We already have a giant carbon sink that needs protection; the Amazon Rainforest, our global lungs. It's light on food but it inhales C02 and exhales O2 and we need that.
Farms can be carbon sinks if we alter current agricultural practices.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sink
Quote:
Current agricultural practices lead to carbon loss from soils. It has been suggested that improved farming practices could return the soils to being a carbon sink. Present worldwide practises of overgrazing are substantially reducing many grasslands' performance as carbon sinks.[9] The Rodale Institute says that regenerative agriculture, if practiced on the planet’s 3.6 billion tillable acres, could sequester up to 40% of current CO2 emissions.[10] They claim that agricultural carbon sequestration has the potential to mitigate global warming. When using biologically based regenerative practices, this dramatic benefit can be accomplished with no decrease in yields or farmer profits.[11] Organically managed soils can convert carbon dioxide from a greenhouse gas into a food-producing asset.
As to the captured carbon that is part of plants that in turn becomes part of human waste:
http://www.marinij.com/general-news/20140317/marin-research-on-human-waste-compost-could-benefit-the-planetQuote:
Ranch owner Wick found that by spreading about a half-inch of traditional non-human compost on his pasture, the land produced more grass, remained moist and stored more carbon in the soil than non-treated land. He also believes the human compost would do the same.
"A lot of it could be put back on the landscape and it starts inhaling atmosphere carbon," Wick said. "That's the big picture."
It's estimated that over the past 150 years, between 50 and 80 percent of topsoil worldwide has been lost and that more than a third of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere during that time has come from changes in land use.
Soil carbon absorption, or "sequestration," is the process of moving carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil. Through photosynthesis, plants pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and transfer that carbon below ground via roots and to the soil surface.
Wick, co-founder of the Marin Carbon Project, believes human compost could play a role in rejuvenating the land while helping rein in global warming.
On Monday a group of students from Kenneth Frost's environmental chemistry class at Dominican University came to the Wick ranch to hear about carbon and converting human waste into fertilizer. On Wednesday they will perform DNA tests on the material.
"The idea that you could put a little compost on land and enhance the fertility and enhance the water-holding capability, while increasing the amount of carbon stored in the soil means we have an opportunity to make a change," Frost said. "This is the most important climate mitigation project going on."
Human waste as fertilizer (traditionally called "night soil") is used often in the developing world but not in the developed. In the developing world its use helps spread intestinal parasites and that is a dealbreaker for those who have access to other fertilizers. It's just not sanitary. But with ingenuity we could change that and make it safe. I think this is a solvable problem.
12 Feb 2015, 8:02 pm
