Most scientists and scholars hold the increase in greenhouse gases accountable for the rising global temperatures. The worst of the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, is most commonly created through production of power  by the burning of fossil fuels.

Elon Musk believes that the carbon emissions problem is worsening by the day and that, “We’re running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere… can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.”

At the beginning of the new year, the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, pledged a “negative carbon” initiative which means the company would be actively removing carbon from the atmosphere rather than producing more. 

The company plans to be completely carbon negative by 2030 and hopes to remove all the carbon produced since the founding of the company in 1975, effectively removing the carbon footprint of the entire company by the year 2050. 

This is a lofty goal as there is currently no technology to actively remove carbon straight from the air.  Due to the lack of means, some question the feasibility of this goal.

The company plans on removing this carbon from the atmosphere through multiple different methods.  With a current fund of one billion dollars which is aimed towards funding carbon removal methods, planting more trees, and converting to renewable non-carbon emitting sources of energy.

Hopefully, more companies will follow suit. If everyone were to commit to discovering ways to remove their carbon from the atmosphere, there would be a drastic change in our favor for the global climate crisis. 

Until we fund and discover this technology, carbon negativity will be an unrealistic goal for all of America.  While we wait for technology to catch up to our dreams, the best thing to do right now is reduce our carbon footprint.