Back in 2013, Ning Zeng stumbled upon a remarkably ancient log that held significant importance.
“I stood there, mesmerized by it,” recalls Zeng, a climate scientist at the University of Maryland. He couldn’t help but think, “Do we really need to keep experimenting when the evidence is right here before us, better than anything we could create?”
This log was once part of an Eastern red cedar tree that absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converted it into wood around 3,775 years ago. After being buried under layers of clay soil for thousands of years, the log managed to retain an estimated 95 percent of that carbon.
“For years, scientists and innovators have considered burying wood as a solution to combat climate change. This latest research proves its feasibility,” says Daniel Sanchez, an environmental scientist at the University of California, Berkeley who was not part of the study. “Inexpensive and long-lasting climate solutions like this offer great potential in our fight against climate change.”
2024-09-26 13:00:00
Source: www.sciencenews.org
