The Promise of Biochar
September 8th, 2009
Biochar is a type of charcoal that’s the result of burning plant matter with very low oxygen. It’s a sooty, black substance that holds great promise for not only slowing down climate change, but actually reversing it. Host Mike Tidwell discusses the promise of biochar with Durwood Zaelke, the president and founder of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.
Then we discuss the nuts and bolts of the upcoming UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Ideally, nearly 200 countries will come together and leave the meeting with a 50-page treaty that’ll be a framework for the world to plan for worldwide climate change. Joining us to discuss how far away the world is from that goal is Angela Ledford Anderson, a program director for US Climate Action Network.
What’s likely the nation’s largest residential solar project is right here in the nation’s capital. Anya Schoolmaker joins us; she’s the president of the Mt. Pleasant Solar Coop.
Music used in this edition of Earthbeat is ‘Charcoal’ by Mrs. Tanaka.
Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.
If you’d like to hear this edition of Earthbeat – please send us an e-mail
September 12th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
The Royal Society of the U.K. published “Geoengineering the climate – Science, governance, and uncertainty” September 2009. A link to the .pdf file:
http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=35151
They have assessed all known methods of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and made recommendations.
The discussion about biochar starts on page 11. Exerpts:
“The residence time of carbon converted to biochar in soils, and the effect on soil productivity of adding large loadings of char is uncertain” – page 12
“Burning biochar (in place of fossil fuels) may be preferable to burying it” – Table 2-4 page 13
“Proponents of biomass for sequestration argue that very large rates of sequestration are in principle achievable. For example, Lehmann et al. (2006) quote a potential carbon sink of 5.5 to 9.5 GtC/yr by 2100, larger than the present day fossil fuel source…. As is the case with biofuels, there is also the significant risk that inappropriately applied incentives to encourage biochar might increase the cost and reduce the availability of food crops….”
The general discussion of all carbon dioxide removal techniques contained this:
“The spatial scale over which direct removal methods using chemical or physical engineering technologies operate will be an important consideration. If these methods are to manage a significant fraction of global emissions, they will require the creation of an industry that moves material on a scale as large as (if not larger than ) that of current fossil fuel extraction, with the risk of substantial local environmental degradation and significant energy requirements. Enhanced weathering might require mining on a scale larger than the largest current mineral extraction industry, and biologically based methods might require land at a scale similar to that used by current agriculture worldwide.”
They ended the biochar discussion with this:
“Biochar and other forms of sequestered biomass have not yet been adequately researched and characterised, and so should not be eligible for carbon credits under the UNFCCC flexible mechanisms until there is a reliable system in place for verifying how much carbon is stored and the wider social and environmental effects have been determined. Substantial research will be required to achieve these conditions….”
September 15th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Thank You for bringing hope. I turn 70 in about 10 days and had felt worthless and useless until this last May.
This May I started building a mud hut with weeds binding it together. Not done in a difficult way or by mud bricks.
Instead I am building layer by layer as I go around.
The walls will be little more than waist high in the front. The inside is being dug down as I go. The stove will be a cob stove built under the wall placing the smoke outside.
Thanks for the information on what to burn and how.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:36 am
I found your website in Google few moments ago, and luckily, this is it I was looking for the last weeks, thanks