William H. Calvin's Blog, page 3

The need for really big carbon sinks

I hope that President Obama will take a broad look at climate fixes, not just assign DOE to clean up energy and DOT to clean up transportation. While fossil fuel emissions are what has gotten us into climate trouble, it does not follow that fixing them will get us out. Reducing emissions does nothing to reverse either ocean acidification or our present climate problems. Until we create enough new carbon sinks to begin reducing the excess CO2 in the air, our problems will only get worse.

While there are many good reasons to plant more forests, they are too vulnerable to drought. We cannot count on trees that could easily burn or rot. Anoxic sinks for biomass would be far more secure. Photo¬synthesis already removes large amounts of CO2 and, at the other end of the carbon cycle, CO2 is released by respiration and cell decomposition (combustion, rotting). It would suffice to keep atmosphere-bound carbon from reaching its destination.