Tag: Climate Change

Carbon Capture and Storage an Unfulfilled Promise

Superfact 99: Carbon capture is the process of separating carbon dioxide from industrial emissions. Even though it works and could be helpful it isn’t used very much, at least not the right way.

Esther’s writing prompt: April 29, 2026: Capture

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Carbon capture and storage is the process of separating carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial emissions to prevent it from entering the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. There are also systems that can remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, but this is expensive. After capturing the carbon dioxide, it is compressed and stored permanently underground or used in products.

Capturing carbon dioxide from concentrated sources like ethanol or natural gas plants can cost as little as $15–$25 per ton, which should be compared to the huge cost from the damage to health and the environment caused by carbon dioxide added to atmosphere. This cost ranges from several hundred dollars per ton, to thousands of dollars per ton, and even one hundred thousand dollars per ton according to some estimates. Yet it has only captured about 0.1% of global emissions, making its overall climate impact negligible. Instead of storing the captured carbon dioxide it is often injected into nearly depleted oil wells to force out the remaining oil.

If you have not heard about carbon capture before, its existence may be a surprise to you. If you do know about carbon capture it is likely to come as a surprise to you that it is a potentially promising technology that is underutilized and not used correctly. The facts around this technology are surprising, which is why I call it a super fact.

The illustration shows a geological cross section and includes an ethanol plant, and a coal fired power plant capturing emissions buried below earth’s surface. | Carbon Capture and Storage an Unfulfilled Promise
With CCS, carbon dioxide is captured from a point source, such as an ethanol refinery. It is usually transported via pipelines and then either used to extract oil or stored in a dedicated geologic formation. Congressional Budget Office, U.S. Federal Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Carbon dioxide and Global Warming

Global warming, or if you call it climate change, is happening and it is happening very fast. We also know that it is caused by us primarily as a result of our burning of fossil fuels. The primary culprit is carbon dioxide. There is a long-standing scientific consensus on these two/three facts because the evidence is conclusive. Some organizations and contrarians have successfully confused the public, but that does not mean there is a serious scientific discussion on the issue. To read more about this click here.

The damage caused by carbon dioxide to human health and the environment is difficult to assess, but you can get an idea, and you can put a dollar price on it. The economist William Nordhaus did this and got the Nobel Prize in economy for it in 2018. See my review for his book The Climate Casino. Now the question is what to do about it, and carbon capture and storage is one potential option.

Graph showing possible causes for the observed temperature (blue), natural causes (volcanic, solar), human and natural causes (volcanic, solar, greenhouse gases, NO2, ozone depletion).
Natural causes for global warming / climate change would have cooled the planet, not warm it. Click here to visit this NASA web page regarding the causes behind global warming.

Carbon capture and storage an unfulfilled promise

The following is to a large degree my opinion, not just fact. Carbon capture and storage is a good idea. However, it adds costs to the production of energy, a cost someone must pay for. It seems like a no brainer that if carbon dioxide creates a social cost of several hundred dollars per ton, then paying much less than that to mitigate the emissions would be a good idea. However, the social cost that carbon dioxide imposes on all of us is imposed on all of us whether we are responsible for the emissions or not. Whereas the cost for carbon capture is a cost to a specific company or person responsible for the emissions.

Even though the cost for carbon capture may only be a few dollars added to the natural gas bill or a few cents per gallon on a gas tank it is a cost that is not incurred by your competitor who is not doing carbon capture. Unless the governments of the world either pay for carbon capture or put a price on carbon emissions, carbon capture isn’t going to be economically viable.

In addition, carbon capture and storage has been disappointing in other ways. It has been more difficult and expensive than expected. It has been used to extract more fossil fuels rather than removing carbon emissions. In addition, renewable energy has become so cheap that it is cheaper to use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels with carbon capture.

My Other Responses to Esther’s Prompts

To see the Other Super Facts click here

Science History of the Greenhouse Effect by Craigvad

I came across a very interesting post about the science history of greenhouse effect: “The Greenhouse Effect: From Early Chemistry to the Keeling Curve” by Craigavad miscellany a science blog written by a retired academic. It is a very educational and interesting post related to this topic. Please take a look.

