But with the escalating crisis, trying to curb carbon emissions amidst an era of cars, factories, and industrial giants, though fruitful in some aspects, has lost much of its power and appeal. We’re simply not moving fast enough to ensure that the approach will succeed. Scientists (and everyday activists like you and I!) have turned their attention instead to ways we can take back the carbon already in our atmosphere in a process called carbon sequestration. What is it?
Well, carbon sequestration as a whole can involve oceans, technology, geology, and more, but my focus, and what fascinated me the most when I learned about the attempt, was how it related to agriculture. There are 2,500 billion tons of carbon in our soil, so on a basic level, the process is nothing more than putting the carbon back where it belongs. The element is actually incredibly important for soil: it gives it its water-retention capacity, structure, and fertility. Rattan Lal, director of Ohio State University’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, attests that some pools of carbon already sequestered in soil can last thousands of years underground. Using regenerative techniques such as implementing cover crops to keep living roots in the soil, decreasing rates of tilling, planting fields of year-round crops, and minimizing deforestation and chemicals injected into crops, we can work to put the carbon dioxide in our air back where it should be, and where it might do so good. When did this begin and what does it do? The problem began when the economic need for agriculture, specifically tilling and interruption of the soil to stimulate crops, rose to an all time high. This, in tandem with deforestation, released between 50 - 70% of their carbon stock into the atmosphere, which oxidized to create carbon dioxide. There is natural carbon in our ground, but running over and shifting the topsoil releases all that carbon and actually degrades the soil itself. But not only is the release of carbon playing an instrumental part in destroying our planet, it’s also destroying the soil itself — therefore compromising our food. If we continue to degrade the soil, it may cause problems feeding our steadily growing population (but that’s a conversation for another time). There needs to be a swift end to practices that require removing carbon from the soil in the first place, like large-scale land clearing and burning. Our beloved forests need to be returned to their original state and do their part when it comes to capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. What can I do? Yes, this problem is largely agriculturally focused, with solutions geared towards those with farms or large amounts of land who can implement strategies to sequester carbon, but there is more that you, a teenager in dire need of your next pet project, can do now. If you do have a farm (or your family does), you can follow McCarty Family Farms’ example. In 2017, they were able to pull down 6,922 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in about 12,300 acres. That’s as much as, or even more than the emissions of 1,300 cars. They planted cover crops like wheat and daikon on land that had once been empty. These crops soften and richen soils, fight wind erosion, and can keep rains from washing nutrients from fertilized fields into Chesapeake Bay. Other examples include rye, barley, oats, triticale, red clover, crimson clover, vetch, peas, beans, etc. You can store carbon the same way in your garden (if you have one). Follow simple steps you can find online to a process that works for your garden. One might be to grow your plants in a raised bed instead of using rakes to break up weeds and such in your garden. If you don’t have the tools for that, you can use soil to create a bed for your plants. To find more information and instructions how to create your own carbon friendly garden, read through the articles linked here: How to be a Backyard Carbon Farmer The Hidden Carbon Trap in Your Garden? It's All About the Soil Be a Carbon Hero with Backyard Carbon Farming!
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