In 1897, Dr. Philip O'Hanlon, a coroner's assistant on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was asked by his then eight-year-old daughter, Virginia, whether Santa Claus really existed. O'Hanlon suggested she write to The Sun, a prominent New York City newspaper at the time, assuring her that "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." So with thanks and apologies to "Is There a Santa Claus?", September 21, 1897, The New York Sun, staying true to the original text where possible and in the spirit of the festive season . . . .
We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among our friends:
Dear Editor--
I was at COP20 in Lima. Some of my friends in Lima said there is no CCS. But many big companies say, "It's now a commercially available technology." Please tell me the truth, is there CCS?
Virginia from Lima
Virginia, your friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, can ask such questions. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is CCS. It exists as certainly as amine separation, compressors and drilling rigs exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life energy and mobility. Alas! how dreary and warm might the world be someday be if there is no CCS! It would be as dreary and warm as if there were no wind turbines. There may be more extreme weather then, to further concern us in this existence.
Not believe in CCS! You might as well not believe in 100% renewable energy. You might get your friends to watch all the chimneys in case some CO2 escapes, but even if you did see some CO2 being released, what would that prove? Nobody sees CO2, but that is no sign that there is no CCS. The most real things in the world are those that tend to be hidden away. Did you ever see a vinyl-chloride monomer plant? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You fret that the continued use of fossil fuels will damage the atmosphere such that even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could not repair. But fear not, as carbon pricing develops so too will the deployment of CCS, such that we really can have net zero emissions by the end of the century? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No CCS! Thanks that this technology has now been developed. A decade from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 100 years from now, it will continue to make glad the CO2 level in the atmosphere.
See you in 2015, David.