If adopted, this significant lifestyle change would also cut down on another animal problem: waste. Cow, pig and chicken excrement fester in lagoons, emitting methane—a short-lived but potent GHG. On the other hand, capturing that methane also offers an opportunity to create electricity. Biodigesters (covered tanks that employ bacteria to break down animal waste) produce abundant methane, says Albert Morales, executive vice president of Environmental Power, a purveyor of such systems. "The gas goes to a generator,'' he explains, "that generates power for the [electricity] grid."
Economists and other experts argue that offsetting coal-fired electricity generation may be the most promising use of such agricultural and forestry biofuels. While roughly 20 percent of the carbon in corn, for example, is recycled if turned into the motor fuel ethanol, as much as 95 percent of the carbon in the whole corn plant can be recycled if burned in electric power plants, McCarl says.
The pulp and paper industry, which creates large amounts of waste, is already utilizing such carbon recycling and generation. In fact, such manufacturers have become net exporters of energy in Canada by burning residue wood. This kind of efficiency could reduce GHG emissions in the U.S. alone "in the neighborhood of 300 million metric tons on an annual basis," McCarl says, "principally from burning biofuels for electricity and [from] forest management."
Forest management is the linchpin of any effort to combat climate change in these sectors, contributing the largest share of greenhouse gases. And it will not be as simple as building a fence around the world's forests. "We need to understand the dual role of forests of storing carbon and providing carbon to serve society's needs," Natural Resources Canada's Kurz says. "Choosing wood-based products has a much lower fossil fuel footprint than using some other building materials," such as concrete.
In Scandinavia, for example, forests cover more land now than in the previous century—thus increasing their carbon storage—while still being regularly harvested. "The more we can prolong the storage of wood products in human structures, the longer the carbon is kept out of the atmosphere. When we do get rid of it, we should burn it to offset fossil fuels, part of a cascading system of multiple uses," Kurz says. "Good forest management is typically also good carbon management."
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7 Comments
Add CommentThe author states that"...Forest management is the linchpin of any effort to combat climate change...". I recall in the 1970's when environmentalists stopped all forest service thinning/forest management programs because they called it "logging" the forests. Forest management was equated with clearcutting by the environmentalists; and, to this date, the U.S. forest service does not have a "thinning" program.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis has resulted in forest fires that now burn over 6 million acres a year (for the last five years) rather than the 3 million per year that were burned in the 1980' & 90's. Nowhere do we hear outcries against this large source of CO2 production, and esp. not from the environmentalists who stopped the forest management programs of the 1970's.
Why not get really serious about GHG; and institute forest managment again? Three million acres of "burned" trees is a huge amount of greenhouse gasses.
I must enter my opinion on this subject here. Here is an article I wrote recently.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn the News.Global Warming, truth or consequences. Please pass
on to your friends. Thanks
http://www.quazen.com/News/Opinions/Al-Gores-Decree-on-Global-Warming-is-Not-Our-Only-Crisis.51904
Al Gore's Decree on Global Warming is Not Our Only Crisis
http://www.quazen.com/Science/Environment/Our-Energy-Conservation-Dilemma.32660
Our Energy Conservation Dilemma
The author states "Tropical felling alone contributes 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon." Does he mean that the ACT of felling trees contributes 1.5 billion metric tons (perhaps through CO2 releases associated with operating heavy equipment), or does he mean that tropical felling RESULTS in (the passive subsequent release of) 1.5 billion tons?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks (from a fellow journalist, trying to comprehend the mechanisms of CO2 production and cycling).
Joel
You should take a look at this. These guys seem to have found an answer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this<a href="http://southern-cross.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/560766-the-y3000-plan-introduction
">Global Warming solutions</a>
I keep saying it, BIOCHAR! Imagine agriwaste and forestry waste being turned into soil enriching (and Carbon sequestering) biochar, fuel for the rural community), and food. Excellent! Google biochar and read up on it for yourselves, it truly is a major new 'wedge' in our battle against Co2, along with better town planning, better public transport, electrifying transport (because peak oil is coming anyway) and renewable energy. We can do this!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUmm, isn't that just spam Lq?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisfires are the natural regeneration method of many forests (like red pine stands). it paves the way for successional vegetative sequences and promotes heterogeneity which in turn enhances biodiversity across a lanscape. fires can also regulate things like insect outbreaks. Its not so black and white David.
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