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Biochar: The Viagra of Mitigation
arduous blog —
The Guardian has had a nice series of articles on that possible mitigation wonder: biochar. The basic idea is explained here. Basically, it involves cooking wood into charcoal in order to sequester the carbon. By planting fast-growing trees, and then cooking the wood, we could potentially suck carbon out of the atmosphere. The Guardian subsequently published several opinion pieces on the matter: James Lovelock and Chris Goodall are for it (along with NASA climate scientist James Hansen, but he didn't write a Guardian op-ed), and George ...
Biofuels & biochar - Mar 25
Energy Bulletin - —
... as fuel), then the residue - the charcoal - is buried in the soil. According to the magical thinkers who promote it, the new miracle stops climate breakdown, replaces gas and petroleum, improves the fertility of the soil, reduces deforestation, cuts labour, creates employment, prevents respiratory disease and ensures that when you drop your toast it always lands butter side up. (I invented the last one, but give them time). (24 March 2009) Related: Reply from James Lovelock Reply from Chris Goodall 'Biochar' goes industrial with giant microwaves to lock carbon in ...
Biochar is No Climate Change Miracle Cure: George Monbiot
TreeHugger —
... scientific literature. On the issue of land use changes in general, our paper clearly states any biofuels approach must be very carefully designed, and we cite two major critiques of current biofuels approaches. We agree there are still fundamental uncertainties associated with biochar as a mitigation option, but the peer-reviewed papers we cite describe these uncertainties. Want to dig in more on the biochar debate in The Guardian: George Monbiot , James Lovelock , Chris Goodall , Jim Hansen Geo-Engineering Carbonscape: Microwaved Biochar for ...
Pyrolising the Planet
Monbiot.com —
The debate over biochar hots up. By George Monbiot. Published on my Guardian blog, 27th March 2009 Well that got ‘em going. So far James Lovelock , Jim Hansen and Pushker Kharecha , Chris Goodall and Peter Read have all responded in the Guardian to my column on biochar. Reading their responses, I realise that it was unfair of me to include James Lovelock and Jim Hansen on the list of those who have been suckered by the charleaders. Their position is more nuanced than I made out. Chris Goodall, to his credit, has accepted that he was too bullish about ...
Pyrolising the Planet
Permaculture Research Institute of Australia —
Pyrolising the Planet Biodiversity , Deforestation , Food Shortages , Global Warming/Climate Change , Soil Erosion & Contamination — by George Monbiot The debate over biochar hots up. by George Monbiot - journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist [image] Well that got ‘em going. So far James Lovelock , Jim Hansen and Pushker Kharecha , Chris Goodall and Peter Read have all responded in the Guardian to my column on biochar . Reading their responses, I ...
Renewables & biofuels - Apr 1
Energy Bulletin - —
... (26 March 2009) Biochar Institute responds to Monbiot criticism International Biochar Initiative (IBI) IBI has taken note of an article by George Monbiot in the UK Guardian on March 24, 2009 that questioned the validity of biochar as a climate mitigation tool and the scientists and others who support the development of biochar. The Guardian has published responses from several of those biochar supporters mentioned by Mr. Monbiot, including James Hansen , Chris Goodall , and James Lovelock . IBI sent The Guardian the response below written by ...
The Biochar Question–Part I
FUTURISM NOW —
... He’s been writing lately about what he sees as an over-dependence on the idea of using biochar to soak up CO2.
“Charleaders must cool enthusiasm for setting fire to the planet
Reactions to my ‘biochar’ stance got a lot of people fired up, but I was too soft on one champion of so-called development.
(March 27 2009) — “Well that got ‘em going. So far James Lovelock, Jim Hansen and Pushker Kharecha, Chris Goodall and Peter Read have all responded in the Guardian to my column on ...
