this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2025
430 points (93.7% liked)

A Boring Dystopia

14234 readers
331 users here now

Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.

Rules (Subject to Change)

--Be a Decent Human Being

--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title

--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article

--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.

--Posts must have something to do with the topic

--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.

--No NSFW content

--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I can't wait until they makes these no cost, low-maintenance, and self-replacing. Oh man, just think of how easy it would be to fix our climate issues!

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] kokesh@lemmy.world 121 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

Only if we would have natural solution to this problem.... Let's fuck up the planet even more by producing more shit. How about planting trees and stopping the deforestation.

[–] piyuv@lemmy.world 57 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Planting trees doesn’t produce revenue for billionaires and shareholders. This does. Ergo we must produce expensive, over engineered machines to replace trees. Bees are next.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 27 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Trees are inefficient too but we actually already know what we need to do to ramp up the efficiency of the photosynthesis process in trees with genetic tinkering.

The bigger problem is that we have reached a point where trees aren’t enough anymore. The oceans have acidified. There’s just too much co2 to capture at this point.

[–] McWizard@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know trees are no real solution. Yes, they take CO2 to grow, but everything is released again when they die and are consumed by bacteria which just didn't exist a few million years ago. So they only ever store what the forest is made of and not a bit more. They will rot and never ever become coal again. So while it sounds nice to plant a forest and there are other benefits, when if we planted a forest on every inch of the planet it would not solve our problem. Am I wrong here? Tell me!

[–] leftytighty@slrpnk.net 16 points 2 months ago

The net new total biomass of the forests would all be captured carbon. Yes dead trees may release it again but the total amount of trees would be higher and act as a large buffer.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Neither trees nor these can help much if fossil fuels continue to be burned at increasing rates.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] porksnort@slrpnk.net 102 points 2 months ago (8 children)

Direct air capture is a scam. It requires energy that comes from somewhere else. Capturing CO2 requires energy, it’s basic physics/chemistry.

Nothing about it makes sense excpet as an expensive boondoggle and a distraction for correcting the root causes of climate change.

MIT tech review article

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 45 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This will only ever make sense when we have carbon neutral energy that is “too cheap to meter.” So, like, nuclear fusion, or solar panels become cheaper than tar roofs. In other words, these systems will make sense after climate change is solved. lol.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

That energy can come from somewhere that doesn't produce more carbon than these kinds of machine sequester. Solar, wind, nuclear. Obviously we need to stop burning fossil fuels, but also we need to turn the carbon we've already produced back into a form that won't find its way back into the air.

[–] porksnort@slrpnk.net 12 points 2 months ago (4 children)

It can, but it isn’t and it won’t. DAC is a scam and a distraction until fossil fuels are out of the equation. It is a false hope, a glamour, to keep us from addressing the root causes.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That article's only real point is that we shouldn't pin our hopes entirely on sequestration. Nothing about it being invalid or "a scam."

Basically summed up in these two paragraphs:

On the one hand, putting more money into carbon removal will help scale up—and drive down the cost of—technologies that will be needed in the future.

On the other hand, the growing excitement around these technologies could feed unrealistic expectations about how much we can rely on carbon removal, and thus how much nations and corporations can carry on emitting over the crucial coming decades. Market demands are also likely to steer attention toward cheaper solutions that are not as reliable or long-lasting.

Carbon sequestration is likely to play a part in becoming carbon negative, and deserves to be explored.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] verdi@feddit.org 62 points 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (18 children)

I'll just leave this here in case people are actually falling for this scam. Planting trees is orders of magnitude cheaper and more effective...

edit: Because this post attracted some nasty disinformation, here's a paper in nature explaining in a very polite way that carbon capture is BS.

[–] Lightfire228@pawb.social 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (9 children)

Carbon capture is the inverse of burning hydrocarbons (fossil fuels). You have to dump energy (from the grid) into a chemical processes that "refines" the air back into concentrated carbon

The only way this thermodynamically is viable is with a surplus of carbon neutral energy

So either nuclear, or fusion

(There's no way solar or wind generate enough energy, for several decades at least)

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (17 replies)
[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 58 points 2 months ago

This feels like Big Oil PR.

Like, 'nothing to worry about, we can just scrub the air later.' Which is a total lie.

[–] Zacryon@feddit.org 40 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Current state of the art DAC plants are incredibly inefficient. Also, even if they would come with efficiency that is comparable to trees, they would still lack other positive ecological functions of trees.

