[Terrapreta] Sustained Biochar

[Brian Hans]

All,
   
  Again...6billion people, modern forestry and ag practices and modern production of fert's from the 50's on...all do to the green revolution (jeeze what a bastardizing of the term eh?) has absolutely accelerated the progress of the items we are talking about. Fossil fuels have juiced the system so that everything is in hyper mode. One cannot sluff this fact off. 
   
  I understand that all creatures on this earth have footprints. But the footprint of man can be felt on virtually every square inch of the globe, heck there is even a Russian flag on the bottom of the arctic now. So by disrupting that applecart on all the other fronts...I think its obvious that we need to take in all aspects of ATM exchange as well as the carbon cycle specifically. 
   
  If I could draw a modern day analogy...the Iraqi war. We didnt know enough about the system but we charged in there thinking that we knew what we where doing. Now that we have realized that we broke it and dont know how to fix it...we are floundering at a cost to the system we distroyed (ofcourse with good intentions). I suppose the moral of the story is that humans need to tread lightly until we understand the full scope of our footprint. Plan better and act less. 
   
  Just as anything TP is only a a tool, neither good nor bad. 
   
  Brian

Frank Teuton <fteuton at videotron.ca> wrote:
  Dear Jeff,

Blaming modern man exclusively for the mess we are in is not altogether on 
target. It is my understanding that up until about 1950 most of the 
anthropogenic C tossed up into the atmosphere was from land use sources, 
principally deforestation and agricultural soil depletion. Even very 
primitive man was able to wipe out species through overhunting, eh?

The upside of modernity is that we now have tools to dial up or down the 
production of various pollutants. Whether or not we are smart enough to use 
these tools skillfully is of course the question. The answer literally will 
be blowing in the wind.

Sean has given the numbers, and Kevin's assertion that any charcoal 
production is better than natural rotting is simply mistaken, wrong, in 
error, and potentially disastrous if globally implemented.

My two cents,

Frank Teuton

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Davis" 
To: "Kevin Chisholm" 
Cc: "Miles Tom" 
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 5:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Sustained Biochar


> Kevin wrote:
>> Certainly, charring with full use of the retort or pyrolysis gases is
>> best, but I would presently appear to me that any form of char
>> production for Terra Preta is better than allowing the biomass to
>> decompose naturally, from the standpoint of GHG impact.
>
> Daer All,
>
> Primitive man has been burning and making charcoal for thousands of years
> without global warming, so to say. Only in the last one hundred years has
> man become highly educated enough to destroy the environment and knows
> enough to blame it on old practices.
>
>
> Just an interesting point,
>
>
> Jeff


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