By Jack Ditmore and Dane Smith |
Natural carbon capture and ‘working lands’ are gaining ground in climate-action playbook
A massive global effort to plant trees and to reforest up to 2.5 billion acres could have a significant impact in arresting and reversing climate change, according to a widely published recent study by Swiss researchers.Another study, published in Science
Advances in November 2018, finds that natural climate solutions – such as reforestation, planting cover crops, and limiting conversion of grassland to farmland – could mitigate as much as one-fifth of the net annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, approximately the equivalent of removing greenhouse gas emissions by all of the cars and trucks in the country.
„Sustainable managed timber for our future”
While battles between renewable energy advocates and the fossil fuel industry dominate the policy scene in the nation and in Minnesota, the potential for natural carbon capture tends to get ignored. And the good news is that Minnesota made some progress on this front in a 2019 legislative session that generally has been graded a failure for insufficient progress on climate action.
A study published in 2018 finds that natural climate solutions – such as reforestation, planting cover crops, and limiting conversion of grassland to farmland – could mitigate as much as one-fifth of the net annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
Another study, published in Science Advances in November 2018, finds that natural climate solutions – such as reforestation, planting cover crops, and limiting conversion of grassland to farmland – could mitigate as much as one-fifth of the net annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, approximately the equivalent of removing greenhouse gas emissions by all of the cars and trucks in the country.
