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BIOCHAR IS ON A ROLL

With the report last week of biochar's potential for reducing nitrogen pollution and the just-released report that biochar may be able to reduce overall concentrations of atmospheric carbon by as much as 12 percent, biochar news is really on a roll.

Here's the round-up of recent news from the International Biochar Initiative:

• Charcoal takes some heat off global warming
  Press Release: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  08/10/2010
• Delivering biochar's triple win
  BBC News
  08/10/2010
• Biochar Could Put Huge Global Dent in Greenhouse Gases
  Discovery News
  08/10/2010
• Biochar Alone Could Offset 12% of All Human Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Study
  Treehugger
  08/10/2010
• Green machine: Don't burn plant waste, bury it
  New Scientist
  08/10/2010

Most interestingly, biochar seems to be bridging the chasm of political polarity.
Here is conservative Andrew Sullivan saying at The Daily Dish, "The Only Solution May Be Technology" and liberal Brad Plumer saying at The New Republic, "Yes, Biochar Really Might Be Magical."

Might Biochar not only be a nature and people win/win but a left/right political win/win as well?

If you are new to the biochar concept, here is a brief video introduction (with translation into Portuguese).



Here is one of the leading biochar experts, Johannes Lehmann, Associate Professor of soil biogeochemistry at Cornell University, discussing the characteristics of naturally occurring terra preta including its agricultural and carbon sequestering benefits. He then turns to considering the factors involved with implementation industrial biochar systems for large-scale carbon sequestration and energy provision. Watch this for the BIG PICTURE.



For the "small is beautiful" side of the biochar vision, check out the extraordinary work of the Biochar Fund among traditional farmers in Africa. Incredibly inspiring!

Finally, the global International Biochar Initiative Conference will be held next month in Rio de Janeiro where the latest-and-greatest advances will be presented and a whole new global citizen's movement of earth healers will be launched.