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To view this on the COS website, click here [[https://conventionofstates.com/news/tx-how-carbon-creates-stability|tx-how-carbon-creates-stability]]


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====== How carbon creates stability ======


It is always important to read the fine print in the opportunities offered by the government to help the individual.


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|Carbon is a bad word in much of today’s society. But it is a vital part of our ecosystem. In fact, the food we enjoy on our tables could not take place if carbon did not exist.\\ \\ In order for good quality food to be grown and raised, good quality soil must be in existence. But in order for soil to be considered good, it must be rich: richly alive with microbes, fungi, beetles, roots, mycorrhizal fungi, and the myriads of organisms that separate it from plain dirt. There are more living organisms in a handful of good soil than there are human beings on the earth.\\ \\ Carbon, in the form of leaves, bark, grass, and other fibrous materials, is necessary for the production of compost. Binding with nitrogen in “green” compost (such as manure), carbon is what stabilizes the nutrients and keeps them from being leached into the air by the sun or into the rivers by the rain.\\ \\ The carbon content of soil organic matter is roughly 58 percent. By calculation, when 2.5 percent of the soil is organic matter, then one acre of land 6.7 inches deep will hold roughly 29,000 pounds of carbon. And when the organic matter content is four percent, the soil holds 46,400 pounds of carbon.\\ \\ Plants such as grass, weeds, brush, and trees harvest carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. This carbon is fed into the soil through the roots of these plants, where it is traded as liquid carbon with microbes in the soil for nutrients that the plants need to survive, much like we trade money.\\ \\ In this way, carbon is diffused throughout the landscape, feeding the microbes which offer nutrients to sale for the plants in a never-ending cycle. Not only this, but these microbes improve soil quality and aggregation. Improved soil acts as a sponge and will hold more moisture, thus mitigating drought and flooding situations.\\ \\ A carbon tax has been discussed as an option of utilizing carbon sequestration to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This tax upon farmers would be used to encourage them to implement practices on their land that would be more carbon-friendly. Subsidies to farmers who implement these practices have also been discussed. Thus far, fossil fuel industries such as coal, petroleum, natural gas, and large electric utility companies have been given these higher tax rates in an effort to encourage compliance with climate change mitigation strategies, in the hope of eliminating the use of fossil fuels altogether.\\ \\ Private contracts that would trade tax credits have also been suggested as another option to encourage compliance. If an agricultural or fossil fuel entity is emitting less carbon than they are “allowed,” then they could sell those tax credits to another entity that is producing more carbon than their prescribed allotment. Such a contract would be considered private, but would still be regulated by the government.\\ \\ Thus, the lives of individual people may be governed by carbon emissions or the lack thereof, depending on the subsidies and taxes that are implemented.\\ \\ It is always important to read the fine print in the opportunities offered by the government to help the individual. Our Founders understood this principle when they wrote the Constitution, and this is why they adopted the Tenth Amendment, and the people of the various states ratified it. In this way, the people are guaranteed their rights and freedoms and the power of the federal government is somewhat limited.\\ \\ Unfortunately, the federal government has still transgressed into the private sector. In such an event, our Founders also placed Article V within the Constitution in order for the people and states to rein in the power of the feds.\\ \\ Click [[https://conventionofstates.com/|here]] if you would like to learn how you can be a part of returning authority to its rightful owners: the people and the states respectively.|


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|  __Page Metadata__  ||
|Login Required to view?  |No                  |
|Created:                 |2022-08-23 03:41 GMT|
|Updated:                 |2022-08-30 07:00 GMT|
|Published:               |2022-08-23 06:00 GMT|
|Converted:               |2025-11-11 12:00 GMT|
|Change Author:           |Elizabeth Lanning   |
|Credit Author:           |Betsy Staykatay     |