[Terrapreta] yet another, another news clip Terra preta

[Michael Bailes]

Google News Alert for: *Terra preta*

 Maybe bio-char does have a part to
play<http://agro.biodiver.se/2008/06/maybe-bio-char-does-have-a-part-to-play/>
 By Jeremy
*Terra preta* is the very fertile black soil found mostly in parts of the
Amazon basin, and believed to have been created by people mixing fine
particles of charcoal and other stuff into the soil. A whole lot of voodoo
has grown up around *...*
 Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog -
http://agro.biodiver.se<http://agro.biodiver.se>
 Maybe bio-char does have a part to play
<http://agro.biodiver.se/2008/06/maybe-bio-char-does-have-a-part-to-play/>
Published
by Jeremy <http://agro.biodiver.se/author/admin/>
 on June 18, 2008
 in Articles <http://agro.biodiver.se/category/articles/>,
Biofuels<http://agro.biodiver.se/category/biofuels/>,
Climate change <http://agro.biodiver.se/category/climate-change/> and
Uncategorized <http://agro.biodiver.se/category/uncategorized/>
.

*Terra preta* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta> is the very fertile
black soil found mostly in parts of the Amazon basin, and believed to have
been created by people mixing fine particles of charcoal and other stuff
into the soil. A whole lot of voodoo has grown up around the subject, with
unscrupulous charlatans, head in the sand naysayers and all manner of other
life forms clustering around the idea. Some people think that one can create
*terra preta* by adding bio-char to the soil, and that miracles will ensue.

I recently dumped on
biofuels<http://agro.biodiver.se/2008/05/biofuel-dreams-will-all-go-up-in-smoke/>from
a great height because in essence they are mining the soil. Doesn't
matter how slowly; at some point, the fun will have to stop. In the comments
on that post, Karl and Anastasia weighed in by saying that bio-char, a
potential residue after extracting bioenergy, could be returned to the land
to close the loop. I dumped on that idea too.

Now I'm not so sure. Not about bioenergy. I still think that's a false god,
methadone for the oil-addicted masses. But *terra preta* could just be a
solution to excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Why the change of heart? Because yesterday I went to a very interesting
presentation by a very smart, very rich and very tenacious man who has a
history of wild and crazy ideas that turn out to be correct, and he talked
about *terra preta* not as a by-product of bioenergy production but as a
direct solution to removing carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere.1<http://agro.biodiver.se/2008/06/maybe-bio-char-does-have-a-part-to-play/#footnote_0_1731>

He had some interesting figures to share, although in my excitement, I
didn't write all of them down. As I remember, to get atmospheric carbon down
from 380 parts per million or thereabouts to 280 ppm we would "only" have to
spread a 1 mm layer of bio-char each year on, I think, just the cultivated
part of agricultural land for 50 years. That amounts to 5 cm of bio-char,
and gets us back to pre-industrial levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

It didn't seem all that much.

What struck me, listening, was that the argument was not couched in terms of
bioenergy at all. I think reference may have been made to using some of the
energy derived from the pyrolysis of plant matter that creates bio-char in
order to power the
plant.2<http://agro.biodiver.se/2008/06/maybe-bio-char-does-have-a-part-to-play/#footnote_1_1731>It
was all about learning to make use of bio-char to create
*terra preta* — which almost certainly needs to be tailored specifically to
different growing areas — in order to sequester carbon. The oil addicts will
have to take care of themselves. This was about saving the planet for the
rest of us.

I still have lots of questions, which under the circumstances I wasn't able
to ask. Like:

   - If the pyrolysis plants have to be large, how will the bio-char be
   returned to the soils from which it came?
   - If the plants can be small, can they be made simple enough and cheap
   enough for individual communities to use them?
   - Would it pay? Really?
   - What about the other soil nutrients? Should the bio-char go back whence
   it came? Or is this a good way of transferring nutrients from reasonably
   self-sustaining systems (prairie?) to land currently unfit for cultivation?
   Maybe that just adds costs to transport and incorporate the bio-char.

I know there are lots <http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000731.html> and
lots<http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2007/08/tom-miles-comments-on-biochar.html>of
people out there working on answers, and they
aren't all charlatans or naysayers <http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/>.
I also know that I cannot now get further involved.

I just wanted to note that maybe bio-char is a useful solution to carbon
sequestration, although sustainable bioenergy remains a pipe dream.
Footnotes:

   1. I'm not going to name names or give details because I'm honestly not
   sure how public the idea is; I Googled the guy, obviously, and the idea.
   He's there, but he doesn't seem to be associated with the idea, so I'm
   keeping mum, for now.
[↩<http://agro.biodiver.se/2008/06/maybe-bio-char-does-have-a-part-to-play/#identifier_0_1731>
   ]
   2. Pyrolysis requires energy, so the process certainly is not going to be
   self-sustaining.
[↩<http://agro.biodiver.se/2008/06/maybe-bio-char-does-have-a-part-to-play/#identifier_1_1731>
   ]

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------------------------------


Michael the Archangel
"Politicians will never solve The Problem;
because they don't realise they are The Problem.".
-Robert ( Bob ) Parsons 1995
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