Are there any possible consequences to sequestering CO2 rather than splitting it into C and O and putting the oxygen back into the atmosphere? If we were to sequester all the CO2 we have emitted as a species, the end result would be oxygen making up less of the atmosphere than before we started.
Fundamentally it takes a lot of energy to split the molecules back apart, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of these plans involve doing so. There's so much Oxygen in the atmosphere that we really can't make significant changes to it. CO2 is a very small constituent in comparison, but it still has significant effects. The best analogy I've seen is that it's comparable to the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee.
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Are there any possible consequences to sequestering CO2 rather than splitting it into C and O and putting the oxygen back into the atmosphere? If we were to sequester all the CO2 we have emitted as a species, the end result would be oxygen making up less of the atmosphere than before we started.
Fundamentally it takes a lot of energy to split the molecules back apart, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of these plans involve doing so. There's so much Oxygen in the atmosphere that we really can't make significant changes to it. CO2 is a very small constituent in comparison, but it still has significant effects. The best analogy I've seen is that it's comparable to the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee.