http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/oct/21/barbecues-climate-change
October 21, 2010
Durwood Zaelke's emergency plan for tackling climate change ranges from
the Montreal protocol to carbon-negative barbecues
Barbecues that remove CO2 from the air could play a role in the fight
against climate change according to Durwood Zaelke, a leading expert on
rapid responses to global warming.
This year's outdoor cooking season might be over, but Zaelke suggested
at last week's 10:10 talk that from next summer consumers should start
demanding barbecues that do their bit for the planet by generating
rather than consuming charcoal – or biochar.
Zaelke's idea is based on a stove designed for use in the developing
world by Rob Flanagan. The stove creates heat by turning wood or other
biomass into charcoal, a process that releases combustible gases.
Once the cooking is over, most of the carbon from the fuel remains in
the stove in the form of charcoal. This can then be mixed in with soil,
a process that sequesters the carbon for thousands of years and boosts
crop productivity.
... But whatever we do with non-CO2 gases, Zaelke says, we also urgently
need not just to reduce carbon dioxide, but to get to a point as soon as
possible where the world becomes carbon negative, with humans
sequestering more CO2 than we release. "That might sound crazy," he
says, "but we could do it".
The biochar barbecue idea is, I guess, really just a way for Zaelke to
remind us that there are various techniques – on big and small scales –
that we could use to suck CO2 out of the air.
--
Lloyd Helferty, Engineering Technologist
Principal, Biochar Consulting (Canada)
www.biochar-consulting.ca
603-48 Suncrest Blvd, Thornhill, ON, Canada
905-707-8754; 647-886-8754 (cell)
Skype: lloyd.helferty
Steering Committee member, Canadian Biochar Initiative
President, Co-founder& CBI Liaison, Biochar-Ontario
Advisory Committee Member, IBI
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1404717
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42237506675
http://groups.google.com/group/biochar-ontario
http://www.meetup.com/biocharontario/
http://grassrootsintelligence.blogspot.com
www.biochar.ca
Biochar Offsets Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2446475
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