A new study has found that around 244 million tonnes of carbon, is stored in the top 10cm of mud on the ocean floors around the UK. This is vast, and by looking after this mud, we are likely to benefit the amount it can store very positively. What is more crazy, is that this mud sequesters another 13 million tonnes each year. The total carbon emissions of the UK is around 406 million tonnes a year, meaning that our sea mud is absorbing more than 3% of the carbon emissions we release. All of the UK trees, are only thought to absorb around 18 million tonnes per year, suggesting that with some work mud may sequester more carbon than trees (and is certainly not far behind. On land soil also sequesters vast amounts of carbon, which is thought to currently store over 4 billion tonnes of carbon, just in the UK.
Finding ways for all of these natural processes to work better (perhaps undoing damage we have done to these things, could greatly increase the carbon caught.
Trawlers which are dragged along the bottom, as well as other disruption of these habitats, allow the carbon out. However, what is clear, is that, while we desperately need the worlds rainforests to stay standing, there are places in our own country, which also store huge amounts of carbon.
How have you cut your emissions in recent years.
