Science Forums 2

[Essay]

Originally Posted by erich

North American Biochar Conference 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009 - Wednesday, August 12, 2009
University of Colorado at Boulder
North American Biochar Conference 2009 - 1 - powered by RegOnline


Hi All,
Dr. Novak sounds excited , amazed even, by his work in Norfolk loamy sand soils.

I'll be sending my entire mailing list of contacts I've gathered advocating for biochar to Ms. Aikens for invitation mailings.

I will be attending the meeting in Boulder thanks to the folks at EcoTechnologies Group EcoTechnologies Group

My first conference, hope to put faces with the many names floating in my head from three years of my Biochar avocation. See you there.


OOH,........I have two titles now;

Erich J. Knight
Eco Technologies Group Technical Adviser
University of California Riverside advisory board
Shenandoah Gardens (Owner)
1047 Dave Barry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
540 289 9750


On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Novak, Jeff <Jeff.Novak@ars.usda.gov> wrote:
- Hide quoted text -

Hello Erich:

Please find enclosed an email from a conference organizer concerning advertising the 2009 North American Biochar Conference. Please see attachments for meeting details.

Ms. Aiken asked me for assistance with advertising this meeting to others. Because of your world-wide contacts, is there a way that you can mention this in a news briefing or as a flash point on your web?

Please note that I was invited to speak at this conference. I will be presenting results to show that biochar quality is affected by feedstock source and pyrolysis temperature.
....

Thanks again Erich!

Here's part of a letter that I just sent my sister--about the conference.
===

...
Biochar is a charcoal-based product, produced from biomass, which can sequester carbon while enhancing soils and generate useable energy during the production process.

Biomass derived biochar can begin as crop wastes, forestry thinnings, and can include animal wastes or anything biological that usually just decays like peanut shells or lawn clippings; but it definitely includes all the beetle-kill trees up in our mountains. Removing that "hazardous fuel" from our backyards should be a top priority--and they are beginning to work of that. There's even an ARRA project, here in Colorado, employing Veterans to help with this!!! Biochar technologies can make these projects more profitable.
===

Sherrie, I just got back from a four-day conference hosted by the CU Law School's Center for Energy & Environmental Security (CEES) in Boulder.

This was the first North American Biochar Conference.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak was the keynote speaker on Monday evening. [He got one critical point wrong about the science behind this ancient trick of nature, but we all overlooked the repeated misstatement about biochar absorbing CO2.] We knew he meant that biochar already is absorbed CO2 (previous biomass, now rendered solid) and that biochar can also enhance the soil's ability to "absorb" CO2. His main message was still accurate and very inspiring--along the lines of:

[...in my words] Supporting any modern lifestyle generates a lot of extra waste biomass. Any or all of that waste biomass could be turned into biochar (so first: preventing the wastes from returning to the atmosphere as methane, CO2 & nitrogen oxides), plus producing the char also generates bio-oils which can be refined for fuel or other products (so second: reducing dependence on fossil fuels), and if the biochar is used properly it can enhance agricultural productivity and reduce water usage and pollution (so third: also reducing fossil fuel usage and helping restore water quality), and the additional enhancement of the soil microbiome--that biochar can encourage--is a way to shorten the "half-life" of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (so fourth: helping reduce the already too high levels of CO2, if not just offsetting current and future emissions).

It's like a four-for (the price of one).

So lots of environmental benefits...

...and think of all the jobs this new industry--along with changes in waste management practices--would create!
...and the education involved wouldn't be a bad thing either--lots of physical and life sciences required--kind of like the space race of the 1960's!
...and the health benefits stemming from all that education, the agricultural diversification, a bit more physical/outdoor focus and purpose--and a more stable physical and political climate--should be counted in with the side benefits too!
So it's more like a 4-by-4 for (the price of one)!

Sec. Vilsak also mentioned biochar and this refocusing of Ag./Forest & Land policy as specifically connected with the obesity and diabetes problems that are becoming epidemic in westernized cultures, and how this even relates to gender, poverty, health, and national security issues on a global level. In my opinion it can and should be a key nexus for all of the UN's "Millennium Development Goals." Have you heard of Michael Pollan?

...and health care: How will private, for-profit, free-enterprise react on the temporal or spatial scale required to protect us from all sorts of regional or global consequences of overpopulation, climate and socio-political change?

I'm all in favor of limited government--in the same way the military is limited--proscribed to limits set by our laws and the Constitution. But I certainly appreciate our extensive, strong, and effective military in the same way I know I will appreciate a globally effective, strong and resilient local government--limited to protecting our freedom to decide and work for our future--and the future of our children's grandchildren.
===

Well I'm getting carried away, but it was a very inspiring conference. I learned a lot of little details about the science underlying biochar during the poster-sessions and talks given by the researchers.

There were also lots of demonstrations of biochar production techniques from backyard do-it-yourself methods to commercial operations--including a tour of a plant in Golden. I even learned some very general information about biochar; filling in the background which I thought I already had down-pat, as well as some details about the difficulties of the business (and political) sides of the biochar venture.

There were lots of USDA-ARS and USFS folks there too; over 300 participants total--with all the science, business and government folks--and then more during the final wrap-up, counting the teleconference with two bigwigs in Bonn who were working on the Copenhagen Climate Consensus.

...and the lawmakers back in Washington barely have this biochar thing up on their radar!!!
===

I think--and can deliver a lot of coherent information, facts, evidence, etc.-- that this biochar technology and industry is critical to finding one of the very few sustainable paths forward into civilization's future. Even biblical wisdom is screaming this at us, if we only had ears to hear and eyes to see.

Fortunately the scientist are starting to see how biochar can help, and even the policymakers are starting to listen.
I'm trying to do my part. I got my State Representative, Randy Fischer, to learn about biochar back in Feb., and he was at the conference too (for the morning keynote speech given by the lead scientist from NOAA, Susan Solomon).

I think this must also be an important part of our economic and financial recovery in this country (and globally) if we are to have any hope of success; and the quicker the better.

Biochar will help pave a sustainable path into civilization's future.
===

...I'll be in touch....

Well, I'll try to get some real updates from the conference posted, but I thought a general overview might be nice. I sure learned a lot, and got some neat new ideas and inspiration!

Thanks again Erich, mucho !!!