Organic soils such as those seen here could sequester 40% of global carbon emissions.Article from Treehugger
Global Climate Change Chaos
We've overshot sustainability. Three hundred fifty parts per million (350 ppm) is the recommended safe threshold for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Today, at 386 ppm, we're over the limit. There is evidence that we will see ice-free summer Arctic a hundred years before IPCC estimates and we have already seen flooding in Iowa's city that would never flood and massive fires in the American west. An ice-free Arctic full of dark water will absorb more heat and change global climate patterns. Burning forests emit massive amounts of carbon dioxide, producing a deeper greenhouse effect. To avoid further expensive climate chaos we must deploy the most creative and innovative technology in the world to rapidly pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. And regenerative farming is it.
Hope in Organic Farming: Agricultural Carbon Capture and Sequestration
Hope in Organic Farming: Agricultural Carbon Capture and Sequestration
Even if we acted sustainably by stopping carbon emissions today, we would not be living on a healthy planet-- we need agriculture to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. The US Congress is considering a law to cap emissions of greenhouse gases, and to award credits for technologies that capture carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it safely. Write your representatives to tell them you support the most sophisticated carbon capture and sequestration method around: organic farming. Or better yet, call them up, and tell them that organic farming could pull fortypercent of global greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere -- each year.
Let's Hold Agriculture Accountable
The Senate's new climate bill caps our nation's greenhouse gas emissions, and begins rewarding people and organizations that reduce our impact on the climate system. Farmers can store atmospheric carbon dioxide in their soils as soil organic carbon, which is why the Senate climate bill must support farmers with carbon credits. Unfortunately, the current bill does not limit the amount of greenhouse gases that farmers can emit, even though agriculture is responsible for 15% of our national emissions. Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions are mainly produced when chemical companies burn fossil fuels to produce synthetic fertilizers, and when distributors fly food around the world. Why should we give farmers credit for storing carbon in soil and not hold them accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions? You can help create this accountability when you tell your Senator to cap agricultural emissions.
The Real Farmers of the Future Will Build Soils
The most cutting edge forms of climate-friendly agriculture -- organic, regenerative, local, biodynamic -- don't produce greenhouse emissions the way industrial chemical farming's toxic inputs do. Rather, the real farmers of the future nurture their soils with innovative techniques such as advanced crop rotations, intercropping, soil amendments, and even animal grazing. These healthier soils are more resistant to dry and wet years, the frequencies of which are increasing as our climate transforms. The cutting-edge techniques these farmers use are continuously being improved and developed by farmer experience and supported by scientific research. Rather than giving carbon credits based on specific practices (which may become outdated or disproved) farmers should get credits based on the measured amounts of carbon they sequester in soil. A bill that rewards farmers for measured sequestration means farmers can work to increase soil carbon, rather than be limited by a specific law.
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