Researchers have uncovered a fascinating discovery – a 3,775-year-old buried log that holds the key to an inexpensive solution for storing climate-warming carbon. This groundbreaking study explores the viability of burying biomass as a cost-effective way to combat the pressing issue of global warming.

The Power of Buried Biomass Unleashed
Scientists around the planet are searching for cost-effective means to scrub greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in order to periodically help counterbalance humanity’s excess emissions, as the world works on reducing its carbon footprint. Now, researchers at the University of Maryland and Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation in Canada have discovered an approach that could revolutionize this process.
One published in the prestigious journal Science where they analyzed an exceptionally well-preserved log that was naturally buried beneath a layer of clay for thousands of years. The finding is tangible evidence that burying biomass — such as logs and other plant material derived from Twin Cities tree waste — could be an effective way to sequester carbon and help offset the impacts of climate change, researchers said.
The main thing to understand is that as plants grow, they photosynthesize and remove carbon from the atmosphere. As they die and are buried, however, the carbon they have absorbed is sequestered and doesn’t go back into the air. But the buried log retained a remarkable 95% of the carbon it captured during its life, showing how well this can lock up carbon for generations.
A Cost-Effective Solution
What really makes this solution so attractive is its price tag. Older types of carbon-capture-and-storage technology can end up costing $100 to $300 per ton — a high price tag. By contrast, the scientists think erasing biomass would put a $30-100 per ton dent in it.
And this price difference in and of itself could be a huge factor in the battle against climate change. With carbon sequestration, this could lead to large scale adoption and hence make a sizable dent in global emissions.
There are however, plans to sequester as much as 10 gigatons of carbon a year by stockpiling biomass strategically according to the researchers. A volume on this scale of carbon removal could be a significant contributor to reversing the trend away from more greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere.
Conclusion
The discovery of the well-preserved 3,775-year-old buried log opens up new horizons related to potentially cheap and widely applicable large-scale climate mitigation using biomass burial. Utilizing the ability of plants to naturally absorb and sequester carbon, this technique could really offer a revolution in worldwide attempts to arrest how global warming wreaks havoc on our planet. In a time when we are all facing the urgent need to address the climate crisis, this research provides one vision toward a more economically and environmentally sustainable future.