This blog is a reminder for a blog that I published a few years ago about global warming and carbon-dioxide.
I was watching the Gutfeld show on TV where it talked about a research study that showed that ethanol is actually bad for the environment. In my prior blog I pointed out that most of the carbon-dioxide in the world was actually in the oceans of the world. I also pointed out that the second source of carbon was actually in our soil. This is because over the millions of years when plants died, much of the carbon that they took out of the air ended up in soil. When soil is plowed the carbon is released. That is why growing more corn actually releases more carbon-dioxide into the air, thus causing global warming.
Several years ago there was a research group form an Eastern university visiting my farm to conduct tests on my soil. They wanted to find some soil that had never been plowed so that they could compare it with soil that had been farmed by plowing. The idea was to test those samples to determine which had the most carbon. What they found was that the unplowed soil contained much more carbon than the plowed and farmed soil. I discussed this with them at the time and it was clear that large amounts of carbon were historically locked in our soil. They pointed out that this was logical considering that this was how the coal was formed.
I discussed the facts that I had learned above with some of my technical friends and they were also totally unaware of this fact. We discussed the impact on our tropical forests of farming. What happens in all forests is that as the trees grow, they shed bark and leaves on the ground that build up over time and tap carbon in the soil. I was out on the Olympic Peninsula looking a old Cedar stumps that were being harvested for roof shakes. Some of these stumps were over 15 feet tall. I asked why they did not cut the stumps lower. The foresters pointed out that when the trees were cut, the thatch on the ground was so deep that the trees had actually been cut down at the soil line of the time. This just points out how much carbon is built up by a forest. The same is true of a grass plain, but at a slower rate.
The other point about using ethanol to save our planet is that when you add 10% ethanol to your gas, you reduce the BTU value of the fuel by an amount almost equal to the amount of ethanol added. Gutfeld did not point this out, but he should have. In the case of my airplane, I do not use gas that has ethanol. Ethanol attracts water and water can freeze in you gas lines causing the airplane to crash. I do not use ethanol gas in my chainsaw or lawn mower either for similar reasons.
Interesting when you are aware of a few facts!
PS--Here is another observation. There are many countries around the world where people burn the dung from domestic animals rather than returning the dung back to the soil along with the carbon contained in the dung. This accelerates the transfer of carbon from the soil into the atmosphere which it is claimed it causes global warming. Why is there no public out cry of this practice by the Green Movement?
.
