James Lovelock in Toronto - Talking Biochar

James Lovelock speaking in Toronto at Glenn Gould Studio (250 Front Street W.) on May 26, 2009 during his book tour for his new book, "The Vanishing Face of Gaia".

"If we could persuade the system to just not return thirty thousand million tonnes that would be equal to the amount part of all of our emissions. So could we do it? It might just be possible. If we could get farmers to turn all of their waste products of farming, the straw and so on, into charcoal, and either plow it back into fields or bury it in the ocean. We tend to forget that charcoal is nearly as inert as gold. It can be neither biodegraded nor does it oxidize in the atmosphere; it's almost completely inert, so it's a harmless thing that can be put in the soil and it represents the removal of carbon dioxide from the air. I don't know whether it's practical to do it, but I do think that it has more chance than most schemes of doing something about putting us back to where we were. But perhaps our first task is to stop thinking blindly."

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Lovelock
• Biochar
• Toronto
• Ontario
• Canada
• Vanishing Face of Gaia
• CO2

[cholonymous]

@mickburke15 good on you mate anyway that is not relevant anymore.. Dr, James Lovelock is one of the most brilliant natural scientist since Charles Darwin perhaps, a bastion of common sense and his ideas are very important to frame what is the situation today and how humankind could envisage practical solutions to alleviate the threat that climate change signifies. I don't want to disregard your belief but you should inform yourself better.

[TheQuechuaman]

@mickburke15 what sort of freak are you?

[oracleofottawa]

After driving my big cars and travelling and living as large as I could this little meek man can inherit the Earth. I am done with it.

[songsterhiragana]

Dr Lovelock is a genius. we need to listen to him and esp when he talks about polar cities. google the term