Denis De Bernardy

Fossil fuels contribute atmospheric carbon dioxide too, of course. 12% of the total, according to a paper that got criticized over unfortunate remarks in it. 2020 inadvertently revealed that this number is in the right ballpark.

Tracking emissions using the carbon accounting framework makes sense if and only if an important condition is met: avoidable carbon emissions that disappear inside carbon stocks are negligible compared to those that appear as reducible flows. 

You can tell that plumes of carbon dioxide tied to canopy loss are the only ones that matter by auditing the deceitful carbon accounting.

Land stewards often understand that topsoil loss contributes significant amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Soil emissions dwarf industrial ones, after all. But farmers have been disturbing soil since long before the industrial era, so they’re hard pressed to precisely explain what changed around then.

Corporate green solutions are shams. Promote gardening if you care about fossil fuels. An accounting chicanery keeps natural emissions out of view.

By Denis de Bernardy The decision seemed natural at the time. An economic storm was looming once again. This one looked really bad. The time was now or never, I…