BY JOSE PALU-AY DACUDAO
IN THE PAST articles we learned about the history of carbon dioxide, and its role as a greenhouse gas. It is important to note that CO2 plays a necessary role to life itself. It is needed by plants for photosynthesis.
6CO2 + 6H2O → C6H12O6 + 6O2
The beneficial effects of CO2 for plants can be seen in its use in greenhouses where it is used to stimulate the faster growth of greenhouse plants.
Another important point: since the 1980s, with the rise of CO2 levels in the atmosphere, the area of the planet covered by greenery (plants) has increased by an estimated 20%. Planet earth has been more ecologically productive in the past half century than any other time in the past 20 thousand years.
On the other hand, an extreme rise in CO2 could theoretically cause a significant increase in global temperature, perhaps enough to melt the South Pole and Antarctic glaciers. This could cause the rise of the sea level by a hundred feet.
Therefore let us say that we are already contented by the present level of CO2 and do not wish for a more extreme rise. What do we do?
1. Find alternative energy sources apart from fossil fuels. As discussed previously, the three physically viable and commercially economically ways in the Philippines are:
a. Geothermal
b. Hydroelectric
c. Nuclear
(Not solar, wind or sea)
The same is also true for the rest of the world. In the Philippines it must also be said that we have lots of geothermal resources. In the Visayas, sources in Negros should be prioritized.
2. Continue and perhaps spread the practice of slash and char. Charring is just pyrolysis or carbonization.
C6H12O6 → 6C + 6H2O
As previously mentioned, this creates carbonized soil (terra preta or black soil). Black soil retains nutrients and water tremendously, and prevents acidification. In addition, it sequesters carbon into the earth for thousands to millions of years (forever in human life span limits.) This has been done in sugar cane plantations in Negros and Panay for 150 years, and is probably a main reason why they are still productive as always today as they were a hundred fifty years in the past.
However, CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas. (To be continued)/PN
