[Terrapreta] Fw: Durability of charcoal as carbon sink?

[David Yarrow]

hello charcoalers,

since what we do is based on fixing carbon from the air by green plants via photosynthesis, i thought i'd share the attached powerpoint slide show that illustrates the 5-step water splitting clock which generates the energy that plants use to combine CO2 and H2O to make sugar.  i've talked and taught about this for several years, and recently i decided to create an animated illustration to more thoroughly explain this fundamental process which creates and stores energy for earthly biology.  the attached powerpoint slides are my first effort to build this teaching tool.  unfortunately, all you get are the images without any words of explanation.

i first learned this from a scientific american paper published in 1998.  i was immediately fascinated by this paper for three convergent reasons.

first, because i realized that plants in photosynthesis "burn" water to generate energy.  photosynthesis uses sunshine to pop the four hydrogens off two water molecules, splitting the hydrogens into 4 electrons and four protons, which then provide the plant with the physical electric charges needed to fuse CO2 and H2O into the carbon rings called carbohydrates.  so cyanobacteria (bluegreen algae) -- the first plants on earth -- invented a hydrogen fuel cycle, using water as their source of hydrogen, and sunshine as the "spark" to ignite this essentially unlimited fuel source.  these days i state the if humans want to survive, reduce greenhouse gases and reverse global warming to mitigate climate change, we should study how nature generates energy and follow that as the model for own fuel sources and cycles:
www.championtrees.org/stepitup/WakeTheFolkUp3.htm

second, because i recognized the 5-step energy cycle of photosynthesis is the same as the 5 element law of chinese philosophy and medicine.  after the unifying principle -- better known as the dancing duality of yin & yang -- this 5 transformations law is the second most important principle of oriental philosophy.  my slide show only briefly shows the precise analogy between the 5-step water splitting clock of photosynthesis and the 5 element law, but it has many additional applications in classical chinese medicine.  while yin & yang depicts the fundamental, universal energy cycle, in the world of nature, this two-side cycle becomes a five step shuffle.  or, in my preferred metaphor, nature sings in a five note (pentatonic) scale.

and third, because i understand that this same 5-step cycle is based on the 5-sided symmetry that gives rise to the fibonacci summation series -- better known today as "the davinci code."  this 5-sided symmetry is the simplest geometric derivation of the PHI ratio and the double PHI spiral -- the fundamental geometry of DNA and memory, which is critical for reproduction, immunity and higher 5th dimensional geometry.  5-sided symmetry in solid geometry generates the icosahedron (20 3-sided faces, 5 to a vertex) and dodecahedron (12 5-sided faces, 3 to a vertex).  these two regular solids are the basis for building virus particles, cell membranes and the twin spiral helix of DNA:
www.championtrees.org/yarrow/phi/index.htm

David Yarrow
"If yer not forest, yer against us."
Turtle EyeLand Sanctuary
44 Gilligan Road, East Greenbush, NY 12061
dyarrow at nycap.rr.com
www.championtrees.org
www.OnondagaLakePeaceFestival.org
www.citizenre.com/dyarrow/
www.farmandfood.org
www.SeaAgri.com
 
"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, 
if one only remembers to turn on the light."  
-Albus Dumbledore
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