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  • NEWS FEATURE

Three ways to cool Earth by pulling carbon from the sky

With the world set to blow past its temperature targets, efforts are growing to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
By
  1. Jeff Tollefson
Metal spheric pods, one on the left in the foreground and the other in the background near green hills and clouds.

A facility in Iceland run by carbon-capture companies Climeworks and Carbfix pulls carbon dioxide from the air and stores it below ground. Credit: Arnaldur Halldorsson/Bloomberg/Getty

Sometime in the next several months, a team of US scientists plans to pour a solution of antacid into the waves off the coast of Massachusetts. Using boats, buoys and autonomous gliders, the scientists will track changes in water chemistry that should allow this tiny patch of the Atlantic Ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide from the sky than it normally would.

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Nature 640, 872-874 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01233-6

References

  1. Smith, S. M. et al. The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal 2024 2nd edn (Oxford Smith School, 2024).

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