[Terrapreta] A context for Folke and All.

[lou gold]

Yep, Lorenzo (Lou), for sure.

I'm following the developments with REDD.

Marina Silva and her crew in Brazil put a lot of energy toward proposing
approaches to avoided deforestation that would be based on REDD or something
like it.

However, I can't imagine that REDD alone might be able to compensate for the
"lost opportunity costs" of avoided deforestation. Right now Brazil is
becoming a global commodity titan and its growing economy is demanding more
and more energy.  The former needs to be supported by new roads and sources
of (or conservation of) nitrogen and the latter needs cheap energy sources.
The roads are being built -- the soy road from Mata Grosso to the Amazon
port of Santarem and the new road through Peru connecting Brazil to the
Pacific. The energy sources are seen in the form of 70 new mega-hydro
projects planned for the Amazon and 14 new projects recently agreed to in
Peru combined with developing what may turn out to be the world's third
largest oil-and-gas reserve deep in the off-shore Atlantic.

The "opportunity context" now impacting the the Amazon basin is huge. In my
view, this is not something for which REDD alone can provide counter
incentives. But when I think of an emerging 3 trillion dollar carbon market
in which biofuel, food and biochar might be creatively combined, I begin to
see a light at the end of the tunnel. This light is what we are chasing. I
hope it gets brighter.

hugs,

lou


On Thu, May 22, 2008 at 5:07 AM, Biopact <biopact at biopact.com> wrote:

>  Lou,
> I think most of us agree with you. But in the end, it's all a matter of
> rock-bottom basic economics, practicability and policy support.
>
> -Are the commercial advantages of biochar really a strong enough economic
> incentive to prevent deforestation? (I'm not sure yet)
> -And can these advantages be expressed straightforwardly in monetary terms
> and via working markets? (Not sure yet, these carbon markets don't recognize
> biochar yet)
> -And is the practicability of the biochar concept strong enough (logging
> and burning down a forst is pretty easy; putting some cattle on pasture is
> easy too; producing biochar on an industrial scale may require a bit more
> infrastructure).
>
> I suggest we take a look into the many studies on AD and REDD; they contain
> the data we're looking for, since these concepts deal with exactly the same
> problem.
>
> Cheers, Lorenzo (aka Lou)
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* lou gold <lou.gold at gmail.com>
> *To:* terrapreta group <Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
> *Sent:* Thursday, May 22, 2008 2:26 AM
> *Subject:* [Terrapreta] A context for Folke and All.
>
>
> Isn't this exactly what we've been talking about?
>
> http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/5/20/95738/8301
>
> Blairo Maggi -- the world's largest soy producer and one of Brazil's most
> powerful politicians -- says:
>
> With the worsening of the global food crisis, the time is coming when it
> will be inevitable to discuss *whether we preserve the environment or
> produce more food. There is no way to produce more food without occupying
> more land and taking down more trees.
>
> My assumption has been that biochar might instead create any opportunity to
> produce more food -- enough more food -- and do a better job of preserving
> the environment. Does anyone truly disagree?
>
>
> *
>
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