[Terrapreta] Lester Brown

[Richard Haard]

Greg

Duane said

Better to get on with demonstrating the Terra Preta concept really  
works as a soil builder and prepare to forsake civilization.  We  
certainly won’t reduce CO2 by 80% by 2020 by any means discussed to  
date.

This is how I feel too. Making the effort to educate, to perfect and  
understand this use of charcoal. I do not know what else one can do  
whether he is a doomer, survivalist or techno- optimist.

The facts are that 1/3 of the arable land on this planet's 1500  
million hectares is in the humid tropics and is cultivated with slash  
and burn agriculture. Conversion to slash and char method of farming  
in this environment would mean a change in farming methods for 300 to  
500 million people. Conventional farming in this  climate zone allow  
only sort periods of cultivation between long periods of fallow, up to  
20 years.

With growing populations in these regions and recent attraction of  
lucrative export commodity markets to the developed world we are in a  
death spiral of destruction of the tropical rain forests. Soil  
emissions from Amazon deforestation alone amount to a quantity 20 % as  
large as Brazil' s emissions from fossil fuels ( from a study  
published 1998) With slash and burn 1.7 % of the carbon is preserved  
as carbon. slash and char - even if it is not all used as soil  
amendment would displace fossil fuels at least.

We need to educate people like Brown about this message to let them  
know there are these changes in cultural practices we should be  
advocating.

Rich


On Feb 25, 2008, at 4:02 PM, Greg and April wrote:

> You know, sometimes I really get the funny feeling that allot of the  
> gloom and doom folks just don't want problems solved, by ways other  
> than just exactly how they think it should be done and no more ---  
> so they can prove how right they are.
>
> Does anyone else ever get that feeling?
>
>
> Greg H.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Douglas Clayton
> To: Terra Preta
> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 13:05
> Subject: [Terrapreta] Lester Brown
>
> Last night I attended a lecture by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy  
> Institute and World Watch. I counted 500+ in attendance. It was all  
> the major doom and gloom we are familiar with. World Watch Institute  
> has now taken the stand that we MUST reduce CO2 by 80% by 2020 "to  
> save civilization".
> http://www.lexgwac.org/LesterBrown2.html
>
> Lester Brown's latest book is just out, Plan B 3.0, Mobilizing to  
> Save Civilization.
>
> In the Q&A I managed to wave my arm vigorously enough to get a  
> chance to ask him what he thought of the the "technology" we on this  
> list are so enthused about. Another person pitched in a few words  
> about the Terra Preta as most of the crowd was confused and clueless  
> (interesting as this was a very environmentally aware and activist  
> crowd--- by a show of hands more then half were members of the Union  
> of Concerned Scientists. He seemed minimally familiar with the  
> concepts and his reservations were economic, not sure whether our  
> schemes would prove to be an economically viable method of  
> sequestering carbon.
>
> I would suggest that we all attempt to contact Lester Brown, World  
> Watch and Earth Policy Institutes and bring them up to speed.
>
> Doug
>
> Douglas Clayton
> 50 Bullard Road
> Jaffrey, NH 03452
> H. 603-532-7321
> W. 603-532-1120
> Fax. 603-532-4581
>
>
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