Carbon sequestration is the long term removal and storage of carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere. Carbon makes up part of every living thing on the earth, humans, the animal kingdom, trees, all plants and sea life. When these living things die, the carbon inside them is released back into the soil or into the air.
While the carbon stays in the earth or water, there is no problem because the carbon is “sequestered“, meaning it is trapped and it can’t cause any harm. However, over a long period of time the carbon in the earth gets squeezed and compressed into peats or bogs and eventually forms coal in the ground.
Are there other types of carbon sequestration?
Luckily a lot of people are working on helping our forests and wetlands by capturing carbon using more modern methods. Here is a list of the main ways we can now sequester carbon, which are quickly described under
More trees
Rejuvenation of wetlands
Algae ponds
Vacuum filters
Storing or burying captured carbon in the earth
Storing carbon inside concrete and other manufactured materials
What can you do at home?