Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Much more scientific work is needed before we can be sure that the many claims made
of it hold true: that it does in fact endure unchanged for hundreds or even thousands of
years when ploughed into soils of many types around the world, that it does actually im-
prove soil fertility, and that it does indeed inhibit the conversion of nitrogen from chem-
ical fertilizers to nitrous oxide, thereby reducing agricultural emissions of this powerful
greenhouse gas.
We should be wary of the fact that multinational corporations are currently investing
significant sums in biochar research. Their aim is to make profits from worldwide sales
of patented industrial processes for producing biochar mixed with industrial fertilizers
marketed as 'carbon negative' soil enrichment products. If the feedstock comes from
tree plantations on farmland that once produced food, biochar production will contribute
to the global escalation of food scarcity and also to the social unrest that this inevitably
triggers.
So if biochar is indeed the latest geoengineering red herring, then what tools do
we have at our disposal for effectively cooling the Earth? The most effective means
for taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere for long periods of time seem to be
the preservation and restoration of native vegetation around the world and the wide-
spread introduction of locally adapted, small scale agricultural practices such as bio-
dynamic farming, permaculture and forest gardening that build up soil, as opposed to
industrial agriculture which is well known as a source of climate-warming gases. We
should, by all means, look carefully into the social, ecological and climate implications
of biochar—but we should be very careful not to regard it as the silver bullet that will
solve the problem of climate change. It is, after all, the much vaunted but mostly un-
tested new boy of potential solutions to climate change.
As well as finding a sensible means for cooling the earth, my preferred pathway for
living well with Gaia involves a move towards a global steady state economy by means
of worldwide legal enforcement of energy efficiency, massive investment in renewable
energy sources, and possibly (although this seems ever less likely to work) a cap and
trade scheme for carbon like the one that the European Union and the Kyoto agreement
are currently experimenting with, even though they are setting woefully low prices and
inadequate limits on emissions of greenhouse gases. One of the most promising renew-
able technologies is known as Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), which uses mirror-fo-
cused sunlight to convert water to steam for driving turbines. The technology is simple
to make and is wonderfully effective—CSP deployed over a mere one hundred square
miles of the Arizona desert could supply the entire United States with all its contemor-
ary electricity needs. The electricity can be transported over large distances with DC
cables, and stored in large vanadium batteries. Australia could easily close down all its
coal fired power stations and supply itself with clean electricity from CSP covering a
