Carbon Cycle, Credits & Intensity
Sharon asked Roger to share his thoughts on carbon credits.
From the time I was in elementary science class through soil science courses at Colorado State and Ohio State, I was taught there is a carbon cycle. Every living thing contains carbon. Organic matter is anything that is alive or was alive.
Animals and humans release carbon into the atmosphere when they exhale their breath and pass gas. By the way, there were more buffalo passing gas in the Midwest 200 years ago than there are cows today.
All formerly living things release carbon (and many other nutrients) into the environment during decomposition.
The world contains the same amount of carbon today as it did 5,000 years ago and 5,000 years before that, and 5,000 years before that, etc. There is carbon in the atmosphere, rocks, soil, and every living or formerly living thing, which means the oceans hold a huge amount of carbon.
Plants need carbon to live the same as animals and humans need oxygen to live. There is a carbon cycle and oxygen cycle that sustains life on earth.