Science Forums 2

[erich]

From a posting by Richard Haard, Let us hope it ends up on Clinton's & Obama's desks, and if not Macain should steal it. After all TP is most righteously a conservitive policy.

"For those of you interested here is a 440 word presentation I will make to a local grass roots Dem party plank meeting this evening. Thanks to some of our list members for input and helpful narrative.


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From the desk of Richard Haard, Monday, March 17, 2008

A proposal for a Whatcom County, Washington, Democratic Party, agricultural platform plank committee topic: Carbon Sequestration

Terrestrial carbon sequestration is recognized both by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as the European Union as a viable way to reduce atmospheric carbon content. However, this technique was not taken up in the Kyoto Protocols (clean development mechanisms). Since scientists, NGO’s and conservation groups are advocating its inclusion in a post Kyoto agreement and also since the United States is not yet a signatory to this convention here is something we can do immediately to join the rest of the world in this action to cleanse our atmosphere of carbon.

The problem. Climate change can wreak havoc on food production and displace millions of people. If we see an atmospheric temperature change of more than 2 degrees C in the next 50 years we could enter a period of runaway climate warming. We can either clean up our atmosphere or we might perish trying to live in the conditions of runaway climate change.

Burying charcoal in soil is one element of many in what we need to do to reduce the carbon content of our atmosphere. The use of charcoal in agriculture will address multiple purposes: climate mitigation, food production and a viable renewable energy source. Wide scale implementation of carbon sequestration in the soil will significantly reduce atmospheric carbon.

Biochar is charcoal with specific properties and is made by pyrolysing biomass derived from agricultural and forestry waste and crops grown specifically for this purpose. If these source materials were for example composted and added to soil the carbon in them would eventually decay and be released to the atmosphere.

Charcoal on the other hand remains active in the soil for many thousands of years forming a permanent functional substitute for organic matter. The second property of charcoal in soil is its high affinity to nutrients (adsorption). Lastly, in the formation of charcoal the microscopic features of the wood are preserved making habitat for beneficial organisms thereby reducing the need for commercial fertilizer.

Plank this: ‘Cleansing our atmosphere of carbon is the issue for our times’ Make a law that puts ‘earning carbon sequestration credits’ into the US tax code. This will be implemented either as a check box for creation of a carbon removal fund or direct tax credit towards activities that:

1. Disseminates carbon removal technology and information on how to use biochar here and abroad.

2. Provides a direct payment for every verified ton of biochar permanently buried in the United States and territories to make local use feasible .
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Here's my only edit:

"Charcoal on the other hand remains active in the soil for many thousands of years forming a permanent functional substitute for organic matter."

Should read;

permanent functional infrastructure for organic matter & minerals


Cheers

Erich