The Earth
We were talking about the ocean. Now let’s talk about the earth. More specifically, let’s focus on the soil – that which gives us the food that all of us need.
There is a truly terrific piece in the latest “National Geographic,” Our Good Earth. It looks at all manner of good news and bad news in how we use the earth. In the developed world, one way we degrade our food-producing soil, among a number of ways, is through compaction by great honking harvesters and other gargantuan machines. In the developing world, we cut down the forests and grasslands for cropland. This practice, of course has enormous implications for exacerbating global warming. See Are Biofuels A Bummer? But let’s stick here now to the impacts on agricultural productivity.
The NGM article says “In the first—and still the most comprehensive—study of global soil misuse, scientists at the International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC) in the Netherlands estimated in 1991 that humankind has degraded more than 7.5 million square miles of land. Our species, in other words, is rapidly trashing an area the size of the United States and Canada combined.” The article details some of the practices that have led to this massive degradation.
It also looks at some extraordinarily hopeful developments like the Keita Project in Niger sponsored by the Italian government, the use of cordons pierreux (long lines of fist-sized stones) to trap rainwater and silt, and the use of zaï – foot deep holes in the fields that are then salted with manure. Read this great article and also see NGM’s companion “geopedia” on soil for more information.
Perhaps the most fascinating focus in the article is on the terra preta do índio – the “black Indian earth” of the Amazon. Wim Sombroek, the Dutch soil scientist, went to Amazonia in the 1950s and found hugely fertile pockets of soil in oases amid the acidic, poor soils of the rainforest. Sombroek was something of a giant in his field, becoming director of ISRIC for a time and SG of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). He devoted much of his life to studying the terra preta and fostering a movement to adopt the same approach to soil enrichment.
What is terra preta? It’s the result of an ancient Amazonian practice of using charcoal and other carbon-rich inputs to build up the soil. This soil retains its richness for centuries and is stunningly productive. In an outstanding article from “Nature” in August of 2006, Black is the New Green, we learn all about the ins and outs of terra preta. “Everyone agrees that the explanation lies in large part with the char (or biochar) that gives the soil its darkness. This char is made when organic matter smoulders in an oxygen-poor environment, rather than burns. The particles of char produced this way are somehow able to gather up nutrients and water that might otherwise be washed down below the reach of roots. They become homes for populations of microorganisms that turn the soil into that spongy, fragrant, dark material that gardeners everywhere love to plunge their hands into.”
Sombroek saw so much potential in this that he created a movement for terra preta nova. Research into this area has exploded since his book in 1966 on Amazonian soils, and scientists and others have been gathering force to help promote this approach not only for the wholesale restoration of degraded soils all over the world, but to sequester massive amounts of carbon. In this Cornell University “Science Brief,” Terra Preta: Soil Improvement and Carbon Sequestration, we note that “Bio-char (biomass-derived black carbon) is highly stable in soil and can persist hundreds and thousands of years. It is much more stable than even the most stabilized carbon in soil. It therefore constitutes a much longer carbon sink than most other sequestration options such as no-tillage, manure applications, or afforestation.” Cornell scientist Johannes Lehmann is doing a lot of work in this field. For more, see his website.
Eprida, a “technology development company and social purpose enterprise,” is doing cutting-edge work in developing this sort of approach not only to sustainable agriculture but to renewable energy production and carbon sequestration. See their flash animation on the “Eprida cycle.” See also this “Scientific American” special report from last year.
This is but one more way for us to mimic nature’s way. As Stewart Brand noted in the Whole Earth Catalogue a good many years ago now, “We are as gods, and we might as well get good at it.” It has always seemed to me that the “godlike” approach to life is the simple one. As you will have noted at this blog, the low-tech, decentralized, KISS (keep it simple, stupid) approach wins my heart more often than not. (See my posts, for instance, on Habitat; Green Tech, Low Tech, Clean Tech, New Tech; and Black Carbon and Solar Cookers.) I am, after all, one of those old hippies still dreaming of Aquarius and all that happy jazz. But as no less a personage than Kevin Hydes, the chairman of the World Green Building Council, pointed out to me, the counterculture produced a tremendous amount of creative thinking that has borne fruit in many ways.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Biochar, the modern version of an ancient Amazonian agricultural practice called Terra Preta (black earth), is gaining widespread credibility as a way to address world hunger, climate change, rural poverty, deforestation, and energy shortages… SIMULTANEOUSLY!
This technology represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.Terra Preta Soils a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration, 10X Lower Methane & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too. Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration.
Indeed, Dr. James Hansen, NASA’s top Atmospheric authority, is now placing it in the center stage of pro-active solutions for the climate crisis.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1126.pdf
I hope you will come to share my passion in getting the word out on the wonderful solutions provided by TP soils.
I’m sort of the TP list (and data base at REPP-CREST) cub reporter, most all my list postings, under shengar@aol.com, are news items, collaborative work, lobbying efforts with government, writers and journals.
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node
The new Yahoo Biochar discussion group;
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/b…guid=122501696
Thanks for your interest
Cheers,
Erich J. Knight
540 289 9750
the current news and links on Terra Preta (TP) soils and closed-loop pyrolysis of Biomass, this integrated virtuous cycle could sequester 100s of Billions of tons of carbon to the soils.
