California is showing interest in natural carbon capture to save the future of the ecosystem.
The latest legislative proposal in California confirmed that the amount of carbon dioxide that would need to be removed every year to battle climate change would come to include 60 million metric tons.
The government plans to plant carbon-absorbing trees to reduce carbon emissions in the air.
This method would be even more effective than removing millions of vehicles from the streets.
Consequently, there are two bills proposing two different approaches are being considered at present.
The first involves technology used to capture carbon emissions from the atmosphere. This particular method has been promoted by the legislation, even though it is expensive.
It is the latter aspect that has made it harder for the government to continue implementing this technology.
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However, the second approach involves natural solutions used to remove carbon from the environment.
The bills are proposed by different assembly women, Cottie Petrie-Norris and Cristina Garcia, respectively.
According to Garcia, 60 million tons of CO2 should be captured annually by 2031, and by 2036, the number should rise to 75 million metric tons per year.
The only thing that the government needs to consider is gaining appropriate resources to execute this method. A full draft of this bill might clarify all the doubts.
Various programs, including compost application, planned grazing, hedgerows, cover crops, riparian restoration, and others, can be used to capture carbon naturally.
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The bill also mentions managing the forest and wildfires as a way to capture carbon quickly.
Petrie-Norris’ bill asks for $15 billion to capture those same quantities of carbon dioxide using technological means.
The reason why this method hasn’t been received well is that the captured carbon may further be used for enhanced oil recovery that also negatively affects the environment.
Such activities increase the cost of removing the carbon from the air to $600 per ton.
Instead, for the process to be considered at all viable, the price would have to be reduced to $100 per ton.
