Still messing around with Scott Bidstrup's carbon sequestration figures trying to figure out something workable. As before, I calculated approximately 1 quadrillion pounds of charcoal will need to be buried to undo the effect of the carbon dioxide added by the Industrial Revolution to date. This would be about 66000 tons per square kilometer for about 8160000 square kilometers (1.6 percent of the earth's surface). About eight million groups of people will have to commit to producing and/or buying this amount at a cost of up to $1000 per ton, grinding it and burying it in a square kilometer (about .4 of a square mile). That's 66 million dollars for each group not counting labor. Of course, if you don't own that much land, and there's no public land you can use for this purpose, you could enrich a smaller plot with the same amount. For example, the City of the Sun has about 1/4 of a square mile; if we could come up with that kind of money, say with grants, we could have terra preta 4 or 5 feet deep rather than just 3.
I finished Fifty Degrees Below yesterday afternoon, and it really got me thinking what can be done now to reverse the global warming trend before it bites us in the ass big-time.
last updated 2013-01-10 20:49:17. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com