Читать книгу Climate Change For Dummies - Elizabeth May - Страница 36

The forestry and agriculture industries can do more than just cut back on their GHG emissions; they can actually increase the amount of carbon that’s absorbed from the planet’s atmosphere. (See Chapter 2 to take a ride on the carbon cycle and understand the critical role that plants play in keeping Earth livable.)

Around the world, forests are being cut down, removing valuable carbon sinks, which absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Where they harvest trees, logging companies need to explore methods other than clear-cutting; selectively harvesting trees enables forests to continue to thrive. In other countries, particularly in South America, people are clearing forests for farmland. Losing those forests is particularly costly for the atmosphere because, unlike forests in more temperate climates, these rainforests absorb carbon year-round. Deforestation methods have to change.

Farming’s solution for global warming is dirty — or how dirt is treated. Believe it or not, a simple action like excessively tilling the land causes carbon to be released into the atmosphere. And when farmers add GHG-laden fertilizers to the soil, they release even more emissions. By cutting back on tilling the land and using less fertilizer, farmers can be a potent part of the solution to climate change. Regenerative agriculture (an approach to farming that works to rebuild topsoil) can play a big part in avoiding climate disaster.