The Greenhouse Effect: From Early Chemistry to the Keeling Curve
Curve showing CO2 concentration starting 10,000 years ago. Again a very sharp uptick towards end. | Science History of the Greenhouse Effect by Craigvad
From Scripps institute. Keep two things in mind. First the warming from CO2 is delayed and may result in positive feedback that can manifest decades and centuries later. Secondly, human civilization developed during a period of stable climate. That CO2 levels and temperatures were higher millions of years ago is not much comfort.

To see the Super Facts click here

Without carbon dioxide the Earth would freeze

Superfact 91: Without greenhouse gases, the Earth’s average surface temperature would drop from the current 15 Celsius (59 Fahrenheit) to approximately -18 Celsius (0 Fahrenheit), which is an average temperature drop of 33 degrees Celsius. If you removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere but let the other greenhouse gases stay the drop would be 30 degrees Celsius. In both cases most of the planet would freeze. This is referred to as snowball Earth.

Snowball Earth or Snowball planet. In the picture Earth is seen from space. It is covered by ice all over. | Without carbon dioxide the Earth would freeze
Shutterstock Asset id: 2750019199 by Shutterstock AI

Our planet is much warmer than it otherwise would be because of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is the most important of the greenhouse gases. We are rapidly warming the atmosphere with our carbon dioxide emissions as explained by these articles from NASA and NOAA.  If we did the opposite and removed CO2 from the atmosphere we would be cooling the atmosphere. As mentioned, if we removed all greenhouse gases from the atmosphere the planet’s average temperature would drop by 33 degrees Celsius and this NASA article claims it would take 50 years to reach that temperature.

If we removed only carbon dioxide and let all the other greenhouse gases remain, we would get an almost as big temperature drop of 30 degrees Celsius according to the calculations done by this article. Some of you may know that water vapor provides a larger portion of the warming than CO2. In fact, 75% of the greenhouse effect is caused by water vapor and clouds. This seems contradictory. However, when the atmosphere cools, the water vapor will rain out of the atmosphere unlike CO2. Basically, water vapor will adjust to the temperature whilst CO2 is  forcing the temperature. It is crucial to understand this difference. That is why CO2 is the most important greenhouse gas. In summary, we need just the right amount of CO2 for a healthy climate.

I consider this a super fact because it is true, it is an important fact, and I believe it is a surprising fact to many, especially those who doubt carbon dioxide’s importance to the global warming we are experiencing. I called it global warming but whether you call it global warming, climate change, or climate disruption, we are talking about the same thing.

Snowball Earth

Mountains covered by ice and snow and valleys covered by a thick ice sheet.
Shutterstock Asset id: 2749007159 by Shutterstock AI

Scientists believe there have been at least two major “Snowball Earth” events between 720 and 635 million years ago where ice and snow covered nearly the entire planet. These snowball earth events were triggered by natural events, likely a plunge in sunlight, followed by a plunge in carbon dioxide not entering the atmosphere, and amplified by sunlight reflecting back into space. All three effects made Earth cooler. The recent ice ages were likely caused primarily by earth’s orbital cycles. Climate changed in the past due to natural phenomena, but that does not mean that the current very rapid warming (rapid geologically speaking) is natural.

If you want to understand why we can be so sure that it is our CO2 emissions that is causing the current global warming, not the sun, not volcanoes, not orbital cycles, and not another natural process, please check out the list of evidence in the second part of this post “Global Warming is Happening and is Caused by us”.

Hothouse Venus

What we see in the photo is a large white smooth planet. The MESSENGER spacecraft snapped a series of images as it approached Venus on June 5, 2007. The planet is enshrouded by a global layer of clouds that obscures its surface to the MESSENGER Dual Imaging System (MDIS) cameras. This single frame is part of a color sequence taken that helped the MESSENGER team calibrate the camera in preparation for the spacecraft's first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008.
Image taken by the NASA MESSENGER as it approached Venus on June 5, 2007. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. The image is taken from this Wikipedia article.

