[Terrapreta] Earthen Kilns Conjecture

[Kurt Treutlein]

Sean K. Barry wrote:
>  
> Hi Kurt,
>  
> Why don't you like the idea of starting with Savannah?  I thought it 
> was better since it would remove less standing biomass carbon and then 
> it would grow back sooner, too, if it was Savanna, vs old growth 
> forest land.  Maybe  I'm wrong?  What do you think is the best 
> terraform to start converting to charcoal first?  This question 
> applies to now, not when or how the Amazon people did it 4500 years ago.
>  
> Regards,
>  
> SKB
Lou puts it very well in a later post.

The point is, Savannah grass lands are not "waste" land uses. They are 
that way because that is the way nature wants it. It suits the 
conditions of soil and climate.

Instead do something with land that is presently being misused. In 
Brazil it might be better to use some of that exhausted ex rainforest 
land that was cleared a few years ago and now no longer produces. The 
char might help to build it back. Plant coppicing tree varieties and 
harvest them sustainably. This way you don't damage the land further and 
might get some extra benefits as well (energy and all that sort of thing).

Take some of the tree plantations that are springing up all over with 
the intention of making woodchip and re-direct them into char 
manufacture. We have lots of them here in Southern Australia. You might 
not get to do that without a big economic meltdown, in which case the 
whole thing will likely become moot anyhow.

But above all, think wholistically. It's very easy to sit in one's 
armchair and draw broad brush generalities based on very limited general 
understanding of how the world actually works. Fanatically zooming in on 
reducing CO2 is not the way out of our mess, people also have to eat and 
live.

Kurt