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A comment on MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air. Parent comment

Re:MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide ... by est31 on Saturday February 04, 2023 @09:43AM (#34654837)
FTR the evolutionary delay hypothesis used to be popular, but for the carboniferous, the most carbon-deposing period on earth, that theory has been dismissed. See this paper: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517943113

TLDR:

* there is evidence for partial lignin breakdown in existing deposits, so we know it was a thing back then

* if it were just lignin breakdown, then we'd see orders of magnitude more deposits. that is, if you look at the per year deposit rate, you'll see only a small fraction of lignin being deposited.

* a large fraction of deposits doesn't even contain lignin, often below or above deposits with lignin, but without there being a different rate of depositions between them.

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Re:MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide ... by xhkkffbf on Saturday February 04, 2023 @11:16AM (#34655518)
That has to make sense. Were there huge piles of dead plants just piling up everywhere? Was it vines all the way to the stratosphere?
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Re:MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide ... by liquid_bluing on Saturday February 04, 2023 @11:59AM (#34655919)
Was just going to post this. What a great community!
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Re:MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide ... by fnordpiglet on Saturday February 04, 2023 @12:23PM (#34656152)
Was about to google this up. Thanks
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