Tropical wetlands store 80 percent more carbon than temperate wetlands, reports a new study that compared ecosystems in Costa Rica and Ohio.
William Mitsch of Ohio State University and colleagues found that the tropical wetland in Costa Rica accumulated around 1 ton of carbon per acre [2.63 t/ha] per year, while the temperate wetland in Ohio accumulated 0.6 tons of carbon per acre [1.4 t/ha] per year.
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, historically at the center of US coal production, regularly hosts a meeting of the worlds' scientists and engineers who are dealing with coal's dirty details.
Those attending this year's 25th Annual International Pittsburgh Coal Conference, focus "on environmental emissions issues and technologies surrounding the continued use of coal and the development of future coal-based energy plants to achieve near-zero emissions of pollutants, reduced costs, and high thermal efficiency while producing a suite of products to meet future energy market requirements." ...
Image from Jeff Kubina
Remember this term: carbon-capture farming. While it may not yet have received much attention, this practice, which would consist of paying delta farmers to plant carbon-sequestering crops, could soon become a big business.
Soils contain more than twice as much carbon as the atmosphere according to estimates (Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations, FAO). Increasing the amount of carbon naturally stored in soils could provide the short-term bridge to reduce the impacts of increasing carbon emissions until low-carbon and sustainable technologies can be implemented. A group called Soil Carbon, based in Australia, makes the case for soil carbon storage in a presentation available in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Mexican and Portuguese. The Soil Carbon report includes impressive photographs, such as those above, demonstrating the difference between well-managed and poorly managed soils.
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