Worldwatch Institute has issued a new report on agriculture and climate that points to biochar as an important climate solution:
Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use
Sara J. Scherr and Sajal Sthapit
hardcopy or ebook – $12.95
From the summary:
Worldwatch Institute has issued a new report on agriculture and climate that points to biochar as an important climate solution:
Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use
Sara J. Scherr and Sajal Sthapit
hardcopy or ebook – $12.95
From the summary:
Land makes up a quarter of Earth’s surface,and its soil and plants hold three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. More than 30 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions arise from the land use sector. Thus, no strategy for mitigating global climate change can be complete or successful without reducing emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses. Moreover, only land-based or “terrestrial” carbon sequestration offers the possibility today of large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, through plant photosynthesis.
Five major strategies for reducing and sequestering terrestrial greenhouse gas emissions are:
• Enriching soil carbon. Soil is the third largest carbon pool on Earth’s surface. Agricultural soils can be managed to reduce emissions by minimizing tillage, reducing use of nitrogen fertilizers, and preventing erosion. Soils can store the carbon captured by plants from the atmosphere by building up soil organic matter, which also has benefits for crop production. Adding biochar (biomass burned in a low-oxygen environment) can further enhance carbon storage in soil….