"THE
CARBON CYCLE"
Let's not forget the plumbing!
For millions
of
years the ecosystem
has been spinning carbon
gases into
black gold. Great pressure and heat over time transformed gases into solids
forming
vast banks of coal and oil beneath
the earths'
surface. 150 years ago the
engine of the Industrial
Revolution was bankrolled by the black gold and the steam engine
industrialized the western world - and
great wealth and
prosperity came
from changing those fossilized solids and liquids back into gases.
Now
that's how to
exploit the Carbon
Cycle.
Dig up millions of
years of planet pressure at work, burn it and
sell the energy.
Apparently, we are over-doing he CO2 in the atmosphere, producing more
CO2 than we want, why? because it's not clearing, it's hanging around
becoming a blanket warming up the planet - a blanket we just don't know
how to kick it off.
What is to become
clear, the way we use the land has led to the soil releasing into the
atmosphere
more CO2 than all the power stations and cars put together.
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Dr
Rattan Lal,
Professor of Soil Science at Ohio State University and Director, Carbon
Management and Sequestration Center, USA, has calculated that 476 Gt of
carbon has been
emitted from farmland soils due to inappropriate farming and grazing
practices, compared with 270 Gt
emitted from over 150 years of burning of fossil fuel.
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We
have misunderstood the role of systems within systems.
We have
not
connected the dots. Producing greenhouses gases isn't the problem -
it's half the problem - the world can handle far more - but unwittingly
we
have sabotaged ourselves - we haven't taken care of [pardon the
analogy but I think it works] the plumbing. The
plumbing is
blocked and
nothing will go down the sink analogy - and we are
not conscious that we have a
blockage in the sink because we are looking up at the smoke stacks
- but we need to call a plumber!
In this case we need a soil
expert - like the Earthworm - the healthier the soil the better the
sink
- carbon
sequestration -
and carbon as a food enriches soil.
It is
to our great advantage that we determine the cause
of global warming is NOT excess CO2 from burning fossil fuels, that is
only one source. We need to expand this view to include soil. As
complex as it
is, it appears there are a few causes. Naming the cause is an
opportunity to deal with it, indeed recognizing that soil is depleted,
one can make valued judgements, and return the soil to good health. To
cool the planet it's best to
identify the major polluter is soil and ask questions to understand why
the soil is acting this way. Then to go about remedying the problem and
make soil healthy again. It's a win win. The soil becomes healthier
absobs all the excess CO2 and the planet is greened.
The
better solution is to treat the root cause - anythingis is a
temporary fix. The root cause is the sink is
blocked. It's the same for
heart operations, they don't change the heart and leave the arteries
blocked, they unblock the arteries before changing the heart.
I say fix the cause
- the blockage is in the Carbon Cycle.
Soil has the answers
There's quite a lot of
talk about doubling our energy useage by the year 2050. There's
compelling reason enough to take advantage of every CO2 sequestration
means available to man. The persistant reliance on electricity to run
machines that society is based and intertwined makes our world turn -
we
cannot let go. We have tried to tame soil, but
all we have done is suck the life out of it, and with its' last gasp -
breathed out all its' stored CO2.
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"The
nation
that destroys its soil destroys itself" (Roosevelt 1937)
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Worms are King
If
soil is the throne then worms are King - and that they rule is
beyond any sensible banker - but in another
way it's just bringing them forward a few years when your 6 foot
under... and being buried (sequestering) is probably more green that
being cremated (emissions) - so the worm will get you in the end -
whenever. We might as well give in to them now, let them do their work
and enrich the soil and save the planet.
It
is one of the primary, if not the
primary solution
to global
warming.
CO2
is fuel, an energy supply to soil and in balance we have - soil carbon
sequestration - which allows the gas to move from the atmosphere into
the soil as the start of its million year journey to become solid
carbon again. The Carbon Cycle includes sinking the gases in soil,
which improves yield productivity through promotion of healthy soil
bacteria - and restores and sustains land useage - cools the planet by
sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere - and making it a very
productive renewable
soil.
*Dig a pond near a power station that has a carbon problem - fill it
with water and algae - capture and pump CO2 from the power station into
the pond and let the algae party until
it's never gonna stop - and they make a lot of furtilizer for
the soil. It's really simple, as soon as the penny drops and someone
pulls the plug, carbon and its' respective wealth will flow again. The
planet is greened, food production is up, there's
plenty of water, the weather's fine - and let's keep some oil for a
rainy day and switch to Renewables.
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THE ECOLOGY REVOLUTION 
