Where we need to be

We need to be pulling more CO2 out of the atmosphere than we are putting in. There is a 50% chance of staying below what many scientists believe to be a critical temperature rise if the total greenhouse gas level stays below 450ppm CO2e (parts per million CO2 equivalent). That number is currently at just below 390ppm.

The only way we are going to do this is to be able to filter CO2 out of the air, capture it, and store it in a way that it is not accessible by the terrestrial carbon cycle. The biggest part of this is going to be selecting and installing enough carbon dioxide removing devices to be able to actually reduce our atmospheric CO2 levels. In addition, we must work to lower our CO2 emissions from fossil fuels to a very low value so that we need to do less work to remove CO2 from the air.

We have been digging up fuels from the ground and burning them without concern for its effect. At some point, we need to start putting things back where we found them.