[Terrapreta] Coal as a soil additive

[Tom Miles]

How did you get from putting coal in the ground to mercury and radioactive
emissions? You have to break down a lot of carbon to get at toxic levels of
trace elements like mercury. Do you expect the coal to decompose or the
plants to pull the trace elements out of the coal and concentrate them in
the food crop? Where's the evidence of that happening? This list seems to
generate a lot of worry and conjecture. 

The simple answer is that there are commercial coal derived carbon products
that area made for horticultural use. They are no doubt processed in
facilities with extensive emission controls. I know that we have linked to
these products from the terra preta site but I can't seem to find them just
now. (I'll put my 92 year old mother to the task of finding them. She
worries less than you people do but that's probably because I work her so
hard that she doesn't have time to fuss.) 

Tom
 
> Sean K. Barry wrote:
> > Hi Mark and AK,
> >
> > Doesn't coal contain levels high of mercury that are released to the
> > environment (unacceptable) when burned in a coal fired power plant?
> And then there's all that radioactive Thorium that a lot of coal
> contains. Some coalfired powerplants put out more radioactive
> contamination than than all the nuclear plants combined (minus
> Chernobyl
> of course).
> 
> Kurt
> coal instead of charcoal goes against everything we are trying to do in
> TP.