Contribution to Book
Restoring Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide to Pre-Industrial Levels: Re-Establishing the Evolutionary Grassland-Grazer Relationship
Geotherapy
(2014)
Abstract
The quantity of carbon contained in soils is directly related to the diversity and health of soil biota. Since virtually all organic carbon sequestered in soils is extracted from the atmosphere by photosynthetic organisms, and converted to complex molecules by bacteria and fungi in synergy with insects and animals, we propose an effective and sustainable method for increasing soil organic carbon by restoring degraded and desertified grasslands worldwide. This approach to grassland management uses livestock according to the principles of Holistic Planned Grazing, the effectiveness of which has been demonstrated on over millions of hectares on four continents, primarily in semi-arid and arid areas, since the 1970s. We maintain that it has the potential to remove excess atmospheric carbon resulting from anthropogenic soil loss over the past 10,000 years and as well as all industrial-era greenhouse gas emissions. This sequestration potential, when applied to up to 5 billion hectares of degraded range and agricultural soils (former wild grasslands), could, in theory, return 10 or more gigatons of excess atmospheric carbon to the terrestrial sink annually and lower greenhouse gas concentrations to pre-industrial levels in a matter of decades.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2014
Editor
Thomas Goreau
Publisher
CRC Press
Citation Information
Frederick D Provenza. "Restoring Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide to Pre-Industrial Levels: Re-Establishing the Evolutionary Grassland-Grazer Relationship" Geotherapy (2014) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/frederick_provenza/233/