‘Carbon sequestration’ is a key tool in curbing climate change. What is it?
Leaders and experts use a lot of complex jargon when it comes to climate change, and it’s not always easy to understand how these concepts impact our communities and the environment.
One term you may have heard recently is “carbon sequestration.” What exactly does that mean?
Carbon sequestration refers to the process of pulling carbon out of the atmosphere — where it concentrates as carbon dioxide and traps heat — and storing it for the long-term, either through high-tech facilities or natural systems such as forests and wetlands. Ramping up carbon sequestration will likely be essential in preventing catastrophic levels of climate change, scientists warn, since humanity is not on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to do so.
Carbon, a chemical element foundational to life on Earth, naturally cycles between the atmosphere and the planet. However, people have skewed the dynamics by powering our lifestyles with fossil fuels, which are the remains of dead plants and animals extracted from underground. Burning these fuels releases carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, driving climate change.
“What these fossil fuel emissions are doing are taking carbon stored for millions of years and putting it back into the atmosphere,” said Steve Hollenhorst, who was dean of Western Washington University’s College of the Environment from 2012 to 2021. “At the same time, the Earth is, through photosynthesis, reabsorbing carbon. That’s happening on land and in the oceans.”
Carbon dioxide levels are higher now than they have been at any time over the last 3.6 million years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The planet just can’t keep up, Hollenhorst said, especially as human activity degrades the environmental health and productivity of many ecosystems.
“The Earth used to be able to sequester more but because of deforestation and changes in land use, that has gone down,” Hollenhorst said.
The question facing communities around the world now is how to increase the planet’s capacity to store more carbon.
As Hollenhorst puts it, “it’s all about pluses and minuses on emissions versus sequestration.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
