A new method of creating concrete actually pulls C02 out of the air, or directly out of industrial exhaust pipes, and turns it into synthetic limestone. ![]() ![]() We set a new CO2 record just last month, notching 411.66 parts per million of CO2 in the air in Mauna Loa, Hawaii - far higher than the 300 parts per million that is the highest humans have ever survived long-term.īut a solution on the horizon could switch up the math completely. It’s no secret that we have already blown past the levels of climate-altering pollution that scientists warn could have catastrophic effects on life as we know it. Cement production worldwide could grow another 23 percent by 2050. Between 20, China used more cement than the United States used in all of the 20th century - about enough to pave paradise and put up a parking lot the size of Hawaii’s Big Island. Add to that all the fuel burned to mine and crush the aggregate, and you’ve got a climate disaster.īy some accounts, concrete alone is responsible for 4-8 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. Portland cement, the most commonly used base (the goop that gets mixed with sand and gravel, or aggregate, to form concrete), is made with limestone that is quarried and then heated to staggeringly high temperatures - releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide in the process. It also happens to be incredibly bad for the climate. ![]() To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist.
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