[Terrapreta] CO2 rising

[lou gold]

Sean,

And thanks to you for asking.

For me, there's something especially sacred about forests -- I mean sacred
as a feeling and not as a religion or ideology.  Intellectually, I
understand that ALL ecosystems are sacred but I can't enter an ocean or a
prairie or the soil in the way that I can enter a forest and feel life
before me, behind me, above me, below me and all around me. It's a matrix.
It's not always friendly. I've been caught inside a forest fire. And I've
watched the orgy of returning life the next season. Both are awesome.

So, even though I know nothing about agriculture, I sort of get it when Sir
Albert Howard (the founder of organic farming) suggests that the best way to
learn good farming is to study a forest to learn how it achieves a balance
between life and death.

He begins his Agricultural Testament with some poetry:


The Earth, that's Nature's Mother, is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is her womb.
*Romeo and Juliet.*

And Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying: 'Here is a story-book
Thy Father has written for thee.'

'Come, wander with me,' she said,
'Into regions yet untrod;
And read what is still unread
In the manuscripts of God.'

Longfellow
*The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz.


*I believe that Terra Preta dos Indios was such a learning.









On 9/20/07, Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com> wrote:
>
>  Thanks Lou.  I knew you were in a good place from where you could make
> some valuable comments on this issue.
>
> Regards,
>
> SKB
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* lou gold <lou.gold at gmail.com>
> *To:* Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com>
> *Cc:* terrapreta at bioenergylists.org ; code suidae <codesuidae at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, September 20, 2007 12:46 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Terrapreta] CO2 rising
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> The relationships between forests and global warming are quite complex and
> function differently at different points in the life-cycle of a forest.
>
> For example, while it is true that young fast growing forests draw more
> carbon from the atmosphere than do old-growth forests, the latter is a much
> bigger sink (long-term but temporary) of sequestered carbon. Put
> simplistically, a young fast-growing tree will have to grow for 500 years in
> order to store as much carbon as an existing 500 year old tree. But this is
> a as an overly simplistic way to look at a forest which is an extremely
> complex ecosystem.
>
> The study referenced may have been the one about the "albedo effect" or
> the extent to which forests absorb or reflect heat and it works quite
> differently in temperate forests than in the tropics. Forest may contribute
> to warming in the colder climates whereas they are cooling forces in the
> tropics.
>
> Truly significant carbon emissions from forests do occur another part of
> nature's cycle -- forest fires. As temperatures and droughts increase, so do
> fires creating a positive feedback loop. Under some models of global
> warming, forests become so stressed and fires become so prevalent that
> forests become not only net emitters, but huge 'tipping-point' emitters of
> CO2. At present, tropical deforestation for logging and agriculture uses
> fire as a clearing or 'management' tool. It's approximated 70% of Brazil's
> significant greenhouse gas pollution is from forest fires. The important
> thing to appreciate is that most of nature's carbon sinks are temporary and
> function in long-term equilibrium only if left undisturbed.
>
> We should not get caught up in thinking about trees separate from the
> "biosphere" of atmosphere, plants, water and soil. The main reason to
> preserve old-growth or primary forest ecosystems is that they have attained
> a mature order (equilibrium) that maximizes internal recycling, increased
> soil fertility, water retention, a complex biodiversity AND retention of
> sequestered carbon. When the system is disturbed all kinds of things are
> released in a chaotic and potentially catastrophic fashion. It's all
> connected.
>
> Here's a good article: http://www.conbio.org/CIP/article82sin.cfm
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> lou
>
>
>
> On 9/20/07, Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com> wrote:
> >
> >  Hi Dave,
> >
> > I have read something like this too, but it was in regard to "old
> > growth" or mature forests.  Mature forests have more decaying matter in them
> > than younger, faster growing forests.  Also, "old growth" forests grow
> > slower, taking in less CO2.  On balance an "old growth" forests may become a
> > "net emitter" of CO2 into the atmosphere.
> >
> > I think there are some questions remaining, though.  Jon Frank just said
> > this eloquently, that even though CO2 emissions might increase, the ecology
> > may still be storing more carbon into the soil, than is emitted as CO2.  I
> > think too, that there is a possibility that environmental temperatures could
> > play an important part in regulating the fluxes of carbon from/to the biome
> > and to/from the atmosphere.
> >
> > Frank Teuton, Tom Miles, and/or Lou Gold might be able to shed more
> > light on this subject for you.  I believe that they all have had substantial
> > experience in forestry.  Please forgive me, Frank, Tom, or Lou, if I am
> > wrong about that.
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > SKB
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > *From:* code suidae <codesuidae at gmail.com>
> > *To:* terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> > *Sent:* Thursday, September 20, 2007 11:16 AM
> > *Subject:* Re: [Terrapreta] CO2 rising
> >
> > I read an article sometime in the past year or so that described how
> > forest can become net carbon emitters as global temperatures rise. I
> > have been unable to find the article again, but IIRC they were
> > describing research done on European forests.
> >
> > Unfortunately I don't recall the description of how the rising
> > temperatures caused the forests to become net emitters.
> >
> > Anyone familiar with this idea?
> >
> > Dave K
> > --
> > "Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know." -
> > M. King Hubbert
> >
> > On 9/20/07, Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com> wrote:
> > > The ever increasing rate of increase is what is called an "exponential
> > > growth curve".  Exponential growth curves are very common in natural
> > > systems.
> > >
> > > From: David Yarrow
> > > > not only is CO2 rising, but the rate of increase is increasing.  the
> > CO2
> > > > graph is an upturning curve, not a flat line.  and we have entered
> > the phase
> > > > when the vertical component of the curve exceeds the horizontal --
> > the
> > > > "knee" of the curve.
> >
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>
>
> --
> http://lougold.blogspot.com/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/sets/
>
>


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