To prevent global warming now is the time to utilize carbon-offset methods

Global warming has emerged as a crisis for humanity. It is leading human beings towards such catastrophic events which surpassing the devastation of previous natural disasters. Surprisingly, there are only a few gases behind this disaster.

As a venomous poison, these gases are spreading throughout nature. Global warming is heading towards irresistible changes. The world is now suffering from the crisis of existence under its grip.

Since the Industrial Revolution after 1750, humans have emitted more than 2,000 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We are experiencing global warming due to the coating that heat-absorbing greenhouse gases created in the atmosphere over time.

If the current uprising of global warming remains, the effects of climate change such as bush fires, heatwaves, rising sea levels, floods, and droughts will continue to increase.

Preventing rapid emissions of Greenhouse gases (GHGs)  is essential for tackling climate change. In addition, it has to increase the use of renewable energy and stop deforestation. And it has to the reduction of concentrations of highly polluting gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Nevertheless, these efforts alone are not enough to prevent climate change.

Scientists say the global temperature must remain below 1.5-2 degrees Celsius to prevent the worst consequences of climate change. We need to reduce carbon emissions and store a significant amount of carbon by removing it from the atmosphere.

Most climate models promise to accelerate the reduction of carbon dioxide by 2050 and the removal of hundreds of millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. The ‘Carbon offset’ method plays a vital role as an effective and natural way to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

A carbon offset, in theory, is a reduction in GHGs emissions – or an increase in carbon storage (e.g., through land restoration or tree planting) to compensate emissions that occur elsewhere. Individuals and businesses can invest in environmental initiatives worldwide to offset their carbon footprints via carbon offset programs.

In this method, those who emit carbon into the atmosphere will compensate others for removing that carbon. They will preserve the soil by planting or cultivating trees in a regenerative way or by removing carbon from the atmosphere using any relevant technology. The carbon emitter group will finance the carbon removal group.

 Examples of carbon offsetting

• First, by trapping and destroying greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. Such as the “landfill methane capture project”. The emitted methane from landfills can be tapped, captured, and used as a relatively clean energy source for generating electricity or heat under this project, rather than leaking into the air or being dispersed as waste. The climate benefit is dual: it reduces landfill emissions while also displaces coal, oil, or natural gas that would otherwise use.

  

• Second, use of clean and renewable energy. It will serve as an alternative to the greenhouse gas emissions that result from the use of natural gas.
• Third, through regenerative or reproductive agricultural systems. It introduced a process of conservation and rehabilitation for food production. Which increases soil fertility, re-cultivates the soil, increases water flow quality, increases biodiversity, and prevents soil erosion. In such an agricultural system, carbon dioxide from the atmosphere can store by returning it to the soil in carbon. It also works to increase soil fertility. In other words, the carbon offset method utilizes the process of carbon sequestration.
• Fourth, another way for carbon to enter the soil is through Biochar. It is a type of charcoal made from burning organic matter from crop residues, grass, trees, or other plants at a temperature of 30⁰-60⁰ C in the absence of oxygen. This method knows as pyrolysis, is able to prevent the carbon erosion of organic matter. It is a stable form of carbon that is hard to release into the atmosphere. Biochar increases soil fertility by storing carbon in the soil and reducing the use of chemical fertilizers.
• Fifth, some minerals naturally react with carbon dioxide by converting carbon from gas to solids. The process commonly calls Carbon Mining. Naturally, it happens very slowly, over hundreds or thousands of years. Nevertheless, scientists are finding ways to accelerate the carbon mining process. In this method, carbon dioxide is injected into suitable rock or granite. Through the reaction, gaseous carbon from dioxide converts to solid carbonate.

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• Implementing the Kansai Mitsubishi Carbon Dioxide Recovery Process (KMCDR), or carbon-capturing technology, is the sixth option. The aim of inventing such technologies is to capture carbon dioxide in heavy industrial plants. Industrial plants and power plants that generate electricity by burning hydrocarbons can use this technology. It is possible to absorb 90% of CO2 from flue gas generated by power plants using this technology. This device can capture 300 kg of CO2 per day and approximately 116 million tons per year.

Storing carbon in the soil after absorbing it from the atmosphere is an integral part of Carbon offsets. By measuring the amount of organic matter before and after storing carbon in the soil, it is possible to calculate the removed or stored amount of carbon. Based on the evaluation, it will be possible to obtain compensation from the companies responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.