Carbon capture is key to human sustainability. Although reducing carbon emissions through the use of fossil fuels is important immediately, it is not enough to guarantee our future unless we can return the greenhouse gasses we have already released into the atmosphere to where they came.
We are at the cutting edge of environmental technology. There are many options to sequester carbon dioxide.Many and growing. However, most of these technologies involve condensing or liquidizing the gas and pumping it where it won’t see the daylight for many millions. This could be on the seafloor, within the earth’s crust, or in the roots and branches of trees.
Unfortunately, traditional carbon sequestration methods like direct air capture or geologic sequestration do not work.It is also very energy-intensive and expensive.These techniques must be able to capture emissions from all over the globe. However, infrastructure will need to be built globally over many generations.
We will need self-sustaining systems to capture greenhouse gases, without the intervention of humans or external energy sources, in a variety of environments. This will allow us to undo the damage we have done to our oceans, atmosphere, and oceans.
The obvious answer should be obvious: Nature has transformed biomass into fossil fuels over hundreds of millions years. Since over a century, we have been mining and burning these materials. The only way to get them back is to use the same processes that created them.
Healthy, mature ecosystems can be capable ofSequestering more carbonTechnology created by humans is better than technology made by animals. Unfortunately, the majority of our well-intentioned efforts to help nature do its work has led in the wrong directions.
The planting of a tree is a symbol of environmental restoration, and it’s a good thing. Although mature forests can absorb a staggering amount of carbon dioxide, human-led efforts to aid this process are often unsuccessful.Deeply misguided. In fact, even if all of this energy was directed towards conserving and expanding native forests, we would still be missing out the true powerhouses for carbon sequestration.
Although they make up a small fraction of the Earth’s surface, wetlands are capable of absorbing greenhouse gases far more than their weight. The Earth’s peatlands, especially those that are boggy and saturated with acidic soils, cover only 3 percent of its surface. However, they hold a tremendous amount of potential.25 percent of the soil carbon in the world is complete.
Wetlands are prime targets for environmental destruction because they aren’t resource-rich. The practice of draining swamp land to make way for poorly-thought-out construction projects is a common one.American tradition,These actions can have far more devastating consequences than we imagined.
Bogs store carbon when they are protected. However, under attack they release more than 2 million tons of carbon dioxide annually worldwide. It is estimated that there are approximately 2. billion tons of carbon dioxide released each year worldwide by bogs.5% of total emissionsHuman-caused damage to peatlands can be caused by drained and damaged areas.
Humanity needs to change priorities, not only in the way we pollute the planet but also in how we clean it up. We must protect and set aside land that our founder fathers considered useless in order to maintain a balanced world. We will need to invest in ecosystems we can’t make money from, and curb the urge to spread out on land better left alone.
