Youtube-Take

Take on a YouTube video from Dirk Paessler, originally posted 2026-06-22. Watch the source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE7n4WhDXH8 TL;DR Lucilla Boito (likely Hamburg/UHH group based on the feedstock list) ran sequential chemical extractions on enhanced weathering soil samples to track where cations actually end up. Four operationally-defined pools tested: exchangeable, carbonate, oxide/hydroxide, clay. Useful framing for anyone modeling residence time. Steel slag (40 t/ha) drove calcium up across nearly all pools; dunite drove magnesium across all pools; diabase showed up in three of four for Ca. Results track feedstock XRF composition. Caveat flagged by speaker: only n=2 per treatment, no statistics. Treat as directional. Sodium and potassium showed up in carbonate pools where they shouldn’t chemically exist — a useful reminder that sequential extractions dissolve primary minerals too, not just the named pool. Video here. This is a CDR Symposium 2026 talk by Lucilla Boito on sequential extraction results from a multi-feedstock, multi-soil enhanced rock weathering (ERW) experiment. The core question: when basalt, diabase, dunite, steel slag, or bassanite (“Eifelgold”) weather in soil, which operationally-defined pool do the released cations end up in — exchangeable, carbonate, oxide, or clay — and does the answer depend on soil type? ...

Take on a YouTube video from DW Podcasts, originally posted 2026-06-15. Watch the source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r79u6fuxdo TL;DR DW podcast revisits Climeworks: Mammoth (36 kt/yr nameplate) has captured “just a couple thousand tons” total since 2024 opening. Useful public airing of numbers practitioners already knew. Climeworks CTO Helen Cox attributes underperformance to humidity, temperature, and geothermal sulfur degrading sorbent in the field — not lab conditions. Honest mechanism, rarely articulated this plainly to a general audience. The 1 Mt by 2030 target is treated as effectively dead. Overdue framing for the mainstream press. Reporter cites the 2 million m³ of air per ton CO2 thermodynamic floor — solid, non-sensational. Verdict: useful as a talking-points refresher and as something to send to non-CDR colleagues. Limited new signal for practitioners. DW’s Living Planet (episode link) revisits direct air capture (DAC) six years after reporter Sam Baker first covered Climeworks, and the framing is “what happened to the hype?” The substantive claim is that Climeworks’ Orca (4 kt/yr nameplate) and Mammoth (36 kt/yr nameplate) plants in Iceland have collectively captured only a few thousand tons since Mammoth came online in 2024, putting the company’s stated 1 million tons by 2030 target out of reach. CTO Helen Cox, on the job about a year, is the on-record voice walking the reporter through what went wrong. ...

Take on a YouTube video from ShekruTV, originally posted 2026-06-08. Watch the source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1YlrZJoxyI TL;DR Naved Ahmad of Ecosis pitches village-scale biochar via modified drum kilns costing ~₹2,000–3,000 ($25–35) per unit. Useful datapoint on the floor of distributed kit cost. Frames carbon finance as debt relief for Indian farmers carrying ~3x annual income in debt. Reasonable framing, not new. Cites Verra-style methodologies as a dead-end for smallholders: ~$100K project costs, 3–4 year waits, no payouts. Matches what other practitioners report. Pivot point: Carbon Standards International’s 2022 biochar methodology is what made Ecosis viable. Worth knowing if you’re tracking registry choice for smallholder projects. Heavy on personal journey, light on production numbers, yields, or carbon volumes. Skip if you want hard data. A long-form interview on ShekruTV’s biochar series with Naved Ahmad, founder of Ecosis, a Bangalore-region biochar outfit working with smallholder farmers. The substantive claim: distributed, drum-kiln biochar at the village level — financed via Carbon Standards International (CSI) credits — is the only carbon-market structure that actually reaches Indian smallholders, because the Verra-track methodologies price them out and pay too late. ...

Take on a YouTube video from AirMiners, originally posted 2026-05-01. Watch the source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEWnepySw_k AirMiners: What’s Hot in Carbon Dioxide Removal, April 2026 This is the April 2026 edition of AirMiners’ monthly “what’s hot” rundown, hosted by Tito Jankowski. It’s a roughly 10-minute state-of-the-market intro followed by breakout discussions. The framing is blunt: investors are pulling back, government funding is shaky, and Microsoft — the buyer that effectively underwrote the last two years of offtakes — has gone quiet. Tito’s pitch is to stop speculating and look at what’s actually closing. ...

Take on a YouTube video from Exomad Green, originally posted 2026-05-01. Watch the source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x4jaHMOx3M Exomad Green × Supercritical: Inside the 500,000-Tonne CDR Deal This is a ~10-minute Exomad Green podcast episode (“Green Talks”) featuring Francesco from Exomad and George, Director of Supply at Supercritical. The headline: a three-year offtake agreement for up to 500,000 tonnes of biochar carbon removal credits, covering all remaining 2026 inventory plus allocations for 2027 and 2028. It’s a vendor-produced announcement, but there are a few data points worth pulling out. ...

Take on a YouTube video from Nature Tech Collective, originally posted 2026-05-01. Watch the source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpq2v2HRhXw Watch on YouTube This is a Nature Tech Collective webinar with Dr. Will Burt, VP Science & Product at Planetary, walking through ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) as Planetary practices it — adding a mineral antacid to seawater to neutralize dissolved CO₂ and shift the air-sea equilibrium toward more uptake. The framing is 101-level by Burt’s own admission, pitched at an audience he assumed would be mixed. The substantive claim is the familiar one: OAE sits in the favorable corner of the NOAA scalability-vs-cost matrix, and Planetary is among the further-along operators trying to prove it at sea. ...