[Terrapreta] Strong warning against "simple" charcoal kilns

[lou gold]

Ron, that's great. Thanks. You know, I feel that if could concentrate on
sharing the news and know-hows of the benefits, we wouldn't want to spend
time and energy on the distractions and detractors.

For example, can you imagine how fast the enthanol (even the bad corn type)
industry will jump on the bandwagon as soon as it figures out how to link
soil char and fuel into a system for providing BOTH more energy and more
food?
It's mind-boggling!


On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 3:47 PM, Ron Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net>
wrote:

>  Lou, Sean, Kevin etal
>
> A couple more of the benefits are:
>
>     1.  Reduced per hectare expenditures on fertilizers.
>     2.  Therefore less pressure on increasingly limited oil and natural
> gas supplies - leading to lowered fuel costs.
>     3.  Even for same rate of fertilizer application - less N2O (very
> powerful GHG)
>     4. Improved rural employment oportunities everywhere, but especially
> in developing countries.
>     5.  Improved farm income per farmer from increased tons/hectare-yr -
> leading to better schooling and gender equality.
>     6.  More available farm and forest residue to support more biofuel
> utilization, helping on both CO2 emission reduction and peak oil/peak gas
> supply constraints
>     7.  Improved ocean/coral conditions from less fertilizer runoff (and
> less CO2 transfer from atmosphere to ocean).
>     8.  Less malnutrition and better health conditions from supplying more
> food crops per hectare.
>     9.  Less urban crowding (crime, etc) as more workers are needed in
> more profitable, healthier rural areas.
>     10.  Better indoor air quality (and better health) as farm families
> cook with charcoal-making stoves (and more income for the cooks - women, so
> lowered population growth)
>     11.  Those living on low islands and tidal areas.
>     12.   Lowered disaster insurance costs (and similar for areas with
> reduced or increased rainfall, etc)
>     13.  (Ran out of time)
>
> A more interesting question is who gets hurt by a big movement toward
> biochar:
>
>     1.  Coal companies  (Jim Hansen's target)
>     2.  Maybe oil and gas companies - but I think most are moving towards
> biofuels enough to not be a big problem.
>     3.  Politicians taking funds from the GW-denier companies (mostly
> above)
>     4.  Nuclear interests
>     5.  Those promoting other climate engineering solutions (mirrors, deep
> sequestration, etc)
>     6.  (I gave up after a few minutes more thought)
>
> Ron
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* lou gold <lou.gold at gmail.com>
> *To:* Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com>
> *Cc:* terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 29, 2008 11:44 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [Terrapreta] Strong warning against "simple" charcoal kilns
>
> I'm with you Kevin.
>
> Please consider adding "better waste management" to your excellent list.
>
> lou
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 2:39 PM, Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com>
> wrote:
>
> >  Hi Kevin,
> >
> >  We should all be directing our efforts to advancing the use of charcoal
> >
> > additions for whatever reason. There are many good and valid reasons
> > possible for adding char to the soil, such as:
> >
> > * Prevention of nutrient loss
> > * Prevention of groundwater pollution
> > * Supporting beneficial soil life forms
> > * Soil conditioning
> > * Improved soil moisture capture and retention
> > * Promotion of increased plant growth
> > * Carbon sequestration
> > * Etc...
> >
> > This is a great comment, Kevin.  I think you are right on spot with it.
> > Thank you.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > SKB
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
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> >
>
>
>
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