[Terrapreta] CO2 rising

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Lou,

Oh yes, absolutely.  We have to find a way to stop mining fossil carbon and putting it into the air as soon as possible.  On the largest scale possible.  But, this will require a replacement for the energy that we harvest when we do that.  Biomass is a good alternative because it is "carbon neutral" (doesn't add to the active carbon pool).  But, there is not enough of it to supply the worlds current hunger for energy.  All of the renewable energy sources; solar, wind, biomass will need to contribute, as well as probably nuclear.

Regards,

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: lou gold<mailto:lou.gold at gmail.com> 
  To: Gerald Van Koeverden<mailto:vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca> 
  Cc: bhans at earthmimic.com<mailto:bhans at earthmimic.com> ; terrapreta preta<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 8:02 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] CO2 rising


  Yep, living sinks do seems as sort of steady-state recyclers. They give and take because they are alive. So if sinks mean removal of carbon relatively permanently, they don't exist simply because life is not permanent. 

  I believe intuitively that charcoal is the way to create more "sunk" carbon. But to truly repair past damage it needs to be linked to growing fuel rather than mining it because mining keeps adding to the total volume of the active carbon pool which needs to reduced. 




  On 9/23/07, Gerald Van Koeverden <vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca<mailto:vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca>> wrote: 
    What if Hans has hit upon something...that there is no meaningfully active carbon sink in present geological history, just very extremely short duration carbon-fixing mainly in grass roots and tree trunks?  And microbial activity empties these very shallow sinks as quickly as they can be formed.  The true carbon sinks - coal formations and oil basins - are derived not from trees or grasses but rather seas of algae grown in a high carbon dioxide atmosphere and then buried in sediment by erosion and catastrophic earth upheavels, eons ago...  


     If Hans' idea has validity, our only real choice would be make those sinks ourselves, atom by atom...to return the atmosphere earth to pre-industrial condition.  For every ton of fossil carbon fuel burned, we should we fixing another ton back into a real sink...and is that the earth as charcoal?? 


    Gerrit




  _______________________________________________
  Terrapreta mailing list
  Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
  http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
  http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
  http://info.bioenergylists.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/terrapreta_bioenergylists.org/attachments/20070923/8095982e/attachment.html