This technology represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.Terra Preta Soils a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration, 10X Lower CH4 & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too.
Indeed, Dr. James Hansen, NASA’s top Atmospheric authorty, is now placing it in the center stage of pro-active solutions for the climate cris
Where Food Begins , National Geographic Magazine, Sept 08.
By Charles Mann (author of “1491̸
(The Combined English and other language circulation of NGM is nearly nine million monthly with more than fifty million readers monthly! )
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/mann-text
UN Climate Change Conference: Biochar present at the Bali Conference
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/steinerbalinov2107
SCIAM Article May 15 07;
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=5670236C-E7F2-99DF-3E2163B9FB144E40
The main hurtle now is to change the current perspective held by the IPCC that the soil carbon cycle is a wash, to one in which soil can be used as a massive and ubiquitous Carbon sink via Charcoal. Below are the first concrete steps in that direction;
S.1884 – The Salazar Harvesting Energy Act of 2007
A Summary of Biochar Provisions in S.1884:
Carbon-Negative Biomass Energy and Soil Quality Initiative
for the 2007 Farm Bill
http://www.biochar-international.org/newinformationevents/newlegislation.html
Bolstering Biomass and Biochar development: In the 2007 Farm Bill, Senator Salazar was able to include $500 million for biomass research and development and for competitive grants Biochar is a byproduct of producing energy from biomass. As a soil treatment, it enhances the ability of soil to capture and retain carbon dioxide.
( Update; In conference the $500 M was cut to $3M…
)
There are 24 billion tons of carbon controlled by man in his agriculture and waste stream, all that farm & cellulose waste which is now dumped to rot or digested or combusted and ultimately returned to the atmosphere as GHG should be returned to the Soil.
Even with all the big corporations coming to the GHG negotiation table, like Exxon, Alcoa, .etc, we still need to keep watch as they try to influence how carbon management is legislated in the USA. Carbon must have a fair price, that fair price and the changes in the view of how the soil carbon cycle now can be used as a massive sink verses it now being viewed as a wash, will be of particular value to farmers and a global cool breath of fresh air for us all.
All the Biochar Companies and equipment manufactures I’ve found:
Carbon Diversion
http://www.carbondiversion.com/
Eprida: Sustainable Solutions for Global Concerns
http://www.eprida.com/home/index.php4
BEST Pyrolysis, Inc. | Slow Pyrolysis - Biomass - Clean Energy - Renewable Ene
http://www.bestenergies.com/companies/bestpyrolysis.html
Dynamotive Energy Systems | The Evolution of Energy
http://www.dynamotive.com/
Ensyn - Environmentally Friendly Energy and Chemicals
http://www.ensyn.com/who/ensyn.htm
Agri-Therm, developing bio oils from agricultural waste
http://www.agri-therm.com/
Advanced BioRefinery Inc.
http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/
Technology Review: Turning Slash into Cash
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17298/
3R Environmental Technologies Ltd. (Edward Someus)
WEB: http://www.terrenum.net/
The company has Swedish origin and developing/designing medium and large scale carbonization units. The company is the licensor and technology provider to NviroClean Tech Ltd British American organization WEB: http://www.nvirocleantech.com and VERTUS Ltd.
http://www.vertustechnologies.com
Genesis Industries, licensee of Eprida technology, provides carbon-negative EPRIDA energy machines at the same cost as going direct to Eprida. Our technical support staff also provide information to obtain the best use of biochar produced by the machine. Recent research has shown that EPRIDA charcoal (biochar) increases plant productivity as it sequesters carbon in soil, thus reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide.http://www.egenindustries.com/
Australian Bio Chars
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Australian Biochars was incorporated by Paul Conyers and Jerome Matthews and has a number of associates within S.E. Asia many of whom were involved with the EU sponsored Cogen 3 project.
Paul is a long-time business consultant whose imagination has been captured by the prospect of soil carbon both increasing crop yields and capturing greenhouse gasses while Jerome, after many years as a lawyer, became concerned about the pollution caused by agriwaste, particularly rice husk, of which more than 150 million tonnes is generated annually.
http://www.biochars.com/
If pre-Columbian Kayopo Indians could produce these soils up to 6 feet deep over 15% of the Amazon basin using “Slash & CHAR” verses “Slash & Burn”, it seems that our energy and agricultural industries could also product them at scale.
Harnessing the work of this vast number of microbes and fungi changes the whole equation of energy return over energy input (EROEI) for food and Bio fuels. I see this as the only sustainable agricultural strategy if we no longer have cheap fossil fuels for fertilizer.
We need this super community of wee beasties to work in concert with us by populating them into their proper Soil horizon Carbon Condos.
Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
(540) 289-9750
shengar@aol.com
August 27th, 2008 at 1:35 am
There is also some interesting stuff I found at www.climatechangetriage.net where the application of medical triage ideas to climate impacts is advocated and where there are several forums and blog opportunities so that we, the taxpayers, may have a chance to influence