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The biochar solution to global warming
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Tags: global warming, The biochar solution to global warming
The biochar solution to global warming
The biochar solution to global warming
By JurriaanKamp | Published: December 18, 2009
BiocharThe Ode team that is distributing our special issue with solutions to global warming in Copenhagen ran into an old friend. We featured Thomas Harttung in our November 2008 issue. Harttung established an organic produce delivery service in Denmark that now has 45,000 members (about 1% of the Danish population) and annual revenues of about $55 million. Time recently named him a “hero of the environment”.
Harttung had come to Copenhagen for various meetings around the current UN Climate Conference. He has an interesting story about a solution to global warming. His new solution is, in fact, a very old one: biochar. Biochar is a charcoal-like product made from organic waste. It has been used for thousands of years to create rich, fertile soils in the Amazon by the natives there. “Terra Preta de Indio” or black earth of the Indians in Portuguese, was made by the Pre-Columbian Indians. They produced it by setting fire to organic waste, then piling earth on top of it and allowing it to smolder. Today, the biochar that they created is still in the earth. Evidence from soil sampls in the Amazon shows large concentrations of biochar remaining ater they were abandoned thousands of years ago. Moreover the tests show that the biochar has retained its ability to store nutrients and water.
The great thing about biochar is that it is good for both the soil and the climate: it fertilizes the soil and it captures carbon. In fact, it is probably the best method for carbon sequestration. A common estimate is that the CO2 that is captured is stored for centuries. Furthermore: biochar can be created from different sources of organic waste, so it can practically be made everywhere.
Thomas Harttung is producing biochar on his organic farm and he had come to Copenhagen to tell the story about this successful global warming solution. There is an International Biochar Initiative. Harttung’s story about the modern promise of ancient biochar is just one more example of the solutions that are available to fight global warming and clean up the planet. Whatever challenge global warming poses, there is really no lack of solutions.
