That tidal effect thing. Mind. Blown.
Yeah definitely the water and tidal effect, also the bionutrient meter sounds pretty intriguing to me.
It would be interesting to find out more on the actual magnitude of this tidal groundwater movement. And I agree the spectrometer idea is interesting. Unfortunately, the idea that we can reverse climate change solely through soil carbon sequestration is bogus. It's an appealing myth which seems to have originated in a study put out by the Rodale Institute in 2015. There are many reasons why soils won't be able to remove and store all of the carbon that humanity has added to the atmosphere, but one of the most important is that there is a saturation point for soil organic carbon, beyond which the soil is unable to sequester (that is , store long-term) additional carbon. This is because one of the important mechanisms of organic matter stabilization involves adsorption of organic molecules to mineral surfaces (which makes them impervious to decay by bacteria and fungi), and the number of suitable surfaces is finite. Once they're saturated with organic molecules additional organic matter will be subject to decay and thus not sequestered. Recent estimates suggest that with a major effort we could offset ~25% of human carbon emissions for the next 40-50 years, after which soils would become C-saturated and sequestration rates would fall. We should definitely go all-out to achieve that, but it's important to realize that the problem is huge and complex, and will require lots more than just soil carbon storage. For some recent reading on this subject, check this out: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/4/8/eaaq0932.full.pdf
Always great insight, David. I am fascinated by this c-saturation idea. And thanks or the link!
I know I'm late to the party. Been busy this spring. Anyway, this was an absolute killer episode. It is episodes like this that are why I am such an avid supporter of the podcast and NTG. My mind was blown multiple times throughout the episode. Tons to chew on and look into. Thanks, Jesse.
Thanks, Dawson! Dan is a super interesting guy