[Terrapreta] Terra Preta: Forum on the Food Crisis, & Climate Corp, & Lon Crosby comment

[shengar at aol.com]

Hi All, 


Terra Preta: Forum on the Food Crisis, Climate Change, Agrofuels and Food Sovereignty


http://www.foodsovereignty.org/new/terrapreta.php





>From Climate Corp



Plows, plagues & petroleum. William Ruddiman's Plows,
plagues & petroleum is the first book to trace the full historical
sweep of human interaction with the earth's climate. He takes the
reader through three broad stages of human history: (1) when nature was
in control, (2) when humans began to take control — discovering
agriculture and affecting climate through carbon dioxide and methane
emissions — and (3) the more recent human impact on climate change. 

Along
the way, he raises the fascinating possibility that plagues, by
depleting human populations, also affected reforestation and thus
climate — as suggested by dips in greenhouse gases when major pandemics
have occurred. Eminent, readable and far-reaching in argument, Plows,
plagues & petroleum shows us that even as civilisation developed,
we were already changing the climate. Ruddiman is also the author of
Earth's climate: past and future and recently retired as Professor of
Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, following many
years as a Doherty Senior Research Scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory of Columbia University. He was interviewed by Robyn
Williams on ABC's In Conversation program on 9 August 2007.

Source: www.abc.net.au

pyrolysis. A common example of a pyrolysis process is the making
of charcoal briquettes — known in Australia as 'heat beads', and
commonly burnt in barbecues. Pyrolysis is the breaking down of matter
into char, tars, oil and hydrocarbon gas by heating it in the total
absence of oxygen. When biomass is subjected to pyrolysis, the end
products are carbon black, oil — which can be sent back to a refiner —
and some hydrocarbon gases that can be used to make steam or
electricity. 

A new Australian pyrolysis technology — developed
by BEST Energies — could be a vital tool for climate change mitigation
as it not only produces a renewable energy, but also a very stable form
of solid carbon that can be beneficially sequestered over the long term
in soils. BEST, which worked with the New South Wales Department of
Primary Industries, has a fully integrated pilot plant that has
demonstrated the viability of the technology and assisted the design of
commercial-scale units. The logical next step for this technology is
immediate industry adoption and large-scale rollout. 

Preliminary
life cycle assessments have demonstrated that pyrolysis technology
could deliver significant reductions in atmospheric CO2 at a
global scale in a relatively short time frame. Adriana Downie of BEST
reported on the pyrolysis project at Greenhouse 2007. Professor
Johannes Lehmann from Cornell University estimates that by the end of
this century, char schemes and pyrolysis programs could store up to 9.5
billion tonnes of carbon a year.

Source: www.bestenergies.com.au and www.greenhouse2007.com





A Climate Blog comment from Lon Crosby , who is doing field studies with Dynomotive;

http://www.oneclimate.net/2008/05/22/false-trade-biochar-versus-living-soil/





The Charcoal Vision: A Win–Win–Win Scenario for
Simultaneously Producing Bioenergy, Permanently Sequestering
Carbon, while Improving Soil and Water Quality
By; David A. Laird

http://agron.scijournals.org/cgi/reprint/100/1/178?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Laird&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&volume=100&issue=1&resourcetype=HWCIT





Cheers, 
Erich
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