entire column.

[keannu]

I'm sorry to ask so many questions at a time.
1)But the corn standing all around you hold four hundred times as much carbon , entire column
=>Does it mean the carbon dioxide around the field is a lot more than that of the imaginary column soaring to the space? Why does it have more than the imaginary column does?
2)Does "cost matters" mean that processing the leftover corn costs a lot by making processing or dumping machines, etc?

ex)Imagine you are standing in a Kansas field of ripened corn, staring up into a blue summer sky. Imagine the acre around you extending upward, in a transparent air-filled tunnel soraing all the way to space. That long tunnel holds carbon in the form of carbon dioxide-widely implicated in global climate change. But the corn standing all around you hold four hundred times as much carbon as there is in the man-made carbon dioxide in the entire column. Yearly, we manage, through agriculture, far more carbon than is causing our greenhouse dilemma. ,,,The leftover corn from our fields can be gathered up, floated down the Mississippi, and dropped into the ocean, sequestering its contained carbon. It's not a permanent solution, but it would buy us and our descendants time to find better answers. And it is inexpensive; cost matters.

[5jj]

It means that the corn in the field contains within itself 400 times as much carbon as a very high (imaginary) column with a base area of one acre does. In the case of the column, it is the carbon in the air in the column that is meant) .

''Cost matters" simply means that cost is important. The writer is making the point that his scheme cannot be objected to on the grounds of cost, because it is not expensive.

[keannu]

It means that the corn in the field contains within itself 400 times as much carbon as a very high (imaginary) column with a base area of one acre does. In the case of the column, it is the carbon in the air in the column that is meant) .

''Cost matters" simply means that cost is important. The writer is making the point that his scheme cannot be objected to on the grounds of cost, because it is not expensive.

Thanks, but if cost is important, it sounds cost is important = cost is high, Why didn't he say cost is low?

[5jj]

Why didn't he say the cost is low?

He did - 'And it is inexpensive; cost matters.'