Carbon Sequestration

CARBON SEQUESTRATION

by Antonio C. Antonio

August 3, 2014

Sequestration is the act of removing, separating or seizing anything from the possession of its owner under the process of law for the benefit of creditors or the state.  However, sequestration, in the ecological sense, has nothing to do with ill-gotten wealth seized from government officials and private individuals.  Quite different from legal sequestration of ill-gotten assets, carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Carbon sequestration refers to the process of removing carbon elements from the atmosphere and storing the same in a reservoir.  Human intervention in the carbon sequestration process is called geoengineering wherein flue gases are removed from the atmosphere and deposited in underground reservoirs.  Anthropogenic (meaning: man-made) measures are not as efficient as natural carbon sequestration processes.  However, carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical and physical processes.  The chemical weathering of rocks is also a form of biogeochemical cycling of carbon which is also an integral part of the process of carbon sequestration.

Carbon sequestration, on a larger process scheme, is a very broad and complex topic… even if carbon storage is not included.  It will take more than an article to discuss these processes (sequestration and storage) in detail.  Perhaps, an entire book of technical studies and reports will be necessary to clearly present these processes.  But for our purpose, let us just limit ourselves to the basics of carbon sequestration in the ambit or purview of the forest and reforestation since we commonly equate trees with air and/or the atmosphere.

Reforestation or the replanting of trees is a means to mitigate global warming and climate change.  Trees are also repositories of carbon which incorporates the atmospheric carbon into biomass.  Biomass is described as biological material derived from living organisms.  However, when trees die and rot, they also gradually emit carbon back into the atmosphere.  This process hastens when trees are deliberately burned.  When trees are “felled” (forestry technical term for cutting down trees) at their ideal maturity state, carbon is sequestered in biomass.  Carbon sequestration, therefore, should be the end result of the normal life cycle of trees.

There really is no problem in felling trees for commercial and economic use.  But this has to be sustainable --- defined as the ability to utilize natural resources by the present generation without jeopardising the ability of future generations to utilize the same natural resources.  The consumption and utilization of forest products should also be calibrated in a way that the forest regenerates normally and our forest cover increases… simply said, more trees will have to be planted than what is actually being felled.  Otherwise, reforestation programs will not work in consonance with the economic value of carbon sequestration.

Just my little thoughts…

(Please visit, like and share Pro EARTH Crusaders and Landscape Ecology UPOU on Facebook or follow me at http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/ )