Found at last
Full article in Communications Earth & Environment, authors Eman Ghoneim, Timothy J. Ralph, Suzanne Onstine, Raghda El-Behaedi, Gad El-Qady, Amr S. Fahil, Mahfooz Hafez, Magdy Atya, Mohamed Ebrahim, Ashraf Khozym & Mohamed S. Fathy.
Trials show spreading basalt on farmland helps capture CO2 from the atmosphere and improves crop yields
There is an urgent need for farming to curb its greenhouse gas emissions, with farmers also under pressure to be more sustainable. One suggestion could help with both problems: spreading crushed volcanic (basalt) rocks on fields to help capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
It is a sustainable fertiliser; basalt is rich in minerals, so the rock powder increases soil fertility by feeding nutrients needed for plant growth. Trials at the universities of Newcastle and Sheffield have shown that crop yields are improved, without any ill-effects on the environment or the plants.
Continue reading...One-quarter of the worldβs population is currently water-stressed, using up almost their entire fresh water supply each year. The UN predicts that by 2030, this will climb to two-thirds of the population.
Freshwater is perhaps the worldβs most essential resource, but climate change is enhancing its scarcity. An unexpected source may have the potential to provide some relief: offshore aquifers, giant undersea bodies of rock or sediment that hold and transport freshwater. But researchers donβt know how the water gets there, a question that needs to be resolved if we want to understand how to manage the water stored in them.
For decades, scientists have known about an aquifer off the US East Coast. It stretches from Marthaβs Vineyard to New Jersey and holds almost as much water as two Lake Ontarios. Research presented at the American Geophysical Union conference in December attempted to explain where the water came fromβa key step in finding out where other undersea aquifers lie hidden around the world.