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Can soil be the key to mitigating the effects of global warming? Engineers from Newcastle University believe so. The solution lies in the fact that when plants absorb CO2 for Calvin Cycle reactions, excess carbon is pumped out of the roots and into the soil around them. Where most soils will allow the carbon dioxide to escape back into the atmosphere or allow rain/groundwater to do it for them, soils bearing calcium silicates will react with the CO2 and form a solid mineral (calcium carbonate). In this way, the carbon is trapped in the crystalline structure of the mineral formed and will stay in the soil.

Given the massive use of soil in the mining/construction industries, food production, landscaping, as a thermal mass, etc., adding artificial calcium silica to soil already purchased may go a long way in helping to sequester CO2 into the ground and out of the atmosphere.

This is just one of the ways that We Can Solve It.

The first image used taken from Flickr user tjflex, the second taken from Flickr user Wessex Archaeology under a Creative Commons License.