2021/03/16 by Andreas Malm, Wim Carton · 1 voice · 3 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · #CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions #Carbon Dioxide Capture Technologies #Climate Change and Geoengineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.1163/1569206x-29012021
openalex publication_date 2021/03/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Abstract The left must confront the politics of removing carbon from the atmosphere – a topic rapidly making its way to the top of the climate agenda. We here examine the technology of direct air capture, tracing its intellectual origins and laying bare the political economy of its current manifestations. We find a space crowded with ideology-laden metaphors, ample fossil-capital entanglements and bold visions for a new, ethereal frontier of capital accumulation. These diversions must be cut short if a technology with the capacity to help repair at least some climate damage is to be of any use. Only socialising the means of removal will allow this to happen.