hello lion,
>--------------------
>Carbon Sequestration
>--------------------
>Much discussion on CARBON SEQUESTRATION seems to have
>misunderstood the difference between short-term carbon-cycles and
>long-term carbon removal from the ecosphere.
how much carbon do you expect to put away with a maximum of
reforestation ? do you expect, that the burning of the carbon
sink from more than 20 million years in about 300 years can be
stored away in maybe 100 years? you know, that the forest area in
europe has been constantly increased since about 250 years while
carbon emission fell for 15% in the last 6 years due to
improvements in technology ? what about the rest of the world ??
accepted, that the greece and romans had cut down the whole area
around the metiterranee, but that was 2000 years ago and does not
contribute to today's climate.
a comparison:
You have a row boat from the titanic, full of people, which is
sitting so low that water is spilling over the sides (carbon
emission) and the people in it are merely able to bail water at a
high enough rate (carbon binding) to keep the boat afloat. Then
any remotely intelligent person would realise that the answer is
not to bring aboard more people so that the water bailing rate
can be increased.
or an even better example would be the theme in "LIVING
DOWNSTREAM". they are so busy putting away the dead bodies from
the upper part of the river, that they find the time to think
about the reason, why the dead bodies are drifting by.
that is exactly the sort of logic that's behind the idea to
"bury" the surplus of the carbon we do produce. the burning of oil
and coal still doesn't stop and in 50 years we have the same
problem again, only more severe, because the decay of the planted
forests will begin (while coal is still burned !).
would you agree, that the REAL answer to the problem is not, how
to put away with the carbon dioxide, but how to reduce it's
production ?? i.e. less consumation of useless things ? just ask
the king of the tonga islands (which might be among the first
islands to be flooded), if he considers 200 gr of salad in
a plastic bag a useful product. in germany they are just selling
the first 3 liter car (a REAL car, not a cart, that's less than 1
gallon per 100 kms !. still not the solution: moving 1 ton of
steel/plastic to move a person of 70 kg !!)
btw: german government (by the help of heavy pushing from the
green party) has just started a project for farmers to become
"energy" farmers either by methan production by manure or by
windmill parks for wind energy production. that alone would not
be the solution. so they passed a law, that forces the big
energy producers to buy that energy for a fixed price.
consequence: these energy companies sell a certain amount of
energy in a given time. if they HAVE to buy the energy from the
windmills, they are FORCED to reduce energy production by their
coal plants (the real "hot" producers of co2 besides traffic and
an environmental nightmare. the co2 is filtered out by lime and
then the lime is sold to farmers -> hello, i'll soon be back in
the air). the winner: the environment. the looser (purely
economical view): the energy consumer, on the long run he will
have to pay a bit more (about 5-8%). the advantage of methan
seems not so obvious, but at least it's a "clean" burning (no
sulphur, no heavy metals, reduction of methan as greenhouse gas)
energy is TOO CHEAP. you will think, i'm crazy, but i vote for a
HIGHER tax on energy!!!!
and yes: farming or reforesting is ONE of the short-
time !! possibilities to bind the carbon emissions from industry
and private consumers.
but be careful with these arguments. there is NO reason to
assume, that farming an area leads to better results of carbon
binding than converting farmland into wilderness (i.e taking out
of production and leaving it to itsself without any cultivation
by a farmer or forestman). any counterproofs ??
klaus
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jul 03 2000 - 12:00:34 EDT