the greater the change. You can read the press release from NOAA here.

Now if climate change is indeed irreversible, and its effects are to be avoided, then one would think that an appropriate response would be, in addition to advocating for stabilizing emissions and enhancing adaptation, to emphasize how important it is to develop low-cost technology to directly remove carbon dioxide from the air — to make the irreversible reversible so to speak.

Here is what the NOAA press release says on that subject:

Geoengineering to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere was not considered in the study. “Ideas about taking the carbon dioxide away after the world puts it in have been proposed, but right now those are very speculative,” said Solomon.

If Solomon et al. are correct about the irreversibility of climate change, and I have no reason to doubt them, then the technology of air capture becomes even more compelling and necessary. Yet, remarkably, the politics of climate make the subject still taboo for most people, save a few brave souls like Jim Hansen and Wally Broecker. As emissions continue to climb we will no doubt be hearing more about air capture, and people will wonder why it took so long.