[–] icelimit@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 months ago (5 children)

It was always going to be inefficient trying to capture something that's 400ppm.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Total waste of fuckin resources

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Way to reinvent the tree I guess?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Only if there was a small pipe or "smoke stack" that could emit these in super high concentrations of CO2 where we could just pipe it straight to the ground instead of capturing it through the air. Better yet, if we find all of those sources we could even stop them producing in the first place and leaving all the carbon in the ground. 🤔

/s

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Cattail@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I thought someone did the math because co2 scrubbing and the facility would be size of Georgia and have to draw in hurricane winds

[–] pigup@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yep, it is, in part, a scam diversion by the fossil fuel industry

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

Leave it to those ghouls to greenwash in a way that is actually a net negative, rather than just ineffectual

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 30 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Trees do not permenantly sequester carbon, they act as a reservoir. If we cover the entire land area of the earth in amazon rainforest, it'll sequester like 150 years worth of our carbon emissions. After that, there would be no more land left to plant trees on, and we would be back to where we are now. The only solution is to simultaneously stop bringing carbon from outside the carbon cycle into the carbon cycle, and also remove the carbon that we've already brought in.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Only need half a million of them to keep up with current emissions.

For comparison, there are far fewer power plants that release co2. Based on some rough estimates I foind, there are fewer than 10,000 in total plants, most have more than one generator.

And those turn a profit, no one is going to fund half a million capture plants. Building out more solar and wind is insanely more financially prudent. N.

Over building with nuclear power with its massive capital costs makes far more sense than these things.

These solutions always remind of this scene from Futurma.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] FrogmanL@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I mean, this may get downvoted, but trees are just trying to live, not fix the climate. They are a very real part of the solution, but I’m fine with considering ‘supplements’.

Sometimes the enemy of the good is the perfect.

[–] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If the construction of these can provide a more efficient means of carbon capture than growing trees then turning those trees into building materials over and over …. It’s a good thing.

If not … it’s performative tbh.

[–] Pappabosley@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago

It's performative, the biggest 'carbon capture' facility made so far, didn't even come close to offsetting its own carbon footprint.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago (6 children)

My question is, wouldn't the power needed to run these negate the benefits they bring?

This is also ignoring the gross notion that these can make money so they're more worthy than trees when considering solutions.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] toppy@lemy.lol 28 points 2 months ago

People will do anything other than planting more trees and looking after the worlds ocean ecosystem health. Most air is cleaned by algae in oceans and then trees in land, in that order. But people will just make machines for things which were taken care of by mother earth for millennia.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Is this the next gen Nvidia card?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] hayvan@feddit.nl 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The biggest carbon sink on the planet are oceans. We need to stop messing them up.

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 2 months ago

Too late.

The thing about oceans is they have massive amounts of inertia.

We're still surviving on the inertia from before we fucked them up, but we've already fucked them up, and some of the consequences of that won't be apparent until 50 or 100 years from now.

Same with fixing them. We won't see the effects (or the unintended side effects) of anything we do to fix them for decades, and even then they'll probably be unnoticeable under the effects of how much we fucked them up before trying to fix them.

Stopping is probably indeed the best option, hopefully we haven't damaged them enough that they won't fix themselves eventually... but that'll take hundreds or more probably thousands of years.

[–] Sorgan71@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago (4 children)

carbon capture is always a bad idea because the energy it uses cancels out the co2 it pulls from the atmosphere

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Unless it uses hydro, nuclear, wind, solar

[–] Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And the amount of CO2 it captures is miniscule in comparison.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Cyberflunk@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Fuck this postt, this is all fiction. There are initiatives that AMERICA IS DESTROYING.

Occidental and 1PointFive can't secure permits, let alone funding, it's all hand waving slop.

3 fucking minutes of research is all it takes

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I knew it was bullshit the moment I saw "The US is building..." and it wasn't a concentration camp

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why does this look like someone threw it together in Minecraft

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

I thought it was just a picture of a new graphics card that was coming out. I almost didn't read it because I said to myself I couldn't afford a new graphics card in the next few years.

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 18 points 2 months ago

And the look much better than trees too /s

[–] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 18 points 2 months ago

It would probably take decades to offset its own carbon footprint, let alone making it negative. And then it would need to actually be significant.
Just plant trees and restore carbon sinks you fucking techno fascists.

[–] Arancello@aussie.zone 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

so burning fossil fuels to take Carbon dioxide out of atmosphere? hmmm

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Etterra@discuss.online 15 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I can't believe the ghouls in the Texas government let anyone past their ideological minefield to even get the permits signed, much less build the thing.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 13 points 2 months ago

Carbon capture is the preferred solution to climate change for oil and gas companies, because is the only one that doesn't require a reduction on oil and gas extraction.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 14 points 2 months ago (4 children)

How much carbon dioxide was produced to build this fucking thing.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Trees are better carbon capture devices, you even get lumber from them.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

I'm not a huge fan of this approach.

[–] PrimeMinisterKeyes@leminal.space 13 points 2 months ago

"The Mechanical Forest" sounds like a Ray Bradbury story.

load more comments
view more: next ›