In a letter released in advance of President Joe Biden’s Earth Day April 22-23 Leaders Summit on Climate, Remineralize the Earth joined Methane Action and CPR Initiative to encourage global leaders to focus not only on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but to adopt a robust program to assess, develop and deploy evidence-based negative emissions technologies (NETs). 

The April 15 letter was signed by Joanna Campe, Executive Director of Remineralize the Earth, Daphne Wysham, Chief Executive Officer of Methane Action, and Dan Galpern, CPR Initiative General Counsel and Executive Director. John Fitzgerald, CPR Initiative Vice President, and Legal Counsel to Methane Action spearheaded the effort. 

The agenda promoted by the letter to President Biden is aligned with the 2019 recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences that the nation “launch a substantial research initiative to advance negative emissions technologies (NETs) as soon as practicable.” The letter’s recommendations include a draft executive order that builds upon the success of President Biden’s January 27th Executive Order on Tackling Climate Change, working with Congress to integrate NET initiatives such as carbon-negative concrete with the pending infrastructure bill, and coordinating a global NET program with Summit participants. 

The objective of NETs is the removal of legacy greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide (CO2) and short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), particularly methane. While opportunities for innovation await in the fields of direct air capture and carbon mineralization technologies, there are numerous NETs available today that entail little to no risk to the environment or human health, including coastal blue carbon, afforestation and reforestation, improved forest management, and uptake and storage by agricultural soils. 

For example, combining enhanced rock weathering (EW) and remineralization with a regenerative agriculture model would enhance carbon sequestration in soils and improve agricultural yields, simply by replacing conventional chemical fertilizer with rock dust and biochar as well as other regenerative farming practices. This NET has the downstream benefit of buffering the oceans, mitigating significant harm of excess atmospheric CO2: ocean acidification and its degradation of marine life. 

The collaborative letter to President Biden is accompanied by a statement signed by thirty prominent scientists worldwide calling for the lowering of atmospheric methane concentrations and by a brief written by John Fitzgerald to guide and unify policy action in the U.S. and around the world on the assessment, development, and deployment of NETs.

About RTE

Remineralize the Earth (RTE) promotes the use of finely ground rock dust and sea-based minerals to restore soils and forests, produce more nutritious food, and remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Since 1996, this 501(c)3 non-profit (EIN: 22-3411880) has facilitated a global movement through education, outreach, projects, research, and advocacy, bringing together gardeners and farmers, scientists and policymakers, and the public, to regenerate soils and forests around the world, increase the nutritional quality and yield of food, and stabilize the climate through carbon sequestration.

Based out of Northampton, MA, RTE aims to restore soils and forests, increase the mineral content in foods, and raise nutrition levels of produce grown in countries with very poor soils, such as in the Caribbean and Africa, and create resilient food systems that sequester carbon.

Media Contact
Company Name: Remineralize the Earth
Contact Person: Joanna Campe
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City: Northampton
State: Massachusetts
Country: United States
Website: www.remineralize.org