Plowing carbon into the soil. How farmers can cut emissions.

alfredo

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Sun Nov-01-09 02:30 PM
Original message

Plowing carbon into the soil. How farmers can cut emissions.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/a-farmers-field-of-dreams-buries-climate-change-war-20091031-hqty.html

A BATTLE is raging beneath the bobbing heads of Ian Linklater's wheat crop in the red, loamy soils of Gol Gol.

In this break-your-heart farming land near the Murray River, north of Mildura, the enemies are drought, nutrient depletion, salt and rising farming costs.

The battle's unlikely heroes are Mr Linklater and his 400-horsepower, oxygen-sucking, diesel-guzzling, carbon-spewing tractor.

International debate rages over the cost and plausibility of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations by pumping carbon underground.

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amandabeech

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Sun Nov-01-09 02:44 PM
Response to Original message

1. Very interesting. Thanks for posting. n/t

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alfredo

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Sun Nov-01-09 02:47 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. It's kind of like burning the field to add carbon.

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amandabeech

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Sun Nov-01-09 03:08 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. Or discing under corn stalks (aka corn stover).

Of course, if Jon Podesta gets his way, we'll be turning the corn stalks into cellulosic ethanol instead of using them to enrich the soil and sequester carbon.

I don't think that Jon has run his ideas by any soil scientists or sustainable farming types.

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alfredo

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Sun Nov-01-09 03:18 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. Let's hope he listens to the ethical scientist.

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amandabeech

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Sun Nov-01-09 03:34 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. In my experience, scientists and politocos don't talk much to each other. n/t

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alfredo

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Sun Nov-01-09 04:28 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. And that's a shame.

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amandabeech

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Sun Nov-01-09 07:36 PM
Response to Reply #6

7. Yes, it is.

There are scientifically based problems facing us in climate change, energy and agriculture.

I hope to heaven that the politicians who will be responsible for enacting pertinent legislation will listen to the scientists and not their big donors or the economists, who think that they are scientists.

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alfredo

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Sun Nov-01-09 09:21 PM
Response to Reply #7

8. I hope they haven't waited too long. If they have, our herd will be culled.

It won't be pretty.

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