http://www.carbonsoil.co.ukNews from Carbon Soil UK(c)Obzcure Ltd 20085Helius Energy was established to develop, install and operate biomass fired renewable electricity generation plants to address the need created by the increasing importance that has been given to climate change internationally. Helius’ projects are designed to mitigate climate change by helping to cut greenhouse gas emissions quickly. Biomass is sometimes overlooked as a renewable fuel, lacking the perceived novelty value of anaerobic digestion and being a more established technology than other forms of bioenergy. However the market for biomass, whether from recycled wood, processing co-products (such as distillers grains), agricultural wastes or energy crops is growing rapidly. - www.smallcapnews.co.ukhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=131Mon, 05 Jan 2009 www.smallcapnews.co.ukcarbon_atk131A new South Dakota State University publication explains how carbon sequestration may help decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide. SDSU Fact Sheet 951, "The Issues of Carbon Sequestration," is available at http://agbiopubs.sdstate.edu/articles/FS951.pdf or ask for it at your county Extension office. The four-page fact sheet explains the carbon cycle and how concentrated greenhouse gases have increased in the earth's atmosphere. Since carbon is key element in the air, soil, and water, the authors of the publication consider the evidence of global warming and the reduction in glacial ice in several places around the globe. - www.argusleader.comhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=130Sat, 03 Jan 2009 www.argusleader.comcarbon_atk130A discovery of microscopic diamonds a few feet beneath the surface of North America reveals that a comet caused a cataclysm of fire, flood and devastation nearly 13,000 years ago that extinguished mammoths and mastodons and dealt a blow to early civilization, scientists said Friday. The nanodiamonds, so small that they are barely visible in an electron microscope, are thought to be remnants of that comet, which would have hit about 65 million years after the much larger collision that wiped out the dinosaurs. - www.latimes.comhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=129Fri, 02 Jan 2009 www.latimes.comcarbon_atk129Your need for a highly experienced senior manager with vast experience of working in a global logistics company is an excellent match to my management qualities and skills. I have recently completed a significant business transition for a major electronics company with a global supply chain and have a clear commercial understanding of the upstream / downstream process. My extensive experience implementing new techniques and robust systems for a number of clients allows me the confidence to understand your business requirement. I have a long track record of introducing new systems including warehouse management, detailed procurement and a recent track and trace system linked to the key internet sales development. I have strong IT management knowledge having worked with the introduction of a Europe wide SAP and WMS project with specific focus on materials management. - Hugh O'Brienhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=128Tue, 30 Dec 2008 Hugh O'Briencarbon_atk128Lots of folks are talking about "market-like" regulations such as cap-and-trade programs to reduce carbon dioxide. But they miss the point. Why be "market-like" when you can use the original? When it comes to responding to social fears, the invisible hand of the real, entrepreneurial marketplace defeats the iron fist of regulation every time. The result may not be as many new jobs as some claim, but surely the marketplace responds to fear with replacement jobs and no one will mind if you call them "green" jobs. Here are a few exciting market responses to the fears of global warming and harm to the Chesapeake Bay: First, let's make hurricanes! OK, not full-blown hurricanes, but how about some nice stiff thundershowers? Mike Fallwell wants to leap from the shoulders of Steven Salter's brilliant work on clouds and use "Geo-Nurturing" to make rain and sequester carbon, all while making lots more biomass. - fredericksburg.comhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=127Sun, 28 Dec 2008 fredericksburg.comcarbon_atk127Bundled in winter gear and ready to face the expansive Antarctic, a group of researchers from Colorado State University is embarking on an expedition that most people only dream about. They’ll spend nearly two months in Antarctica’s ice-free McMurdo Dry Valleys looking for nematodes. They certainly aren’t your average researchers, donning white lab coats and oversized goggles. That’s not their style. No, they are more extreme than that. After all, it takes a special kind of researcher to travel to the bottom of the earth to study nematodes — which are commonly known as roundworms. It takes a researcher who will proudly wear the name “worm herder.” - www.greeleytribune.comhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=126Fri, 26 Dec 2008 www.greeleytribune.comcarbon_atk126Remote villages in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana are cleaning Spain, Canada, Sweden and Japan’s air. Supriya Singh reports ‘MONEY for growing trees on degraded