Stephen Barlow Profile picture
Feb 8 8 tweets 2 min read
I'd like to clarify, that when I used the acronym and term CCS here I meant all forms of capturing carbon, from just after burning, to removing from the atmosphere and then storing it. I regard all the acronyms and supposed methods, to be highly misleading and indeed false.
What I mean by highly misleading and false, is they give the misleading and false impression that a specific technology actually exists, which could be implemented if possible. In reality all these methods are experimental, and don't really exist.
Yes it is possible to remove carbon and store it. What matters though is at significant scale. There is so far, no evidence at all, that any other these methods could realistically be used at any significant scale. So as far as I'm concerned, they are imaginary.
This is THE big problem of our time. Because specific terms are used, like Net Zero by 2050 exists, it misleads people to believe, that a feasible plan actually exists, and it is just a matter of agreeing to implement it.
This talk is the classic reification fallacy, when an idea becomes more real to people than the reality it describes. It gives the false impression that technologies exist, which could be deployed. When they don't exist.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reificati…
It's what science fiction writers do. They invent a word, terraforming, warp drive, etc, and then it assumed the thing exists or is possible, just because the word or acronym exists.
A good example is geoengineering. Because the term exists, the people wrongly assume that such a methodology actually exists and is feasible.
So I just mean any possible means of removing significant amounts of CO2 from atmosphere, to chimney tops, to anywhere in the atmosphere. Not a particular description of a proposed method of carbon removal.

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More from @SteB777

Feb 10
Seeing this tweet reminded me of a long term thought experiment I've had. What if huge wealth is something akin to a powerful addiction to a drug like heroin?

That for all intents and purposes, those with it develop something close to a dangerous personality disorder.
1/
I use these thought experiments to test out how the world actually is. I do this very simply, by setting these thought experiments up, and seeing if I can reject these ideas. Often one single contrary bit of evidence, is all you need to reject the hypothesis.
2/
However, this is the very worrying thing, after many decades of running this thought experiment, I cannot find one shred of evidence to reject this hypothesis. I can't find one example of a very rich person, say a billionaire or serious multi-millionaire, who is normal.
3/
Read 26 tweets
Feb 9
Let me deal with this. I know we need to stop emitting anthropogenic GHG emissions now - I've been saying it consistently on Twitter, and for over 30 years.
1/
I've been pointing out that the 1990 Stockholm Environment Institute report, from which the 2C figure was drawn, said there was nothing safe about 2C, and the real safe figure was more like 1C - since just after the report came out.
2/
carbonbrief.org/two-degrees-th… Image
I had a running battle with the Guardian newspaper on their comments section, to stop telling people that 2C was the internationally agreed safe limit we could work up to. Telling them to be honest about what the SEI report actually said.
3/
Read 16 tweets
Feb 9
A quick thread explaining the background of Badger baiting and this sort of Fox killing. Most of the "terrier men" involved in this, often work as "terrier men" for official Fox Hunts posh people wearing red coats, who hunt Foxes on horseback with dogs.🧵
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…
The job of "terrier men" on official Fox Hunts is to block up all the Fox earths and Badger setts in the area, on the day of a Hunt to stop Foxes going to earth. If they do go to earth they then use their terriers to help dig them out.
2/
These are the men you see following Hunts to this day, on quad bikes with boxes - to hold their terriers. Apologists for illegal Fox hunting like the Countryside Alliance laughably claim these boxes on quad bikes are for fence mending.
3/
morethanjustbadgers.net/tag/fence-mend…
Read 23 tweets
Feb 8
The headline on the Mail Online.

"Revealed: The hard-Left anti-vax aggressors who hurled abuse at Keir Starmer for 'forgetting the working man' were whipped into a frenzy by Jeremy Corbyn's conspiracy theorist brother Piers"
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…
That's clear isn't it. They are claiming that the perpetrators were the "hard-left".

The reality is very different. Actually the instigator was a former Tory councillor only recently expelled from the Conservative Party who campaigned with Boris Johnson.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/f…
Whilst I don't doubt some anti-vaxxers etc, are left wing. The Mail article presents not one iota of evidence that any of those highlighted were even left wing, let alone "hard left".
Read 6 tweets
Feb 8
I made a point about this a few weeks ago. That what are basically climate change deniers in the Conservative Party, are attempting to take advantage of Boris Johnson's weakness, and need to appease all factions, to undermine climate policy.
theguardian.com/politics/2022/…
It is part of a whole agenda to shift all policy to extreme right. They are as the article implies trying to make climate denial part of their culture war agenda. However, I disagree, that this has only started now.
Whilst there has always been a pro-oil, free market, libertarian streak in Conservative politics, both sides of the Atlantic, it has only been in the last 15 years that a left right divide has started to appear over climate policy.
Read 8 tweets
Feb 8
I'd like to tell a tale about Carbon Capture and Storage CCS. I'm sure @KevinClimate will appreciate the irony. It's a sort of tale in the manner of the Emperor's Clothes, to illustrate the amazing hubris of the powerful. Maybe the wonderful @thejuicemedia could use it.
1/
Essentially, what the aim of CCS is about, is to suck the excess CO2 out of the atmosphere, released by our burning of fossil fuels, then pump it deep underground, where it will be stored safely for generations to come.
2/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_ca…
Superficially, it seems a genius idea, which will allow us to carry on burning fossil fuels BAU, whilst sucking the problem product out of the atmosphere. A sort of have your cake and eat it solution. The dream of techno-fantasists (sorry techno-optimists) everywhere.
3/
Read 26 tweets

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