Zero Gain or Net Gain?

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There has been a lot of talk about carbon dioxide lately since it plays such a large part in climate change as a greenhouse gas.

We hear about net carbon gain and zero carbon gain as applied to the burning of fuels which are carbon based, meaning the burning of material that was once alive, whether it is coal, natural gas, biodiesel or corn based ethanol.

The business about carbon gain or net zero carbon gain is all about whether the fuel burned has been stored in the ground as say coal or petroleum or recently grown like corn or swithchgrass.

If we’re talking about coal or oil then we are talking about burning a carbon fuel that was alive some time ago and grew by removing carbon dioxide from the air and then storing it upon being buried under sediments. When it is burned it adds to the carbon dioxide content of the air because it releases back to the environment carbon that has been locked away in the ground, so there is a net gain over what was there before.

If we are talking about burning a fuel that grew using carbon dioxide recently and is burned soon after it is harvested then all that is happening is that it’s burning releases back to the environment what it recently took out to grow and the net gain to the atmosphere is zero. It releases back to the atmosphere what it just took out, not what had been locked away in the ground.