Stories tagged with "agrichar"

Terra Preta: Biochar And The MEGO Effect

Posted by Big Gav on September 28, 2008 - 11:00am in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
Topic: Alternative energy
Tags: agrichar, agriculture, biochar, black earth, carbon sequestration, original, pyrolysis, terra preta [list all tags]

This month's edition of National Geographic has a feature article on "Soil", which looks at the steady degradation of agricultural land and the problem this poses in world where the population is heading for 9+ billion people - effectively calling attention to the "peak dirt" problem (however soil is renewable, so any "peak" should be able to be reversed if sufficient time and effort is put into doing so).

The article uses an acronym I've never come across before to describe the problem faced by those trying to draw attention to the issue: MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) - a phenomenon which should be familiar to anyone who has ever talked about peak oil, global warming or any of the other "limits to growth".

This year food shortages, caused in part by the diminishing quantity and quality of the world's soil, have led to riots in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. By 2030, when today's toddlers have toddlers of their own, 8.3 billion people will walk the Earth; to feed them, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates, farmers will have to grow almost 30 percent more grain than they do now. Connoisseurs of human fecklessness will appreciate that even as humankind is ratchetting up its demands on soil, we are destroying it faster than ever before. "Taking the long view, we are running out of dirt," says David R. Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Journalists sometimes describe unsexy subjects as MEGO: My eyes glaze over. Alas, soil degradation is the essence of MEGO.

One subject that features in the article is soil restoration, including a look at "terra preta" - rich, fertile artificial soils found in the Amazon. In this post I'll have a look at modern day techniques to produce terra preta (often called biochar or agrichar) which have the potential to increase soil fertility, generate energy and sequester carbon all at the same time.

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The Round-Up: May 8th 2007

Posted by Stoneleigh on May 8, 2007 - 8:59am in The Oil Drum: Canada
Topic: Site news
Tags: agrichar, climate change, equalization, ethanol, feed-in tariffs, fish, gasoline, leveraged buyout, mackenzie valley pipeline, nuclear, oil sands, private equity, subprime mortgages, water [list all tags]

The nuclear option

Sensing some reluctance from the crowd, Hawthorne later slips into passive-aggressive salesman mode. "I'm not here to sell you a nuclear plant. If you don't want a nuclear plant, I don't want to be here."

But he does want to be there, and he is selling something the idea that a nuclear renaissance is upon us, that emission-free atomic power will save local economies, keep global warming in check and pave the way to a nuclear-based hydrogen economy. The message in a nutshell: the construction of new nuclear plants in Canada is inevitable.

Nuclear power, once shunned, is back on the table in Canada and around the world. Its image as a risky, expensive, dangerous technology amplified by the Three Mile Island accident and Chernobyl disaster is clouding. Only emission-free nuclear power, proponents say, can keep global warming in check without hindering economic growth.

There's serious talk in Alberta about using nuclear power to reduce emissions during oil sands production. Behind the scenes, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has reportedly embraced the cause. And Ontario has already committed to building two new nuclear reactors totalling 1,000 megawatts in the province just the start, industry and political sources contend.

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