Negotiations Gone Bad

This chapter examines the techniques that at least hold out the prospect of making a significant difference. Such interventions fall into two classes: ocean based and land based. Ocean uptake of CO₂ has prospect of being increased in one of two ways. One is by "liming" the ocean, thereby changing its acidity which increases rate at which the ocean can directly absorb CO₂. The other is to "fertilize" the ocean with iron, thereby increasing the prevalence of phytoplankton which consumes CO₂. Land-based techniques rely on either global reforestation or artificial air filtration and sequestration of captured CO₂. A program to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere at scale would be an enormous enterprise to put in place and would have to run for many years to produce tangible results. One objection against doing so is risk of moral hazard. But it is hard to discern why moral hazard should function as a deterrent to action here anymore than it does elsewhere.