secret weapon to fight climate change: dirt

[David Yarrow]

slowly, steadily, the idea of soil carbon sequestration is getting public, scientific and political attention, and spreading.  at Terra-Char, we are making steady progress to put this idea into practice.  the results we are seeing is exciting growers and ranchers to keep trying this and figure out ways to make this efficient and functional.

secret weapon to fight climate change: 

dirt

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2015/12/04/fe22879e-990b-11e5-8917-653b65c809eb_story.html

The Washington Post, December 4, 2015

By Debbie Barker 

international programs director at the Center for Food Safety

and Michael Pollan

John S. & James L. Knight professor of journalism at University of California at Berkeley

When Will Allen is asked to name the most beautiful part of his Vermont farm, he doesn’t talk about the verdant, rolling hills or easy access to the Connecticut River. Though the space is a picturesque postcard of the agrarian idyll, Allen points down, to the dirt. “This precious resource not only grows food,” he says, “but is one of the best methods we have for sequestering carbon.”

We think of climate change as a consequence of burning fossil fuels. But a third of the carbon in the atmosphere today used to be in the soil, and modern farming is largely to blame. Practices such as the overuse of chemicals, excessive tilling and the use of heavy machinery disturb the soil’s organic matter, exposing carbon molecules to the air, where they combine with oxygen to create carbon dioxide. Put another way: Human activity has turned the living and fertile carbon system in our dirt into a toxic atmospheric gas.

It’s possible to halt and even reverse this process through better agricultural policies and practices. Unfortunately, the world leaders who gathered in Paris this past week have paid little attention to the critical links between climate change and agriculture. That’s a huge mistake and a missed opportunity. Our unsustainable farming methods are a central contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change, quite simply, cannot be halted without fixing agriculture.

The industrialization of farming has allowed farmers to grow more crops more quickly. But modern techniques have also wreaked havoc on the earth, water and atmosphere. Intense plowing, for example, has introduced more oxygen into the soil, boosting the microbes that convert organic matter into carbon dioxide. The quest to wring every last dollar out of fields has put pressure on farmers to rely on chemical fertilizers. This often leaves fields more bare between growing seasons, allowing carbon to escape into the air. Scientists estimate that cultivated soil has lost 50 to 70 percent of its carbon, speeding up climate change.

That loss has significantly degraded soil health, reducing our ability to grow food. Median crop yields are likely to decline by about 2 percent per decade through 2100, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. At the same time, the world’s population is projected to jump from 7 billion to 9 billion by 2050.

for a green & peaceful planet,
David Yarrow
dyar...@gmail.com
573-818-4148
www.dyarrow.org
http://dyarrow.blogspot.com

one moment can change a day, 
one day can change a life, 
one life can change the world

[Seth]

"Secret"

Sent from my iPhone

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one moment can change a day, 
one day can change a life, 
one life can change the world

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