Carbon sequestration is the long-term storage of
carbon in plants, soils, geologic formations, and the ocean. Carbon
sequestration occurs both naturally and as a result of anthropogenic activities
and typically refers to the storage of carbon that has the immediate potential
to become carbon dioxide gas.
The following methods can be used for carbon sequestration :
- Afforestation: Forests currently sequester on the order of 2 Gt CO2 per year. Concerted efforts to plant trees in new places (afforest) and replant deforested acreage (reforest) could increase this by a gigaton or more.
- Bio-char making: Partly burn
materials such as logging slash or crop waste to make a carbon-rich,
slow-to-decompose substance known as biochar, which can then be buried or
spread on farmland. Biochar has been used for centuries to enrich the soil
for farming, but of late has been drawing increased attention for its
ability to sequester carbon
- Ocean fertilization: Plants and plant-like organisms that live in the ocean absorb immeasurable amounts of CO2 each year. fertilizing the ocean means bringing nutrients up from the depths to hyperdrive plants' ability to trap and store carbon.
- Rock solutions: Artificial measures
such as crushing rocks and exposing them to CO2 in a reaction chamber or
spreading them over large areas of land or ocean, increasing the surface
area over which the reactions can occur.