How is Carbon Pollution removed from the sky?

Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have emitted more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ever before — roughly 2,000 gigatons (2,000 billion metric tons) over the last hundred years.

This carbon dioxide has acted as a thickening blanket, heat-trapping with other greenhouse gases which has caused the global warming we are experiencing today. If nothing changes, climate impacts such as forest fires, heat waves and damaging sea level rise will only continue to intensify.

The Paris Agreement, or the Paris Climate Accords, were signed in 2015 with one main goal in mind. Reduce human impact on the climate. One important goal, is to ensure that the global temperature rise is less than 1.5–2 degree C (2.7–3.6 degrees F), which scientists say is necessary for preventing the worst impacts of climate change. To do this, we’ll need to not only reduce emissions but also remove and store some carbon from the atmosphere.

Here are six options for removing carbon from the atmosphere:

1. Forests and Trees

Photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide naturally — and trees are especially good at storing carbon removed from the atmosphere through this process. Expanding, restoring and managing forests to encourage more carbon uptake can allow us to use the power of photosynthesis…