Carbon Sequestration

Types of carbon sequestration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sequestration

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ccs/

MIT research -- https://sequestration.mit.edu/

Carbon sequestration is a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It complements two other major approaches for greenhouse gas reduction, namely improving energy efficiency and increasing use of non-carbon energy sources. Interest has been increasing in the carbon sequestration option because it is very compatible with the large energy production and delivery infrastructure now in place. All three approaches will need to make significant contributions in order to meet the objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, that is the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) conference, 2014, large scale projects and warnings / http://www.technologyreview.com/news/531531/carbon-sequestration-too-little-too-late/

Large-scale projects bring numerous problematic aspects and large-scale geoengineering has extensive potential for 'erring'.

The alternative is in widespread smaller-scale natural 'geo-projects' to reduce carbon emissions, including via sequestration.

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Green Policies and Practices to Address Climate Change with Biology, Soil Improvement, Photosynthesis

On an small scale, how can we address the carbon issues of climate change. Among many approaches, one green practice, is achieved through smart agriculture and has potential to provide effective carbon sequestration.

"Carbon farming" is a name for the practice of carbon sequestration, a type of'geoengineering' appropriate at the local level where, for example, farmers and market gardeners can make a difference, a 'humus' difference. Carbon farming can act to sequester CO2 in the soil (as opposed to large, petro-chemical industrial agriculture practices.)

A shift to agricultural practices that are sustainable and act to reduce carbon emissions is a direction where 'alternative agriculture' addresses climate change issues.

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"Although too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a pollutant, carbon is a valuable resource in the soil"

Start your research by taking a look at the writing of Maynard Kaufman, Michigan, US.

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/CarbonSequestration_2014paper_Kaufman.pdf

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More on alternative ag to reduce carbon in the atmosphere

It is time for the conversation about climate change to shift from problems to solutions.

For too long we have learned how serious this problem is, how it contributes to the loss of biodiversity or even, some assert, to the extinction of human life on earth.

The net result of this focus on the problem of climate change is that people have become hopeless and fatalistic while carbon emissions continue to rise. Many people can recognize the scientific truth about climate change on an intellectual level and still deny it on an emotional level because it is too overwhelming. Such split consciousness leads to confusion and paralysis.

The solution to climate change is to reduce carbon emissions and to get the excess carbon dioxide out of the air. Part of this task is political; we need policies, such as a tax on carbon, that could curtail the burning of fossil fuels, which causes most of global warming. Even this is daunting at a time when large energy corporations seem to control policies. But much carbon dioxide, as much as a third or more of the total, also escaped from the soil because of deforestation and agricultural practices. Can this carbon dioxide be sequestered back into the soil and stored in plants? This is the question explored in this paper.

It is possible to sequester carbon in natural ways that are beneficial to life on the planet. Once we understand this we can move from hopelessness to hopefulness. This is especially true if many of us can actually participate in solutions to global warming. Rising prices for energy and food are already pressuring social changes as new attitudes about food raising emerge. Unused land in many cities opens possibilities for urban gardening, and rising unemployment opens the need and time to do so. Also evident is new interest in a back-to-the-land movement motivated by rising food prices. In view of such trends, this paper disagrees with many writers about climate change who simply assume that our future will be shaped by business as usual with increasing emissions of carbon dioxide.

It will be helpful, as we look at ways to sequester carbon dioxide, to have a clear understanding of how it is emitted. The burning of fossil fuels has already been mentioned, and it is certainly a major factor. Deforestation is also recognized as a cause of global warming, along with agricultural practices such as plowing. The amounts here are much more difficult to quantify than carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, and where hard data is not available some scientific writers seem to avoid the issue. This would be a serious error, because if we fail to see that carbon is in soil, how it escaped from the soil, and how it could be sequestered back into the soil, we miss an important opportunity...

FROM ORGANIC FARMING TO CARBON SEQUESTRATION

This happens naturally in photosynthesis as sunshine uses carbon dioxide in the air to make plants grow and provides oxygen in the process. As the plants decompose and their organic matter is worked into the soil, some carbon is sequestered. But this requires a living soil, in which the soil micro-organisms and larger organisms, such as earthworms, have not been damaged by chemicals.

Most of the details in the preceding paragraphs were based on my many years of experience as a part-time organic farmer who was also an Environmental Studies professor trying to understand what he was doing. The emphasis on organic matter in the soil (carbon), and its loss after hundreds of years of plowing, has also been reviewed by Albert Bates in The Biochar Revolution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change. He reports that soil scientist Rattan Lal at Ohio State University found that, with better carbon management practices, soils in the continental US could soak up 330 million tons of carbon each year, more than the emissions from cars, and improve food production by 12%.

Several books on the details of carbon offsets have been published recently. One that supports carbon sequestration in soils and forests is Harnessing Farms and Forests in the Low Carbon Economy: How to Create, Measure, and Verify Greenhouse Gas Offsets and it was edited by Zach Willey and Bill Chameides. This book was intended to help those whose business causes carbon emissions to purchase carbon credits or offsets from land owners who can sequester carbon. Some trading like this already happens in other countries. If a “cap and trade” program is mandated in this country a book like this will be indispensable.

-- MF

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Tags:

Carbon Farming

Carbon Sequestration

Geoengineering

"Geotherapy"

Humification Process

No-till Agriculture

Organic Agriculture

Perennial food crops

Regenerative Agriculture

Restoration Agriculture

Tree crops