"The net #CarbonSink in grasslands worldwide intensified over the last century (Fig. 2), mainly driven by North #America, #Europe
and #Russia."
"However, climate change drivers contributed a net carbon sink in soil organic matter, mainly from the
increased productivity of grasslands due to increased #CO2 and #nitrogen deposition.
This is what a #ChristmasTree in the wild looks like underground. All of those roots are storing #carbon.
The Earth’s soils contain about 2,500 gigatons of carbon—that’s more than three times the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and four times the amount stored in all living plants and animals.
The world's soils are the best #CarbonSink we have.
When we think of #food, we often aren’t paying attention to soil, but it’s actually what sustains our global food system.
Unfortunately, #ClimateChange, unsustainable farming practices & more are degrading soil around the world.
I don’t get to see each episode of Serving Up Science until they are published, but I like this new video. And I’m so glad they let me talk about soil health. https://youtu.be/FnOHwq6iSpk?si=5umwoGQU7DFrdhCD
The US government is pouring billions into this concept, not because they think it will ever work — they know it won't — but because it allows them to pretend they're doing something positive about the climate crisis, while in reality they're telling their fossil fuel buddies that Business As Usual is here to stay.
And it's working. Corporate news outlets are on board promoting the plan, and everyone is happy. 😃
Especially the oil industry!
Here's a quote from Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental Petroleum:
“We believe that our direct capture technology is going to be the technology that helps to preserve our industry over time. This gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.”
For once, an oil executive is NOT lying. She's telling the truth, and that truth is going to kill us all.
@cowvin plants do capture carbon, but they don't really store it. Most plants have a very short lifetime and, when they die, the captured carbon is returned to the environment. Even during their lifetime, plants release some of that carbon as fallen leaves or branches. That's the short term carbon cycle.
Real carbon storage is only viable deep underground in deposits of fossilised organic matter that take millenia to form. That's the (very) long term carbon cycle.
Even if we could grow huge forests to capture some of the excess carbon we have been extracting from the long term carbon cycle, we would only be postponing the inevitable until we run out of space to grow trees and overload the short term carbon cycle.
The only sensible response to the emergency situation we are living is to completely and immediately stop extracting carbon from long term reserves.
HELP SAVE BOREAL FOREST by calling on Costco to use recycled or forest-free materials in its toilet paper
In the time it takes you to brush your teeth tonight, #Canada 's #BorealForest will lose three football fields of #trees.
It's alarming, but the culprit is softer than you think: We're watching the boreal disappear before our eyes in part because #Costco uses boreal trees to make toilet paper.
And if you look even higher -- up to our atmosphere -- you'll find another important benefit. The boreal's trees are a #CarbonSink, soaking up enough #carbon each year to offset the global warming #pollution of 24 million cars.
Now, back to #Costco. Shelves lined with #Kirkland signature toilet paper can't compare with the beauty and majesty of forested lands in the world's "northern lungs."
#mycorrhiza and soil ecosystems are importent #CarbonSink.
"...study confirms the significant contribution made by #mycorrhizal associations to global #carbon fluxes and should motivate an inclusion of mycorrhizal #fungi both within global #climate and #carboncycle models, and within conservation policy and practice."