A bad time to play with fire
Tinkering with war is never a particularly good idea, but tinkering with war at this juncture might be the worst idea of all.
It could have been a good week.
Scientists from the Science Platform on Climate Protection in Germany present their first annual report. In this report, they urge politicians to develop a strategy for negative emissions, among other things, in order to be able to compensate for remaining emissions or those that are difficult to reduce.
“To this end, the German government should very promptly promote research and development of a portfolio of CO2 removal technologies and practices that is as broad and diverse as possible,” the report states. It’s high time and the right opportunity to address this in this newsletter.
The negative part of the week goes back to the possibilities of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a development that humankind definitely does not need. One can only agree with the participants of the Munich Security Conference on this: The last thing the world needs in the face of an looming climate disaster is a war (in Europe or elsewhere) and new East-West conflict.
António Guterres: “We are on the edge of an abyss – and moving in the wrong direction. Our world has never been more threatened. Or more divided. We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes", said the UN Secretary General after his opening speech in the conference hall of the conference hotel "Bayerischer Hof" and Mr. Johan Rockström from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research pointed out the immense damage that threatens us as human beings and the nature that sustains us if we do not take quick and effective action (to which, as already explained, hydrochar can make a major contribution).
Do we need a war?
No. Surely this is the stupidest thing we can do: we lose people with ideas, resources, energy and concentration on the essentials!
But we need a general mobilization: of resources and financial means to realize climate protection. This can feel like being in a war, because it will require us to make sacrifices and cut our standard of living — but it will not cost lives, it will save many. And to accomplish this, among many other activities, we must convert every gram of biomass that we have no use for into hydrochar and biochar and sequester it. The CO2 must be taken out of the atmosphere!
It cannot be in the interest of humankind that, according to the rules found by Charles Darwin, we are not among the fit life forms and are thus unable to survive. Part of the fitness we need to survive is not to fight against each other and continue to devastate the planet, but to struggle together in putting back the carbon in the ground – as hydro- and pyrochar!
And it must be done fast!