Ludi wrote:I think your idea that I may cause environmental harm by restoring my local watershed and ecosystem is, well, frankly, extremely bizarre.
Ludi wrote:Regarding sequestration on a useful scale being pie in the sky, I agree, it's very very unlikely to occur.
However, my research is for my own personal efforts to mitigate my per capita carbon emissions.
Taking the higher figure from above (which includes concrete production), I calculated I would need to plant about 15 acres of tallgrass in order to mitigate my household's annual carbon emissions. I don't have 15 acres of open land, but I should be able to plant about 5 acres, possibly a little more. The rest of the land is in trees, and I don't have the data for how much carbon trees are likely to sequester. Not much compared to tallgrass, probably.
If anyone's interested in the details of my calculations, I'd be happy to provide them.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Chaparral wrote:Ludi's right on this one.
Tallgrass of various species grows (or rather, grew) in a somewhat cool and dry biome on the interior of N. America just west of the Mississippi. Decomposition of dead organic matter is slowed by the cooler temperatures and lower moisture levels. When the sodbusters started cultivating the plains they had upwards of 3 meters or 10 feet of topsoil composed of that accumulated dead organic matter in places. Every year more organic material would accumulate than was degraded by respiration.
If this solution were tried in Brazil it would not work; there is too much precipitation and the temperatures are too high. The nutrient cycling is too fast in the tropics. If it were tried in Australia, the higher temperatures there might hasten decomposition and hence CO2 or CH4 return..who really knows. It would probably work in the Ukraine or the steppes of Asia.
Ludi wrote:How you can claim that all this research being done by all these soil scientists is a "myth" is a mystery to me. How can all of these people be working on a myth?
Caoimhan wrote:What percentage of topsoil is carbon?
Seems to me, if you take some acreage with 1 inch of topsoil, and a decade later, due to vegetation, you have 4 inches of topsoil, it would mean 3 inches of topsoil, with its carbon content, have been sequestered.
Am I missing something here?
3.3.4 The Main Mitigation Options in the Agricultural Sector
Agriculture contributes only about 4% of global carbon emissions from energy use, but over 20% of anthropogenic GHG emissions (in terms of MtCeq/yr) mainly from CH4 and N2O as well as carbon from land clearing. There have been modest gains in energy efficiency for the agricultural sector since the SAR, and biotechnology developments related to plant and animal production could result in additional gains, provided concerns about adverse environmental effects can be adequately addressed. A shift from meat towards plant production for human food purposes, where feasible, could increase energy efficiency and decrease GHG emissions (especially N2O and CH4 from the agricultural sector). Significant abatement of GHG emissions can be achieved by 2010 through changes in agricultural practices, such as:
soil carbon uptake enhanced by conservation tillage and reduction of land use intensity;
CH4 reduction by rice paddy irrigation management, improved fertilizer use, and lower enteric CH4 emissions from ruminant animals;
avoiding anthropogenic agricultural N2O emissions (which for agriculture exceeds carbon emission from fossil fuel use) through the use of slow release fertilizers, organic manure, nitrification inhibitors, and potentially genetically-engineered leguminous plants. N2O emissions are greatest in China and the USA, mainly from fertilizer use on rice paddy soils and other agricultural soils. More significant contributions can be made by 2020 when more options to control N2O emissions from fertilized soils are expected to become available.
4.3 Mitigation Options
In tropical regions there are large opportunities for C mitigation, though they cannot be considered in isolation of broader policies in forestry, agriculture, and other sectors. Additionally, options vary by social and economic conditions: in some regions slowing or halting deforestation is the major mitigation opportunity; in other regions, where deforestation rates have declined to marginal levels, improved natural forest management practices, afforestation, and reforestation of degraded forests and wastelands are the most attractive opportunities. However, the current mitigative capacity11 is often weak and sufficient land and water is not always available.
Non-tropical countries also have opportunities to preserve existing C pools, enhance C pools, or use biomass to offset fossil fuel use. Examples of strategies include fire or insect control, forest conservation, establishing fast-growing stands, changing silvicultural practices, planting trees in urban areas, ameliorating waste management practices, managing agricultural lands to store more C in soils, improving management of grazing lands, and re-planting grasses or trees on cultivated lands.
Wood and other biological products play several important roles in carbon mitigation: they act as a carbon reservoir; they can replace construction materials that require more fossil fuel input; and they can be burned in place of fossil fuels for renewable energy. Wood products already contribute somewhat to climate mitigation, but if infrastructures and incentives can be developed, wood and agricultural products may become a vital element of a sustainable economy: they are among the few renewable resources available on a large scale.
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