[Terrapreta] A New Theory of Climate Change

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Lewis (cc "terrapreta" list members)

1.  Thanks for your message.  I don't think we need to say more about evidence, but my belief is that losing the arctic ice cap is the big one.  The cap is already smaller than any year in recorded history and 3-4 more weeks of melting to go.  I have been tracking the thickness - which is declining much faster than the areal extent.  I predict in 2015 we will see a September ice-free arctic - 30-some years earler than predicted by Al Gore.  We are "helped" here by the plight of the polar bears.

2.  I understand we all come at the terra preta concept for different reasons (mostly climate, soils, and cost of energy - maybe most thinking the latter includes peak oil/gas, jobs, national security, and balance-of-payments?).  But we should all keep in mind that we need all three funding sources to pay for the faster placement of more char in the ground.  Those who argue for only one or two rationales being important are going to slow down the "terrapreta" process.

3.  My main reason for supporting your message, though, is to see whether you or anyone can give an iron-clad justification for paying more for carbon-negative carbon credits than for carbon-neutral ones?  I have a gut feeling that retiring a CO2 molecule is worth more than not inserting another - but have been unable to prove such.  This is at the heart of the "energy" side of this three-way economic analysis.  I am assuming that no carbon credits will ever go to badly-produced char - and that char producers will get more for their char from the climate-sponsors if the pyrolysis gases were used productively rather than being wasted.  But will they give more for a carbon-negative tonne than for a carbon-neutral tonne?  

4.  Side note - I just read that the Norwegian Statoil is re-inserting CO2 into their depleted oil wells at $45/tonne CO2 (>$120/tonne C), as their national CO2-release penalties are about the same.  They get more production, but there are a limited number of wells to accept the world's CO2 through undergorund sequestration.  We on this list can be thinking of prices higher than today's roughly 20 Euros per ton CO2 as on the European exchange.  

Lewis - again thanks.

Ron

You said today:
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: MMBTUPR at aol.com 
  To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org 
  Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 6:13 AM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] A New Theory of Climate Change


                      to  Terrapreta List          from  Lewis L Smith


          <snip>
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