The new plan to remove a trillion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere: Bury it

[IronLionZion]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/06/12/new-plan-remove-trillion-tons-carbon-dioxide-atmosphere-bury-it/?utm_term=.4dde9490a285

It sounds like an idea plucked from science fiction, but the reality is that trees and plants already do it.



Last month, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere surpassed 415 parts per million, the highest in human history. Environmental experts say the world is increasingly on a path toward a climate crisis.

The most prominent efforts to prevent that crisis involve reducing carbon emissions. But another idea is also starting to gain traction — sucking all that carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it underground.

It sounds like an idea plucked from science fiction, but the reality is that trees and plants already do it, breathing carbon dioxide and then depositing it via roots and decay into the soil. That’s why consumers and companies often “offset” their carbon emissions by planting carbon-sucking trees elsewhere in the world.

But an upstart company, ­Boston-based Indigo AG, now wants to transform farming practices so that agriculture becomes quite the opposite of what it is today — a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

By promoting techniques that increase the potential of agricultural land to suck in carbon, the backers of Indigo AG believe they can set the foundation for a major effort to stem climate change. On Wednesday, the company announced a new initiative with the ambitious goal of removing 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by paying farmers to modify their practices.

[empedocles]

1. Hope it works, however, . . .

Seems bit too much like an 'Ages Old Solution' to almost any given problem [''cover it up''; evidence of wrong doing, unlawful toxic waste disposal, various types of enemies or relatives, etc.] - 'BURY IT'

[DetlefK]

2. The title is gravely misleading.

Plants don't bury CO2. They make a chemical reaction with the CO2 and turn it into something else. The CO2 is gone.

There are plans to actually bury CO2. You just pump it into underground caves and seal them. Which is of course bullshit, because even the tiniest crack from geological activity will release it again.

[The_jackalope]

3. A trillion tonnes of CO2 contains 280 billion tonnes of carbon

There are 4.5 billion acres of cropland in the world.
Meeting the trillion-tonne goal would require every acre of cropland to sequester 62 tonnes of carbon.
So far, a few test acres with some crops can sequester up to 1.5 tonnes.
There's a bit of a gap there...

This is just another bullshit pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die scheme, designed to separate investors from their money, and keep the faith in perpetual growth alive.

These guys are hopium salesmen.

[pscot]

4. I'll believe it when it happens

[SWBTATTReg]

5. Best bet is to figure out how to use the excess carbon dioxide (besides plants too)...

Huge algae farms (probably already enough of these out there, in the wild), and perhaps using technology to manufacture diamonds etc., but I suspect this wouldn't help (more energy to create than worth)...perhaps using the excess carbon dioxide with some sort of building material so we as a species can use for building structures and the like, or as an energy source?

I suspect anyone that comes up with a viable solution(s) would be wealthy beyond belief.

[Sinistrous]

6. My flippant proposal for sequestering carbon is:

If you want to create habitat, plant trees. If you want to sequester carbon, plant oysters. (Or clams, or mussels, etc. )