Soil Carbon Storage has emerged as a feasible strategy for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, raising important questions regarding whether the general public supports the strategy as a means to address climate change. We analyzed data from a national probability survey of 1222 US adults who reported believing in climate change at least “somewhat” to estimate public support for Soil Carbon Storage and how it compares to other leading Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) strategies. Overall, a majority of the sample expressed support for Soil Carbon Storage—regardless of whether the strategy involved the use of biochar (a form of charcoal made from organic matter) or not (55% and 62%, respectively)—placing Soil Carbon Storage ahead of Bioenergy plus Carbon Capture and Storage (32%) and Direct Air Capture (25%), and behind only Afforestation and Reforestation (73%), in terms of public support. In addition, perceiving Soil Carbon Storage as “natural” strongly predicted individual-level support, a pattern that held for every CDR strategy featured on the survey. Results demonstrate broad US public support for Soil Carbon Storage as a climate change mitigation strategy at a time when scientists and policymakers are actively considering the political, not just technical, feasibility of different climate solutions.

土壤碳存储已成为一种从大气中去除二氧化碳的可行策略，这引发了有关公众是否支持该策略作为应对气候变化手段的重要问题。我们分析了一项针对1222名美国成年人的全国概率调查得出的数据，这些成年人报告认为气候变化至少“有点”，以估计公众对土壤碳储存的支持以及将其与其他领先的二氧化碳清除（CDR）策略进行比较的方式。总体而言，大多数样本都表示支持土壤碳存储（无论该策略是否涉及使用生物炭（一种由有机物制成的木炭形式））（分别为55％和62％）。领先于生物能源，碳捕集与封存（32％）和直接空气捕集（25％），在公众支持方面，仅次于植树造林和再造林（73％）。此外，将土壤碳储量视为“自然的”强烈预测了个人水平的支持，这一模式适用于调查中的每个CDR策略。结果表明，在科学家和政策制定者积极考虑不同气候解决方案在政治上，而不仅仅是技术上的可行性之际，美国公众广泛支持将土壤碳存储作为一种减缓气候变化的策略。