For a while now, people have been talking about carbon capture as a way to help the environment. It’s like cleaning up a mess after you make it. Last week, a big carbon capture plant called Mammoth opened in Iceland. It’s run by a company called Climeworks. Mammoth can take out 36,000 tons of carbon from the air every year. That’s like taking 7,800 cars off the road for a year.
But here’s the thing: it’s expensive. Climeworks didn’t say exactly how much it costs to remove one ton of carbon, but it’s a lot more than what people think is reasonable. Most experts say it should be closer to $100 per ton to make sense.
Taking carbon out of the air is important to fight climate change. But some people think it’s a distraction. They say it’s better to stop making pollution in the first place. It’s like trying to clean up a spill after it’s already happened, instead of preventing the spill in the first place.
Even though some groups like OPEC support carbon capture, others, like environmental groups, don’t think it’s enough. They say we need to focus more on stopping pollution before it happens.
