Yak dung is exacerbating climate change. Really?
Grass and other plants grow, utilizing carbon dioxide and releasing O2 as a by-product, which I greatly appreciate.
Yaks eat the grass, inhaling the O2 and combining it with some of the carbon compounds from the grass to provide the animals with energy. The yaks then exhale CO2. Some of the carbon compounds pass all the way through the yak's system and get pushed out the other end.
A cold Tibetan lights some dried dung -- i.e., combines it with O2 very rapidly, releasing heat, a little more CO2, and some particulate soot that likely winds up on the walls and roof of his hut.
Grass and other plants grow ...
Second verse, same as the first.
It's hard to keep track. I thought soot reflected sunlight and cooled the planet. Also, isn't some soot just plain old carbon? Isn't that inert?
ReplyDeleteI've been reading up on charcoal production and ran across the term biochar. Biochar proponents believe that the can sequester carbon by making charcoal and grinding it up and mixing it with the soil.
So as long as the biochar monks* make charcoal and spread it into the earth the yak turd burners are ok to go!
*I'm assuming such holy men exist, making charcoal and spreading it around like so many black-smudged Johnny Appleseeds.
Logic and consistency are not necessary for climate change experts -- in fact, they seem to be impediments.
ReplyDeleteIf you have time to write up the grant request, you, too, could become a biochar mogul.
Charcoal buried in the ground -- like coal. I wonder where all that carbon came from? Probably space aliens.