Can Dirt Save the Earth?
nytimes.com
Can Dirt Save the Earth?
1–10 of 54 posts
Re: Can Dirt Save the Earth?
#2Nicely written article, but the author needs to have a conversation with a chemist on the difference between carbon, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons. The author calls all of them "carbon", making for confusing reading.
Anyway if you need a summary: Spray cow manure on fields to encourage plant grown. Done right you can actually increase topsoil, burying older plants under newer ones and store hydrocarbons there.
Basically reverse soil erosion, with benefits in carbon dioxide capture.
Re: Can Dirt Save the Earth?
#3Nicely written article, but the author needs to have a conversation with a chemist on the difference between carbon, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons. The author calls all of them "carbon", making for confusing reading. Anyway if you need a summary: Spray cow manure on fields to encourage plant grown. Done right you can actually increase topsoil, burying older plants under newer ones and store hydrocarbons there. Bas…
Ok, let’s cultivate the Sahara!
Re: Can Dirt Save the Earth?
#4I love reading about clever ideas like this, but at the same time, I'm leery of the notion that we can fix the climate at the last minute, a narrative that stems from the late capitalist imperative to innovate. We don't need to innovate to find a solution; we need to act.
Re: Can Dirt Save the Earth?
#5Ive nabbed the cover photograph of a big steaming pile of dirt to fertilize my desktop environment with - its splendid :D
Re: Can Dirt Save the Earth?
#6Nicely written article, but the author needs to have a conversation with a chemist on the difference between carbon, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons. The author calls all of them "carbon", making for confusing reading. Anyway if you need a summary: Spray cow manure on fields to encourage plant grown. Done right you can actually increase topsoil, burying older plants under newer ones and store hydrocarbons there. Bas…
Spray cow manure on fields to encourage plant grown
I don't believe that's quite right. The article suggests that manure and fertiliser themselves release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, potentially negating any increase in sequestration due to plant growth:
Wick wanted to know if he could deliberately replicate this process on his ranch — but without manure, which, as it decomposes, can release potent greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide. The former traps about 30 times as much heat as carbon dioxide, the latter 300 times as much. As a carbon-farming tool, manure might be self-defeating.
Instead they propose that compost be used, while avoiding methods of farming that release carbon from the soil.
Jeff Creque, a onetime organic farmer, had a suggestion: Why not use compost? Compost can contain manure, but whereas manure alone can release nitrogen as nitrous oxide, the nitrogen in compost becomes locked up in complex molecules. At least in theory, that limits the escape of a powerful greenhouse gas.
Silver had thought that the compost would simply break down, releasing its carbon back into the atmosphere or, worse, produce nitrous oxide. But those emissions never occurred; moreover, judging by its chemical signature, most of the carbon moving into the soil came from the air, not the compost. The compost appeared to help the plants draw more carbon from the atmosphere than they otherwise would have.
Re: Can Dirt Save the Earth?
#7Nicely written article, but the author needs to have a conversation with a chemist on the difference between carbon, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons. The author calls all of them "carbon", making for confusing reading. Anyway if you need a summary: Spray cow manure on fields to encourage plant grown. Done right you can actually increase topsoil, burying older plants under newer ones and store hydrocarbons there. Bas…
The article seems to be saying, don't spray manure but compost made with manure. I'm not sure what that is. Is it manure mixed with plant compost?
Re: Can Dirt Save the Earth?
#8Nicely written article, but the author needs to have a conversation with a chemist on the difference between carbon, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons. The author calls all of them "carbon", making for confusing reading. Anyway if you need a summary: Spray cow manure on fields to encourage plant grown. Done right you can actually increase topsoil, burying older plants under newer ones and store hydrocarbons there. Bas…
Ok, let’s cultivate the Sahara!
It is not a bad idea but it will probably need an enormous political (mostly I think), economical and technological effort.
Re: Can Dirt Save the Earth?
#9I love reading about clever ideas like this, but at the same time, I'm leery of the notion that we can fix the climate at the last minute, a narrative that stems from the late capitalist imperative to innovate. We don't need to innovate to find a solution; we need to act.
Of course we need to innovate. Billions of people aren't going to voluntarily go back to living in terrible poverty.
Re: Can Dirt Save the Earth?
#10I love reading about clever ideas like this, but at the same time, I'm leery of the notion that we can fix the climate at the last minute, a narrative that stems from the late capitalist imperative to innovate. We don't need to innovate to find a solution; we need to act.
There is no other way. Any attempt to get people to 'change' their lifestyle now is ineffective, and any attempt to force them to will just be met with a coup/failed government.
At the end of the day, technology is the only thing that will fix climate issues. Anything else is simply not possible.