Dear Editor,

Mass media is saturated with promotional messages by fossil- fuel companies seeking to fabricate their environmentally responsible makeover.

The latest round of propaganda describes their support for developing carbon-capture technology that reduces greenhouse gases (GHGs) that are overheating Earth’s climate.

While it is true that such devices will be needed to prevent the worst consequences of rising temperatures, a far more effective strategy is to curb the use of fossil fuels — as much as possible, as soon as possible.

It’s abundantly self-evident that carbon-capture is being advanced by Big Oil as rationalization for prolonging the use of fossil fuels — and their profits — by allegedly ‘neutralizing’ emission impacts. However, given the urgency of the need to decisively cut GHGs, all carbon-capture capacity must be used to offset excess releases originating from uncontrollable sources.

According to climate scientists, overheating the planet is now causing the massive release of stored carbon from thawing permafrost, where it had been sealed away in frozen layers of organic material throughout human existence. Ongoing permafrost thaw could double the amount of carbon gases in Earth’s atmosphere, causing alarming damage to essential life-support systems.

Due to such effects, it is of utmost importance that carbon- capture technology is dedicated to counteracting them to the maximum extent.

Distinctions in how this technology is used are crucial to any strategy that will succeed in curbing the worst impacts of climate change.

The public should not be deceived by the fossil-fuel industry’s unscrupulous self-promotion. Instead, we must immediately eliminate billions in Big-Oil subsidies.

David Kyler, Center for a Sustainable Coast