One of the most important answers to the problem of carbon sequestering may well lie in the Portuguese term "terra preta". For an explanation see:
www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/...ahome.htm
What this appears to boil down to is, that if we reduce our garbage and wastes to charcoal in charcoal making retorts, and add it as dust to our soils, we will do a number of things:
1) Greatly increase the potential fertility of the soil.
2) Place the carbon thus trapped where it will stay fixed for millennia.
3) Considerably increase the thickness of the layer of vegetative top soil, increasing the amount of organic carbon fixed also.
The fertility of a soil is directly related to the health of the microflora of that soil. The addition of chemical fertilizers decreases the health of that microflora so lowers the long term fertility of the soil. It would appear that the addition of charcoal dust increases the heal;th of said microflora so increases the long term fertility of the soil. This effect lasts thousands of years in the soil.
What this means is that we have here a method of sequestering carbon permanently that also reverses the present rapid decrease in soil fertility the world over. Naturally those interested in selling chemical fertilizers ridicule this whole idea.
www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/...ahome.htm
What this appears to boil down to is, that if we reduce our garbage and wastes to charcoal in charcoal making retorts, and add it as dust to our soils, we will do a number of things:
1) Greatly increase the potential fertility of the soil.
2) Place the carbon thus trapped where it will stay fixed for millennia.
3) Considerably increase the thickness of the layer of vegetative top soil, increasing the amount of organic carbon fixed also.
The fertility of a soil is directly related to the health of the microflora of that soil. The addition of chemical fertilizers decreases the health of that microflora so lowers the long term fertility of the soil. It would appear that the addition of charcoal dust increases the heal;th of said microflora so increases the long term fertility of the soil. This effect lasts thousands of years in the soil.
What this means is that we have here a method of sequestering carbon permanently that also reverses the present rapid decrease in soil fertility the world over. Naturally those interested in selling chemical fertilizers ridicule this whole idea.
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Costa Rica
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Re: terra preta
Thu, March 1, 2007 - 10:02 PMRecreating the ancient Amazonian Indian farming practices ("Terra preta nova") combined with modern pyrolysis technology has the potential to slow or even halt global warming -if taken up on a large enough scale.
It can also produce energy (electricity if you want) and charcoal is an excellent soil amendment saving water and ferilisers
There is a International Conference exploring the whole Terra preta; charcoal as a soil amendment; carbon sequestration issue, open to all, soon in Australia.
It is being organized by the grass roots organization the International Agrichar Initiative (IAI) April 29-May 2, 2007 at Terrigal Beach, New South Wales, Australia.
The conference has been priced inexpensively so as many as possible can attend.
You will be taken to see the Best Energies demonstration Pyrolysis machine in action at Somersby.
Here is all the technology we need to cool,power,feed and green the planet. It is all ready to go.
Sir Richard Branson is welcome to come.(Tell him to bring his checkbook).
For more details see the new Terra preta discussion web site (Please join up if you are interested it is only two weeks old) here:
terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/
For more info on Terra preta see also the hypography Science forums
Here
forums.hypography.com/earth-s...erra-pre ...
Or the Permaculture forums
--
Michael Bailes.
"Five years of Guantanamo:
Justice delayed is justice denied"
-Amnesty.International.
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Re: terra preta
Fri, March 2, 2007 - 4:02 AMExcellent, Michael, but your two links don't work. I am glad to see all the activity in this subject. -
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Re: terra preta
Tue, March 13, 2007 - 12:12 AMthe first link works for me
the second one has changed but this should help forums.hypography.com/search.php -
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Re: terra preta
Tue, March 13, 2007 - 3:13 AMThe first link certainly does, now. That's an excellent site. And the second is good too. -
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Re: terra preta
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 9:47 PMHave you seen this information?
burningissues.org/radwaste1.html -
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Re: terra preta
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:47 PMThat is very interesting. So this is fall out from earlier A-bomb tests? Or what? As a problem it may only show up in the US, Japan & parts of the old USSR? It may not be a problem in carbonized leafy material or plastics? -
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Re: terra preta
Wed, March 28, 2007 - 11:23 PMmy understanding is he only did testing from ashes from around the USA, with various concentrations in different areas
i'm guessing that it's only going to be in trees that were alive at the time of the above ground testing
i wouldn't be surprised if it's all over the planet, there was testing in ussr, us, south pacific and i don't know where else
i wish i had a geiger counter to do my own testing
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