Terra Preta in the news

[Flying Binghi]

A few million dollars of support ....

 

Hmmm, yes, we have the solution - all it needs is YOUR MONEY ...we promise to repay you

[Essay]

I think the low-tech solutions also provide more jobs, in the long run; and yet they still require much the high-tech coordination, monitoring, and research that the exotic solutions require (not taking jobs away from high-tech).

 

I wrote to the Obama "suggestion page" advocating that he follow through on the implications of these comments:

Change.gov | momentvision

 

It's like, wow, ...he gets it!!!

...our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That's just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.

....From an interview with Joe Klein, ( Swampland - TIME.com Blog Archive The Full Obama Interview ) Obama refers to the article, explaining how Pollan's ideas fit into the concept of a new energy economy.

 

...so I just had to write in with something along the line of:

I was heartened to read your comments about the agriculture sector's strong effect on problems that range from the economy and environment to security and health care (re: interview with Joe Klein, on the Oct. 9, 2008 open letter “Farmer in Chief” by Michael Pollan, The New York Times). I'm sure you are also aware of Dr. James Hansen's recent advocacy for the management of agricultural soils as an important climate-change mitigation strategy.

Trained as a scientist, I can only echo the wisdom, and vast potential, behind these relatively natural, carbon management ideas. The technology, education, information exchange, and employment involved with agriculture-based carbon bio-sequestration would help both the environment and the economy, to say the least.

===

 

Hmmm, yes, we have the solution - all it needs is YOUR MONEY ...we promise to repay you

FB, I'm always surprised how your short tanagential comments can motivate a reply.

 

OMG! A few million dollars spent on a creative idea....

 

...as if a few million wouldn't be spent trying to recover from the continued decline of these farmers, et al.

 

This is no more than would ordinarily be used for bridge loans used to carry farmers from profit through investment and back to profit again.

 

And yet it would solve several other problems concurrently; thus multiplying the value of the invested money many times...

 

Just consider it like the smallest possible economic stimulus package one could possibly think of--except it would have an ongoing, continuous reward and return on investment, on several levels.

 

...as opposed to so many of the huge bailouts which seem to simply allow the bailee's to continue business as usual, while they trim and reduce the value of their investment--simply putting off the bad news, and maybe staggering some of the effects, to reduce their collective impact.

 

Hey Farmers! No need to repay the money!

The value you create by generating new jobs, new soil and healthier crops, and reducing pollution while sequestering CO2, will be payment enough.

 

...and that doesn't even count the reduction in health-care costs created by avoiding a continuing exposure to a wide and ever changing variety of strong herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, and other agricultural chemicals.

 

Flying Binghi, do you see the opportunity to create value by synergizing solutions here?

 

~ :shrug:

[Michaelangelica]

it is good to be sceptical- but don't dismiss the idea without investigating the science.

 

There is bound to be scams in this, as in any other new idea/ technology

 

The beauty of this one is you can almost do it yourself in your own backyard

 

Eric just posted this to the Yahoo biochar group

Remaking that TP is hitting mainstream media now

Carbon: The Biochar Solution - TIME

[Essay]

National Geographic AND now Time!

Wow! Great news....

 

Carbon: The Biochar Solution - TIME

Biochar's ability to sequester CO2 has given new urgency to such research. "Reducing emissions isn't enough — we have to draw down the carbon stock in the atmosphere," says Tim Flannery, chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a consortium of scientists and business leaders linked to next year's United Nations Climate Summit. "And for that, slow pyrolysis biochar is a superior solution to anything else that's been proposed." Cornell's Lehmann is even more emphatic. "If biochar could be massively applied around the globe," he says, "we could end the emissions problem in one to two years."

Finally, I have a citation for this wild claim that I keep making.

~ :phones:

[Eclipse Now]

Hmmm, yes, we have the solution - all it needs is YOUR MONEY ...we promise to repay you :phones:

Still posting really informed, witty, intelligent, fact filled and accurate posts I see? Surely that last statement reveals years of following this unfolding story?

 

A few questions for you FB...

 

How many tons of agriwaste = how many tons of fuel and how many tons of biochar?

How many tons of Co2 has Tim Flannery stated biochar might permanently sequester each year?

[cooloola]

Playing around with perma-culture in my spare time I've always found that charcoal dug into the garden increases the health of the soil and delivers a better crop. This whole idea of sequestering CO2 in the soil is brilliant, on so many levels.

And it seems the idea is catching on - there's hope yet.

[Essay]

...sequestering CO2 in the soil is brilliant, on so many levels.

...there's hope yet.

This reply should probably be on the "recreating America..." thread, but I agree that this simple, singular, biochar/TP solution has the potential to help with a lot of problems ...on so many levels!

===

 

I can see Biochar as a huge new sector of a healthy future economy.

It can provide lots of jobs managing and processing raw resources into products.

Also....

 

As a focus for new value in our society, it could serve to integrate education with civic and fiscal responsibility--teaching about diet & health, biology, chemistry, physics, and earth sciences to learn about personal, social, and global sustainability.

 

The hours put in on actual labor (gardening, composting, biochar processes, aquaculture, etc.) should count as reductions in Health-Care Premiums--because one will be healthier with all that labor!

 

And those same hours should count for Social Security Contributions--because in the future, that sequestered carbon will be the thing of largest value for which you will be deservingly owed.

===

 

Of course this all has to be done "keeping track" of the carbon.

Which is where the high-tech comes in....

 

Monitoring microbial populations with gene chips...

Monitoring a sort of "weather station" for the local soil profiles...

Managing a diversity of raw resources to maximize sequestration and then energy production...

Networking to share results and learn more...

...and I'm sure there's plenty more....

===

 

~

[Michaelangelica]

And it seems the idea is catching on - there's hope yet.

Yes.

There is always hope.

 

AND

as Terry Prattchet says ". . . a million to one chances happen every day."

 

It often annoyed me when talking about herbs on the media and they said to me "You mustn't give people 'False Hope' "

No such thing in my opinion.

There is only

• Hope
  
• No hope
  

There is nothing that exists in between.

[Michaelangelica]

This reply should probably be on the "recreating America..." thread, but I agree that this simple, singular, biochar/TP solution has the potential to help with a lot of problems ...on so many levels!

===

 

I can see Biochar as a huge new sector of a healthy future economy.

It can provide lots of jobs managing and processing raw resources into products.

Also....

 

As a focus for new value in our society, it could serve to integrate education with civic and fiscal responsibility--teaching about diet & health, biology, chemistry, physics, and earth sciences to learn about personal, social, and global sustainability.

)

Lovely Post.

Want to join up the Permaculture forums?

Permaculture discussion forum • Index page

[Eclipse Now]

Biochar is just one of many "waste = food" systems thinking that makes me wonder how the industrialists didn't convert the industrial production system into a permaculture industrial ecosystem a long time ago. There are so many levels on which new permaculture systems thinking can be incorporated into industrial design.

 

If we use separation toilets, as is starting in some new EU member countries, then the urine can easily be converted into fertiliser. Better than that, "Cradle to Cradle" thinking is slowly redesigning ALL industrial products so that not just this life, but the "next incarnation" of the product are considered.

 

It's summed up in the slogan "Waste = food".

 

Carpets can be manufactured with non-toxic fibres and dyes, and can be so natural that waste carpet products are actually purchased by farmers (in Germany) to prevent frosts destroying soil health and the carpet biodegrades into the vineyard soils. (I think it was vineyards).

 

All products are recycled back into either the biological or industrial system. Metals are recycled, new forms of plastic are recycled without any degradation, and the city becomes a living, breathing, sustainable ecosystem. Waste = food. Local renewable power, local food, sustainable local woods, fibres, concretes, etc... it's possible.

 

So, if we combine urine reclamation with biochar and the "crop and cow" rotation methods described in "The Omnivore's dilemma" then we can really see the potential for a post-oil agricultural and design sector that works.

[Essay]

Biochar is ...the potential for a post-oil agricultural and design sector that works.

Very logical and compelling.

 

Worthy as a suggestion for the Obama Transition Team:

Change.gov | momentvision

 

hint, hint, hint....

 

~

[erich]

Hi Listers,

Lots of stuff reported here that I was unaware of;

 

Biofuels Digest

The world's most widely read biofuels daily

 

Time Magazine, The Independent (UK) profile pyrolysis of biomass into biochar as CO2-reducing strategy : Biofuels Digest

 

# Logical Innovations, Siemens install new controls for USDA’s fast pyrolysis test system in Pennsylvania

# In Pennsylvania, Siemens Energy & Automation and the USDA Agricultural Research Service announced a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to development improvements in a fast pyr...UK Carbon Trust launches $10 million Pyrolysis Challenge to stimulate research efforts

# In the UK, The Carbon Trust has launched The Pyrolysis Challenge, under which the Trust will contribute $10 million in matching funds towards research in producing a pyrolysis-based oil that can be di...UOP and Ensyn announce JV for fast pyrolysis energy venture to produce green gasoline, diesel and jet fuel

# In New Jersey, UOP Honeywell and Ensyn announced a joint venture to commercialize Ensyn's fast pyrolysis process for converting crop and forest residues to energy. Ensyn's "rapid thermal-processing...Dynamotive signs feedstock agreements in Argentina for fast pyrolysis-based bio-oil

# Dynamotive Energy Systems announced contracts for the provision of biomass for two of its proposed plants in the Province of Corrientes in Argentina. Negotiations in regard to the site are progressing...UK’s Carbon Trust pledges $10 million for pyrolysis research; process creates synthetic crude from biomass

In England, The Carbon Trust has pledged $10 million to fund pyrolysis projects. Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition of organic materials by heating in the absence of oxygen or other reagents R...

[Eclipse Now]

From their latest update, it seems biochar is being considered at the UN level to help combat desertification.

 

POZNAN, Poland, December 10, 2008 - The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) announces that the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has submitted a proposal to include biochar as a mitigation and adaptation technology to be considered in the post-2012-Copenhagen agenda of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A copy of the proposal is posted on the IBI website at

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI).

 

Biochar is a fine-grained, highly porous charcoal that helps soils retain nutrients and water. The carbon in biochar resists degradation and can sequester carbon in soils for hundreds to thousands of years.

 

IBI Executive Director Debbie Reed said, "The UNCCD submission is a great success, and is paralleled by a lot of very positive discussions and interest in biochar amongst country delegates as well as observers of the process."

 

The UNCCD, a sister convention to the UNFCCC, has identified biochar as a unique opportunity to address soils as a carbon sink. According to the submission document: "The world's soils hold more organic carbon than that held by the atmosphere as CO2 and vegetation, yet the role of the soil in capturing and storing carbon dioxide is often one missing information layer in taking into consideration the importance of the land in mitigating climate change."

 

UNCCD proposes that biochar must be considered as a vital tool for rehabilitation of dryland soils: "The fact that many of the drylands soils have been degraded means that they are currently far from saturated with carbon and their potential to sequester carbon may be very high ... making the consideration of Biochar, as a strategy for enhancing soils carbon sequestration, imperative."

 

UNCCD also cites the ability of biochar to address multiple climate and development concerns while avoiding the disadvantages of other bioenergy technologies that deplete soil organic matter (SOM). IBI Executive Director Debbie Reed said, "Pyrolysis systems that produce biochar can provide many advantages. Biochar restores soil organic carbon and soil fertility, reduces emissions from agriculture, and can provide clean, renewable energy. Conventional biomass energy competes with soil building needs for crop residue feedstocks, but biochar accommodates both uses."

 

Reduced deforestation is another biochar advantage cited by the UNCCD in their submitted proposal for including biochar in carbon trading mechanisms: "The carbon trade could provide an incentive to cease further deforestation; instead reforestation and recuperation of degraded land for fuel and food crops would gain magnitude."

 

Craig Sams, founder of Green & Black's Organic Chocolate, is in Poznan to help educate delegates about biochar. Sams believes that the climate and ancillary benefits of biochar are so great that biochar systems should be eligible for double credits. Sams said, "Adding the rewards for abandoning carbon emitting practices such as slash and burn cultivation, deforestation and wood fire cooking, to the rewards for adopting biochar practices in agriculture, forestry and cooking, ought to qualify for double credits."

 

UNCCD proposes to include biochar in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and to revise the rules to account for biochar as a permanent means of carbon capture. UNCCD also proposes adjusting the carbon offset rules to allow greater financial flows to help developing countries increase soil organic matter with biochar.

 

Biochar has one important additional advantage over other land use carbon sequestration projects - carbon sequestration through biochar is easy to quantify. It is also relatively permanent. The UNCCD says: "Potential drawbacks such as difficulty in estimating greenhouse gas removals and emissions resulting from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), or destruction of sinks through forest fire or disease do not apply to biochar soil amendments."

 

Overall, the potential magnitude of biochar as a climate mitigation tool is great. IBI Board Chair Dr. Johannes Lehmann said, "We are pleased that the UNCCD has recognized the potential of biochar. Results from IBI's preliminary model to estimate the potential of biochar carbon sequestration show that biochar production from agriculture and forestry residues can potentially sequester one gigaton of carbon in the world's soils annually by 2040. Using the biochar energy co-product to displace fossil fuel energy can approximately double the carbon impact of biochar alone."

 

IBI's objective for the remainder of the UN meeting at Poznan is to interest more countries in proposing biochar for consideration as a mitigation and adaptation technology in the post-2012 Copenhagen process of the UNFCCC.

 

About IBI

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) is a registered non-profit organization that serves as an international platform for the exchange of information and activities in support of biochar research, development, demonstration and commercialization. IBI participants comprise a consortium of researchers, commercial entities, policy makers, development agents, farmers and gardeners and others committed to supporting sustainable biochar production and utilization systems that remove carbon from the atmosphere and enhance the earth's soils.

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI)

[froggy]

From their latest update, it seems biochar is being considered at the UN level to help combat desertification.

As it should.

 

Tho, one has to wonder where all the biomass feedstocks are coming from? Quickly the answer comes to grasses and other annual feedstocks and not woodies. And the logistics of moving that much carbon is daunting and energy intensive.

 

The good news is that modern humans have much better technology than 'Terra Preta people' and can likely sequester carbon at a much faster rate. The bad news is that maybe like many things, you cant rush the wine before its time...if biology is at work, that might take time to get the results we want. I have great faith in science to mimic nature and speed things up but am old and wise enough to know that faster isnt always the best way to do things right.

[Eclipse Now]

Hi Froggy,

I think I agree. The feedstock could come from the desert itself once we got things started.

 

Chicken and egg?

 

I like "Greening the desert" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk, a Youtube 5 minute video about hell on earth being turned into a permaculture garden paradise with 1/5 the water usually required.

 

After setting up a few km's of this kind of desert garden, the garden waste, weeding, prunning, etc could stock a local biochar unit and with the biochar plant geared up the right way, maybe even give the locals some biodiesel as well?

[Nitack]

Hi Froggy,

I think I agree. The feedstock could come from the desert itself once we got things started.

 

Chicken and egg?

 

I like

, a Youtube 5 minute video about hell on earth being turned into a permaculture garden paradise with 1/5 the water usually required.

 

After setting up a few km's of this kind of desert garden, the garden waste, weeding, prunning, etc could stock a local biochar unit and with the biochar plant geared up the right way, maybe even give the locals some biodiesel as well?

 

That was one of the most inspiring videos I have ever seen.

[Eclipse Now]

The thing is, it seems a fairly labour intensive way of farming. Monocropping in straight lines or broad open fields allows certain machinery etc to be used. AND they still used drip irrigation, but to their credit 1/5th the water normally used.

 

Yet if we are to take that video at face value, a local farmer's market and eco-village style living might really be possible in some far more inhospitable places than previously thought. Add a solar power plant, and some desal water, and there is a whole new style of sustainable living. Anyway, I'm so interested in this subject because it seems we could both Green the desert (see new thread on this subject) and Reinvent our cities through new zoning plans (see new thread on THIS subject). Combined with Biochar, I think we have some answers. On my blog I call it the "Radical R's".

 

# REZONE for New Urbanism

# RAIL (Trains, trams, and trolley buses)

# RENEWABLE energy

# REDESIGN Industrial Ecosystems

# REPLENISH soil with Biochar

# RESTORE local ecosystems

# REDUCE global population

# REFORM Global Government