[Terrapreta] Discussion about CO2 very important to this list

[Laurens Rademakers]

Duane, Kevin and some others,

I strongly disagree with your idea that discussions about climate change 
solutions are irrelevant to this list.  I don't even understand why you can 
think so.

Terra preta or biochar is strictly tied to its capacity to reduce 
atmospheric CO2 levels. That's precisely what makes biochar of actual and 
immediate importance. Biochar is more about storing C into soils as a way to 
mitigate climate change, than about improving crop yields. Even improving 
crop yields is part of the broader discussion about the carbon cycle (as 
increased crop productivity leads to more potential char production).

What's more, to make biochar even a remotely competitive way to use biomass, 
you need to look at participating in carbon markets which may offer money 
for us storing C in soils. Without these credits, biochar is not a 
commercial pathway for using biomass - except perhaps in very poor tropical 
soils, where the positive effects on plant growth are so big.

The processes used to make biochar are all about energy production and 
bioconversion, so here too you are directly confronted with discussions 
about climate change (are the conversion pathways to make char climate 
friendly? How can we design pyrolysis and gasification concepts that yield 
both char and energy in optimal ways?, etc...).

Finally, if we ever want to make serious progress in biochar/soil research 
we would want to get money from governments. Governments will obviously be 
far more interested in spending money on this research if they know that 
biochar can reduce atmospheric CO2 levels, than if they merely get to hear 
that biochar has an effect on plant growth.

Biochar is all about tapping simultaneous benefits: the capacity to 
sequester carbon in a very cost-effective way while generating renewable 
energy, potential improvements in plant growth, and a more sustainable use 
of soils.

In short, I call for more discussions about climate change solutions, carbon 
markets, alternative carbon sequestration options (such as synthetic trees, 
burying whole trees, reforestation, avoided deforestation and REDD, etc...) 
and bioenergy in order to understand biochar's place in this list of 
alternatives.

Limiting this list to discussions about biochar's effects in soils only, 
would be a sign of a lack of understanding of the many dimensions of the 
topic.

Lorenzo




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Duane Pendergast" <still.thinking at computare.org>
To: "'Kevin Chisholm'" <kchisholm at ca.inter.net>
Cc: "'Terra Preta'" <terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 4:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] History on the climate aspects of the 
terrapretalist


> Good points Kevin!
>
> The soil improvement aspects of TP need long term research - likely long
> before commercial feasibility will be demonstrated. The agricultural
> research stations in Canada have the general mandate to do that.
>
> I had an article published in Alberta Oil where I introduced the TP 
> concept
> and sang in praise of this TP list. My - so far probably forlorn - hope 
> was
> that Alberta industry and agricultural  interests might catch on to the
> concept and initiate some long term R&D to evaluate potential application 
> to
> remediation of lands adversely impacted by production of oil from the tar
> sands.
>
> http://www.computare.org/publications.htm
>
> or
>
> http://www.computare.org/Support%20documents/Publications/Soil%20from%20Oil/
> Soil%20From%20Oil0001.pdf
>
> I, I think like you, would like to see more focus on the soil improvement
> aspect of TP on the list. If anyone actually read my article and tuned 
> into
> the list, they would likely be turned off by all the rhetoric on CO2 
> induced
> warming. There is plenty of inane promotional oratory in the daily media 
> on
> CO2 induced GW and potential solutions. I think it is counter productive 
> to
> pay a lot of attention to it here.
>
> Duane
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
> [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Chisholm
> Sent: June 5, 2008 2:53 AM
> To: Ron Larson
> Cc: Terra Preta; Sean K. Barry
> Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] History on the climate aspects of the terrapreta
> list
>
> Dear Ron
>
> I would suggest that every person on the TP List would agree that
> burying biochar or using it as an agricultural supplement will tend to
> reduce the CO2 content of the Atmosphere. The problem is that nobody
> seems to know if Terra Preta will work and be economic outside of
> Brazil, as an agricultural supplement.
>
> Would you know of anywhere in the World North or south of the 20 Degree
> of Latitude where char has recently been added to agricultural soils in
> a commercially successful manner?
>
> g
>
>
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>
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