[grondilu]

> improved soil health, improved ecosystem health, better water retention, less erosion, more carbon sequestered in the soil.

Regarding carbon sequestration, I think it is worth pointing out that Freeman Dyson, in one of his conferences, mentioned no-till farming as one land management methods that could be used to absorb the carbon emitted in the atmosphere by human activities.

"The point of this calculation is the very favorable rate of exchange between carbon in the atmosphere and carbon in the soil. To stop the carbon in the atmosphere from increasing, we only need to grow the biomass in the soil by a hundredth of an inch per year. Good topsoil contains about ten percent biomass, [Schlesinger, 1977], so a hundredth of an inch of biomass growth means about a tenth of an inch of topsoil. Changes in farming practices such as no-till farming, avoiding the use of the plow, cause biomass to grow at least as fast as this. If we plant crops without plowing the soil, more of the biomass goes into roots which stay in the soil, and less returns to the atmosphere. If we use genetic engineering to put more biomass into roots, we can probably achieve much more rapid growth of topsoil. I conclude from this calculation that the problem of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a problem of land management, not a problem of meteorology. No computer model of atmosphere and ocean can hope to predict the way we shall manage our land."

https://www.edge.org/conversation/freeman_dyson-heretical-th...

[houseplant]

engineering wise I can't see why it wouldn't be possible to selectively genetic-engineer some kind of plant or algae or something that sucks up tons and tons of carbon that you can then sequester manually by compressing it into, I don't know, artificial peat or something.

I have no idea why massive factory growing operations for produce aren't everywhere. Every city should have one by now, growing produce locally and shaving down the price of transport and waste to almost nothing.

[colechristensen]

There’s really no need. Ever heard of an algal bloom? Also happens with jellyfish. On freshwater plants like duckweed do similar things.

Given the right nutrients population explosions happen. Environmentalists usually treat these as bad things but they certainly could be good ways to sink carbon. They could be triggered by fertilizing some of the more barren sections of ocean selected to minimize ecological effect. Quite a lot of the biomass simply falls to the ocean floor and gets buried, it could also be harvested and sequestered another way or used as a biomass fuel.

On freshwater lakes you could grow and harvest duckweed.

[shawn-butler]

Investigate the biochar process as an alternative. You can also buy biochar for your houseplant needs [0]. Creating that much artifical peat in a small area would be a massive fire hazard but probably could be managed.

"Vertical" or indoor farming is one of those silicon valley tropes. VC lost billions during the last decade and I don't know of a single success story that is still going / profitable. I'm sure after enough time passes people forget and will try again.

[0]: https://rosysoil.com/