Reacción a "Burying wood in vaults proposed as carbon storage method"

There is no doubt that the development of effective solutions for the removal of CO_2₂ from the atmosphere is fundamental to meeting global climate goals. The article by Ning Zeng and co-authors shows a particularly valuable insight: nature itself has provided us, almost by chance, with a possible climate solution through a phenomenon discovered almost by chance.

The surprising discovery of a 3,775-year-old log of wood, buried two metres underground, has revealed an exceptional state of preservation, with less than 5% carbon loss. This discovery reveals a natural process that could be intentionally replicated. The compacted clay and anoxic soils appear to create the perfect conditions for biomass to be preserved for millennia with little or no decomposition, opening up a promising new avenue for lasting carbon sequestration.

The study proposes that this ‘wood burial’ technique, directly inspired by conservation mechanisms observed in nature, could be scaled up globally, with the potential to sequester up to 10 gigatonnes of CO₂ per year. Moreover, it is a cost-effective and more accessible solution than many current carbon removal technologies, and could thus become an interesting option in the toolkit to address climate change and, in particular, provide the impetus to make CO₂ sequestration a tangible and effective reality.