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Thursday 9 March 2023

Perfuming the air like Madonna lilies



Gentlemen don’t earn money. Gentlemen, as a matter of fact, don’t do anything. They exist. Perfuming the air like Madonna lilies. Money comes into them as air through petals and foliage. Thus the world is made better and brighter. And, of course, thus political life can be kept clean!...So you can’t make money.

Ford Madox Ford - A Man Could Stand Up (1926)


Climate change: New idea for sucking up CO2 from air shows promise

At a plant in Iceland the captured CO2 is injected deep underground where it is permanently turned into stone.

The company has recently started selling a certified carbon removal service to large corporate clients including Microsoft, Spotify and Stripe.

7 comments:

Bucko said...

Snake oil has gone to a whole new level in the modern world

Anonymous said...

If they could really turn carbon into stone, it's either going to be coal or diamond.

They wouldn't leave diamonds down there so it must be coal.

So that makes coal a renewable energy source, and we can start burning it again.

Macheath said...

If we are going to delve into the realms of fantasy...

‘Hidden people are known to be extremely protective of their homes and will cause great harm to those who disturb them [...] and building projects in Iceland are frequently altered to avoid causing damage to enchanted rocks and cliffs in which hidden people have made their home.

The most recent incident occurred in 2015 when a new road was to be laid through an enchanted spot in the lava field of Gálgahraun. After many failed attempts, where heavy machinery had continually broken down for no apparent reason and numerous workers had suffered freak accidents, the construction company was forced to move the road so that it would bypass the elfin community completely.’

...and...

‘Icelandic trolls live in rocky mountains, deep in the uninhabitable Icelandic highlands. They like the taste of flesh and are known to lure unsuspecting humans into their caves...’

...not to mention the thirteen Yule Lads...

‘who are direct descendants of trolls and live in dark deep caves in the mountains along with their ogre parents—their mother Grýla and their father Leppalúði—and the child-devouring Yule Cat.’

(GuidetoIceland)

What could possibly go wrong!

Sam Vega said...

"New idea for sucking up CO2 from air shows promise"

When I first read that, I thought that someone has promised to suck up C02 from Air Shows.

Well, why not? The Red Arrows must generate a lot of it, and those old Spitfires often sound as if they are burning quite a bit of oil.

A K Haart said...

Bucko - and a whole new price. So crazy it can't end well.

Anon - good thinking, all we need to know now is when we can mine the captured carbon.

Macheath - spooky, the trolls may even steal the carbon, burn it and let it back into the atmosphere unless they are placated with some kind of high-status sacrifice. Fortunately it isn't difficult to think of candidates for that.

Sam - although the Red Arrows emit coloured CO2 which might require more processing than the budget variety. We don't want rainbow-coloured rocks down there. Future generations will think we were mad.

Doonhamer said...

And when all the oxygen is gone Gaia can start affresh.

A K Haart said...

Doonhamer - she can go back to swamps.