Get Rid of Climate Change Once & For All!
June 7, 2009
James Lovelock the creator of the Gaia Theory writes in his latest book that the only way to stop climate change is to turn all of our farm waste into biochar (something along those lines). Personally I’m not quite sure I’d call it the only solution. Still I like burning things and if it makes a difference in regenerating the environment – why not?
What do you guys think?
One aspect of note:
A little CO2 is released but the bulk of it gets converted to carbon. You get a few per cent of biofuel as a by-product of the combustion process, which the farmer can sell. This scheme would need no subsidy: the farmer would make a profit.
From my biochar reading so far, some biofuel is created. Not quite sure how much and if it’s enough to make a profit off of. I do recall someone had created a technology at UWO that created the biochar and the biofuel as a bonus.
For the original post, look below.
For more information check out:
Canadian Biochar Initiative.
http://biochar.ca/
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1404717
International Biochar Initiative
http://www.biochar-international.org/aboutbiochar/articlesonchar.html
Charcoalab
http://charcoalab.org/
The Original Post via Boing Boing
James Lovelock and climate change – Boing Boing: “Pioneering environmentalist and author James Lovelock, most famous for proposing the Gaia hypothesis that the Earth is a giant superorganism, is publishing a new book, titled The Vanishing Face of Gaia. It’s about… you guessed it… climate change. This year, Lovelock turns 90 and will take his first trip into space. New Scientist had a chat with him about what he considers to be our last chance to deal with climate change.
Entry Filed under: Agriculture, Environment & Sustainability, Soil Management, Technology. Tags: biochar, burning, charcoal, climate change, farming, gaia, global warming, james, lovelock, low heat, pyrolysis, sequestration, solution, storage, theory, world.
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1.
Sonic Charmer | June 7, 2009 at 1:44 pm
So we’re now at the point where we must “get rid of” climate change, eh? The climate must never ever “change”?
Oddly conservative notion.
2.
shadowphenyx | June 7, 2009 at 6:20 pm
That was just the title. You can’t really get rid of climate change or perhaps even stop the current climate chaos as it is. It’s really a matter of degrees of change – slow or very rapid. The post as you could tell was really about James Lovelock and his proposed solution to slow the amount of rapid change or reverse it. Though I can’t say 100% reversal is even possible at this point it is amusing to see what he suggests.
3.
climatesight | June 7, 2009 at 4:34 pm
That would be one of the best forms of biofuels as it’s created from waste, which would decompose and release CO2 anyway – we may as well use it for something useful.
Have you seen my blog? It has to do with how climate change relates to ideas such as credibility, responsible journalism, and risk managment. You can probably just click on my username to get there.
Thanks.
4.
Michael Garjian | July 9, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Not all charcoal is biochar. True biochar is the result of heating biomass in an emission free pyrolysis reactor devoid of oxygen. Biochar has been shown to be a very effective soil amendment in numerous studies in South America and Japan. It is becoming popularized enough in the US that Biochar Xtra is now even being sold on Ebay. Others are using the bio-oils derived from biochar production to replace fossil fuels. Some folks are alarmed at the possibility of vast tracts of land being denuded to produce biochar. This is not a valid concern
because, due to its very low density of from 20 to 35 pounds per cubic foot, the transport of biochar over long distances is not economically feasible.