Bio-Based Plastics Aim to Capture Carbon. But at What Cost?

It’s the year 2050, and humanity has made huge progress in decarbonizing. That’s thanks in large part to the negligible price of solar and wind power, which was cratering even back in 2022. Yet the fossil fuel industry hasn’t just doubled down on making plastics from oil and gas—instead, as the World Economic Forum warned would happen, it has tripled production from 2016 levels. In 2050, humans are churning out trillions of pounds of plastic a year, and in the process emitting the greenhouse gas equivalent of over 600 coal-fired power plants. Three decades from now, we’ve

→ Continue reading at Wired - Science

More from author

Related posts

Advertisment

Latest posts

GM pauses sales of Chevy Blazer EV over software issues | CNN Business

New York CNN  —  GM has paused sales of its brand new Chevy Blazer EVs after some customers reported...

Crypto’s 2023 was marred by fraud and scandal. It was its best year ever | CNN Business

New York CNN  —  Crypto’s 14th year in existence was one marred by scandal, bankruptcy, fraud and regulatory squabbling....

The Tantalizing Mystery of the Solar System’s Hidden Oceans

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.For most of humankind’s existence, Earth was the only known ocean-draped world, seemingly unlike any...