Burn Charcoal to Help Reverse Climate Change?

Burning something organic is usually seen to be dirty--not, porn "dirty" but pollution dirty. However, science is finding that a form of charcoal might actually help reduce greenhouse gases:

As much as 12 percent of the world's human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be sustainably offset by producing biochar, a charcoal-like substance made from plants and other organic materials. That's more than what could be offset if the same plants and materials were burned to generate energy, concludes a study published August 10 in the journal Nature Communications. "Biochar offers one of the few ways we can create power while decreasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. And it improves food production in the world's poorest regions by increasing soil fertility. It's an amazing tool."

Biochar is made by decomposing biomass like plants, wood and other organic materials at high temperature in a process called slow pyrolysis. Normally, biomass breaks down and releases its carbon into the atmosphere within a decade or two. But biochar is more stable and can hold onto its carbon for hundreds or even thousands of years, keeping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide out of the air longer. Other biochar benefits include: improving soils by increasing their ability to retain water and nutrients; decreasing nitrous oxide and methane emissions from the soil into which it is tilled; and, during the slow pyrolysis process, producing some bio-based gas and oil that can offset emissions from fossil fuels.

Green man: It's going to take a patchwork of ideas and revolutionary science to tackle the vast scale of the problem. There is no "magic elixir" to change this trend and threat to not just our environment but our very lives. It's simply a reality that not every place gets enough sun for solar energy, not enough wind for wind energy and hydrogen is still expensive and volatile. Another idea that I like is using algae to power our cars. The problem isn't the ability to solve this problem but rather the lack of political willpower to see the dire need for these technologies. No where is this more evident than in the United States where a large chunk of the problem stems from with emissions. We Americans unfortunately know a lot about war and coming up with a multi-tiered plan is essential and something of a strong suit for us. We need to convince other Americans that this climate issue is a major national security issue--it's a war and thus demands an immediate and diverse battle plan. And it needs to be set into motion, frankly, immediately.

The irony of using biochar is that the environmental benefits of it have long been known to ancient man but modern man's arrogance took over and the assumption was that nearly everything the ancients knew was to no longer beneficial. "Amazonian Indians mixed a combination of charcoal and organic matter into the soil to improve soil fertility, a fact that got the scientists interested in studying biochar's modern potential." The renaissance brought about many wonderful benefits to civilization; not the least of which being science itself!! The very science that is now rediscovering the benefits of charcoal. Rediscoveries like this always make me sober in one respect because of all the genocide modern man is committing by cutting down the rain forests. How many cures for various cancers could be destroyed? Or cures for HIV/AIDS?

~The Green Man has Spoken~