[InfiniteNow]

Philip Small shared this link with us in the TP parent thread, and I wanted to share it here.

http://hypography.com/forums/terra-p...tml#post161598

Original article:
Kelpie Wilson on Branson's prize | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

There is even a potentially revolutionary technique waiting to be developed that could greatly accelerate carbon storage in soils.

The technique is called "Terra Preta," Portuguese for "black earth." It is not new. It was invented by an ancient agricultural civilization in the Amazon that made charcoal and buried it the soil. The charcoal absorbs and holds nutrients from manure and supports beneficial microbes. Some of these fertile soils are more than 1000 years old. You can read more about Terra Preta in 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann.

Does anyone else have more "popular" news references to TP? If so, please share them here.

[Michaelangelica]

Well written article with some intersting comments:

Kelpie Wilson on Branson's prize | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

Soil science discussion group I don't know how you get an invitation code to join erich?
NSCSS.org :: View topic - Soil concept named top green idea in 2006

National Society of Consulting Soil Scientists, Inc.
PMB 700, 325 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
800-535-7148
Welcome to the NSCSS online forum. Contact webmaster2007 AT nscss DOT org to register.
Soil concept named top green idea in 2006

Only two post on TP so far

Lots of god info here. mentioned above by erich
I have it as an rss feed on my browser, quicker and keeps me up to date with this busy blog
transect points: Charcoal amended soil for real
eg

Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Charcoal amended soil for real

A recent thoughtful article. These two questions especially interested me
AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Will a Multi-Million Dollar Contest Be the Answer to Global Warming?

Will a Multi-Million Dollar Contest Be the Answer to Global Warming?

By Kelpie Wilson, TruthOut.org. Posted February 22, 2007.
. . .
And here's an unintended consequence I have never heard discussed -- what happens to all of the oxygen in the CO2 molecules that get sequestered? When plants pull CO2 out of the air and use it to grow stems and roots, they recycle the oxygen back into the atmosphere. Are we in danger of burying a needful portion of our oxygen deep in the Earth?

Ultimately, Branson's Earth Challenge prize reflects the same attitude that got us into the climate crisis in the first place. It's a wet dream for engineers who now get to play with a whole planet, acting out their favorite science fiction scenarios. If they want to terraform a planet, I say send them to Mars, but don't experiment with the Earth.

Good (I misspelt that as God just a Freudian slip)article with lots of links by eric (I believe he may be learning Chinese next??)
Wianor » Terra Preta Soils Technology To Master the Carbon Cycle

Tim Flannery has been on the front cover of our Australian (serious) magazine the Bulletin (it is a publication similar to Time/Newsweek)
The heat is on
In this article he is supporting pyrolysis.


Thats a start. Big thunderstorm coming; so going to turn off the computer. Rain, beautiful rain all week. The plants are growing as you look. The bees were right!
Storm seems to have moved but sound like it is hitting Sydney hard. Can hardly hear the radio with the static

A classic article "Black is the New Green" a good place to start if you are new to this or, if not, to print and recruit Gardening Club converts
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/l...%20624-626.pdf

The Rodale Institute’s 23-year findings show that organic grain production systems increase soil carbon 15 to 28%. Moreover, soil nitrogen in the organic systems increased 8 to 15%.
The conventional system showed no significant increases in either soil carbon or nitrogen in the same time period. Soil carbon and nitrogen are major determinants of soil productivity.
To read the full article:
New Farm Field Trials: White paper, organic farming sequesters atmospheric carbon

atinagoe - Carbon Sequestering
It would be interesting if Rodale got behind Pyrolosis and TP

Opps storm back
akablinkdawg » Blog Archive » Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming
Need to convert this lot:

Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming

The Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming says that the best way to combat Global Warming is to encourage farmers to cultivate deep-rooted perennial grass species and crops that can lock vast amounts of carbon up in the soil.
A new farmers’ movement was launched this week in central western New South Wales. The Carbon Coalition was launched at the Central West Conservation Farmers Association Annual Conference in Wellington.
The Carbon Coalition aims to promote organic carbon contained in agricultural soils as a carbon sink to earn tradeable credits on the greenhouse emissions market. Farmers would then be paid up to AUS$3,000 per hectare for “sequestering” carbon in the soil.

