Environmental Action
The earth is heating up at an unprecedented rate. Tropical diseases are appearing in American cities. Every summer is more unbearable than the last.
Massive fires devastate our forests. Someone just sailed a pleasure boat through the once frozen “Northwest Passage” connecting the North Atlantic to the North Pacific via the North Pole.
What is being done? At Paris in December 2015, 196 countries signed a “game changing” climate agreement that recognized the threat climate change poses to humanity. Their solution? Slow the rate at which we are heating the atmosphere.
This is a good idea. But it will not solve the problem. It is like slowing the car as you hurtle toward the missing bridge over a deep gorge. You buy time – but you are still going over the edge.
What is missing?
Solutions that actually cool the earth’s atmosphere.
Scientists tell us that the main culprit in global warming is carbon in the form of CO2. This is why trees are so important and why global deforestation is a key part of global warming.
Trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. They release the oxygen (O2) back into the atmosphere for us to breathe and use the carbon (C) to build cell walls. As long as the tree is alive, it soaks up C; together trees in a forest become a “carbon sink” holding carbon that cannot contribute to global warming.
The problem with this is obvious – trees die and when they do, they rerelease the C into the atmosphere as they rot.
This is where your town comes in.
Your town has hundreds, perhaps thousands, of trees lining streets, shading parks, beautifying public buildings.
Every year these trees shed branches, need pruning or die. Every year you collect hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tons of dead wood.
What do you do with it? Burn it? Chip it? Compost it? Landfill it?
No matter what you do with your dead wood, you are returning the carbon to the atmosphere.
You can do better for all of us – and for your town.
Here’s how.
If you heat that wood really hot – 1,000⁰ F – in the absence of oxygen, “pyrolyze” it, you will produce biochar. (Do not sweat the technology; it is so simple it will make you cry.)
What is biochar? Super charcoal, pure carbon without the ash and impurities in basic barbecue charcoal.
Why is biochar special? Let’s start with the earth.
Making biochar is carbon negative. When you make biochar from dead wood, you permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere. The biochar that remains when you finish production is pure carbon equal to 40 percent of the total carbon contained in the wood – and it is completely inert. It will never again enter the atmosphere. Put differently, for every pound of biochar you make, you remove three pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Making biochar also has important indirect impacts. Large piles of rotting wood chips, for example, emit not just CO2, but methane, a greenhouse gas (GHG) 25 times as warming as CO2. Methane and other such long-term GHGs as NOx are eliminated by pyrolysis.
The question you have to ask, however, is: What about my town?
It is one thing to care about the environment; it is another to impose the costs of solving global problems on local rate payers.
Here is the irony: Making biochar will save your town a lot of rate payer money.
That is the point: Making biochar is smart business for your town, not just good for the environment.
How?
Where and how much your town will benefit depends on local circumstances, but here is how making biochar can cut costs.
- Biochar is a powerful soil amendment. Applied to lawns, playing fields, golf courses, it can reduce fertilizer costs 40-50 percent.
- Biochar retains water extremely well. It can reduce time between watering by days, conserve water and save money.
- Biochar is a highly effective decontaminant. It can be used to clean up hazardous spills, decontaminate building sites, storm drains, and lawns and public spaces after floods.
- Biochar added to compost – if the town composts leaves, for example – improves quality and extends the effective life of compost in the soil.
If your town is large enough – if it has enough stuff to turn into biochar – biochar production can itself be turned into a profitable endeavor by using the heat it produces to run a small power plant. The amount of power involved may be tiny, but providing free electricity to Public Works is no small matter.
Bottom line? Why not help the earth? Your rate payers will love you – and your town will take pleasure in knowing that global welfare lies at the heart of how you do business.
About the Author
Dr. Shafer is the co-founder of Warm Heart Worldwide and director of the Warm Heart Environmental Project. He lives in Phrao with his wife Evelind and their 40 adopted children.
For specific information about the biochar process see our resources:
A New Type of Flame Cap Biochar Production Unit – The Warm Heart FC Trough
silvia
Hola. pregunto: me llegan gran cantidad de cajas de cartón, y aquí, en mi pueblo, las tiran a la basura. Se me ocurrió, ponerlas en agua, cortarlas con las manos y enterrarlas…Hago bien?
admin
Silvia asked: Hello. I ask: I get a lot of cardboard boxes, and here, in my town, they throw them away. It occurred to me to put them in water, cut them with my hands and bury them… Am I doing the right thing?
Glad to hear from you although I don’t think that your approach is the wisest. First, boxes will make excellent biochar. I think that using a trough or trench makes the most sense, because if you are not really careful about how you load, you are likely to block primary air from the bottom of a TLUD.
Second, I would not bury the cardboard, because as it decomposes, it will release lots of climate change gases. Better to make biochar and use it in your garden or field.
Dietitian EKEAGWU EMMANUEL OBIYO
lets save our earth.lets be the change we seek join me and support me while i lunch bornchester football club that has one its major objective is combating global warming by advocacy of tree planting campaigns and discouraging practices like bush burning etc
Boghos L. Artinian MD
Come Kudzu
Come Kudzu, conquer the Earth!
