Plowing Carbon Into the Fields

OzPeter writes "A wheat farmer in Australia has eliminated adding fertilizer to his crop by the simple process of injecting the cooled diesel exhaust of his modified tractor into the ground when the wheat is being sown. In doing so he eliminates releasing carbon into the atmosphere and at the same time saves himself up to $500,000 (AUD) that would have been required to fertilize his 3,900 hectares in the traditional way. Yet his crop yields over the last two years have been at least on par with his best yields since 2001. The technique was developed by a Canadian, Gary Lewis of Bio Agtive, and is currently in trial at 100 farms around the world."

Comments

Global Cooling

[RandySC]

How does avoiding the release of CO2 help prevent global cooling, which is our most pressing concern in the near future.

Re:It is funny

[timmarhy]

you are wrong. there are perfectly good solutions that can be money makers as well as helping the environment. it's just for every good idea, there is 1000 shit ones that are just an attempt to cash in on the global warming fad. they typically contain junk science that doesn't sense check and are always light on details - this one is case in point.

CO2 is not a fertiliser, diesel fumes are toxic, any catalitic process to convert the fumes is going to be so wasteful that you'll need to burn significantly more diesel mitigating the cost saving by spending more on fuel. then there is the inflated savings figures which always accompany these kinds of "breakthroughs".

what else can you expect but a jaded response?

Re:Typical

[khallow]

Look who's talking. If Slashdot isn't your thing, maybe you should go some place where they'll take your pathetic whining seriously (well aside from the idiot moderator who gave you points for being "insightful"). For my part, I've read both facts and useful opinions. You just need to figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Here's a reference data point. Currently, you are chaff.