Ryan, You have pushed every one of my buttons. I'm actively working on this stuff. Call me to discuss. I get tired of writing repetitious emails all the time. 6073420762 Tony Nekut [EMAIL PROTECTED] As far as I know, I am presenting to Tclocal at their May meeting.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ryan Hottle Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 2:11 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [SustainableTompkins] Carbon Negative Energy and Farming in Ithaca Dear Sustainable Tompkins Listserve Members: I was wondering if group members are aware of the research going on at Cornell regarding the use of *biochar* both as a powerful soil amendment as well as being perhaps the most powerful carbon sequestration tool to mitigate and reverse the effects of climate change. Indeed, one of the leading thinkers in the world on biochar (also known as Amazonian Dark Earth or Terra Preta because of its widespread use by Amazonian Indians up to the introduction of guns, germs and steel by Western conquistadors), *Dr. Johannes Lehmann*, teaches within the Crop and Soil Science Department at Cornell. (Lehmann's website is available at: http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann.html) In short, biochar is the world's foremost super-sustainability tool: it can produce clean electricity; reduce nutrient leaching and fertilizer dependency by improving soil quality and nutrient retention; protect vulnerable soils from erosion by growing polyculture perennial crops; and, most importantly, mitigate the potential threats of climate change by effectively extracting CO2 out of the atmosphere and sequestering it in the soil. If anybody hasn't seen it yet, *Dr. James Hansen* has released a new paper on climate change that makes the case that 350 ppm of CO2 is the upper threshold for preventing dangerous threshold points. We are at 385 ppm presently. The paper is available on Hansen's website: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/. I recently read that Ithaca is the number one installer of renewable energy technologies in the state of New York. *How much further would we have to go to become the first community in the U.S. to be CARBON NEGATIVE? * Look forward to discussion. Thanks so much, Ryan D. Hottle -- Ryan Darrell Hottle The Renaissance Group Program Manager www.ConserveFirst.com Global Climate Solutions www.GlobalClimateSolutions.org (coming soon!) Ohio Peak Oil Action (OPOA) Co-Founder, Director www.ohiopeakoilaction.org 30 N. Rose Blvd. Akron, OH 44022 (740) 258 8450 _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
