Soil holds potential to slow global warming, Stanford researchers find

Stanford University News ^ | October 5, 2017 | BY ROB JORDAN

[Oldeconomybuyer]

If you want to do something about global warming, look under your feet. Managed well, soil’s ability to trap carbon dioxide is potentially much greater than previously estimated, according to Stanford researchers who claim the resource could “significantly” offset increasing global emissions. They call for a reversal of federal cutbacks to related research programs to learn more about this valuable resource.

“Dirt is not exciting to most people,” said Earth system science professor Rob Jackson, lead author of the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics article. “But it is a no-risk climate solution with big co-benefits. Fostering soil health protects food security and builds resilience to droughts, floods and urbanization.”

“If we lose momentum on carbon research, it will stifle our momentum for solving both climate and land sustainability problems,” Harden said.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Funding for the papers came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the Inter-American Institute Collaborative Research Network, the Comisión Sectorial de Investigación Científica and the Proyectos de Investigación Plurianuales, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Goebbels Climate Research Center at Stockholm University, the EU JPI Climate Consortium, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The paper resulted from a 2017 International Soil Carbon Network workshop funded by Stanford’s School of Earth, Wind & Socialism Sciences.

[Slyfox]

soil’s ability to trap carbon dioxide is potentially much greater than previously estimated

Huh. Does the fact that plants need carbon dioxide and that its roots need it, mean anything?

[x1stcav]

Stanford’s School of Earth, Wind & Socialism Sciences. They left out fire. If they add fire to their name they can return all of us to Medieval times.

[Red Badger]

Earth, Wind & Socialism ?...................

[The KG9 Kid]

"The paper resulted from a 2017 International Soil Carbon Network workshop funded by Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences."

Come on man. That's what's in the article. Not what you wrote.

[WKUHilltopper]

“Stanford’s School of Earth, Wind & Socialism Sciences...”

WTF??

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Dirt is not exciting to most people,

Money quote winner of the week!

Ever notice how often these "researchers" write "This factor has a much bigger effect on global warming than we realized / we knew before / we previously thought / we understood"? They are inadvertently admitting their models are weak, inaccurate, and do not account for everything that influences climate. They thus make a definitive case that the SCIENCE IS NOT SETTLED!

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A typo ... caused by global warming.

[fedupjohn]

Jeez, Shut The Effin Funding Off to These A**holes, Already!!!

[MrEdd]

Kid, I am terribly sorry that the education system failed you so completely.

When I was growing up we started learning synonyms in first grade.

[Kozy]

Here’s an idea. Plant a tree. Simple, easy and has worked for time immortal.
Wonder how much we the taxpayer paid for the dirt study

[Vic S]

This is soil sequestration and people have been talking about it for years. Nothing is being done about reversing it because ‘global warming’ is a population reduction scheme.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Does the fact that plants need carbon dioxide and that its roots need it, mean anything?"

I think that is what they are referring to. But remember that most of those transfers of CO2 and other nutrients are facilitated by soil and plant micro-organisms. Inoculating the soil with a tailored mix plus nutrients can probably speed up the process significantly.

[Amendment10]

Stanford findings are evidence that global warming alarmists never did their homework on CO2 before crying about political correct global warming.

Here’s another question mark about CO2 concerning cement.

Cement soaks up greenhouse gases

Corrections, insights welcome.

[Billthedrill]

Dirt is cool. I spent a lovely summer at Virginia Tech under the NSF program studying "soul sahnce", or so it sounded to a whitebread Idaho boy straight off the turnip truck. (There is, I learned, in Southernese, a subtle differentiation between "Soh-uhl" and "Soh-ihl" that is audible only to initiates. It's like a secret code.) To my considerable relief I discovered I hadn't dropped into a theological seminar by mistake.

What this datum tells us is that like the sun cycle, the carbon cycle contains a variable of significant proportion that the climate modelers have failed to incorporate correctly into their models. In case anyone with an acquaintance with science deeper than the society page of the NY Times hadn't noticed that by now. It is nice, however, to get one's suspicions confirmed by real science.

[Rebelbase]

Lumping social BS into the sciences gives it more credibility to the gullible mind.