http://www.carbonsoil.co.ukNews from Carbon Soil UK(c)CVRC Ltd 20095First official report says burying charcoal in the soil has potential to cut greenhouse gases but scientific uncertainties remain. he idea of burying charcoal produced from microwaved wood to tackle global warming is still beset with scientific uncertainties, says the UK government's first report on "biochar". The warning comes as a separate US study published this week said that as much as 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions could be offset by biochar. Biochar involves burying cooked charcoal so that the carbon dioxide absorbed during the tree's growth remains safely locked away for thousands of years. The technique could remove billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year. But it has divided environmentalists, with backing from Gaia theorist James Lovelock and Nasa scientist James Hansen, but opposition from critics who say there is not enough to land carry out biochar on a large scale. - www.guardian.co.uk/environmenthttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=292Thu, 12 Aug 2010 www.guardian.co.uk/environmentcarbon_atk292Massive volumes of carbon dioxide and methane frozen in the earth's soils are a "time-bomb ticking under our feet", soil scientists say. The thawing of vast areas of frozen soils and the decay of peatlands under higher global temperatures could release massive volumes of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere - potentially doubling the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases. The World Congress of Soil Scientists in Brisbane has been told that frozen soils and peatlands in the northern hemisphere are estimated to store up to 50 per cent of the world's organic soil carbon. University of Wisconsin-Madison soil scientist Dr James Bockheim said global warming threatens to thaw these soils, some of which have been frozen for thousands of years. - news.smh.com.auhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=291Wed, 04 Aug 2010 news.smh.com.aucarbon_atk291Biochar is a new buzz word in agriculture but, exactly, what is biochar? Biochar is a soil amendment made by converting manure, crop residue and other bio-waste materials, including sawdust, into charcoal by using pyrolysis, which is heat without oxygen. “It is made in the exact same way as charcoal. You heat the material above a certain temperature without letting any oxygen in,” said Catherine (Catie) Brewer, a PhD student in chemistry and graduate research assistant at Iowa State Univer-sity. “This is different from burning or combustion in which you add oxygen. Without oxygen you get biochar.” Biochars are attracting a lot of interest for both commercial and agricultural applications, and for small scale use. According to Brewer, chars have shown the ability to increase soil fertility, im-prove water retention, lower soil acidity and density, and increase microbial activity. Biochars also help with the carbon level of the soil. - www.theprairiestar.comhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=290Sat, 08 May 2010 www.theprairiestar.comcarbon_atk290Organic sales in the UK had a terrible year in 2009, after a decade of double digit annual increase, last year saw a 12.9% drop in total sales to ₤1.84 billion, from a high in 2008 of ₤2.113 billion. Particularity hard hit was the organic meat and prepared food sectors, while organic milk, baby foods and home cooking ingredients held up and cosmetics and health product demand increased. Early signs from 2010 indicate a slow resurgence with projections of between 2-5% according to the newly released Soil Association’s Organic Market Report 2010. - www.naturalchoices.co.ukhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=289Wed, 14 Apr 2010 www.naturalchoices.co.ukcarbon_atk289Twenty years of field studies have revealed that as the Earth has gotten warmer, plants and microbes in the soil have given off more carbon dioxide (CO2). Buzz up!The scientists calculated the total amount of carbon dioxide flowing from soils, which is about 10-15 percent higher than previous measurements. That number - about 98 petagrams of carbon a year (or 98 billion metric tons) - will help scientists build a better overall model of how carbon in its many forms cycles throughout the Earth. Understanding soil respiration is central to understanding how the global carbon cycle affects climate. "There's a big pulse of carbon dioxide coming off of the surface of the soil everywhere in the world," said ecologist Ben Bond-Lamberty of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "We weren't sure if we'd be able to measure it going into this analysis, but we did find a response to temperature," he added. - news.oneindia.inhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=288Fri, 26 Mar 2010 news.oneindia.incarbon_atk288“Fertilizer is good for the father and bad for the sons.” ~Dutch saying For all of its ecological baggage, synthetic nitrogen does one good deed for the environment: it helps build carbon in soil. At least, that’s what scientists have assumed for decades. If that were true, it would count as a major environmental benefit of synthetic N use. At a time of climate chaos and ever-growing global greenhouse gas emissions, anything that helps vast swaths of farmland sponge up carbon would be a stabilizing force. Moreover, carbon-rich soils store nutrients and have the potential to remain fertile over time—a boon for future generations. The case for synthetic N as a climate stabilizer goes like this. Dousing farm fields