“The land can be… an opportunity to solve most of the ongoing global crises,” Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), told a news conference in New York.

“If we want to tackle climate change challenges, we must look to the untapped potential of the soil to sequester carbon,” said Mr. Gnacadja, calling it a “win-win” situation. “By doing that, we are improving biodiversity of the soil ecosystem and improving the productivity of the soil, therefore impacting the livelihoods of affected populations.”

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28756&Cr=desertification&Cr...

At the recent Slow Food conference in Turin, Italy, Vandana Shiva spoke about the need for carbon farming. Noted commentator Tom Philpott on Grist:

Where Gore dreams of a "low-carbon" or even "carbon-free" world, Shiva pines for a "carbon-rich" future -- one in which agriculture systematically builds organic matter into the soil, capturing it from the atmosphere.

http://gristmill.grist.org/print/2008/10/25/904/94558?show_comments=no

Last year Steve Rayner and Gwyn Prins wrote a fine paper on climate change policy. Though the authors do not show awareness of the soil carbon opportunity, or of biological factors in the carbon cycle in general, the 41-page paper is a splendid takedown of the top-down carbon market approaches exemplified by the Kyoto protocol, and projects a framework into which the soil carbon opportunity fits nicely.

They point out that the recent debate over climate change (not over yet) is about values, not about science. They point out that good markets have costs and benefits in proximity to each other. They are persuasive on what is wrong with Kyoto, and describe some characteristics of good solutions to climate security.

"What makes a problem 'wicked' is the impossibility of giving it a definitive formulation: the information needed to understand the problem is dependent upon one's idea for solving it. . . ."

"We have been arguing that we have made the wrong cognitive choices in our attempts to define the problem of climate change. Although it may comprise some straightforward, tame problems of applied science and diplomacy, it is essentially a wicked problem. Strategic judgment in such circumstances places a premium upon understanding what we don't know."

Right click and Save Link (Target) As to download.

The Rodale Institute has recently come out with a policy document titled "Regenerative Organic Farming: A Solution to Global Warming."

"Successful implementation of regenerative organic farming practices on a national basis will depend on two factors: a strong bottom-up demand for change, and a top-down shift in state and national policy to support farmers in this transition."

Download the report from http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20080425/gw6

Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes to global heating. But methane emissions from ruminant digestion play a minor part in atmospheric methane levels, according to a recent article published on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Animal Production and Health branch.

Atmospheric methane has stabilized at 1999 levels, though livestock numbers have been increasing by an average of about 17 million per year, according to UN FAO data. "At this time there is no relationship between increasing ruminant numbers and changes in atmospheric methane concentrations, a break from previously assumed role of ruminants in greenhouse gases."

http://www-naweb.iaea.org/nafa/aph/stories/2008-atmospheric-methane.html

Methane is an important subcycle of the carbon cycle. Methane (CH₄), like carbon dioxide (CO₂), is a transparent, odorless gas. Per gram, methane has about 21 times the greenhouse potential of carbon dioxide, but unlike carbon dioxide it breaks down fairly quickly in the atmosphere.

Methane is produced during anaerobic fermentation of plant material. In the carbon cycle, lignin and cellulose are typically broken down by methanogenic bacteria, such as are present in the digestive systems of ruminant herbivores and termites, and which cannot survive in the presence of oxygen.