The opposite of snowball Earth is hot Venus. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system due to an extreme runaway greenhouse effect. Surface temperatures are averaging around 465 degrees Celsius (870 degrees Fahrenheit). The thick atmosphere of Venus is composed primarily of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid. This causes a greenhouse effect that traps heat.

Despite the fact that Mercury is much closer to the sun (58 million kilometers versus 108 million kilometers) and receives nearly four times as much sunlight per unit area than Venus, Mercury is on average much cooler. The reason is that Mercury’s atmosphere is thin and without a greenhouse effect.

The YouTube video below from NASA explains the greenhouse effect on Venus. It is just one minute long.

I would also like you to take a look at this post:, “The Greenhouse Effect: From Early Chemistry to the Keeling Curve” by Craigavad miscellany a science blog written by a retired academic. It is a very educational and interesting post related to this topic.

To see the Other Super Facts click here

Beyond Debate by Shahir Masri a Review

The goal of this blog is to create a list of what I call super facts. Super facts are important and true facts that are nevertheless highly surprising to many, misunderstood, or disputed among the public. They are special facts that we all can learn something important from. However, I also make posts that are not super facts but feature other interesting information, such as this book review and book recommendation.

A Note About Liars on Amazon

I’ve noticed that most of the reviews for this book were positive but there were a few negative reviews from what I refer to as climate deniers. These reviews were not just misguided fossil fuel talking points, but they were obviously written by people who had not read the book or by people who skimmed the book and who did not make an honest effort to understand the content of the book. You can tell because the objections they raise were addressed and clearly debunked in the book in a way that was easy to understand.

I’ve read many books on climate science and there are always a bunch of negative reviews written by people who have no clue about the content of the book. Writing reviews for books you have not read is the same as lying, especially if you are slamming the book. There are reviewers who literally seem to be at war with the truth, and they spend their time trying to bury it, and in the process, they are shamelessly lying. Why would someone dump lots of fake reviews over books they haven’t read?

BEYOND DEBATE: Answers to 50 Misconceptions on Climate Change by Dr. Shahir Masri

Below I am listing the two versions of this book (kindle and paperback). I bought the paperback version.

  • Paperback –  Publisher : Dockside Sailing Press (July 14, 2018), ISBN-10 : 0692157417, ISBN-13 : 978-0692157411, 329 pages, item weight : 1.09 pounds, dimensions : 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches. It costs $6.44 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Kindle –  Published : Dockside Sailing Press (April 12, 2021) ASIN : B092DPY7LL, 245 pages, it costs $9.99 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
The front cover features a photo of snowy mountains in the background and sea ice in the foreground, as well as the title and author name. The title is “BEYOND DEBATE: Answers to 50 Misconceptions on Climate Change” by “Shahir Masri” front cover | Beyond Debate by Shahir Masri a Review
BEYOND DEBATE: Answers to 50 Misconceptions on Climate Change. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the paperback version of the book.

Amazon’s Description of the Book

What if volcanoes are heating the planet? Maybe solar cycles are to blame? Isn’t carbon dioxide good for plants? These are but a few of the questions on global warming that are addressed in this book. If you are concerned that global warming may be a serious problem, but find it hard to know what to believe or how to help in the face of conflicting arguments, you will want to read this book. You don’t have to be a scientist to understand Dr. Shahir Masri’s explanations and solutions. They proceed along common-sense lines that are easy to follow. Climate change poses a major threat to public health and the environment. Yet, political squabbles and misinformation have stalled policy and enabled little progress to be made in solving the crisis.

