30 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN March 2024 PERSPECTIVES The Complicated LISA BARD | NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN EDITOR Like most things these days, the issue of carbon emissions is not a simple, cut-and-dried, one-answer discussion. It first needs to be acknowledged that carbon emissions are part of the larger, even more complicated issue of climate change, fueled by increasing global populations that need even more food, fuel, fiber and other critical resources. Tackling the relative topic of carbon emissions is simply taking a bite out of the much larger beast, but at least it’s a start. Carbon capture, carbon credits and carbon contracts were topics in of one of the breakout sessions at the 2023 Nebraska Cattlemen Annual Convention, Dec. 6 in Kearney. Presenters included Galen Erickson, Ph.D., Nebraska cattle industry professor of animal science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL); Dawn Caldwell, executive director of Renewable Fuels Nebraska; and David Bracht, counsel at Kutak Rock. All three gave interesting insights on this topic to a packed house. We asked them to contribute their perspectives to this article. Drilling Down To drill down to carbon credits from the larger picture of climate change and increasing levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we must first understand the scientific basis of both of these. Climate change in the broadest sense is the long-term changes in Earth’s climate, but more recently (the past 30-100 years), the term has been used to highlight the more rapid changes in Earth’s climate, resulting in global warming, due to a variety of factors. The raging, ongoing debate to lay blame and assign fault for recent climate change will likely never go away, simply because it seems people want nothing more than to find a scapegoat that they can criticize, target and blame so that they can escape responsibility for their part in it. Agriculture, specifically animal agriculture, has been the recipient of a great deal of that criticism and blame. However, there are some facts worth repeating. The Earth is warming at an increasing rate, at least for the time that we have records. Global population has increased to more than 8 billion and continues to rise. All living things emit greenhouse gasses, which include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N20). Most GHG emissions are from burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide causes most of the global warming and can take hundreds of years to be reabsorbed via the deep carbon cycle, so is difficult to manage and has a high global warming potential (GWP). Methane causes most of the remainCarbon System Terms CARBON SOURCES are parts or processes of the system that release or emit more carbon than they absorb. In the beef value chain, this could include greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) or methane (CH4). Burning fossil fuels in order to plant or harvest forage crops or transport beef products to retail is an example of a carbon source, as is enteric methane emitted from cattle. CARBON SINKS are parts or processes of the system that sequester or are associated with a net increase in carbon storage. In the beef value chain, carbon sinks may include grasslands, perennial forages, wetlands and forests. CARBON SEQUESTRATION is a term used to explain how carbon from the atmosphere, in the form of CO2, is captured by plants and stored or retained in roots, leaves or wood over the long term. BIOGENIC CARBON refers to carbon that has been fixed by living plants and animals in a relatively short timeframe and is released from sources other than fossil fuels. For example, straw bedding, animal manure, or meat or milk would be considered biogenic carbon in a beef production system. INORGANIC CARBON is part of the carbon cycle and represents the non-living, carbon-containing components of the cycle. Inorganic carbon can be in the form of oxides found in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide. Inorganic carbon is present in soils in a mineralized form, such as limestone. Other examples of inorganic carbon include allotropes like graphite and diamonds. BIOGENIC CARBON cycle is the system in which plants and animals create, use and recycle carbon. Plants capture atmospheric CO2 during photosynthesis and convert it into carbon-based carbohydrates that are sequestered (stored) in the plants and soil. Animals – many of them ruminants – eat these carbohydrates and release some of that carbon back into the atmosphere in the form of methane. DEEP CARBON CYCLE is the geochemical cycle of carbon through Earth’s mantel and core – a very long process. Source:
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTMxNTA5