Comments on: Plants Won’t Help Fight Global Warming As Much As We’d Thought http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/10/plants-wont-help-fight-global-warming-as-much-as-wed-thought/ Keeping You Current Tue, 21 May 2013 19:55:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: DougO http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/10/plants-wont-help-fight-global-warming-as-much-as-wed-thought/comment-page-1/#comment-1155 DougO Mon, 08 Oct 2012 05:38:42 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/?p=5091#comment-1155 The headline gives an impression of a broader conclusion. The study applies to temperate grasslands. We should not draw conclusions about other ecosystems until they have been carefully studied. The headline gives an impression of a broader conclusion. The study applies to temperate grasslands. We should not draw conclusions about other ecosystems until they have been carefully studied.

]]> By: al http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/10/plants-wont-help-fight-global-warming-as-much-as-wed-thought/comment-page-1/#comment-1104 al Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:29:27 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/?p=5091#comment-1104 Not really that surprising: Liebig's Law of Minimum. Not really that surprising: Liebig’s Law of Minimum.

]]> By: Lewis Cleverdon http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/10/plants-wont-help-fight-global-warming-as-much-as-wed-thought/comment-page-1/#comment-1101 Lewis Cleverdon Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:18:52 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/?p=5091#comment-1101 The article's title is misleadingly general, and impertinent in implying that 'we' shared in mistaken assumptions of grasslands' carbon sequestration potential. Specifically, the type of plants known as trees, have for many millennia been used for charcoal production, with the sylviculture of 'Coppice Forestry' having been developed by the Bronze Age. The yields of charcoal per hectare per year from coppice woodland are both well evidenced and are potentially sustainable in perpetuity. The potential for the very long term sequestration of that charcoal in farmland is evidenced in the very widespread ancient Amazonian practice of Terra Preta. Given that the recent WRI-WFN study identified over 1.6 GHa.s of non-farmland globally available for afforestation for carbon recovery, perhaps it is time that a better research effort was focussed on this option ? Regards, Lewis The article’s title is misleadingly general, and impertinent in implying that ‘we’ shared in mistaken assumptions of grasslands’ carbon sequestration potential.

Specifically, the type of plants known as trees, have for many millennia been used for charcoal production, with the sylviculture of ‘Coppice Forestry’ having been developed by the Bronze Age. The yields of charcoal per hectare per year from coppice woodland are both well evidenced and are potentially sustainable in perpetuity. The potential for the very long term sequestration of that charcoal in farmland is evidenced in the very widespread ancient Amazonian practice of Terra Preta.

Given that the recent WRI-WFN study identified over 1.6 GHa.s of non-farmland globally available for afforestation for carbon recovery, perhaps it is time that a better research effort was focussed on this option ?

Regards,

Lewis

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