[Terrapreta] Net Present Value vs. Net Future Value of Terra
Richard Haard
richrd at nas.com
Mon Mar 17 14:54:11 CDT 2008
For those of you interested here is a 440 word presentation I will
make to a local grass roots Dem party plank meeting this evening.
Thanks to some of our list members for input and helpful narrative.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the desk of Richard Haard, Monday, March 17, 2008
A proposal for a Whatcom County, Washington, Democratic Party,
agricultural platform plank committee topic: Carbon Sequestration
Terrestrial carbon sequestration is recognized both by the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as the European
Union as a viable way to reduce atmospheric carbon content. However,
this technique was not taken up in the Kyoto Protocols (clean
development mechanisms). Since scientists, NGO’s and conservation
groups are advocating its inclusion in a post Kyoto agreement and also
since the United States is not yet a signatory to this convention here
is something we can do immediately to join the rest of the world in
this action to cleanse our atmosphere of carbon.
The problem. Climate change can wreak havoc on food production and
displace millions of people. If we see an atmospheric temperature
change of more than 2 degrees C in the next 50 years we could enter a
period of runaway climate warming. We can either clean up our
atmosphere or we might perish trying to live in the conditions of
runaway climate change.
Burying charcoal in soil is one element of many in what we need to do
to reduce the carbon content of our atmosphere. The use of charcoal in
agriculture will address multiple purposes: climate mitigation, food
production and a viable renewable energy source. Wide scale
implementation of carbon sequestration in the soil will significantly
reduce atmospheric carbon.
Biochar is charcoal with specific properties and is made by pyrolysing
biomass derived from agricultural and forestry waste and crops grown
specifically for this purpose. If these source materials were for
example composted and added to soil the carbon in them would
eventually decay and be released to the atmosphere.
Charcoal on the other hand remains active in the soil for many
thousands of years forming a permanent functional substitute for
organic matter. The second property of charcoal in soil is its high
affinity to nutrients (adsorption). Lastly, in the formation of
charcoal the microscopic features of the wood are preserved making
habitat for beneficial organisms thereby reducing the need for
commercial fertilizer.
Plank this: ‘Cleansing our atmosphere of carbon is the issue for our
times’ Make a law that puts ‘earning carbon sequestration credits’
into the US tax code. This will be implemented either as a check box
for creation of a carbon removal fund or direct tax credit towards
activities that:
1. Disseminates carbon removal technology and information on how to
use biochar here and abroad.
2. Provides a direct payment for every verified ton of biochar
permanently buried in the United States and territories to make local
use feasible .
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20080317/0b1a0250/attachment.html
More information about the Terrapreta
mailing list