[Terrapreta] What is so bad about global warming?

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Kevin,

Those are tough questions.  I don't have the answers to them.  There is a London and a Chicago "Carbon Trading Market", so I have heard.  I've heard prices anywhere form $5 to $10 per ton of carbon.  I see Terra Preta as the only way we can reduce atmospheric carbon levels.  I see this for two main reasons:

1) Plants that grow every year are doing the job of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere every year.  We just need to take the step of charring up a lot of that biomass (so that is doesn't decay and remit the stored carbon back into the atmosphere) and then put it into the soil for long term sequestration.  Every amount we do can offset fossil carbon emissions.

2) Biomass carbon is distributed everywhere plants grow and people live (eating plants as food).  Charring biomass can be clean and simple.  Burying it in the ground is simple.  There are lots of people in the world who could benefit immediately from putting charcoal-in-soil if it paid them "carbon credits" to do so and lots who could still benefit anyway if it did not.  There are lots of people scattered out in many diverse places in the world.  There is lots of work to be done to solve GCC and GW.  The economics of doing that work may be better in some places than it is in others (like in the an African desert versus downtown Manhattan).

Maybe you could find some answers to your questions and discuss what you find with us.

Regards,

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kevin Chisholm<mailto:kchisholm at ca.inter.net> 
  To: Sean K. Barry<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> 
  Cc: Dan Culbertson<mailto:danculb at netcommander.com> ; Larry Williams<mailto:lwilliams at nas.com> ; Toch Susan<mailto:anaturalresource at gmail.com> ; Pilarski Michael<mailto:friendsofthetrees at yahoo.com> ; Miles Tom<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> ; Baur Hans<mailto:hans at riseup.net> 
  Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 11:58 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] What is so bad about global warming?


  Dear Sean

  Has anyone on the List actually tried to buy and to sell Carbon Credits? 
  What would be the "Buy" and the "Sell" prices?

  Does anyone know where the present Carbon Credits are coming from?

  Do the Carbon Credits purchased balance with the Carbon Credits sold?

  Is it presently possible to make money producing char for Terra Preta

  Has the agricultural benefit of Terra Preta been quantified, and reduced 
  to dollar terms?

  Are there any Farmers anywhere in the World actually buying char to make 
  Terra Preta because of a perceived commercial benefit? If not, what is 
  the "Loss per tonne of carbon that would have to be offset" before it 
  would be commercially advantageous for the Farmer to make Terra Preta?

  Best wishes,

  Kevin

  Sean K. Barry wrote:
  > Hi Dan, Larry, Others,
  >  
  > That is a thought provoking question, Dan.  It sounds kind of like 
  > those hyped History Channel segments, "After We're Gone" or the 
  > "Aftermath".  You are right I think about the atmospheric carbon 
  > levels being wrong for our species and right for other species.  One 
  > could wonder to what species thrive in atmospheric carbon levels on 
  > Venus now, too.
  >  
  > The point is, and you said it, "Not that I personally want to become 
  > extinct don't-ya-know", but who does?  Do you even want the quality of 
  > your life to degrade?  Do you have any children?  What are you going 
  > to do to make your life better in the face of current GCC for yourself 
  > and/or them in the future?  That's the point.  "Carpe Diem" is all 
  > that we can do for anything we do, isn't it?  Global Climate Change in 
  > the near term (our lifetimes) isn't about human extinction now or soon 
  > nearly as much as it is about the human strife beginning now of the 
  > path to human extinction.
  >  
  > Larry, I hear you ...
  > "High tech toys cannot produce enough charcoal to effectively lower 
  > the atmosphere's CO2 percentages. They are to expensive to produce the 
  > quantity that is needed. Would you call it a poor return on investment 
  > or the dollar to char deal? "
  >  
  > I can't adopt that defeatist attitude.  I think it's doable.  We can 
  > produce enough charcoal and lower CO2 emissions enough to strike a 
  > balance.  I think it is a monumental worldwide undetaking to do it, 
  > too.  So?  When do we get started, I say.
  >  
  > Regards,
  >  
  > SKB
  >  
  >  



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