-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- from: GREEN PAWNS AND GLOBAL WARMING by Allan J Yeomans Copyright 1998 http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/chapters_index.htm I've seen the rainforest of the Amazon Valley described as the "lungs of the world". That's plain nonsense. A mature tree produces as much carbon dioxide overnight, as it produces oxygen during the day. And a mature jungle or rainforest behaves in a similar way. -- Allan Yeomans extract below from: http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/chapter2.htm THE CONCEPT OF REVERSING GLOBAL WARMING In the beginning carbon dioxide, being one atom of carbon combined with two atoms of oxygen (dioxide = two oxygen) belched out of volcanos in huge quantities where it became a major component of the earth's primal atmosphere. The whole process of life starts by taking some carbon from the air, where it had accumulated and languishes as primal carbon dioxide, mixing in some water, adding tiny traces of other elements for variety, and then warming it all with the sunlight energy. Complex reactions occur in this living process and complex organic compounds are formed. These complex compounds then become the building blocks for even more complex chemicals of life. In this process the oxygen in the original carbon dioxide, is released into the atmosphere for us to breathe. Also now trapped, as the power of chemical bonds within the molecules, is the original sunlight energy. When we burn a piece of wood, the complex organic material that is the wood, re-combines with the oxygen in the air to form the original carbon dioxide and releases the energy of the original stored sunlight. In our bodies, we can combine oxygen with organic matter at much lower temperatures and much lower rates, and this produces the energy we need to function and to maybe walk up a flight of stairs. In the process we also produce carbon dioxide, which we discharge as exhaled breath. There was once much too much carbon dioxide in the air for humans to exist. However over millions of years, primitive plants, microbes and bacteria absorbed the carbon dioxide from the air. They also absorbed the sunlight energy that shone on our primitive world. The complex carbon compounds with its solar energy became part of the rock and the very ground we live and work on. Slowly over an incredibly long span of time the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere crept down until finally the earth's environment and the earth atmosphere evolved into the one we now know. This modified environment suited the evolution of the mammals and then the evolution of the primates and eventually mankind. All this stored carbon and sunlight energy has been buried safely in the ground these millions of years until the start of man's industrial revolution. There are two forms of this stored material that concern us. The first is oil, natural gas and coal and, to certain extent limestone. They are considered as 'fossil forms'. The second storage form is more current. It is the immense mass of carbon and sunlight energy residing in our world's soils and in our world's living biology. Prior to the advent of the industrial revolution, our requirement for energy was satisfied by the horse to supply us with transport and the water wheel to grind our flour. Wood and animal skins were our plastics. Burning wood supplied us with warmth in winter and heat to cook our food. The rains came to constantly power our water wheels. The constant regrowth of timber catered for our small population and low requirements for energy. Life, for most of us, was harsh and simple, and just surviving occupied most of our time. Unchecked population growth, industry and a rising standard of living, created an enormous increase in energy requirements. We then uncorked the genie of fossilised carbon with its vast store of ancient sunlight. We forgot however, that this to released the long buried carbon dioxide. The very carbon dioxide that had once made this planet, at least for man a very hostile place indeed. Burning this 'fossil fuel' is one of the two main sources of carbon dioxide causing our new runaway Greenhouse Effect. CARBON DIOXIDE FROM AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL USE The second influx comes from the discharge into the atmosphere of carbon dioxide from the destruction of soil organic matter and soil biological activity. We are destroying our living soils. Amazingly the volume of this feed of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere is of comparable proportions to the total burning of all fossil fuels. It is simple arithmetic. It is also a well concealed truth. It is a topic where facts and truth have been systematically twisted and distorted and hidden. The reason for this is agricultural chemicals and mono cropping and inversion tillage (practices discussed later) cause soil organic matter to break down and produce carbon dioxide. By contrast the claim that receives the greatest publicity is the clearing of forest lands. This is portrayed as a real villain. The general use of timber as a material of construction is being portrayed as a crime against the planet. The truth is that for decades the majority of many western countries have been growing vastly more timber and creating more forest than they have ever actually consumed. The main biological source of carbon dioxide feeding the Greenhouse Effect, comes from the destruction of the fertility of the world's soils. Nothing else compares. While the burning of rainforests and their valuable timbers is admittedly bad as it does increases atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. It becomes a convenient way to shift the blame for Global Warming to the third world when that blame rightfully belongs to us. The timber should never be burnt. That is a terrible waste. It should be used to replace plastics and other high energy dependent products. Amazonia is not the 'lungs of the world' at all. It never has been. It is almost totally carbon dioxide neutral. It does nothing. A stable rainforest breathes in carbon dioxide and breaths out oxygen during the day. But over night that same rainforest breathes out just as much carbon dioxide and breaths in just as much oxygen as it did during the day. If this were not so million year old rainforests would be totally buried in their own litter. In reality rainforest litter can be dug through with your fingers. Deep rich soil can trap and store as much carbon dioxide as any rainforest. That rich soil can also grow a healthy food crop and grow one every year for ever. Soil is the key. Over millennium, rocks exposed to the atmosphere, crack and split, freeze and thaw, they fritter and decompose. The resulting material, which covers most of our planetary land masses, is described as subsoil. Near the surface, where plants grow, humus and biological activity have become incorporated in this subsoil material. This combination of subsoil, humus and biological activity is what we describe as soil. Fifty eight percent of this organic matter is chemically combined carbon. When this organic matter is destroyed, the carbon ends up as atmospheric carbon dioxide and the depleted soil is no longer capable of producing abundant and healthy food. The word 'fertiliser', now encompasses the whole range of soil additives, from cow manure to pure bottled ammonia gas. 