The Carbon Opportunity: Turning Hindsight into Foresight

When we first began designing and building out energy infrastructures that unlocked rapid industrialization and economic growth, we lacked the scientific foresight to predict the full consequences of our actions. Combustion engines and coal plants powered modern civilization by burning hydrocarbons, emitting staggering amounts of carbon dioxide as a byproduct. At the time, we saw this as a reasonable tradeoff - but we now understand the existential climate impacts resulting from the trillions of tons of CO2 released.

If we could go back in time and re-envision how to power society sustainably from the start, no doubt we would have opted for renewable sources and closed-loop systems that recapture and reuse byproducts rather than treating the oceans and skies as an open sewer. But we cannot change the past - we can only learn from it.

The good news is that while lack of knowledge led us down this perilous path, new knowledge can help guide us onto a more sustainable one. The emissions challenge also represents an opportunity - both to repair the damage and fuel the next wave of economic growth.

We must retrofit and retool the very infrastructure that led to excessive CO2 rather than scrapping it entirely. Coal plants can be converted to run on hydrogen or equipped with carbon capture to scrub emissions. Factories and transport networks can be upgraded with filtration technology to keep carbon out of natural systems. And everyday items like vehicles can shift from gasoline to electricity to sever reliance on hydrocarbons.

More excitingly, we can go beyond just minimizing further contributions and actually use existing infrastructure to draw legacy emissions back down out of the air, land and oceans. That infrastructure can provide the scale and efficient conversion of resources needed to run reversal reactions on the trillions of tons of CO2 emitted over decades. It won’t be easy or cheap - but not acting has a far greater cost.

Concentrated carbon, once seen as a liability, can also be an energy, manufacturing, and construction feedstock. We can shift from wasting carbon to utilizing it. Much as space programs drove technological innovation with long-term payoffs, a carbon reversal program can stimulate economic growth. And it may just help us back away from a climate cliff.

The window for action is narrow, but the decisions we make today will determine what the future looks like. This time, we have the benefit of hindsight to help spur foresight. Perhaps the sustainable energy economy many envisioned decades ago can still become a reality - if we have the will to completely reimagine systems already in place. Necessity is the mother of invention, and dire necessity may fuel creative new carbon solutions. Our own past short-sightedness will then act as the mother of these inventions.