As a historic heat wave ravages the Middle East and glaciers continue rapidly melting into the sea, a “thought-experiment” devised by German researchers has demonstrated—yet again—that the best way to avoid the effects of catastrophic climate change is to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
According to a paper (pdf) published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, geoengineering “technofixes” such as carbon dioxide removal (CDR)—a yet-unproven technology designed to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere—wouldn’t be enough to save the planet’s oceans in a world where CO2 emissions continued to climb.