'Chemical fertilisers' is clever marketing. Chemical fertilisers have nothing to do with fertility. They function more like 'speed'. They are like a soil amphetamine. They stimulate the breakdown of the soil organic matter. This break down releases a flood of nutrients normally required to sustain soil biological activity but crop growth is stimulated. Soil biological activity is no longer there to break down virgin rocks and so deliver new nutrients to the soil. Each year more 'fertilisers', those so beautifully misnamed soil drugs, need to be purchased and applied to produce an ever diminishing yield. It's a diminishing yield with ever diminishing food values. This constant use of chemical fertilisers constantly decreases the organic matter within the soil. It is obvious why farmers came up with the term 'worn out soils'. I've heard a rule of thumb that states that three tons of oil are required to produce one ton of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and a host of other agricultural chemicals. Huge quantities of oil are used to produce fertilisers. All this oil finally ends up in the air as carbon dioxide mixed with various oxides of nitrogen. Unfortunately a huge quantity of soil organic matter is in consequence, triggered into decomposition within the soil. This also produces enormous quantities of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides. These gasses then leach directly into the atmosphere. Poisonous nitrogen compounds are also formed in the process, and these leach downward into ground water basins. In the production of sugar from sugar cane in Australia it is common for agricultural departments to advise growers to use chemical fertilisers to grow their sugar cane at rates exceeding two tons of chemicals per hectare per year. It takes a lot of crude oil to produce that two tons of fertiliser and the sprays that are used along with it. To make matters worse agricultural quota systems all round the world are deliberately constructed to limit the number of acres or hectares that can be farmed. These systems are invariable and also systematically designed so that no limit is placed on the quantity of produce actually produced. The limit is placed on the area that can be farmed. This naturally encourages the use of massive quantities of chemical stimulants to produce maximum crop quantities from the restricted areas allowed. This manipulation can be even more blatant as described in other chapters. You often see statements from supposedly green protagonist criticising farm tractors and farmers for the discharge of carbon dioxide from these implements. This is a red herring. It is to stop us being interested in the discharge of carbon dioxide from chemical induced soil destruction. The bigger farm tractors burn less fuel than a large family car and in Australia, as an example, the farming community amounts to no more than three percent of the total national population. A farmer might use a litre or so of fuel to drive his tractor over an acre or a hectare of his land while he is spreading the equivalent of tons of oil in the form of agricultural chemicals on that same area of land. To my knowledge the enormous contribution made by the use of agricultural chemicals to the build up of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere has never before been considered. When it is realised that world agriculture is such an important factor affecting carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, it can also be seen that relatively minor changes in agricultural practices offer the possibility of totally reversing the phenomena. Fortunately techniques now exist for the very rapid rejuvenation of our agricultural soils. Techniques can now be implemented that rapidly and massively increase the weight of organic matter within the soil. Organic matter is the stuff of fertile soil and it's fifty eight percent carbon. Soil organic matter is decomposed plant life. The ultimate source of the element carbon, for all plant life, is the carbon dioxide in the air. And excess carbon dioxide in the air is causing the Greenhouse Effect. SOIL FERTILITY STOPS GLOBAL WARMING If we increase the basic fertility levels of our agricultural and grazing lands we can stop Global Warming. Fortunately it is easy and inevitably profitable to rebuild soil. The soils most easily rejuvenated are the mineral rich soils. Mineral rich soils simply respond faster than mineral poor soils but the response of both is always amazingly rapid. Very few of the world's soils are totally mineral (or really element) deficient. The problem is that the elements are 'locked up' in chemical stable rock particles. Active organic matter can break down the rock particles and make the elements available to soil life and to plants. That's one of it's functions. The mineral and humus rich soils of the Western Nations have now unfortunately become organically poor. These are the 'worn out' soils we hear so much about. However the farmers of the Western Nations are already equipped, more than anyone else, to handle and physically implement the simple changes necessary to recreate rich fertile soil. Many farmers are already doing this almost automatically. These are our 'organic farmers'. They are the producers of organic food, the farmers that have systematically abandoned the concept of chemical fed agriculture. <snip> from: GREEN PAWNS AND GLOBAL WARMING by Allan J Yeomans Copyright 1998 http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/chapters_index.htm . <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! 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