Guest Thinkers — November 18, 2010

In Defense of Carbon Capture & Storage

Germany geologist Andreas Dahmke defends the process of storing carbon dioxide underground to prevent global warming. Nuclear power is far more dangerous, he says.

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The benefits of the storage technology are as diffuse and abstract as the climate change it is supposed to be alleviating. But the truth is that the risks associated with nuclear power are infinitely larger than anything that has to do with CCS [carbon capture and storage]. By 2040, we want to have phased out coal-fired electricity generation, but it isn’t as if we can shut down every coal power plant tomorrow. CCS is one of the few options to minimize CO2 emissions in the short term. I’m surprised that German society has reached the consensus that it would rather release the CO2 into the atmosphere than investigate what else could be done with it.

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