Burying Wood: A Simple, Low-Tech Carbon Storage Solution to Combat Climate Change

Scientists discovered a novel solution to the urgent challenge of climate change: burying wood in the ground. A 3,775-year-old log, found in Canada, has shown that when interred under the right conditions, wood contains carbon that lasts for millennia. Underneath this research led by climate scientist Ning Zeng lies a low-cost method of locking away carbon, scalable and practical.

The Preservation of Carbon in Buried Wood

One ancient cedar log came up in the experiment conducted at Quebec. As it was covered by a layer of clay and subjected to oxygen-deprived groundwater, it was sheltered from the decomposers like fungi and bacteria. When tested with Radiocarbon dating, it was shown that it had lost less than five percent of its carbon over nearly 4,000 years.

Burying Wood to Reduce CO2 Emissions

In fact, natural forests absorb enormous amounts of carbon dioxide but nearly all that carbon is returned to the atmosphere during decomposition. This paper hypothesizes that by burying wood, especially under the most favorable soil conditions, the flux of carbon out of the soil may be slowed down significantly. Estimates by Zeng indicate captured CO2 by buried wood might be as high as 10 billion tons a year-about a quarter of the total anthropogenic emissions due to energy consumption worldwide.

A Low-Tech, Low-Cost Solution

The equipment required is minimal: a tractor and backhoe can get the job done. It may also employ wood that has no market value, thus being cheaper. There is the problem of determining accessible sites for burial, but this low-tech approach could supplement other high-tech carbon capture approaches.

Turning the Climate Crisis Around

Essentially, this is a reverse process of the formation of coal whereby buried vegetation after millions of years has become one of the contributors to climate change. This simple technique of burying wood may prove to be the most crucial in the fight against rising temperatures.