Originally Posted by bragi
This is another reason to lower, or at least stabilize, CO2 emissions as rapidly as possible. As the oceans absorb more and more CO2, which they do very efficiently, the water becomes more acidic. As we speak, in the north Pacific, crustaceans' shells are dissolving. Even more scary is the prospect of a sudden massive decrease in numbers of phytoplankton, which are the basis of the ocean's food web, not to mention the source of most of the planet's oxygen.
I think this carbon-capture technology is a very encouraging development. It's not a permanent fix- we can't just pump CO2 undersground forever- but it might buy us much needed time to get our house in order.
BTW, I agree that trees are a good CO2 absorber (until they die and decompose); we should help third-world countries plant millions of them, and plant a whole bunch ourselves.
The problem for trees, is that we are deforesting the planet, at one time, most of North and South America were forest, now North America is almost completely deforested, and South America is catching up fast, so at the same time we are pumping CO2 into the air, we are removing the best way to get rid of it, and most of those trees are considered not economically viable, they just pile them up and burn them.