As environmental engineers, invasive caterpillars can have remarkable effects on water quality and soil conditions. But from a climate perspective they’re pretty much a nuisance.
Companies’ net-zero pledges count on vast expanses of forest to hold carbon so they can continue emitting.
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Yes, trees and soils can absorb and store carbon, but the carbon doesn’t stay stored forever. That’s one of the problems with how net-zero plans for the climate are being designed.
Xiaoming Xu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Atul Jain, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A new study provides a detailed way to calculate the climate impact of food production, which could lead to more sustainable farming policies and methods.
Organic vegetables at the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, Goleta, Calif.
Citizen of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Four out of five Americans regularly buy some kind of organic food. An expert on the industry says more federal support could greatly expand organic farming and its environmental benefits.
View of Hobart Bay off Stephens Passage in Tongass National Forest, southeastern Alaska.
Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images
Scientists are urging the Biden administration to protect mature US forests as a climate change strategy, starting with the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
Wild pigs are on every continent, except Antarctica. All up, they likely turn over the the same amount of soil as the area of Taiwan.
Soybeans sprout on an Illinois farm through corn stubble left on an unplowed field from the previous season – an example of no-till farming.
Paige Buck, USDA/Flickr
Policymakers want to pay farmers for storing carbon in soil, but there are no uniform rules yet for measuring, reporting or verifying the results. Four scholars offer some ground rules.
If problems in such schemes are not addressed, the credibility of soil carbon trading will be undermined. Ultimately the climate - and the planet - will be the loser.
Soil underpins Australia’s economy – yet since Europeans arrived, the natural asset has steadily been degraded. A new national plan aims to change that.
A prairie strip filled with flowers and wild rye grass between soybean fields on Tim Smith’s farm near Eagle Grove, Iowa, reduces greenhouse gases and stores carbon in the soil.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
Farmers can help slow climate change by mixing native grasses into croplands, restoring wetlands and raising perennial crops. These strategies also conserve soil and water and build new markets.
Three examples of the obstacle courses we tested our fungi within.
Peat beds around the world hold huge quantities of carbon and keep it from warming the planet. But rising temperatures and over-use could turn them from a brake on climate change into an accelerant.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor is this week expected to release the government’s first Low Emissions Technology Statement. It’s likely to include ways to remove CO₂ from the air – but do they work?