[malcolmf]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Need to convert this lot:

Well done Michael.
I can already see one problem with the new thread structure. My response to this news does not belong in the news thread. (Suggestions please Hypography). But here goes:

The argument to try to convert agriculturalists seems straightforward:

Why stop at credits for the carbon in plants?
Good greenkeepers already know the benefits of horticultural charcoal. In your soil it will make your inputs more productive, improve water retention, and reduce soil erosion and nitrate leaching. You win every way.
Charcoal should attract further carbon credits. At present you may have to lobby for this to be accepted, but the argument is strong because black carbon has a residence time in soil far in excess of what plants sequester. Representations are being made to the UN to add black carbon to the Kyoto protocol.
Do not pay market prices for charcoal. Instead make your own black carbon by pyrolysing all waste from the perennials (mowings, prunings, windfall, etc.) and other crops.
There is a range of technologies to do this, suitable for small-scale early DIY experiments right up to large-scale grower co-operatives.
Some of the higher technologies use excess energy from pyrolysis as a heat source (e.g. for grain drying) or electricity generation, attracting further carbon credits for renewable energy and cutting your fuel bills.
Black carbon also reduces natural emissions from soil of methane and nitrous oxide. These are both strong greenhouse gases. A combination of research into how to verify the reductions and persistent lobbying could attract yet more credits further down the line.

Improvements and the best references to support the argument, anyone?

M

[erich]

Beware The False Prophets of Terra Perta

It is quite worry some that development interest are seizing on "Artificial landscape" for justification of unsustainable practices, when the real lesson about TP culture is it's amazing Sustainability!

They are using TP as a drunk uses a lamp post.............. for support rather than Illumination.
Erich

Bioenergy pact between Europe and Africa
Bioenergy pact between Europe and Africa

"Artificial or pristine landscape?
In the community of environmental archaeologists and paleo-ecologists, there are two distinct theories on pre-Columbian Amazonian populations. One commonly held vision says that the Amazon rainforest as it exists today is not 'pristine' at all, but basically an 'artificial landscape', created in ancient times by millions of people, who farmed, slashed-and-burned, logged and used the forests extensively and for centuries. According to the other camp, there is scant evidence for this hypothesis, and instead one can assume that the Amazon was sparsely populated, and only by small, primitive groups, whose impacts on the ecosystem have always been marginal."

[Michaelangelica]

erich i think that article was based on this.
strange?

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
ISSN: 0962-8436 (Paper) 1471-2970 (Online)
Issue: Volume 362, Number 1478 / February 28, 2007
Pages: 187 - 196
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1978
URL: Linking Options
Issue Title: Theme Issue ‘Biodiversity hotspots through time: using the past to manage the future’ compiled by Katherine J. Willis, Lindsey Gillson and Sandra Knapp
Editor(s): Katherine J. Willis, Lindsey Gillson, Sandra Knapp
Prehistorically modified soils of central Amazonia: a model for sustainable agriculture in the twenty-first century

Bruno Glaser AFF1

AFF1 Institute of Soil Science and Soil Geography, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany

Abstract:

Terra Preta soils of central Amazonia exhibit approximately three times more soil organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus and 70 times more charcoal compared to adjacent infertile soils.
The Terra Preta soils were generated by pre-Columbian native populations by chance or intentionally adding large amounts of charred residues (charcoal), organic wastes, excrements and bones.
In this paper, it is argued that generating new Terra Preta sites (‘Terra Preta nova’) could be the basis for sustainable agriculture in the twenty-first century to produce food for billions of people, and could lead to attaining three Millennium Development Goals: (i) to combat desertification, (ii) to sequester atmospheric CO2 in the long term, and (iii) to maintain biodiversity hotspots such as tropical rainforests.
Therefore, large-scale generation and utilization of Terra Preta soils would decrease the pressure on primary forests that are being extensively cleared for agricultural use with only limited fertility and sustainability and, hence, only providing a limited time for cropping.
This would maintain biodiversity while mitigating both land degradation and climate change. However, it should not be overlooked that the infertility of most tropical soils (and associated low population density) is what could have prevented tropical forests undergoing large-scale clearance for agriculture. Increased fertility may increase the populations supported by shifting cultivation, thereby maintaining and increasing pressure on forests.

You can buy the complete article at
The Royal Society - Article

[Lancaster]

There was a decent article on Terra Preta in this month's Discover magazine.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Lancaster

There was a decent article on Terra Preta in this month's Discover magazine.

I can't find it there.
Do you have a more specific URL?
here it is
Black Gold of the Amazon

On August 13, 2006, on the anniversary of Petersen's death, Neves and the

"I think the best homage we can pay to Jim is to continue the work," Neves says, "to keep asking questions and to keep looking for answers."

[Michaelangelica]

Peak Energy: Delayed Reaction

[Michaelangelica]

Amazon conservation efforts must come soon

The possible importance of black earths in mitigating global warming lies in efforts to replicate the soil formation process to create “terra preta nova” (new black earth).
This would both increase the sustainability of whatever is planted and store more carbon in the soil. Finely powdered charcoal is an important ingredient of black earth and is being tested separately as a soil amendment that increases the absorption by plants of any nutrients that are added to the soil. At least theoretically, the plan is to use these techniques in recuperating areas that are already deforested.

[maikeru]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

I can't find it there.
Do you have a more specific URL?
here it is
Black Gold of the Amazon

Bought that issue just for the terra preta article. Lovely to see that it's getting more recognition in science magazines.