mammoth direct-air-capture (dac) in iceland is the world's largest carbon capture project to date. they're scaling in california, texas, and louisiana.

one mammoth machine removes 36,000 metric tons of CO₂ annually, equivalent to removing 8,600 cars off the road. it quotes at $1,000 per metric ton.

customers, amazon and microsoft, have helped finance the first wave of deployment. pulling carbon out of the air is powerful for emissions reduction initiatives.

the question is, where does carbon capture fit in the larger equation. is manufacturing mammoths a key to the fight?

call it 600,000 cars in manhattan every day. should we take 70 off the road? that's $2.5B a year. covering 1 percent of nyc's carbon footprint runs about $1.5B annually, roughly 1 percent of the entire city budget.

it's as much a question of numbers as technology, and check-writing.