Find Out How We Can Clean It Up
COMMUNITY CARBON REMOVAL CHALLENGE
Climate Change Is a
Pollution Problem
AN URGENT PUBLIC CLIMATE EVENT
Learn together. Choose
together. Act together.
Cutting emissions prevents more carbon dioxide pollution from accumulating. But it cannot remove the legacy pollution already driving climate disruption. The only way to address that buildup— and restore a healthy balance to Earth’s climate system— is to remove the excess CO₂ already in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide removal is not an alternative to emissions cuts; it is their essential counterpart.
DATE
Saturday, October 17
VENUE
Stanford Sustainability Accelerator
DURATION
5 hours
COST
FREE. Lunch included
Donation appreciated!
WHY THIS EVENT— WHY NOW
Carbon removal urgently needs an informed public.
Deep emissions cuts remain indispensable, but they cannot remove the vast stock of carbon dioxide already disrupting our atmosphere and oceans. Carbon removal is essential to restoring climate balance—and delay only makes the task harder.
This pilot turns complex, unfamiliar choices into a participatory community experience: short expert presentations, facilitated discussion, audience polling, collaborative decision-making, and lunch. It is not a one-day endpoint, but a starting point—encouraging participants to stay engaged, organize locally, and help move effective carbon removal from promise to action.
Additional speakers will be announced
FEATURED SPEAKER
Josh Becker
California State Senator
Chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee
YOUR PRESENTERS
Meet leaders moving climate action forward.
Hear directly from public officials, experts, and practitioners confronting decisions that communities cannot afford to postpone.
Mike Robinson
Co-Founder PacCLEAN.org Stanford University
Graduate School of Business
Jeffrey Brown
Managing Director, Sustainability Accelerator,
Doerr School of Sustainability
Stanford University
Sarah E. Baker
Associate Program Leader for Carbon Dioxide Conversion
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
James Kanoff
Co-Founder & CEO
Enhanced Rock Weathering
Ben Tarbell
Co-Founder & CEO
Transforming industrial brine into carbon removals
Nora Brown
Head of Market Development
Long-term biomass carbon removal and storage
Using limestone to permanently remove billions of tons of carbon from the air
Your journey through the Challenge
From first principles to urgent community action in 6 stages
This is not a five-hour lecture. Each of the six stages combines concise expert guidance with audience polling, facilitated discussion, hands-on comparisons, and generous time for questions and answers.
01
Understand CDR
Learn how carbon dioxide removal takes CO₂ out of the biosphere and stores it durably.
02
See why it matters
Connect deep emissions cuts with the urgent need to clean up accumulated carbon pollution.
03
Know what counts
Distinguish genuine removal from emissions reduction and follow where the carbon goes.
04
Connect pathways to practice
Build a conceptual map of biological, mineral, ocean, and atmospheric pathways—then see how communities and carbon removal companies are putting them to work in the real world.
05
Evaluate real-world choices
Use a practical framework to compare CDR options, weighing durability, measurement, risks, co-benefits, cost, feasibility, and local relevance.
06
Turn learning into action
Deliberate, help direct funding, shape policy, and leave ready to build a local CDR Action Group.
The carbon removal portfolio
Four pathways through Earth’s systems
No single approach can work at the scale or speed required. Participants will compare a portfolio using a common set of questions.
Biology
Plants and organic matter capture CO₂ through photosynthesis, with storage in biomass, soils, biochar, bio-oil, burial, or geology.
Rocks & minerals
CO₂ reacts with minerals through weathering, mineralization, and related processes to form durable carbonates and products.
The ocean
Ocean approaches remove dissolved CO₂ or increase seawater’s capacity to absorb more from the atmosphere.
The atmosphere
Direct air capture systems filter CO₂ from ambient air for durable storage in geology, minerals, or long-lived products.
PARTICIPATE FOR REAL CONSEQUENCES
Help put ready-to-go carbon removal funding to work.
The need is immediate. Evaluate vetted projects and suppliers, then learn how collective choices can guide available philanthropic funding—without being asked to raise that funding yourselves.
-
Examine credible projects and tradeoffs.
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Deliberate with other participants.
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Choose where available funding can have impact now.
BEYOND TODAY
The event ends. The urgent local work begins.
Participants will be invited to join a local CDR Action Group—continuing to learn, educate the community, engage elected officials, accelerate effective policy, and identify opportunities for local action.
STAY IN THE LOOP
The climate we restore begins with what we do together.
Questions: CaucusChallenge@gmail.com
ORGANIZERS
SUPPORTERS
Community Carbon Removal Challenge
A pilot designed to grow from one community to many.