A Simple Solution to Climate Change May Lie in the Earth: Burying Wood to Store Carbon

In the quest to combat climate change, high-tech solutions often take the spotlight. Carbon capture machines, renewable energy technologies, and geoengineering projects dominate discussions. However, a low-tech, surprisingly simple method for locking away carbon may be right beneath our feet: burying wood. According to recent research, this ancient technique could be a key to mitigating the most severe impacts of climate change.

A study published in Science reveals that burying wood in the right conditions can sequester carbon for thousands of years. This discovery offers a potentially scalable and cost-effective way to store carbon, which could complement more advanced technologies in the fight against rising global temperatures.

The Accidental Discovery: A 3,775-Year-Old Log

In 2013, scientists in Quebec were conducting a small-scale experiment to test the viability of burying wood as a method for carbon sequestration. What they found exceeded their expectations. While digging in a field, researchers unearthed a piece of eastern red cedar that had been buried about 6.5 feet underground. Despite being nearly 4,000 years old, the log was remarkably well-preserved, losing less than 5% of its carbon over millennia.

This accidental discovery provided a critical data point for researchers to understand how certain environmental conditions can slow the decomposition of wood, allowing it to store carbon for thousands of years. The discovery, led by Ning Zeng, a climate scientist at the University of Maryland, adds a new dimension to the conversation on carbon sequestration and climate mitigation.

How Wood Burying Could Slow Climate Change

Forests are often referred to as the "lungs of the Earth," capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. However, much of that carbon is re-released into the atmosphere as plant material decays, often within a few decades. Even wood, the hardest part of a tree, eventually succumbs to decomposition, releasing stored carbon back into the environment.

But under certain conditions—such as low oxygen levels and an impermeable covering of clay—decomposition can be significantly slowed. When wood is buried in these specific conditions, it can store carbon for thousands of years, as demonstrated by the ancient log found in Quebec.

This finding opens the door to a potentially large-scale solution to climate change: burying wood in specially chosen locations to lock carbon out of the atmosphere. Unlike other carbon capture technologies that rely on expensive and energy-intensive machines, this method would require little more than a tractor, a backhoe, and suitable land. This makes it an attractive option for regions with abundant unmerchantable wood that currently serves no commercial purpose.

Scaling Up: A Global Carbon Solution

The potential for wood burial to sequester carbon is immense. Researchers estimate that buried wood could lock away up to 10 billion tons of CO2 per year, more than a quarter of the world’s annual emissions from energy production, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Given the scale of global deforestation and the availability of wood waste, this solution could be implemented in many parts of the world.

One challenge, however, is the cost and logistics of transporting wood to appropriate burial sites. Not all soil conditions are conducive to long-term carbon storage, as the wood needs to be buried in oxygen-poor environments to prevent rapid decomposition. Additionally, areas with clay-rich soils that can provide an impermeable barrier are ideal for this method, as demonstrated by the 3,775-year-old log buried in Quebec.

Ghislain Poisson, an agronomist with Quebec’s agricultural ministry who worked on the study, suggests that there is already plenty of unmerchantable wood available that could be used for this purpose. However, more research is needed to identify suitable locations around the world where wood can be buried under the right conditions to maximize carbon storage.

Reversing the Process of Climate Change

There is a certain irony in the idea of using buried wood to combat climate change. One of the primary contributors to the rise in global temperatures is coal, which is formed when ancient vegetation is buried and compressed over millions of years. The Industrial Revolution triggered massive amounts of carbon emissions when humans began burning coal for energy, effectively reversing the natural carbon storage process.

Burying wood to sequester carbon is, in a sense, a way of reversing this destructive process. Instead of extracting carbon from underground and releasing it into the atmosphere, we could be returning carbon to the Earth, where it can remain locked away for millennia. This method represents a low-tech, scalable approach to addressing the carbon problem that has been exacerbated by industrial activities.

The Road Ahead: More Research and Implementation

The discovery of the ancient log in Quebec has sparked interest in further research on wood burial as a climate solution. Scientists are now working to find other prehistoric logs in different locations to study how various soil types and environmental conditions affect wood preservation. By understanding these factors, researchers can refine the process of wood burial to ensure that carbon is stored as efficiently as possible.

Zeng’s team has already begun experimenting with burying new logs in controlled environments to test the long-term viability of this method. Meanwhile, the climate community is paying attention to this deceptively simple solution, which could complement more advanced technologies in the global effort to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius—the threshold scientists agree is necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Conclusion: An Ancient Solution for a Modern Crisis

As the world continues to grapple with the challenges of climate change, it’s clear that a mix of high-tech and low-tech solutions will be necessary to meet our carbon reduction goals. The discovery of the ancient log in Quebec suggests that one of these solutions may be as simple as burying wood in the right conditions. By locking carbon away underground, we can potentially stall the worst consequences of climate change while we continue to develop more advanced technologies to address this global crisis.

The ancient log has provided us with a glimpse into the past, but it also offers hope for the future. As researchers continue to study this method, we may find that the answer to our carbon problem has been right beneath our feet all along.