Carbon capture technology is a keystone investment in restoring the climate to pre-industrial CO2 levels. Earth911 talks with Rick Parnell, CEO of the Foundation for Climate Restoration about his recent Newsweek and Washington Post op-eds calling for investments in the technology and setting a price for carbon. He and his co-authors, Kathleen Rogers of EarthDay.org and Sir David King of the Center for Climate Repair at Cambridge University, point out that climate change-related health issues will lead to more than 250,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050 and an that additional climate-caused food shortages will contribute to 529,000 deaths a year by 2050. While he does not see carbon capture as a silver bullet — it must be combined with reforestation, changes in farming and human diets, and radical reductions in CO2 emissions — he and his organization believe the technology can help remove more than 150 years’ worth of excess carbon from the atmosphere.
Parnell and Earth911’s Mitch Ratcliffe discuss where carbon can be stored using marine permaculture and in industrial applications such as concrete made from calcium carbonate mined from the sky, as well as his advice for the Biden Administration as it pursues an aggressive climate policy agenda. Learn about getting involved yourself, the Foundation for Climate Restoration has local chapters and youth education programs growing across the country. For more on the Foundation’s mission and how it also addresses eco-anxiety, listen to our recent interview with Parnell’s colleague, Dr. Erica Dodds, chief operating officer at the organization.
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