A concrete idea to reduce CO2 emissions | Karen Scrivener

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Concrete is the second most-used substance on Earth (behind water), and it's responsible for eight percent of the world's carbon footprint. Cement researcher Karen Scrivener shares the research behind a pioneering new kind of cement known as LC3, which could slash carbon emissions from this crucial building material by 40 percent, if adopted at scale.

This talk was part of the Countdown Global Launch on 10.10.2020. (Watch the full event here: .) Countdown is TED's global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. The goal: to build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, in the race to a zero-carbon world. Get involved at

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52 Comments on A concrete idea to reduce CO2 emissions | Karen Scrivener

  1. Now, it is up to the public to _motivate_ companies adapting to this. And you know how? Consistent co2 taxes from governments.

    • ! ! WAKE UP ! New world order is here ! illuminati = Real / Christ = Real ! End time prophecies = Real ! Share & watch my exposing vids 🙂 <3 ! 🙂 ! !

    • @Gerald Miller That being true, their not the only ones. As said in the video concreate is used everywhere. Even if China doesn’t follow the rest of the world can. This is not a if they don’t do it I won’t either situation. This is a we have to act situation, so while yes it is cruial that China follows it is even more cruial to just start. Therefore quit saying stuff like China needs to do it as an excuse to not do anything and start motivating where you can.
      (Writing this under the asumption that this is about the constant fight between USA and China and that “the other has to lower their emissions or we won’t do it either” thing. It sonds like it.)

  2. LC3 = a combination of Limestone, Calcined clay, and Cement. LC3 has the same properties as cement but with a smaller carbon footprint than cement.
    If it were a country, concrete would rank 3rd after China and USA, in emissions.
    Limestone and clay heated at 1450°C to produce cement.

    • @parkl1fe There are absurd practices all over. (They could use solar heating right?) Western nations burn fuels to carbonate beverages. Still have to utilize cost saving methods to drive adoption.

  3. Planting trees instead of destroying them i feel would do the most towards cleaning up the CO2 and producing fresh clean air to breathe!
    Science 101……

    • Trees will realise that CO2 when they die, called the carbon cycle. No bueno unless we pause humanity for 250 millon years to wait for the trees to fossilize.

    • The planet is more forested than last century.
      However here in UK we have USA forests felled so we can burn in a huge wood burner called Drax, by the way, prime forests are felled. Then shipped in large boats across Atlantic. SO SO SO GREEN!!!

    • @Iain Evironmental Individualism in history is cancer to environmental progress as marxism history is cancer to human progress. I stand by that analogy because we are only further from our goals by suggesting environmental consumerism is helping. We are just causing more production and consumption. That is not helping anyone. Promoting full product life cycles will encourage re-use, employ more in maintenence, and bring down consumption. Promote right to repair!

    • Have you seen any new solutions from the paris climate accord participants? This idea is already dead. It relies on government redistribution of wealth. It partially freezes inovations with government inefficient regulation towards politically advantageous company funding.

    • @Zachary Sielck you can’t just stop production and consumption, carbon pricing is an proven and effective method to change consumer behaviour, pushing them to more carbon friendly alternatives, including more repairable products.

      Not all emissions are from consumerism anyways, transport, power needs, agriculture clearly all very important things that cause the majority of emissions and with carbon pricing, carbon heavy products and services get pushed out like coal has in the UK and innovative low carbon solutions become economically viable.

    • @Iain I didn’t say stop production. But get rid of unnecessary waste. Why can Apple generate all of this e-waste because they done care about repairability? I also liked your comment about dividends. Carbon pricing helps a little, but you have to offset it if you want it to work. People dont want to hear that there are negative externalities to the goods they consume. Transport, power, and agriculture are all consumable services to create products btw. Going on a road trip is consuming energy via transport at a price to provide the service of moving your body. Thus a road trip is a consumable service. Green energy will only ever be able to fulfill temporary energy needs. It helps cut down on the standard consumption, but will never be able to manage consumption fluctuations unless it is implemented in a decentralized model. That is unaffordable for most right now so it gets centralized in most implementations.

    • @TED my profession was Asset Management and I believe that the Bitcoin speculation will be a House of Cards.
      No underlying value
      No gold or other securities beneath
      No economy of a country attached
      Nowadays used by Elon Musk to earn more money with Bitcoins instead producing cars.
      Allowed cause there are no supervisors.
      It is a matter of time when the dream collapse.
      Realise trees don’t grow through heaven

  4. It occurred to me while watching this video for the shortest time could there be a more stupid person on the face of the earth!!!

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