Microsoft Plans To Be 'Carbon Negative' By 2030 And Will Remove ALL Carbon The Company Has Emitted Since It Was Founded In 1975

Daily Mail ^ | 01/16/20 | James Pero

[Enlightened1]

• Microsoft says it will extract more CO2 from the environment than it emits 
• It will invest $1 billion into carbon capture technology in the next four years 
• The company aims to become 'carbon negative' by 2030 
• It also aims to use entirely renewable energy by 2025 

Microsoft says it's going to take its commitment to being carbon neutral one step further.

In an announcement on Thursday, the tech giant says it will strive to be 'carbon negative,' meaning it will attempt to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than it emits using a mixture of renewable energy and carbon-cleansing technology that pulls emitted fumes from the atmosphere.

When the company reaches zero, it then plans to remove all carbon it has emitted since it was founded in 1975. 

While carbon capture technology exists, Microsoft has acknowledged that it's not quite efficient enough to sustainably remove CO2 from the environment. 

To help improve that end, Microsoft said it will also invest another $1 billion throughout the next four years into advancing performance and lowering cost. 

'The world’s climate experts agree that the world must take urgent action to bring down emissions. Ultimately, we must reach “net zero” emissions, meaning that humanity must remove as much carbon as it emits each year,' Microsoft wrote in an announcement.

'This will take aggressive approaches, new technology that doesn’t exist today, and innovative public policy. It is an ambitious – even audacious – goal, but science tells us that it’s a goal of fundamental importance to every person alive today and for every generation to follow.'

Microsoft, which has been carbon neutral since 2012, said it will also shift its resources to focus on renewable fuel and has targeted a goal of relying entirely on renewable energy by 2025.

[Revel]

My first reaction was that this was satire. Guess not.

[Harpotoo]

LOL, yeah right:-)

[Telepathic Intruder]

These environmental warriors are likely to throw the earth into a permanent ice age. With no CO2 at all, all life ends and the oceans freeze.

[Mastador1]

Everyone is missing the most important, most obvious impact of Microsoft’s plan. All life on Earth is carbon based! So apparently Bill has finally managed to build a time machine and is going to eliminate all Microsoft employees, past, present and future.

[SunkenCiv]

In Squamish, British Columbia, there's a company that wants to stop climate change by sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

It's called Carbon Engineering, and it uses a combination of giant fans and complex chemical processes to remove carbon dioxide from the air in a procedure known as Direct Air Capture.

Direct Air Capture isn't new, but Carbon Engineering says its technology has advanced enough for it to finally make financial sense.

The company is backed by Bill Gates -- but also by the oil giants Chevron, BHP, and Occidental. These partnerships will bring Carbon Engineering's tech to market by using the captured carbon to make synthetic fuels and and help extract more oil from the ground.

Will Carbon Engineering's technology decrease the amount of CO2 in the air, or is it going to prolong our dependence on fossil fuels?

Bill Gates-Backed Carbon Capture Plant Does The Work Of 40 Million Trees | CNBC | YouTube | Published on June 22, 2019

[Kudsman]

What are they going to do, make employees stop exhaling? Ban exhaling.

[crusty old prospector]

Such buffoons. What are the going to use in place of plastic to make their products? An adobe mouse?

[The Pack Knight]

Somehow I think this “carbon negativity” will be achieved only on paper, through indulgences purchased from Pope Algore I.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Have you ever seen that movie “The road”? It’s about this father and son who try to survive in a world where all the plant life has died off and with it all the animals and as a result the few people who are still around resort to cannibalism. It’s from a novel written by Cormac McCarthy. I tell liberals all the time to watch that movie because if the CO2 percentage in the atmosphere ever dropped below 0.02%, that’s exactly what they could expect. But it will never happen, at not by our hand, because we can no more affect 5,000 quadrillion metric tons of atmosphere to any substantial degree than we can piss in the ocean and turn it yellow.

[vladimir998]

This is all nonsense.

There is no such thing as “carbon neutral” or “carbon negative”.

There is no way to remove old carbon released 30 years ago.

This is all anti-science nonsense.

[bobcat62]

If Microsoft stops hiring H1-B & OPT candidates they would eliminate the carbon emissions from flights to and from India.

For Microsoft, that would eliminate a lot of carbon.

[Truth29]

All we will need is a few really big volcanic eruptions to offset all they will ever do to remove CO2 and push the planet over into a little ice age where everyone will be trying to cause global warming.

[unixfox]

I guess all of those corporate jets will be sold?

Uh huh.

[PGR88]

Anything they might manufacture is done so by 3rd parties in Asia, where owners will sign any carbon certificate they want.

[Leaning Right]

> CO2 is necessary for life. Extracting it from the atmosphere could result in catastrophe. <

Microsoft’s move is doubly stupid. As you noted - no matter what Greta Thunberg might say - removing CO2 from the atmosphere is not a wise thing. Plus, think of all the good Microsoft could have done with that one billion dollars! Hospitals could have been built, medical research could have been funded, etc.

But I guess being politically correct trumps all.

[Reily]

Who sold them this plan?
He/she is laughing all the way to the bank!

[ldish]

Blah blah hor*esh*t blah...way to go bill fates!

Big damn deal...sh*T!

Yea...and look what china does...nothin’

[ldish]

Now spend a little more time on WIN 10 - it still SUCKS!

[EQAndyBuzz]

Make it so no construction for residential purposes can be more than 4,000 sq feet. And it is not grand fathered in.

[Phlap]

With the exception of the few tons of carbon that we shot into space, all the carbon that was on earth is and will be, still on earth ... for eterenity. Get over it.