Most discussions about fighting climate change focus on electricity and the

need for renewable energy. De-carbonizing the way we generate electricity

would be a huge step, but it won’t be enough to avoid the worst effects of
climate change. We need to reach zero net emissions from every sector of the
economy including agriculture (which, along with forestry, and land use, is
responsible for almost as much greenhouse gas emissions as electricity).

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Why we should discuss soil as much as we talk about coal

Why we should discuss soil as

much as we talk about coal
 Publicado el 26 de marzo de 2019

Bill Gates

Bill Gates Persona

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129 artículos Siguiendo

I’m done with cow farts.

I’ve written about them several times over the last six months, and I
bring them up in polite conversation more than I should. In my
defense, I have a legitimate reason: cow farts are a good example of
something that contributes to climate change but isn’t related to
generating electricity.

Most discussions about fighting climate change focus on electricity

and the need for renewable energy. De-carbonizing the way we
generate electricity would be a huge step, but it won’t be enough if we
don’t reach zero net emissions from every sector of the economy
within 50 years (and make a serious dent in the next ten). That
includes the agriculture, forestry, and land use sector, which is
responsible for 24 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions—just one
percentage point less than electricity.

Gassy cattle are a memorable and significant example of emissions—

but it’s not the only major contributor to agriculture, forestry, and land
use’s slice of the emissions pie. If you’re looking for a climate change
boogeyman, you’re just as well-off picking on soil.

Here’s a mind-blowing fact: there’s more carbon in

soil than in the atmosphere and all plant life
combined.
Here’s a mind-blowing fact: there’s more carbon in soil than in the
atmosphere and all plant life combined. That’s not a big deal when
left to its own devices. But when soil gets disturbed—like it does
when you convert a forest into cropland—all that stored carbon gets
released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. That’s one reason why
deforestation alone is responsible for 11 percent of all global
greenhouse gas emissions. (Another reason is that forests and
grasslands are natural carbon sinks. Clearing them reduces the planet’s
capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the air.)

The microbes in soil can also create greenhouse gases when they
come into contact with fertilizer. Synthetic fertilizers revolutionized
how we feed the world, but they release a powerful greenhouse gas
called nitrous oxide when broken down by those microbes. Natural
fertilizers like manure aren’t any better, because they release
greenhouse gases as they decompose.

So how do we fight climate change caused by agriculture? We can’t

simply get rid of soil—or stop growing crops, using fertilizer, and
raising livestock. There are some changes that societies can make—
people in level 3 and 4 countries will eat more meat as they move up
the income ladder, so people in level 3 and 4 countries could consume
less to compensate, for example—but at the end of the day, people
need to eat.
That’s why the goal with agriculture is not to reduce the amount
created, but to reduce emissions per product. Because every country
and every culture approaches food production differently, there are a
lot of different ways to do that (I’m involved with a group
called Breakthrough Energy Ventures that is backing a number of
creative solutions to tackle the problem). Here are some of the ones I
find most interesting:
 Microscopic nitrogen factories that replace fertilizer: What if
we could fertilize plants without releasing so much harmful
nitrous oxide into the air? BEV is invested in a company
called Pivot Bio that has genetically modified microbes to provide
plants with the nitrogen they need without the excess greenhouse
gases that synthetic alternatives produce.

Watch this video to learn more about how it work:

 Longer roots that store more carbon: Kernza has developed a

new strain of wheat with longer and denser roots, so it can absorb
more carbon dioxide from soil. Since traditional wheat is an
annual plant and only lasts for one growing season, it has short
and relatively fragile roots. Kernza’s seeds produce a perennial
wheat with roots that are twice as long as traditional wheat. Plus,
its hardier structure creates higher yields for farmers—which in
turns leads to less water use, greater climate resiliency, and
healthier soils.
 Lab-grown palm oil brewed from microbes: Palm oil has
earned its bad environmental reputation: the destruction of
 Borneo’s forests to build new palm oil plantations resulted in
the largest single-year increase in emissions in over two hundred
years. But it’s a fixture of modern society, found in everything
from food to shampoo. C16 Biosciences has created an alternative
to natural palm oil by using fermentation to brew a synthetic
version.
 An invisible barrier that helps food stay fresh
longer: Approximately one-third of all food produced gets lost or
wasted every year. That’s bad for people who don’t have enough
to eat, bad for farmers, and bad for the environment. Two
companies—Apeel and Cambridge Crops—are working on
protective skins that keep food fresh longer. The coating is
invisible and doesn’t affect the taste at all.
 Collective crop storage: Not all innovations are
technological: Babban Gona is a novel business model in Nigeria
that helps farmers hold onto their crops longer. Many Nigerian
farmers don’t have facilities to store their crops. They can only
move their products right after harvest when the market is flooded
with goods, so they sell for a rock-bottom price, or sometimes not
at all (Nigeria loses 50 to 60 percent of its food before it even gets
to the consumers). Babban Gona farmers go in together to
purchase a grain silo. This means they can wait to sell their crops
at a more advantageous time—reducing emissions from waste and
increasing income at the same time.
There will never be one silver bullet that stops climate change—but
I’m hopeful that these innovations and others will chip away at
agricultural emissions enough to prevent the worst from happening.
(Unfortunately, farmers in places like sub-Saharan Africa are already
experiencing the effects of climate change, so we also have to help
them adapt.

I wish agricultural innovation got as much attention as the impact on

climate change from electricity, because its success is just as critical to
stopping climate change. Future changes in income and population
may come close to doubling the current environmental impacts of the
food system. I believe creative, scalable solutions to this challenge are
out there, and now is the time to invest in their R&D.

This originally appeared on gatesnotes.com.