with synthetic nitrogen makes plants grow bigger and faster. As plants grow, they pull carbon dioxide from the air. - beforeitsnews.comhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=286Tue, 16 Mar 2010 beforeitsnews.comcarbon_atk286A major study for the UK government has cast doubt over claims that rising temperatures are causing soil to pump greater amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further fuelling global warming. In 2005 it was reported in the science journal Nature that over the past 25 years 100m tonnes of carbon dioxide had been released by the soil of England and Wales. The figure cancelled out all emissions cuts in the UK since 1990. However, a national survey of the soils of Great Britain, funded by the department for environment food and rural affairs, claims to have found no net loss of carbon over approximately the same period. Scientists have now proposed that a special study group, with an independent statistical expert, should examine why the reports differ and which result is more likely to be correct. - www.guardian.co.ukhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=281Sun, 07 Mar 2010 www.guardian.co.ukcarbon_atk281Current transport biofuels are mainly made from crops producing starch, sugar and edible oils. In doing so, they divert those crops from providing food. However, the demand for food is highly inelastic. I have never met anyone in an industrialized country who changed his diet because of transport biofuel production. So, additional crops have to be grown compensating for the diversion of starch, sugar and oil to biofuel production. Part of this additional production takes place on existing agricultural soils by increasing productivity. This is not always the case. In a recent paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, it is for instance shown that worldwide the 1970-2005 expansion of two major suppliers of biofuels, sugarcane and soybeans, was characterized by decreasing productivity (1). More importantly however, when the expansion of transport biofuel production is fast, as it currently is, also land that is not under cultivation has to be used for food production. - scitizen.comhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=280Wed, 03 Mar 2010 scitizen.comcarbon_atk280Finnish researchers called for a revision of climate change estimates Monday after their findings showed emissions from soil would contribute more to climate warming than previously thought. "A Finnish research group has proved that the present standard measurements underestimate the effect of climate warming on emissions from the soil," the Finnish Environment Institute said in a statement. "The error is serious enough to require revisions in climate change estimates," it said, adding that all climate models used soil emission estimates based on measurements received using an erroneous method. - www.independent.co.ukhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=277Sat, 13 Feb 2010 www.independent.co.ukcarbon_atk277Chris Goodall’s stated aim with this book is to show that the tools needed to tackle climate change already exist. He makes a convincing case. He explores such technologies as wind power, solar energy and wave power, as well as less familiar ones such as biochar (capturing carbon as charcoal and burying it in the soil) and CHP (Combined Heat and Power, also known as cogeneration – for example, using the energy generated by power stations, which escapes in great clouds of steam from cooling towers, as a source of heating. The same can be done on a much smaller scale domestically). Goodall’s careful analyses show that each of these technologies has its limitations, and that none of them alone could supply all the world’s energy needs, but that a portfolio of all or some could easily do so. - www.independent.co.ukhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=276Sun, 31 Jan 2010 www.independent.co.ukcarbon_atk276FARMERS should be extremely cautious about entering any market involving soil carbon, says a 2009 Nuffield scholar: the liabilities could easily outweigh any financial advantage. David Drage, a Warracknabeal, Vic, mixed farmer, last year won a Nuffield Scholarship to head overseas "hopefully with an open mind" to pursue the question of whether soil carbon and carbon markets in general represent a threat or an opportunity for Australian agriculture. He returned from the two-part scholarship trip firmly believing the threats currently outweigh the opportunities. In his meetings with farm lobby groups and non-government organisations (NGOs) in the United Kingdom, Europe and the Americas, Mr Drage was repeatedly told that the cost and difficulty of accounting for soil carbon, and issues of permanency, mean that agriculture doesn't currently have a place in carbon accounting systems. - sl.farmonline.com.auhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=274Thu, 21 Jan 2010 sl.farmonline.com.aucarbon_atk274The number and variety of plant and animal species is under threat. The United Nations has declared 2010 The International Year of Biodiversity, and scientists are meeting at the Royal Society to discuss how science can best respond to the threat posed by the loss of animals and plants that provide useful services by pollinating crops, cleaning water or capturing carbon dioxide. Professor Lord Robert May, former president of the Royal Society, discusses the decline in bio-diversity. Story Tools - news.bbc.co.ukhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=272Wed, 13 Jan 2010 news.bbc.co.ukcarbon_atk272