[Terrapreta] Earthen Kiln Conjecture

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Sean

Sean K. Barry wrote:
> Hi Robert,
>  
> Again with this post.  Whatever the Indios did to make charcoal out of 
> whatever they used DOES NOT MATTER TODAY!  When are you going to grasp 
> this?

You have no idea how TP was made, how it was used, how much was 
Anthropogenic, what if anything was the purpose of the shards, whether 
or not the Terra Preta Growing Paradigm is appropriate for temperate 
climates, or whether it is an economically sound growing practise in 
temperate climates,  and you seem to have lost sight of the fact that TP 
was configured as part of a food supply system. When are you going to 
grasp this?
>   Recommending to make charcoal in earthen kilns (in the open air) 
> made from corn stalks is a bad idea.

Robert is not recommending to make charcoal in earthen kilns. He is 
simply seeking to understand how the Anthropogenic Terra Preta was made 
and used.  When are you going to grasp this?
>   There is no way to do this without massive releases of Methane-CH4, 
> which has been discussed ad-nauseum with you as a significant 
> potential problem with this plan.

What plan? Robert is not proposing to make charcoal and smoke out the 
neighbourhood. When are you going to grasp this?
>   Also, just like there isn't enough corn grown in the world to make 
> enough ethanol to supply the world's thirst for transportation fuel, 
> there IS NOT ENOUGH CORN STALKS IN THE WORLD to make the amount of 
> charcoal we need to form enough Terra Preta and/or make any kind of 
> difference on agricultural food production or global climate mitigation.

Robert is not advocating making charcoal from corn stalks. When are you 
going to grasp this?
>  
> Move on.  Your past one idea (Earthen Kiln Conjecture) is too limited 
> and problematic to be a solution or of any value to us, Robert.


2+2 = 5... Robert's answer could very well be correct. The problem is 
that you are posing the wrong question. Terra Preta, as an agricultural 
system in widespread use by the Brazilian Indians, was not configured as 
a Carbon Sequestering procedure, or as a system for alleviating the 
level of CO2 in the atmosphere of 2008. When are you going to grasp this?

> That's my opinion and widely held in this group, I think.

I would suggest that your views are widely held by a small faction more 
interested in Climate Remediation than understanding and appreciating 
the Real  Terra Preta for what it was, what it is, and what it can be. 
When are you going to grasp this?

I would also suggest that your response to Robert's conjecture about a 
portion of the TP puzzle is very unprofessional.

Kevin





>  
> Best Regards,
>  
> SKB
>  
>  
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Robert Klein <mailto:arclein at yahoo.com>
>     *To:* terra pretta group <mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
>     *Sent:* Monday, April 14, 2008 1:14 PM
>     *Subject:* [Terrapreta] Earthen Kiln Conjecture
>
>     Ihave reposted an article by David Bennet with Lehmann on Terra
>     Preta publishedin 2005.  This outlines the most
>     criticalinformation as well as describing the original scope of
>     the Indian civilizationitself. It is
>     at:http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2008/04/earthen-terra-preta-kilns-and-pollen.htmlAgainthis
>     lays out the limiting factors and fully supports my earthen
>     kilnconjecture, particularly the following quotation.“There has
>     been some pollen analysis. It suggests manioc and maize were
>     being grown 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. In the pollen bank, these
>     crops didn’t
>     pop up sporadically but in large numbers.”
>     Ihave also polished my description of the protocol and am
>     activelypromoting  field trials.Firstly,the maize or corn exists
>     in an environment that mitigated against its use forpurely food
>     production.  There werealternatives far better suited. to the non
>     terra preta environment, startingimmediately with manioc which I
>     think is a rainforest friendly plant. Secondly,the only viable
>     source of meat protein to these peoples at this populationdensity
>     was through fish.  Withoutconfirmation, a pond with tilapia makes
>     great sense. It was a staple for the Maya.The waste from the daily
>     meal could be readily folded into any growing seedhill.  Human
>     waste could simply have beenburied in the field itself avoiding
>     any storage.  This is common practice to this day. Themaking of
>     the earthen kiln is no more difficult than uprooting the
>     dehydratedcorn stalks after harvest and properly stacking them to
>     form an earthen walledkiln with a wall thickness of two to three
>     root pads
>      and an interior of tightlypacked corn stalks.  Obviously, any
>     otherplant material, including wood can be built into the stack as
>     available.  The earthen wall nicely restricts air flowduring the
>     burn phase and lends itself to optimization by changing the
>     wallthickness.  It also minimizes the amountof human effort needed
>     which is through the roof if you are attempting to coveror bury a
>     ten ton pile of stubble or branches. Thisgives you a kiln with
>     vertical earthen walls and a possibly domed top that canbe easily
>     covered with earth.  Again,field trials will optimize this
>     protocol very easily.  The kiln could be squared off or perhaps
>     evencircular though unlikely. The only tool to this point is a
>     strong back ortwo.  We have gathered several tons ofcorn stover
>     over perhaps an acre of land with only a little more effort
>     thanthat annually required to clear the field and burn the waste.
>     Nowwe must fire the kiln.  The easy way isto take a clay lined old
>     basket
>      and fill it up with coals from a woodfire.  Carry this ember
>     charge to thecenter of the kiln top and tip the charge onto the
>     exposed center and place thebasket as a cap to the newly forming
>     chimney.
>     More clay may be necessary to widen the chimney cap.  Throw more
>     earth on top of this to preventbreakout of the fire.  Keep
>     throwingearth on any breakout points that start.
>     The chimney will serve to burn all the volatiles produced as the
>     hotzone expands to fill the collapsing kiln until they are
>     exhausted.  Thereupon the hot zone will cool off leavinga blend of
>     biochar, ash and earth and some root ends for the next kiln.  And
>     yes, we should have a lot of fired clay. Thebiochar itself will be
>     a range of nonvolatile combustion products that willrange from
>     even dried vegetation to activated charcoal following a nice
>     bellcurve.  The material can be then gatheredin baskets and
>     redistributed into the field onto the seed hills again
>     reducingwastage and effort. Irealized originally that the only
>     ancient plant that could accommodate a highenough volume of terra
>     preta production was good old maize.  It just seemed an unlikely
>     option fortropical rainforests. That is when I started looking for
>     references to thepollen record.  The article by DavidBennett and
>     Lehmann is one of those reverences that then emerged. Iwould like
>     to get a full
>      spectrum of the pollen profile since it seems verylikely that
>     while the fence rows held the food trees, it seems more likely
>     thatthey also used a variation of the three sisters using some
>     form of convenientlegume.  Squashes also, of course, butnot nearly
>     as important. Thekey point of all this is that a family can
>     convert a field into terra preta inone short season, allowing them
>     to repeat the process thereafter as necessaryuntil the field is
>     completely transformed to depth.  Today, we can do the same thing
>     using shovelsand a garbage can lid.
>
>
>
>
>          
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