The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change
Reads like a detective story but marked by impressive scholarship. New historical evidence that climate is remarkably responsive to human impacts had me gripping the edge of my seat. --The Permaculture ActivistReviewBioScience Magazine, October 2011For those who are not scientists directly involved with biochar, this is a book worth reading. It presents the science that got biochar rolling, the technologies already available, and how to use it to enhance food  security and restore degraded agroecosystems. It is well designed for international agricultural aid staff,  nongovernmental organization activists, and agricultural extensionists. Anyone interested in climate  change mitigation and adaptation will gain something from this book, because Bates is careful to point  out that mitigation and adaptation will only succeed if global society decides to change the ways it thinks  about population and consumption.BioScience, Vol. 61, No. 10 (October 2011), pp. 831-833University of California Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological SciencesMay 2011CHOICEThe basic premise of this book is that the carbon cycle must be balanced for a healthy planet. To prove this idea, Bates, an instructor and writer (Climate in Crisis,1990;The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook,2006), claims that when ancient Amazonian  civilizations collapsed, rain forests engulfed the cities and roads. Archaeologists and historians are still puzzled about the reasons for the demise of these Amazonian empires. Bates asserts  that starting around the ninth century, Europe began growing colder due to massive  sequestering of carbon from the atmosphere by these new immense Amazonian forests. He  examines several techniques for combating global warming, such as using biochar and less  destructive tilling techniques, and restraining global corporations that manufacture synthetic   fertilizers and genetically modified seed stocks. The author also recommends massive tree planting and a change in cultural attitudes about how humans manage Earth's resources. One unique solution to global warming is to provide poor, rural third world people with biochar stoves that generate needed heat and produce biochar. Agricultural use of biochar would reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and slow down global warming.Summing Up: Recommended.All undergraduate students and general readers interested in biochar.-- K. Bennett, emeritus, Kalamazoo Valley Community College