Far worse than oxygen dearth
A horrible greenhouse gas
Is accumulating alas!
Come cool the Earth ; breathe this menace
That runs the earthly furnace.
Overwhelm the forests of concrete,
On every bare spot set your feet,
Cover all the expanses in green;
Let no naked ground be seen.
Man cannot stop burning coal and gas,
CO2 is winning alas!
Boghos L. Artinian
David Ford
Here are a few notes on my observations of global warming.
Greenhouse gasses are the biggest problem but combined with heat generated by industry has caused the earth’s
environment to warm.
But there’s a heat source that has been overlooked.
The sun radiates heat which is trapped by the greenhouse gasses. There’s more to it than just that however.
In Britain alone we have built more roads and housing. These require the clearing of a great deal of trees and foliage
and the laying of huge amounts of tarmac.
Has it occurred to anyone that when the sun hits these dark substances an amazing amount of heat is generated.
Imaging that you take a walk in a park, taking off your footwear and walking on the grass in the sunshine, how does
the grass feel? It feels cool, because the heat from the sun is absorbed and used to create energy with chlorophyll.
Now, without putting on your shoes, take a walk on the tarmac path that runs through the park and has been in the sun
for the same amount of time as the grass, you will have to put your shoes back on or step back onto the grass.
All of the roads and building roofs generate the same incredible amount of heat, more probably than most industrial
processes in Britain.
I think that this heat source has been overlooked.
Sam
Saving the Earth is a must for the Future. And we are responsible and it`s our obligation.
Andrew Gibbs
I am a civil engineer and I am looking into the construction industry as my specialty using geosynthetic Technology. I believe that it has a more positive impact on the community and high-quality innovation. It is so nice to see articles like this to enhance my skills.
Jerry Austin
Working to bring developers, builders and homeowners cutting edge green technology would really help in our advocacy to green living. Informative article. Lets go green!
Crisencio M. Paner
Is there anyone who knows to make biochar in the industrial level capacity? What clean fuel to use to pyrolyze the sludge material or in my project, animal manure? My worry at the moment is using fuel to make biochar, I think this process is not eco friendly it still make use of fossil fuel, or perhaps we can use solar in the process? Thank you for any ideas you can give to my questions. Thanks!
admin
As I understand you, you really have two questions: (1) are there industrial processes to make biochar from, for example, manure and (2) what fuels are required to make biochar and are they polluting (or, conversely, can you substitute solar)> As for (1) yes, there are industrial pyrolyzers that will do a great job with manure and other similar feedstocks. The key question is moisture content. if you have a wet manure slurry, you need to dry it first. Here you can use the sun (if you do not have a huge amount) or heat from your pyrolyzer (here is where it helps the have a big unit). As for (2) you should not need much fuel, except perhaps for a bit of propane, to start your unit. Pyrolysis generates a lot of heat and flammable gases that can be captured and recycled to provide drying and pre-heating. You can, of course, use solar to pre-dry your feedstock, but if you have a large amount or if it is very wet, this will require an additional investment in the drier.
sanith wijetunga
we could avoid deforestation because 1 it prevents from climate change 2 is prevent from endangering species/animals and finally less lack of carbon dioxide C02
weloveanimals
we can do this, together
when you get an enemy, use what we can
climate change is our enemy and we can use our brains
we can do this, come on
dkhf
Wouldn’t a power plant cause more damage to the environment? I’m making a project on this and need to know ASAP.
Tanushree Agrawal
What kibd of project u are making can i help you out
yeetman123
This is good stuff
Nobab
i have planed for a engine that would work by using the sunlight
hassan sheikh
you are absolutely right
Yogesh
Good invention ,biochar
Rajeev
there are ways to reduce Global Warming
fardosa
save it if you love it
Stacy69
What can we do to stop climate change?
Hanin
we can’t stop climate change it is a natural Earth disaster.
fardosa
yes we can.
you can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf
so we can
vixo
that still counts as not stopping it with your example of learning to surf you are not stopping waves correct? So you technically are still not stopping the problem or solving the problem but learning to go along with it.
Smartie
fire is a natural source which can turn in to a natural disaster (sun on dry grass etc.) and the way to stop it is by using another natural source water.
Skeleton Breakers
We can stop the climate change that is occurred by Humans like global warming.
yeetman
yeet the fire
get the ice
Pradeep
save earth save life
Manikandavelu
i feel algal cultivation can mitigate climate change a lot
why people and governments are coming forward
Gungun
What a article men fabulous
Marai
why is there such a bad article
Bre
My Art Techaer is haveing us help to save mother earth. I am so glad. Go Earth!!!!
israel
Save mother earth
Fadi
Are you sure ????????
admin
Absolutely! Here is a recent article showing how it is done! Machine Converts Forest Debris into Biochar
MWANGI KIARIE
A one time Environment Assistant Minister, Wangari Mathai of Kenya once said that the Effects of Global Warming would be felt more in Africa. This is what we are seeing in Kenya, Rivers are drying up, Lakes are shrinking and food production is declining. We need to act.
johnbert
Save the mother earth
Masole
The idea is superior
admin
Thanks~! Glad you agree!