Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change - Softcover

Bates, Albert K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865716773 ISBN 13: 9780865716773

Verlag: New Catalyst Books, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

How the dirt below our feet can save us from extinction.

Conventional agriculture destroys our soils, pollutes our water and is a major contributor to climate change. What if our agricultural practices could stabilize, or even reverse these trends?

The Biochar Solution explores the dual function of biochar as a carbon-negative energy source and a potent soil-builder. Created by burning biomass in the absence of oxygen, this material has the unique ability to hold carbon back from the atmosphere while simultaneously enhancing soil fertility. Author Albert Bates traces the evolution of this extraordinary substance from the ancient black soils of the Amazon to its reappearance as a modern carbon sequestration strategy.

Combining practical techniques for the production and use of biochar with an overview of the development and future of carbon farming, The Biochar Solution describes how a new agricultural revolution can reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to below zero while increasing world food reserves and creating energy from biomass wastes. Biochar and carbon farming can:

• Reduce fossil fuels inputs into our food system
• Bring new life to desert landscapes
• Filter and purify drinking water
• Help build carbon-negative homes, communities and nations.

Biochar is not without dangers if unregulated, and it is not a panacea, but if it fulfills its promise of taking us back from the brink of irreversible climate change, it may well be the most important discovery in human history.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Albert Bates has been Director of the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology since 1984 and the Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm in Tennessee since 1994, where he has taught sustainable design, natural building, permaculture and restoration ecology to students from more than 50 nations.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

HOW THE DIRT BELOW OUR FEET CAN SAVE US FROM EXTINCTION

This comprehensive and well-informed review of current initiatives and technologies is a tour-de-force. It is hard to imagine a technical subject-compounded of organic chemistry, archaeology, rural economics, climate science, and microbiology-presented with greater drama or clarity.
- Peter Bane, publisher, Permaculture Activist

Conventional agriculture pollutes our water, is a major contributor to climate change and has degraded soil carbon by as much as 80 percent in most of the world's breadbaskets. Created by burning biomass in the absence of oxygen, biochar has the unique ability to withhold carbon from the atmosphere while simultaneously building soil fertility. Author Albert Bates traces the evolution of this extraordinary substance from the ancient dark earths of the Amazon to current practices.

The Biochar Solution combines a detailed analysis of our global climate and food predicament with techniques for the production and use of biochar and practical carbon farming. The reintroduction of this time-tested agricultural practice can help:

• Bring new life to desert landscapes
• Filter and purify drinking water
• Derive efficient energy from biomass waste materials
• Increase world food reserves while drastically reducing reliance on fossil fuels
• Bring greenhouse gas emissions to below zero.

Stepping back from the brink of irreversible climate change will require deep and lasting social changes and significant industrial emissions reductions. Carbon farming practices could form an important part of a new agricultural paradigm, one that places priority on ecological restoration, protecting biodiversity, healing the atmosphere and oceans, and once again becoming a garden planet.

Bates has woven together a highly engaging interdisciplinary answer to climate change ... a lively page-turner that blends clear-headed analysis with nuts-and-bolts advice ... enough danger to wake us up, but enough opportunity to emerge feeling hopeful.
- Tracy L. Barnett, journalist and founder/editor of TheEsperanzaProject.org

Albert Bates teaches permaculture and appropriate technology and has written several books on energy and the environment including The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook .

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: New Catalyst Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0865716773
• ISBN 13: 9780865716773
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland