Accumulating CO₂

Imagine you dumped 1 tonne of sewage each year into a nearby river. At the end of a decade, things would be pretty much the same. Imagine you racked up $1000 of debt each year. At the end of the decade, you would be much worse off, $10,000 in debt (plus interest). Most people think CO₂ emissions work like sewage, but they actually work like debt. Let’s say you emit 1 tonne of CO₂ each year. At the end of the decade you have 10 tonnes of CO₂ added to the atmosphere. It does not go away (at least not for thousands of years). Even if you get your emissions down to trickle, the problem will still continue to get worse. To improve, you have to figure out some way to suck CO₂ out of the air, not just slow down your emissions.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)