Interesting idea, haven’t heard that one yet, but it does sound like something that a) would require literally mountains of energy and b) would take a way WAY long time, much more than we have available.
Also, just blaming it all on capitalism as a blanket excuse is a but too simple, not?
Actually weathering can happen on the timescale of decades; it’s all a matter of how much surface area of the rock you expose. Nature does this too slowly. In terms of energy input, grinding rocks gets a huge head start with all of the mine tailings we already have. Here is an example:
In terms of capitalism, for me it’s not too simple. Capitalism is a profit driven model that can’t comprehend long term ecological damage. It becomes a “negative externality” which can then be modelled by economists however they want (which is why they don’t agree about how bad it is). If we had a system based on human well being we would have solved climate change already. It’s simply not profitable to replace the fossil fuel economy with renewable energy sources. It requires a level of investment capitalists can’t comprehend. This is largely why societal change comes from governments which can simply invent money to throw at a problem (think New Deal or Bidenomics).
The complicated part is answering why humans can’t seem to get past capitalism. I think we all agree the system is doomed; we just can’t figure out how to get away from it.
Interesting idea, haven’t heard that one yet, but it does sound like something that a) would require literally mountains of energy and b) would take a way WAY long time, much more than we have available.
Also, just blaming it all on capitalism as a blanket excuse is a but too simple, not?
Actually weathering can happen on the timescale of decades; it’s all a matter of how much surface area of the rock you expose. Nature does this too slowly. In terms of energy input, grinding rocks gets a huge head start with all of the mine tailings we already have. Here is an example:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c03609#
In terms of capitalism, for me it’s not too simple. Capitalism is a profit driven model that can’t comprehend long term ecological damage. It becomes a “negative externality” which can then be modelled by economists however they want (which is why they don’t agree about how bad it is). If we had a system based on human well being we would have solved climate change already. It’s simply not profitable to replace the fossil fuel economy with renewable energy sources. It requires a level of investment capitalists can’t comprehend. This is largely why societal change comes from governments which can simply invent money to throw at a problem (think New Deal or Bidenomics).
The complicated part is answering why humans can’t seem to get past capitalism. I think we all agree the system is doomed; we just can’t figure out how to get away from it.