Barking up the wrong tree

Can anyone explain the IMechE’s continued fascination with air capture?

Can anyone explain the IMechE’s continued fascination with air capture (News, PE November)? Why does the institution promote a policy of increased resource consumption and greater environmental destruction?

Why not focus on reducing consumption and emissions? If people want to develop new machines, and stick with carbon, why not quest the holy grail of zero emissions?

Whilst struggling to find percentage-point improvements in turbine efficiency may not be as grand as geo-engineering, at least it doesn’t add to the problem. If people are serious about geo-engineering, why not focus on forestry, sustainable irrigation, land and population management?

My chemical engineering colleagues are quick to point out the folly of schemes such as air capture and I find myself agreeing.

From an engineering and social perspective, the institution is well and truly barking up the wrong tree.

Andrew Butler, Hersham

Next letter: Engineers are the real producers