Similarly, the notion of a “climate debate” has created the illusion of a divided scientific community, when in fact most scientists agree that human activity is causing the planet to warm. At a time when open discussion is essential, talk of global warming has become entrenched in politics and all but taboo in unfamiliar company. In Beyond Debate, Shahir Masri clears up 50 of the most common misconceptions surrounding climate change. He simplifies the science and resolves the confusion so that everyone may better understand the issue. Now is not the time for silence, but rather a time for conversation and collective action to address greenhouse gas emissions and begin to solve the climate crisis. Action begins with understanding, which Beyond Debate so eloquently offers. Masri conveys a sense of urgency while describing opportunities for hope.

This is my five-star review for BEYOND DEBATE

Fix your misconceptions. Don’t fall for disinformation. Be curious and learn.

There are a lot of misconceptions, misunderstandings as well as disinformation surrounding climate change or if you call it global warming, global weirding, or climate disruption. This book provides answers and explanations to 50 misconceptions. Some of the misconceptions are common but basic misunderstandings. Other misconceptions require more in depth explanations.

In addition, the book gives you an introduction into how the greenhouse effect works, covering 200+ years of scientific discoveries by some famous scientists. Did you know that without the various greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone), our planet would be 60 degrees colder than it is. It would be a snowball earth. This book is for those of us who are curious and want to learn more about this topic.

An example of a basic misconception is Chapter 4, “Earth’s Natural cycles explain recent warming”, well they don’t. For example, the Milankovitch cycles, earth’s precession, axial tilt, and the eccentricity of earth’s orbit, are too slow and would favor cooling right now, not warming. It is not the sun (chapter 5) and not volcanoes (chapter 3). Volcanoes release less than 1 % of the CO2 released currently by human activities, and they are part of the carbon cycle, and CO2 from volcanoes have the wrong isotope mix to correspond to the increase of CO2. He explains that the carbon atom comes in different isotopes (different number of neutrons) and that the mix is different for different carbon sources and that the carbon added to the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels based on the isotope mix.

I can add that in addition different potential causes for global warming result in different ways the warming happens (like a fingerprint) and the fingerprint of the current warming is that of greenhouse gases (he does not explain this enough). Another thing to ask yourself is if you think the current global warming is natural, why do paleoclimatologists and others who have dedicated their lives to studying naturally occurring climate change not think this warming is natural.

Another basic misconception is addressed in Chapter 23, “Climate models don’t account for the most abundant greenhouse gas, water vapor”, which is false, they do account for water vapor. Some people believe that because water vapor is a more powerful and abundant greenhouse gas than CO2, it should be what is causing global warming. That’s not how it works. We are not increasing water vapor in the atmosphere by emitting it and even if we did it would rain back down. Therefore, water vapor is not driving global warming. If a greenhouse gas isn’t increasing it can’t cause rising temperatures, no matter how abundant it is.

However, an increase in carbon dioxide warms the atmosphere which in turn increases the amount of humidity the atmosphere can hold (positive feedback loop) thus water vapor gives the greenhouse effect a boost. It gives CO2 and methane a bit of a helping hand as the emissions and increase of these gases heats things up, but water vapor is not driving it. This is not hard to understand and yet this misconception refuses to go away.

Some other examples are chapter 8, “Climate Change is Chinese hoax” – this is a funny one. Climate science is 200+ year old European science. Chapter 12, “Climate change is just a theory” – see “evolution is just a theory”. Chapter 15, “there is still uncertainty about climate change” – that we know it is happening and that we are the cause is well established but there is uncertainty about other related things. Chapter 36, “glaciers aren’t melting, Antarctica is even gaining ice” – glaciers and sea ice are melting rapidly. Antarctica was gaining ice for four decades despite warming but there are good explanations for this (for example, precipitation). Now Antarctica is losing ice. Chapter 43, “Electric cars aren’t that green” – they are much cleaner than gas cars, but it depends on where you live. Chapter 49, “It’s too late for climate” – no it isn’t.

So, as you can see, this is a fact packed book addressing and correcting a lot of misconceptions. It is very educational and great for anyone ready to learn and understand. It is also well organized and well written. Reading this book will make you smarter and I highly recommend it to anyone who is curious about this topic. I think we all have some misconception on this topic. Let’s correct them.

