A transcript of my talk along with slides is available here.
Back in June I was invited to a two-day event at TED about carbon credits. Interesting I thought and then assumed I would not go. Because while I was sure it would be an excellent, I could imagine some of the folk attending and the general techno-optimistic vibe and I had had enough of being the token skeptic about large-scale carbon removal. But after talking things over with the event organisers I decided to try to produce a talk. I sort of managed to get everything I wanted to say, and I ended up attending. I’m glad I did. There were excellent talks and I managed to meet a number of really cool people. Like this guy.
I had a number of very very interesting discussions about carbon removal proposals and finance with some representatives of some major corporations. Chatham House rules applied, so just let me say that there is going to be a ****-ton of money heading DAC’s way. The buzzword was “durable” – the quest for carbon removal technologies that keep the carbon locked up for a very very long time. So trees are great and all, but they tend to catch fire when things get hot and dry and so all that captured carbon can make it’s way quickly back into the atmosphere.
You can find all talks and additional materials on the TED website. My talk is available below.