[Terrapreta] two recent articles on TP

Fri Feb 29 16:34:32 CST 2008

Termite farts, on the other hand, produce more methane (one of the  
gases involved in global warming) than all of our cars, planes and  
factories put together! The termites can’t help this, of course. It’s  
because they need more of those gut bacteria than most animals in  
order to digest their woody diet. But it has earned them the number  
one spot in our Top 10 animals that fart list.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/snot/do_rabbits_fart.aspx

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/snot/do_rabbits_fart.aspx

On 29-Feb-08, at 5:20 PM, Michael Bailes wrote:

> Do goats fart?
> or burp?
> M
>
> On 01/03/2008, Gerald Van Koeverden <vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca> wrote:
> Always when Westerners think about red meat, they think about  
> cows!  Did you know that 68% of the world's red meat comes from goats?
>
> Gerrit
>
>
> On 29-Feb-08, at 4:18 PM, Michael Bailes wrote:
>
>>
>> Spring 2008: Climate Solutions
>>
>>
>> The Solution on our Dinner Plates
>> by Guy Dauncey
>>
>>
>> 	
>> What we can do about food and forests :: Changes from the ground up
>>
>>
>> Total global emissions are the equivalent of 31.6 gigatonnes of  
>> CO2 annually.
>>
>>
>> The world's agricultural meat industry contributes 5.7 gigatonnes  
>> of that, and 6.3 gigatonnes comes from forest destruction.
>>
>> 	
>>
>> 	Eighteen percent of the climate change problem is associated with  
>> raising, feeding, and transporting meat. Cutting back on meat  
>> consumption is a way to immediately reduce climate impact. Photo  
>> by Dagmar Nelson, milkaway.smugmug.com
>> The farm industries that put beef, pork, and dairy on our dinner  
>> tables account for 18 percent of global greenhouse emissions—a  
>> larger share than all the world's transportation.
>> Animal agriculture unleashes some of the most baneful greenhouse  
>> gases—methane from cows' stomachs (25 times stronger than CO2) and  
>> nitrous oxide from animal manure and the use of nitrogen  
>> fertilizer (298 times more potent than CO2). And too often, both  
>> cows and animal feed are raised on slashed and burned rainforest  
>> land, releasing more CO2.
>>
>> The solution lies on our dinner plates. We need to eat less meat  
>> and dairy, turning instead to the tastes, pleasures, and health  
>> benefits of vegetarian food. If locally grown and organic, so much  
>> the better, since organic farming stores carbon in the soil, and  
>> eating locally grown reduces the carbon emissions from shipping.  
>> Research shows that organic farming can produce as much food as  
>> industrialized farming in the developed world and increase yields  
>> two to three-fold in developing countries (because many of their  
>> existing farming methods are less productive to begin with).
>>
>> The destruction of the world's tropical rainforests releases 17  
>> percent of the world's carbon emissions. We must go out of our way  
>> to protect the forests in the Amazon, Congo, and Indonesia by  
>> buying threatened forests, placing them in trust for indigenous  
>> inhabitants, and paying for policing against illegal loggers.
>>
>> Gaviotas, a social experiment in the barren savannah lands of  
>> eastern Colombia, provides one inspiring model. The visionary  
>> Gavioteros have created a thriving carbon-neutral community  
>> complete with hospital, solar water treatment plant, and wind  
>> turbines. By planting trees, they have begun changing local  
>> rainfall cycles and restoring ancient rainforest—all in what was  
>> an almost uninhabitable landscape, proving that anything is possible.
>>
>> Another miracle goes by the name terra preta—rich, black charcoal  
>> soil that stores huge quantities of carbon while making the land  
>> more fertile.
>>
>> As we enter the post-carbon world, we must learn how to  
>> reharmonize farming and forestry with nature's carbon cycles.
>>
>> Guy Dauncey wrote this article as part of Stop Global Warming  
>> Cold, the Spring 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. Guy is a speaker,  
>> organizer, consultant, and author with Patrick Mazza of Stormy  
>> Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate Change, New Society  
>> Publishers.
>> Carbon tamed to work two ways
>>
>> Article from:
>> Font size: Decrease Increase
>> Email article: Email
>> Print article: Print
>> Submit comment: Submit comment
>> PETER BOYER
>>
>> February 05, 2008 12:00am
>>
>> CARBON is the essence of life. Large proportions of it are in our  
>> bodies and in every living thing on the planet. Animals breathe it  
>> out as carbon dioxide and plants grow by taking it in -- part of  
>> the carbon cycle, the cycle of life.
>>
>> Except that our own species has found many new ways of putting  
>> extra carbon into the atmosphere, throwing the cycle of life out  
>> of kilter and endangering all the life-forms it has sustained down  
>> the millennia.
>>
>> We've left nothing alone. While burning Earth's fossil deposits,  
>> polluting its atmosphere and pushing our soils to produce more  
>> food, we've also degraded their capacity to do so. We're a  
>> demanding species.
>>
>> We're also clever. What we've done, we ought to be able to undo.  
>> If only we can get our act together, we ought to be able to put  
>> our minds to how we might stop so much carbon entering our  
>> atmosphere.
>>
>> Most talk about carbon storage (sequestration) has focused on the  
>> technology of "clean coal", whereby carbon emitted from coal-fired  
>> power stations would be captured and put into underground vaults.
>>
>> The technology demanded by the clean-coal idea is complex,  
>> expensive and unproven, and it requires large-scale centralised  
>> systems. But the climate crisis demands decentralised solutions,  
>> with shared responsibility for action and distributed power  
>> generation.
>>
>> Here's an idea that, unlike clean coal, is within reach of local  
>> authorities and serves multiple purposes. While keeping carbon out  
>> of the atmosphere and generating electricity, it can also make our  
>> soils more productive.
>>
>> Tasmania has no shortage of plant waste, rich in carbon. Much of  
>> it disappears into the atmosphere by burning or is left to rot and  
>> relinquish its carbon over time. We can put it to better use.
>>
>> Biochar ("bio" as in plant matter and "char" as in charcoal) is a  
>> product that its advocates believe can replicate the ways in which  
>> the world's most fertile soils -- "terra preta" or "dark earth" --  
>> cycle their nutrients, hold their water and grow plants better  
>> than anywhere else.
>>
>> Biochar is basically small granules of charcoal obtained through  
>> heating plant waste in an age-old process called pyrolysis, by  
>> which we once produced charcoal for fuel. Modern pyrolysis  
>> technology reduces carbon emissions to practically zero while  
>> producing heat that can generate sufficient electricity to power  
>> some small industrial plants.
>>
>> The residue from the process is carbon in the form of biochar,  
>> which has the capacity to revitalise our soils, giving long- 
>> lasting fertility while also improving moisture-carrying capacity.
>>
>> That's making carbon work for us, not against us. Which is the way  
>> nature always intended.
>>
>> Peter Boyer is a writer, illustrator and publisher who has written  
>> extensively about science. Since 2006 he has been a presenter for  
>> The Climate Project (Australia).
>> peterboyer at southwind.com.au
>> -- 
>> Michael the Archangel
>>
>> "You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . .
>> Most people don't know that"
>> FROM
>> http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Michael the Archangel
>
> "You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. . . .
> Most people don't know that"
> FROM
> http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf

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