No-till captures and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Many scientists are convinced CO2 enhances the threat of global warming. Fortunately, plants act as Mother Nature's chimney sweep to help scrub the air. They remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their roots as organic carbon. When plants die and decompose, some carbon is released into the atmosphere.
Conservation tillage helps reverse the process so that carbon is retained in organic matter.
The sink gets even bigger when you use farming practices that don't disturb the soil. That excites conservation advocates. Several proposals would reward farmers for sequestering carbon. Another proposal would allow farmers to sell carbon credits to industries that choose to outsource part of their carbon reduction responsibilities under their greenhouse gas-level limits. Before you can cash that first check, however, scientists still have much to learn about the relationship between carbon and modern farming practices, and how to measure and verify carbon levels in the soil.