A Climate Counternarrative: Dubious Carbon Accounting is Making a Canopy Problem Look Like an Energy Problem (for Consent and Profit)

Abstract

The climate narrative builds on a misleading carbon accounting framework that is making a canopy problem look like an energy problem.Farmers and loggers have been removing the plants that, until recently, kept the soil fungi alive, broke the wind, and soaked up the inevitable emissions tied to their operations. The result is wide open fields that emit a slow motion plume of carbon dioxide after tilling, harvesting, or clearing operations. Leaving the canopy intact makes these plumes go away.The carbon accounting framework keeps these plumes of carbon dioxide out of scrutiny because of the long-term models used to compute carbon stock changes. The plumes tied to logging compare in size with those of the German economy. Those tied to farming operations are much larger.It follows that atmospheric carbon dioxide is tied to topsoil loss, and that reversing the trend is a simple matter of strategically putting plants back into farming (and logging) operations.This explanation is compatible with isotopic analyses that pin the blame for atmospheric carbon on fossil fuels: plants simply cycle it first. It also points to simple ways to soak up the output of industrial smokestacks.