land? Who could have thought of that,” Mani Ram, a resident of Ranhog in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan district wondered. His village has cautiously committed 32 of 83 hectares of government common land to the state’s Bio-Carbon Reforestation Project that is part of the government’s Clean Development Mechanism initiative. This initiative is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing developed countries to invest in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. In this case, countries like Spain, Sweden, Japan and Canada have invested in the project through the World Bank’s Bio-Carbon Fund, set up to facilitate projects that sequester carbon in vegetation and soil. Currently, China alone has an operational reforestation project under CDM. - www.thestatesman.nethttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=125Mon, 22 Dec 2008 www.thestatesman.netcarbon_atk125There are a number of steps farmers can take to increase the carbon levels in their soil, according to University of Adelaide researcher Murray Unkovich. "Anything that farmers can do that increases crop residues and the retention of crop residues to soil will boost carbon levels," he said. Dr Unkovich said anything that increased productivity or water use efficiency, from growing green manure crops or pasture production, had the potential to increase crop residues to soil. - sj.farmonline.com.auhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=124Thu, 18 Dec 2008 sj.farmonline.com.aucarbon_atk124Why Study Soil Carbon? USGS Science at AGU Mounting evidence shows that soil carbon is increasingly contributing larger amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere as a result of warming, permafrost degradation, and complex climate-biogeochemical interactions. Northern soils are known to harbor large amounts of carbon in the zone between the moss surface and the permafrost or mineral soil boundary. USGS Soil Scientist, Jennifer Harden explains, "When permafrost thaws to create a thicker active layer, microbial processing of previously frozen carbon results in particularly large releases of CO2." This carbon-rich soil zone is proving be the "hot zone" for CO2 emissions as environmental conditions change through decomposition and wildfires. - www.usgs.govhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=122Mon, 15 Dec 2008 www.usgs.govcarbon_atk122POZNAN, Poland, Dec 11, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Poznan Panel of Experts Discuss Importance of Black Carbon, the Montreal Protocol, Biochar, and Methane as Part of Global Climate Strategy The world is already close to passing the tipping points for abrupt climate change events, and if strong measures aren't taken immediately the results will be catastrophic, concluded panelists during a side event at the UN climate conference in Poznan Tuesday night. Both scientific experts and government representatives alike at the event sponsored by the Federated States of Micronesia and Sweden, stressed the urgent need for fast-action mitigation measures that should be implemented and expanded immediately in order to avoid devastating consequences such as sea level rise. - www.marketwatch.comhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=123Thu, 11 Dec 2008 www.marketwatch.comcarbon_atk123On his farm in the hills of west virginia, Josh Frye isn't raising chickens just for meat. He is also raising them for their manure. Through a process that some scientists tout as a solution to climate change, food shortages and the energy crisis, Frye is transforming the waste into a charcoal-like substance called biochar that in the long run could be far better for the world than chicken nuggets. "It might look like this is just a poultry farm," says Frye. "But it's a char farm too." Burn almost any kind of organic material — corn husks, hazelnut shells, bamboo and, yes, even chicken manure — in an oxygen-depleted process called pyrolysis, and you generate gases and heat that can be used as energy. What remains is a solid — biochar — that sequesters carbon, keeping CO2 out of the atmosphere. In principle, at least, you create energy in a way that is not just carbon neutral, but carbon negative. - www.time.comhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=121Thu, 04 Dec 2008 www.time.comcarbon_atk121Carbon trading systems must be careful not to undervalue soil carbon, according to a leading soil scientist, because the true productivity value of soil carbon to farmers may be hundreds of dollars per tonne. Dr Rattan Lal, a professor at Ohio State University, told last week's Carbon Farming Conference in Orange, NSW, that in order to commoditise carbon, a realistic value must be established that reflects its value to farmers and society. Initial estimates of carbon's starting value under the Australian Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) are around $20 per tonne. When Dr Lal looked at humus, of which carbon is the main component, and teased out the nutrients and water typically held within a kilogram of humus, he arrived a value of US$250 a tonne on today’s prices. - sl.farmonline.com.auhttp://www.carbonsoil.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=120Mon, 24 Nov 2008 sl.farmonline.com.aucarbon_atk120