Soil Carbon Sequestration: Possible Solution to Global Warming

Soil Carbon Sequestration: Possible Solution to Global Warming

by: Arfaye Gem M. Daug

Our world is changing due to climate change, which is bringing about extreme weather events like heat waves, wildfires, severe droughts, and tropical storms. It is also affecting food output and upsetting the natural habitats of animals, among other things. Carbon and other greenhouse gasses are the primary source of global warming and it is crucial to know its environmental effects.

The sun warms the Earth’s surface, which is the natural process of greenhouse effect. However, an excessive greenhouse gas emission which includes carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor are resulted from human activities such as burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas), cutting down trees (deforestation) increasing livestock farming and many others that can trap the sun’s heat making the average temperature to rise. This is known as global warming.

According to the National Integrated Climate Change Database Information and Exchange System (NICCDIES), the Philippines is the third most vulnerable country to climate change based on the 2017 world risk report. Impacts of climate change in the country includes annual losses in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), changes in rainfall patterns and distributions, droughts threats to biodiversity and food security, sea level rise, public health risks and many more.

Many solutions have been introduced by experts to help lessen the excessiveness of greenhouse gas emissions and one of them is soil carbon sequestration, also known as “carbon farming” or “regenerative agriculture”. It is the process in which carbon dioxide (CO2) is removed from the atmosphere and is stored in the soil carbon pool that is primarily mediated by plants through photosynthesis. It also includes various ways of managing land, especially farmlands, so that soils absorb and hold more carbon. Soil carbon sequestration is accomplished by planting perennial crops (crops that live more than two years), changing planting schedules by planting cover crops instead of leaving fields unsown, applying compost or crop residues to fields and managed grazing of livestock. It holds benefits such as improved soil health, increased climate resilience, and reduced fertilizer use.

To summarize it all, the process of storing carbon in the soil has the potential to minimize the effect of global warming and by promoting soil carbon sequestration, we can achieve an advanced sustainable agricultural and land management practices.