The emerging “Carbon Exchange” can create the difference that makes the difference. Those who have no immediate choice about polluting — airline companies for example — can fund those who are able to do the right thing. The right thing is to reward everyone (rich and poor) for repairing soil so that it can it can grow plants faster — pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and providing more food — which will sustainably provide an abundance for all.

Charcoal (carbon) put into the soil increases its fertility, stores more nutrients (think less fertilizer), holds more water and filters what is released, pulls more CO2 out of the atmosphere and provides greater production of both fuel and food — and the char can be made out of agricultural waste. How’s that for a win/win/win/etc?

This is the way we can leave the blame-game and help each other. We can jump-start a new no-fault relationship between ecology and economy — a healing one — by focusing attention on the soil.

It’s all based on recent discoveries of an ancient Amazon Indian technique called terra preta de indio that was able to create a living soil — up to 800% more productive than nearby nutrient-poor tropical soil. It was so successful that it is thought that prior to the Conquest there may have been millions of people living in great cities in the central Amazon without continuously deforesting the forests around them. There actually might have been an El Dorado of people living in harmony with nature. But its history is lost to us. It was devastated when the European explorers carried in diseases for which there was no immunity. The only hints that we have are buried in the soils.

A 2002 BBC documentary put the first media spotlight on terra preta and concluded with these words: “So there is a true irony to the story of the hunt for El Dorado. There was once a great civilisation in the Amazon, one the Europeans destroyed even as they discovered it, but the Amazonians may have left us a legacy far more precious than the gold the Conquistadors were seeking. That black earth, the terra preta, may mean a better future for us all.”

Here are some links about what we should be thinking about “on the way to Bali”.

The ABC 11 minute video about “Agrichar”.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s2012892.htm

A lay person’s introduction to terra preta.
http://www.biochar-international.org/images/Joyful_Liiving_Terra_Preta_Sept-Oct_0207.pdf

The BBC documentary, “The Secret of El Dorado”tells the story of rediscovering terra preta soils.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/eldorado.shtml

Lou Gold
An American in Brazil
http://lougold.blogspot.com/

The emerging “Carbon Exchange” can create the difference that makes the difference. Those who have no immediate choice about polluting — airline companies for example — can fund those who are able to do the right thing. The right thing is to reward everyone (rich and poor) for repairing soil so that it can it can grow plants faster — pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and providing more food — which will sustainably provide an abundance for all.

Charcoal (carbon) put into the soil increases its fertility, stores more nutrients (think less fertilizer), holds more water and filters what is released, pulls more CO2 out of the atmosphere and provides greater production of both fuel and food — and the char can be made out of agricultural waste. How’s that for a win/win/win/etc?

This is the way we can leave the blame-game and help each other. We can jump-start a new no-fault relationship between ecology and economy — a healing one — by focusing attention on the soil.

It’s all based on recent discoveries of an ancient Amazon Indian technique called terra preta de indio that was able to create a living soil — up to 800% more productive than nearby nutrient-poor tropical soil. It was so successful that it is thought that prior to the Conquest there may have been millions of people living in great cities in the central Amazon without continuously deforesting the forests around them. There actually might have been an El Dorado of people living in harmony with nature. But its history is lost to us. It was devastated when the European explorers carried in diseases for which there was no immunity. The only hints that we have are buried in the soils.

A 2002 BBC documentary put the first media spotlight on terra preta and concluded with these words: “So there is a true irony to the story of the hunt for El Dorado. There was once a great civilisation in the Amazon, one the Europeans destroyed even as they discovered it, but the Amazonians may have left us a legacy far more precious than the gold the Conquistadors were seeking. That black earth, the terra preta, may mean a better future for us all.”

Here are some links about what we should be thinking about “on the way to Bali”.

The ABC 11 minute video about “Agrichar”.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s2012892.htm

A lay person’s introduction to terra preta.
http://www.biochar-international.org/images/Joyful_Liiving_Terra_Preta_Sept-Oct_0207.pdf

The BBC documentary, “The Secret of El Dorado”tells the story of rediscovering terra preta soils.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/eldorado.shtml

Lou Gold
An American in Brazil
http://lougold.blogspot.com/