[Terrapreta] Fw: Nature Story on journal Climatic Change Editorial

[Duane Pendergast]

Thanks Peter,

 

That's a very insightful summary of ways that photosynthesis plays, and
could play  with help from humans, a role in carbon "stocking" sinks. 

 

I made a submission to the Parliament of Canada with respect to your fourth
one which has been posted to this list previously.  They were undertaking a
review of how Canada might meet its Kyoto commitment. The organizers of the
review committee translated it to French and circulated it to about a
hundred participants. 

 

http://www.computare.org/Support%20documents/Fora%20Input/Wood%20Product%200
5_02.htm

 

Although there was no discussion of the concept in the final report from the
Committee, and I had no responses, indicating to me a lack of understanding
on their part, it is hard to fault them for that. After all they are
typically elected for a term or two of about four years. They have a broad
range of issues to consider and little time to really consider the
complexities of climate change and possibilities for managing carbon dioxide
emissions.  They are also bombarded with proposals of little merit from an
army of assorted stakeholders from industry and environmental organizations
who have vested interests to protect. It's no wonder our Members of
Parliament are confused.

 

 I apologize to other list members for using a little bandwidth to repost
the link to my Parliamentary submission.

 

Always humbly,

 

Duane Pendergast

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Peter Read
Sent: January 11, 2008 3:33 AM
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Terrapreta] Fw: Nature Story on journal Climatic Change Editorial-
offlist

 

Hi terrapreta people

Nice to join you

My response to the question raised by Erich furthest below is as immediately
below

Despite my grumble over Climatic Change reviewers it is an excellent journal
aiming to present inter-disciplinary research

best

Peter

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Read [mailto:peter at read.org.nz] On Behalf Of Peter Read
Sent: January 10, 2008 12:12 PM
To: still.thinking at computare.org; Shengar at aol.com;
terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Nature Story on journal Climatic Change Editorial

 

Hi Duane and everyone

 

The essay in Climatic Change contains a passage that runs

 

            ""More generally, the stocking of carbon, once fixed by
photosynthesis can be:

*         pre-combustion - standing forest (Read 1996),

*         post combustion - CO2 capture and sequestration (CCS) (Obersteiner
et al. 2001),

*         partial combustion - pyrolysis to yield bio-oils plus stable
carbon biochar that can be permanently stocked in the soil, raising
fertility (Lehmann et al. 2005), or

*         nothing to do with combustion - wooden houses and other
structures.

These examples show that negative emissions energy systems are a sub-set of
the negative emissions systems that yield economic benefits. In turn, a
larger set includes systems that yield no economic benefit, such as
'pickling logs' and the direct capture of CO2 from the air and its storage
underground (Keith and Ha-Duong 2003).""

So biochar was not forgotten.  That said, the focus of the essay is on the
potential of biosphere management to control carbon levels much more rapidly
than is possible while priority is given to emissions reductions.  But note
that the calculations that yield this result were done early in 2005 and
have been surpressed by the gatekeepers of mitigation orthodoxy [i.e.
reviewers at Climatic Change] for over two years, hence missing the IPCC's
4th assessment report. Those calculations can be accessed though Read and
Parshotam, 2007   <http://ips.ac.nz/publications/publications/show/205>
http://ips.ac.nz/publications/publications/show/205 and, if I recall
correctly, include a small role for biochar.  At that date I was too
uncertain of biochar data to give it a large role, as I would if re-doing
the arithmetic today.  The IPS Working Paper includes the comments of
reviewers G and H along with my rejoinders, which may entertain.

 

A propos the Nature report I have asked them to publish a letter correcting
certain errors, as attached 

 

Have a good 2008

 

Peter

 

 

 

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