It’s dark, rainy, and blustery outside my window as I type this out.

But, if I close my eyes, I can remember what the warmth of sunshine on my skin feels like.

On a mild day, the light of the sun offers this sense of primal joy. The light entering our eyes prompts our brains to produce serotonin, the “happiness hormone.”

As the light is absorbed by our skin, our bodies go through a fascinating process so we can make our own Vitamin D.

Now, while serotonin and vitamin D are both important components of human health, they’re not how the sun can save the planet.

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While these benefits are vital, the sun's true power to save our planet lies in the magical process happening in plants: photosynthesis.

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Imagine a world where the solution to climate change is actually the very same process that got our earth to be habitable in the first place. Did you know that over 400 million years ago, the carbon levels in the atmosphere were - pun intended - sky high?

But over time, plants moved from water to land and evolved to harness solar energy to pull carbon out of the air, turning it into oxygen and sugars.

This caused the planet to cool to a habitable temperature, and more and more life could live on Earth.

Photosynthesis is the starting point for carbon sequestration. It's kind of like magic, happening every day.

Could the same process that transformed the earth hundreds of millions of years ago help us with a nature-based solution to climate change today?

In this article, you'll learn how this process words, and understand how you can help to amplify it in your own backyard garden.

Let's explore how these natural processes offer a sustainable path forward in our fight against climate change.

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How can photosynthesis save the planet?

🍩 To put it simply, photosynthesis is a plant’s way of “eating” without being able to move around and forage for their own food.

The solar energy provides the power for plants to do something extraordinary: they are able to transform carbon dioxide - found abundantly in the air - into sugars.

👁️ Notice that the carbon dioxide plants transform into sugars is the very same greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that’s contributing to climate change.

It’s this sugar, in the form of glucose, that give the plant its “calories” so it can grow.

In this way, the carbon-based sugars become the building blocks of the plants.

Bonus: Plants also produce oxygen during this process, which is very much needed by humans to breathe.

→ This is why in regenerative gardening, we try to leave the roots of our crops in the ground once they’ve been harvested if possible.

The carbon from this part of the plant then gets stored in the soil, contributing to carbon sequestration.

→ This is also why regenerative gardeners are always trying to keep the soil planted with growing vegetables, flowers, herbs, or cover crops.

It’s also why we gravitate towards perennial plants when possible.

If plants are always growing, that means that photosynthesis is always happening.

And if photosynthesis is happening, then so is carbon sequestration. not just when we’re growing our main food crops but also over winter, too.

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🚏Wait, there’s more:

Plants form relationships with microbes and fungi that are found within the soil.

Underneath the soil surface, a sort of a bartering system exists. The plants give any extra carbon-fueled sugars to the inhabitants of the soil microbiome.

In turn, these microbes and fungi provide a few different benefits for the plants. They might deliver water or other nutrients to them, or offer protection from pests or disease.

Why is this important for a regenerative gardener to know?

Well, when these microbes die, the carbon-made sugars that are in their bodies get stored in the soil instead of going back into the atmosphere.

This is another way that sunlight - which powers the plants to transform atmospheric carbon into sweet sugars - can help with sequestering carbon in the soil.

That means that the more robust your soil microbiome population is, the more carbon you’ll be able to store in your backyard.

👉🏻 Alright, so up to this point we’ve covered that:

1. Sunlight fuels photosynthesis in plants, which is a way for plants to store atmospheric carbon into their bodies and then into the soil
2. Plants form mutually beneficial relationships with bacteria and fungi in the soil, which feed on their excess carbon-based

Together, these two natural processes make soil a fantastic storehouse for excess atmospheric carbon.

🧪 New scientific breakthroughs

Recently, scientists have also used sunlight to do something totally wild.

This year, a group of researchers at McGill University in Canada, found that they could use sunlight to fuel a transformation of two greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide and methane.

Put simply, they found a way for sunlight to turn these greenhouse gases into useful chemicals.

The methane is turned into green methanol.

The carbon dioxide is changed into carbon monoxide.

Green methanol can be used to like gasoline to power cars, plane, and even boats.

Surprisingly, carbon monoxide is used to produce several industrial products.

Essentially, the pollution that is causing climate change can be turned into a cleaner fuel for cars.

While it’s not a perfect fuel source in that it does emit carbon dioxide while it’s being burned, that same carbon dioxide can then be turned into new green methanol to be burned again. Its lifecycle is renewable.

When everything is taken into account, green methanol as a fuel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 60%. This is according to data from the Methanol Institute published in World Economic Forum.

All of this, based on a photosynthesis-like process powered by the sun.

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☑️ Action Steps for Regenerative Gardeners:

• Use organic fertilizers - this helps plants to form mutual relationships with the soil microbes instead of relying on synthetic inputs.That means the microbes can help store more carbon.
• Keep the ground planted as much a possible - grow a cover crop during the off season to help build soil health and maximize soil carbon storage.
• Keep plant roots in the ground when possible - this helps keep carbon in the ground. It also minimizes soil biome disruption. Obviously you can’t do this with root crops like potatoes and such.
• Don’t till - tilling the soil releases all of that hard-earned soil carbon back into the atmosphere. It also messes with the soil microbiome.

📚 References + Deeper Dives:

This video from Canadian Permaculture Legacy helped clarify a lot of things for me when it first came out a few years ago about how the soil microbiome works

This article from Colorado State University has some great information on the process of soil carbon sequestration

Learn more about the pros and cons of green ethanol in this article published in World Economic Forum.

I wrote this article using memes to help explain how regenerative agriculture practices sequester carbon in the soil. It’s entertaining if nothing else.

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