Planting With Carbon?

After digesting a NY Times story by Somini Sengupta dated August 10, 2024 entitled: ‘Can Dirt Clean The Climate?’ I can see that there are attempts to do something about carbon. But as a gardener, I am concerned.

This is about Australia and an investment in fungus to grab carbon dioxide and plant it in the soil along with the spring crop. Fungus is known for this ability and has tiny little arteries that do the job.

This is distributed as a powder. The carbon dioxide in the air is pulled into the roots of the plant. And while it does seem this would work, there are some hurdles like if this has to be done year after year.

The incentive to lure farmers to do this is carbon credits. But this is still an experiment and the fields only cover so much territory. It might be a start to help with carbon issues but who will work with lands that are not farmland?

Scientists and investors have no idea how long this could be stored underground. Also with the heated surface created with global warming, more of the carbon dioxide would be sent back into the air.

But knowing how badly farmers have depleted their soils with bad growing practices, they are willing to take this dive which is relatively simple for them. They know the earth stores far more carbon than other materials, second only to the oceans.

The soil will get tested each year to see if this is working and how well. But this is where I am concerned. We know that plant material and natural manures are required to cover the earth so nutrients are not washed away or fried by the sun.

Farmers have awakened to this reality and are trying to farm in a more realistic Eco-friendly fashion. But the hotter weather tends to emit carbon faster so that dusting would have to take carbon deeper and there is no guarantee how deep it will end up since every soil bed is different. I remain skeptical.