I don't get the impression that the anti-biochar pdf is very credible. For example, it suggests that there's basically no degraded land in the world, that could be improved with biochar. It's a big world. There's a lot of not-so-degraded land, and a lot of degraded land. It wouldn't surprise me if the loudest claims over the last couple decades were grossly exaggerated as to how much biological productivity was being lost as vast areas of the Amazon got clear-cut, eroded, and turned into quasi-desert. But to dismiss biochar out of hand for lack of land to improve with it (even if it works, which they reject, and even if it's affordable, which they reject, and so on) just sounds as though they're looking for anything that would invalidate biochar and then reasoning backward to the putative facts. It may be that the improvable acreage is enough only for X gigatons of carbon to have any benefit, with X too small to be a big part of the overall picture. It would still be able to generate legitimate carbon credits up to that point.
On Apr 14, 9:58 am, Ray Taylor <[email protected]> wrote: > I thought we should rename this biochar for the sake of the archive. > > Does biochar hold water significantly better than the organic matter > it was made from? Especially if the latter was used as mulch? > > [See YouTube "Greening the Desert" - clip from permaculture > institute of Australia] > > Thank you all for bringing biochar to my attention. I like the > fact that (for Africa) it can be locally produced in low-tech kilns. > > I'd be interested to know if there is a site which replies to the > following limitations/drawbacks: > > http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/biocharbriefing.pdf > > Raywww.globalcoolers.net > > On Apr 14, 3:20 am, David Schnare <[email protected]> wrote: > > > My Center is doing a major report on putting carbon back into the soil as > > the means to developing two kinds of market mechanisms for farmers, > > nutrients and carbon. I'll keep the group informed as we prepare our > > materials, but just to give you a heads up, this is no silver bullet (for > > carbon). Biochar is better than crop detritus (no till farming), but both > > lose carbon due to microbial action (CO2 emissions). However, both do a > > terrific job creating a substrate for water. They take high clay soils and > > turn them into an organic sponge, holding nutrients in the ground, attached > > to the invested carbon. > > > David Schnare. > > > On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 10:03 PM, dsw_s <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Wow, that sounds very promising, although we'll have to see about the > > > economics. > > > > I hadn't heard (or hadn't absorbed) that the biochar was to come from > > > a pyrolysis process that makes oil and gas, so there's more > > > hydrocarbon and less just-plain-carbon than there would be in charcoal > > > from burning in open air. I don't know how stable regular charcoal is > > > either, although it sounds as though it's much more stable than I had > > > thought. I would certainly expect biochar or ordinary charcoal to > > > improve water retention (at least in most soils), and one of the > > > references in the Wikipedia biochar article says it does (without > > > saying for what kinds of soil, as far as I saw). > > > > I hope we study soil ecology before doing it on a very large scale, > > > though. > > > > On Apr 12, 5:18 am, Andrew Lockley <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Biochar is highly stable in soils, and lasts centuries-millennia as > > > > Terra > > > > Preta. > > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biocharhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terr... > > > > I understand it also bulks up the soil, trapping '3rd party' carbon. > > > > > I am unsure whether this either affects the hydrological properties of > > > the > > > > soil, or promotes forest regrowth. If either were the case, it could > > > have > > > > the cloud-inducing effects discussed. This effect could be highly > > > > significant and I hope someone expert can consider it. > > > > > A > > > > > 2009/4/12 dsw_s <[email protected]> > > > > > > But wouldn't the carbon in the biochar get returned to the atmosphere > > > > > fairly quickly if it were used that way? > > > > > > On Apr 11, 6:24 pm, Andrew Lockley <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > It would be very interesting to see if biochar has a similar effect. > > > If > > > > > > biochar could lock up carbon in soils, thicken soils, preserve and > > > spread > > > > > > forests and brighten clouds it would have benefits that could > > > reasonably > > > > > be > > > > > > described as 'ginormous'. > > > > > > I'd be interested to know if anyone in this group could explore > > > > > > these > > > > > > effects and potentially look at doing a paper or a model run on > > > > > > them. > > > > > > > A > > > > > > > 2009/4/10 dsw_s <[email protected]> > > > > > > > > That sounds a lot like how I imagine geoengineering can work. A > > > > > > > suggestion I've made is that materials like expanded vermiculite > > > and > > > > > > > perlite (basically rock popcorn) could be used to increase water > > > > > > > retention in soil for both agricultural and climatic benefit. The > > > > > > > climate benefit includes CO2 removal by weathering, but the > > > > > > > distribution could also be chosen to optimize cloud patterns. > > > > > > > > On Apr 9, 11:50 am, Ray Taylor <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > Hello all, > > > > > > > > > I've been in consultation with a range of land-atmosphere > > > > > > > > and cloud meteorologists, looking at scope for increasing > > > > > > > > stratus and cumulo-nimbus over land in regions identified > > > > > > > > in GLACE (nasa). > > > > > > > > > Literature review available atwww.globalcoolers.net > > > > > > > > > Focus is on West Africa and rainwater harvesting, > > > > > > > > pilot studies plus 4 continents alliance-building. > > > > > > > > > Anyone interested in collaborating? > > > > > > > > > Ray Taylor > > > > > > > > > ray [at] andy-taylor.org > > > -- > > David W. 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