"Carbon Sequestration" Just
Pseudo-Science Doublespeak

by Don Alexander

The geniuses at BigEnergyCo International and their counterparts in the US Department of Energy have been promoting "carbon sequestration" as a solution to rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere (CO2, carbon dioxide, is one of the main global warming gases).

They want to capture CO2 from power plants and pump it deep into the ocean, underground lakes or into deep rock strata, blithely assuming that doing so will be "environmentally safe." 

Naturally, the name "carbon sequestration" represents a major Orwellian misnomer.  To understand why, follow a typical carbon atom through the three steps of BigEnergyCo’s (BECo) proposed energy process: mining, burning and sequestering.

Carbon enters the process in the form of fossil fuels – coal and oil – which BECo obtains by blowing up a mountain or drilling a well.  Next, BECo burns the fuel and captures the resulting CO2 (well, some of it).  Finally, BECo would pipe the CO2 deep into the ocean or some convenient underground rock strata.

Notice that carbon starts out and ends up underground, so the net difference is that BECo will have captured a lot of free oxygen and sequestered it along with carbon that was already safely sequestered underground before being mined or pumped up.  The idea should really be called "oxygen-sequestration." 

Coal and oil are nature’s preferred methods for true carbon sequestration.  Everyone knows it’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature