[Terrapreta] Sustained Biochar

[Brian Hans]

There wasnt 6B ppl on the earth sucking carbon from the ground.
  There wasnt the advent of fossil fuel fertilizers juicing the ecosystem and increasing the biomass production (and thus rotting and producing methane) by a significant factor.
  There wasnt huge methane producing dams and rice paddies.
   
  Im not sure then and now are the same circumstances. I take your point but understand the footprint of modern man is not insignificant. 
   
  Brian
   
  

"Jon C. Frank" <jon.frank at aglabs.com> wrote:
          The big fear over unburnt methane is overdone.  If it was so bad then the creation of all the original terra preta soil in Latin America would have doomed the earth to destruction.  Obviously that didn't happen--nature coped and we are all here today.  Nature makes unburnt methane all the time (so do you and I). So what.  Believe me creation was designed in such a way to cope.  This is one of those "The sky is falling" fears.
   
  The creators of terra preta did not have all our advanced chemical industry to utilize the gases the way we can now.  If we can utilize these gases for energy great--lets use the industrial model and make charcoal available for soil improvement.
   
  On the other hand many people, especially in developing countries, do not have access to expensive pyrolysis units but still wish to improve their soil by making charcoal without capturing the gases.  This is also great.  Lets also encourage the primitive model to improve the soil.  After all that's what the natives did in Latin America with great success.
   
  In whatever way people can, we should be increasing the carbon content of soil.  The other aspect that needs to be done at the same time is soil remineralization with rock powders.  The concept is more fully explained at:
   
  http://www.highbrixgardens.com/restore/remineralization.html
   
  and
   
  http://www.remineralize.org/about/context.html
   
  When the soil is carbonized with charcoal/biochar and remineralized with rock powders the soil biology greatly increases and the amount of carbons retained in the soil dramatically increases.  In other words carbon sequestration significantly enhanced.
   
  The main goal with making charcoal by either process (industrial or primitive) is soil restoration on a large scale.  When that happens the soil and plants will automatically clean up the air.  The best response will come from people getting much more nutrition in their foods and the increase in health that results from this.
   
  Jon  C. Frank
  www.aglabs.com
   
  
 
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