Author: Kees de Gooijer | Chief Inspiration Officer for TKI Agri&Food and TKI-BBE
It cannot be denied that our prosperity is largely due to fossil raw materials. Because without coal the industrial revolution would never have come to fruition. And thanks to that revolution, the world economy has grown by a factor of eighty. In addition, the world population has since increased by about 6,5 billion people, so it can be said that the average world citizen of today is economically 12 times better off than then. All thanks to coal, oil and natural gas.
Every advantage has its disadvantage,” according to a famous philosopher. And that also applies to fossil fuels. First a definition: planet earth = earth's crust plus atmosphere, the earth's core is too deep. The carbon that was stored deep in the earth's crust for millions of years in the form of fossil raw materials has been returned to the atmosphere in more than 250 years. Since the start of the industrial revolution, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has grown 46%. As every ecologist will agree: a disrupted cycle is bad news and the first effects of climate change are becoming visible.
There is only one solution: within planet earth, fossil raw materials must remain in the earth's crust. Close the carbon cycle in the atmosphere. Optimize the energy supply from renewable sources (wind, sun, water, and for the enthusiast, nuclear) and use biomass as part of the carbon cycle for the carbon required for adjustable power and for the production of chemicals/materials.
Every carbon atom removed from the Earth's crust is irrevocably released as CO2 into the atmosphere – and remains there virtually forever.
In contrast to the cycle of fossil raw materials, biomass has a cycle with a short lead time. With most agricultural crops, the CO is removed within a year2 captured again and even the sequestration of CO2 in wood is achieved very quickly compared to that of fossil raw materials.
Futuristic nonsense? Thought not. If everything is not done now to eliminate fossil fuels, it will be too late. Rooting in the earth's crust is allowed, even welcome, in the garden, but it must be limited to a depth of about fifty centimeters as quickly as possible.
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