The Greatest Climate-Protecting Technology Ever Devised (2021)
Brooke Jarvis
rating good
type nonfiction/journalism article
concepts climate science/plants
2021/06/10 "Through the profound, irreplaceable, utterly ordinary bit of magic that is photosynthesis, old trees can hold far more carbon than anything else."
- Excess brush and timber in forests can be removed to prevent wildfires and then slow-baked in a low-oxygen environment to create charcoal-like biochar. When buried, biochar can nourish parched agricultural soil, promote food production, increase water efficiency, and hold carbon in the ground for centuries.
- National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) → field sites to track how global change affects specific ecosystems
- In old-growth NW forest Wind River, tower station taller than canopy w/ spectrometer, sun photometer, etc. → track CO2 flows on forest floor vs canopy, build up in groves at night as photosynthesis pauses
- Trees → super effective carbon capture tech...
- Ex. Carbon footprint of small park in Hawaii completely cancelled out by impact of forest!
- Largest trees → very rare, even in old growth forests, & "largest 1 percent of trees contain fully half of all the above-ground live biomass, which also means half of all the carbon" → protecting old trees (even dead ones!) is critical
- New trees can sequester some carbon, but calculations are iffy, and depends a lot on what's going to happen to them over time — planting could be disrupting ecosystems that already store a lot of carbon (ex. grasslands via soil, peat lands)
- Utilising natural carbon sequestration → holistic approaches: reforestation, proforestation, being thoughtful about planting new trees, better agriculture techniques, managing timberlands smartly, etc.
- Many can be implemented rapidly & mitigate >30% emissions required to prevent 2 degrees by 2030 in the US
- Need to study how to help forests maximise sequestration, not just profit!
- Certain fungi can be added to soil → enhance carbon sequestration