[Terrapreta] Tree planting -- a bit more

[Duane Pendergast]

Thanks Lou,

 

I may sound a bit flippant, but I think you are helping me make a point. We
are already cutting forests, making them into houses, and thus creating a
temporary carbon sink. That is the way we are going and I don't think it
will stop. Sure there is paper produced from trees too, and there are
"waste" materials. Some would burn those waste materials to generate
electricity. The houses and paper become "waste" at some time too. I think
the essence of the terra preta concept is to use those so-called "waste"
forest biomaterials and other "waste" biomass in a different way to actually
help Mother Nature build soil. A potential side benefit is to take carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere.

 

Duane

 

-----Original Message-----
From: lou gold [mailto:lou.gold at gmail.com] 
Sent: December 3, 2007 10:03 PM
To: still.thinking at computare.org
Cc: Terrapreta
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Tree planting -- a bit more

 

Duane,

You are part right. Saw timber that becomes house and furniture do
constitute a carbon sink. BUT I'll bet that no more than 20% of the original
forest biomass ends up in these uses. Most goes to paper products,
co-generation and plain old waste. Cutting forests with the presumed goal of
a home carbon sink is not the way to go. 

all best,

lou




On Dec 4, 2007 2:54 AM, Duane Pendergast <still.thinking at computare.org>
wrote:

Lou,

 

I guess Mike has not noticed yet that Canada 's dead trees become houses in
Canada and the US . There's your carbon sink. The renewing forest keeps on
removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  The missing link here is to
turn any dead houses into charcoal and rebuild the soil with them. Keep up
the good work.

 

Duane

 

-----Original Message-----
From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of lou gold
Sent: December 3, 2007 9:45 PM
To: Terrapreta
Subject: [Terrapreta] Tree planting -- a bit more

 

Kelpie Wilson over at TruthOut as juxtaposed two recent articles on tree
planting, soils, etc.
They reveal the issues. http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/120307EA.shtml 

There's tremendous misunderstanding and I suspect lots is reported without
full context. Here's an example:

    "Forests are a band-aid," said Mike Flannigan, a research scientists at
the Canadian Forest Service. "Eventually, forests die, releasing all that
stored carbon into the atmosphere." 

    "Forests are carbon-neutral over the long term," Flannigan told IPS. 

 




-- 
http://lougold.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/sets/ 

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