tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784046717004475334.post6234714848904553528..comments2023-10-02T03:01:34.501-07:00Comments on Geo-engineering: Open letter to Dr PachauriSam Caranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12376449209858411775noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784046717004475334.post-50851381361434934812009-12-27T13:04:22.868-08:002009-12-27T13:04:22.868-08:00It's a real shame that biochar is grouped with...It's a real shame that biochar is grouped with "Geo-Engineering". Even as it is, it gets fourth or worse billing behind infra-structurally impossible schemes. I would much rather see it framed as it is in this PNAS report (by a Nobel lariat) which should cause the Royal Society to rethink their report that criticized Biochar systems sequestration potential;<br />Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<br />Reducing abrupt climate change risk using<br />the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory<br />actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions<br />http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/10/09/0902568106.full.pdf+html<br /><br />Biochar is more reverse-Geo-Engineering. This is why Dr. W.Ruddiman's work at UVA,boldly showing that Combustion & Ag technology engineering need mitigation,IMHO with biochar and land-management the perfect logical choice.<br /><br />Hopefully as more in-depth scrutiny and elucidation of biochar systems, relative to the other climate manipulations advanced, will bear out this truth that we just plan to but the carbon back where most of it came from.<br />Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.<br /><br />Another significant aspect of bichar and aerosols are the low cost ($3) Biomass cook stoves that produce char but no respiratory disease. http://terrapretapot.org/ and village level systems http://biocharfund.org/ with the Congo Basin Forest<br />Fund (CBFF). The Biochar Fund recently won $300K for these systems citing these priorities;<br />(1) Hunger amongst the world's poorest people, the subsistence farmers of Sub-Saharan Africa,<br />(2) Deforestation resulting from a reliance on slash-and-burn farming,<br />(3) Energy poverty and a lack of access to clean, renewable energy, and<br />(4) Climate change.<br />The broad smiles of 1500 subsistence farmers say it all ( that , and the root ball size of the Biochar corn )<br />http://biocharfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=75<br /><br /><br /><br />Building Soil Carbon is the bond that unities all political persuasions,<br /><br />Soil Carbon Sequestration Standards Committee. Hosted by Monsanto, this group of diverse interests has been hammering out issues of definition, validation and protocol. These past months, this group have been pressing soil sequestration's roll for climate legislation to congress.<br />http://www.novecta.com/documents/Carbon-Standard.pdf<br /><br />Along these lines internationally, the work of the IBI fostering the application by 20 countries for UN recognition of soil carbon as a sink with biochar as a clean development mechanism will open the door for programs across the globe.<br />http://www.biochar-international.org/biocharpolicy.html.Erich J. Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10995702794016834400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-784046717004475334.post-78486025427874334112009-03-09T17:41:00.000-07:002009-03-09T17:41:00.000-07:00While many international leaders debate or work to...While many international leaders debate or work toward emission reduction strategies and carbon capture and storage the real problem is not tomorrows CO2 but yesterdays CO2. Nor is the problem the role CO2 has in Global Warming. <BR/><BR/>We must turn our attention to the 1000+ gigatonne carbon bomb, two centuries of accumulating CO2, still mostly in the air as it takes centuries for airborne CO2 to equilibrate with the rest of the planet. Reports call the alarm of ocean acidification, adding acid flames to the raging fires of fossil CO2. <BR/><BR/>What’s missing is mention of the best, only, means to fight ocean acidification and CO2 in the air. Just 500 gigatonnes of yesterdays CO2 has reached the oceans where Revelle’s Rule tells us 80% of CO2 ends up. The first carbon bomb will be exploding in the ocean for more than a century even if we stop the emission of new CO2 today. No amount alternative energies, recycling, bicycling, or "clean coal" will tend to the first carbon bomb. Sure lets reduce the size of the second bomb but first things first. <BR/><BR/>Here's how to Fix CO2 <BR/><BR/>ONLY ocean replenishment and restoration can enlist, as allies, the most powerful force of nature - the ocean plants, the bloomin’ plankton. But high and rising CO2 in the air is not only responsible for ocean acidification worse it has fed green plants on land making them greener, bushier, and living longer making them "good ground cover." Ground cover improvements have reduced the amount of dust blowing in the winds by 1/3 in just a few decades. For the oceans dust in the wind brings vital mineral micro-nutrients, that terrestrial Yin (dust) is just as important as rain, the Yang, blowing from sea to land nurturing plant life. Since earth and ocean satellites went aloft 30 years ago we've measured decimation of ocean plants, 10% are gone from the Southern Ocean, 17% from the N. Atlantic, 26% from the N. Pacific, and 50% from the tropical seas. Just yesterday, a few decades past, ocean pastures grew more verdant consuming 4-5 billion tonnes more CO2 each year than today. <BR/><BR/>Today, as stewards of our blue planet, we must replenish ocean micro-nutrients to restore the verdant ocean pastures. If we bring the ocean plankton blooms back to levels seen only 30 years ago those plants will annually convert billions of tonnes of CO2 into ocean life instead of acid ocean death. Those verdant restored ocean pastures will deliver 7 times the CO2 reductions called for by the Kyoto Protocol. <BR/><BR/>To begin, and we must without delay, the work requires only tens of millions of dollars, to succeed in a matter of a decade requires only a few billion dollars. In the bargain the restored oceans will feed everything from tiny krill to the great whales and everything and everybody in between - fish, seabirds, penguins, seals and us. <BR/><BR/>Replenish and restore the oceans without delay. Read more at www.planktos-science.comNainoa Marinerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02636205590029837925noreply@blogger.com