[permaculture] 3 . Flip-flop Flannery is a climate changeopportunist (should be biochar)
Richard Wade
wade at coac.es
Fri Feb 6 06:32:13 EST 2009
Dear Harry,
I'll try to be brief and I hope accurate. Carbon is not an inert part of
the soil complex. CO2 and soil organic matter are one and the same in
different phases of the carbon cycle. (The carbon cycle permits life on
earth). And in each moment of the cycle the carbon has vital functions
to perform for the health of GAIA. The organic material that is
decomposing in the soil by means of the soil micro-organisms release
nutrients for the growth of plants. So if you are using only biochar,
you must add nutrients, ( and the big promoters of biochar that I know
are proponent of chemical farming) usually in the form of fertilizers.
The depletion of soil carbon that has happened in the last 100-150 years
is due to mismanagment of the soil carbon. (organic material) We've
burnt it out of the soil with our agriculture techniques, wanting too
much for too little. We must amend that error.
All organic matter when breaking down in the soil will leave short,
medium and long term carbon in the soil. It depends on the way you farm,
the parent material and climate factors among other things. But far and
away the major cause lof carbon depletion is the way we manage soil ie.
farming practices. We've got the learn to farm so that the soil is
better every year, after every crop and at the end our term on that
farm. We've got great pioneers who have signaled the way. Fukuoka, Ruth
Stout, P.A.Yoemans, and now Darryl Cluff and Col Seis in Australia. Look
at the Holistic Managment approach as well. And remember that
permaculture is about getting to the root cause of the problem, not
looking for solutions to the simtoms. The question is not if biochar
will help out but why do we find ourselves in need of biochar?
My personal opinion is that biochar, like GMO's are a fools approach to
farming. We still don't know enough to beat nature at her own game, and
we stand to lose a lot in the meantime. Biochar might we a useful way to
manage the urban waste stream of old wood and such stuff. But Decayable
organic material should get back in (on!!) the soil.
I hope this helps
Richard
www.permacultura-montsant.org
arry byrne wykman escribió:
> Forgive me if this represents a similar ignorance to that which you
> ridicule. I understanding that the primary importance of biochar as
> opposed to organic matter is that biochar is STABLE. That is, it does
> not release carbon into the atmosphere. For this reason it is
> effective as a carbon lockup strategy.
>
> Harry
>
> On Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:12:12 -0500
> "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj at intrex.net> wrote:
>
>
>> =http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/private/permaculture/2009-February/032700.html
>> =[permaculture] 3 . Flip-flop Flannery is a climate changeopportunist
>> =Ryan Hottle ry.hottle at gmail.com
>> =Thu Feb 5 23:40:59 EST 2009
>> =
>> =I'm a supporter and practitioner of Permaculture and think biochar
>> is among =the most promising solutions to global climate change. I'd
>> like to note =that Clive Hamilton made no mention of any substance or
>> scientific relevance =about the benefits and risks of using biochar
>> as a solution to climate =change.
>> =
>> =Biochar is not exclusive in terms of being able to "cure" climate
>> =change--silver bullet solutions don't exist at this point--but it
>> does seem =to offer a promising and multi-faceted approach to
>> producing energy, =improving soils, and sequestering carbon in a
>> single process. "Never do just =one thing" right?
>> =
>> =It can be highly decentralized from small scale pyrolysis cookstoves
>> to =community scale combined heat and power carbon negative power
>> plants. It =can be combined with coppicing/pollarding and forest
>> garden systems. =
>> =The soil improving qualities are dramatic particularly in areas with
>> =extremely low soil organic carbon (SOM) such as places at risk of
>> =desertification, sub-Saharan Africa, and denuded landscapes in
>> Tropical =landscapes which tend to have highly leached and low
>> nutrient soils.
>>
>> Are you a farmer? Have you ever farmed? Or gardened? Do you know
>> _anything_ about biological, biointensive, regenerative, natural
>> agriculture? Using massive amounts of rock dusts, manures, cover
>> crops and mulch in agriculture?
>>
>> Why does harvesting all or part of a crop just to turn it into
>> charcoal only to bury it in the ground make any sense at all?
>>
>> Gaia Lovelock says that farmers are the logical group to participate
>> in carbon sequestration by harvesting crop stubble, converting it to
>> charcoal and returning it to the filds INSTEAD OF SIMPLY PLOWING THE
>> STUBBLE UNDER TO INCREASE SOIL OM, thereby increasing tilth,
>> friability, life in the soil and fertility.
>>
>> He doesn't know beans about agriculture and though I buy into his
>> Gaia theory completely he seems to have sold out on the biochar thing
>> without even looking at the long term benefits of traditional
>> regenerative farming, and local food production.
>>
>> LL
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