The back cover features an overview of the book and a photo and a brief introduction of the author “Shahir Masri”. | Back cover for BEYOND DEBATE: Answers to 50 Misconceptions on Climate Change By Dr. Shahir Masri
BEYOND DEBATE: Answers to 50 Misconceptions on Climate Change. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the Kindle version of the book.

Shared False Memories Are Common – Mandela Effect

Super fact 83 : Everyone experiences false memories. They are a normal part of how human memory works and are very common. There are also false memories that are shared among large groups of people and that are often socially reinforced. This is called the Mandela effect.

Pop art style comic book panel doubtful wondering woman can't tell reality from fantasy, daydreaming, dreams, delusion, vector illustration. She says “W-Was … it … just a dream?!?” | Shared False Memories Are Common – Mandela Effect
Shutterstock Asset id: 717504940 by durantelallera

As I mentioned, false memories are very common. However, what may come as a surprise is that some false memories are widespread and socially reinforced. It is important to know this, and we know it is true, so it is a super fact. The effect is named after the former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013. However, a lot of people distinctly remember him dying in prison in the 1980s.

It was paranormal researcher Fiona Broome who named the effect after having a personal experience with the phenomenon. She wrongly recalled Nelson Mandela dying in the 1980s and she could even remember the news coverage of his funeral, and yet it never happened. After talking to other people, she realized that she was far from alone with her false memory.

Another example is that a lot of people remember Darth Vader in Star Wars telling Luke “Luke, I am your father”. What Darth Vader said was “No, I am your father”. Yet another movie example is that Forrest Gump did not say “Life is like a Box of Chocolates”. He said, “Life was like a box of chocolates”. Also, the Monopoly man never had a monocle, Curious George doesn’t have a tail, many remember the “Berenstein Bears” but it’s the “Berenstain Bears”. C-3PO is not all gold, he has a silver leg. You can easily find hundreds of examples of the Mandela effect online.

The photo shows a scene from Star Wars. C-3PO and R2-D2. C-3PO has a silver leg.
Shutterstock Asset id: 558350728 by Willrow Hood

People have asked me, “do you remember in the 1970’s and 1980’s when scientists were  convinced that global cooling was happening”, to which I answer, “no I don’t remember that and neither do you”. In the 1970’s much less was known about the climate, but the possibility of anthropogenic warming dominated the peer-reviewed literature even then. There were a few contrarian climate scientists who claimed there was global cooling and there were some articles in popular media about global cooling, but the statement that scientists were  convinced there was global cooling is simply false. You can read more about this in this book. Yet some people “remember” this. I believe this is another example of a socially reinforced Mandela Effect.

False Beliefs and False Memories

The existence of false beliefs is another phenomenon that is very common. There are hundreds of common beliefs that we know are false based on carefully vetted data, large amounts of studies, and scientific experiments. I think we all have some false beliefs. We have all been bamboozled at some point. The way to know is to check and compare the evidence and the data and papers from reputable sources. Find out what the experts in the field say. Some examples of false beliefs are:

We adopt false beliefs because of misinformation, propaganda (politics), social reinforcement, a wish to believe certain things, our own lack of critical thinking, etc. False memories, including collective false memories are due to the fact that memories aren’t perfect recordings, memory reconstruction, social reinforcement (also true for false beliefs), and confusion with similar events.

Woman near inscriptions false and true reflects trying to choose from two options and make difficult decision. Woman put fingers on temples and closed eyes considering pros and cons fateful decision.
Shutterstock Asset id: 2593117091 by Drawlab19

Both false beliefs, false memories and the Mandela effect distort our understanding of the world. That is BTW one important inspiration for this fact finding blog – superfactful. It is difficult to accept that what you believe to be true may simply be false. We want to believe that we know better than others, not that we have been bamboozled or that we misremember things. But we need to be open to look at and compare evidence, be curious and willing to understand how things work, and be willing to change our beliefs and accept that some of our memories may be false. That is one way to grow as a human.

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