Why Sequester CO2??
Greenhouse gases, including CO2, naturally trap a portion of the sun’s energy in the Earth’s atmosphere, and this maintains the temperatures needed to keep our planet hospitable to life. However, human (anthropogenic) activity, including the use of fossil fuels, adds CO2 and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. There is concern that the anthropogenic greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere are causing increased warming and that this warming will affect climate on a global scale. This concern is being addressed by international efforts and by individual countries. The President’s Global Climate Change Initiative, issued in the spring of 2003, calls for an 18% reduction in U.S. CO2 intensity by 2012. Conservation, more efficient power systems, renewable energy, and sequestration are all tools to help reduce CO2 intensity. CO2 sequestration – the capture and long-term storage of CO2 – is one of several actions that would help to control anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.
