Publisher Description

How the dirt below our feet can save us from extinction

Back Cover

HOW THE DIRT BELOW OUR FEET CAN SAVE US FROM EXTINCTION This comprehensive and well-informed review of current initiatives and technologies is a tour-de-force. It is hard to imagine a technical subject-compounded of organic chemistry, archaeology, rural economics, climate science, and microbiology-presented with greater drama or clarity. -Peter Bane, publisher, Permaculture Activist Conventional agriculture pollutes our water, is a major contributor to climate change and has degraded soil carbon by as much as 80 percent in most of the world's breadbaskets. Created by burning biomass in the absence of oxygen, biochar has the unique ability to withhold carbon from the atmosphere while simultaneously building soil fertility. Author Albert Bates traces the evolution of this extraordinary substance from the ancient dark earths of the Amazon to current practices. The Biochar Solution combines a detailed analysis of our global climate and food predicament with techniques for the production and use of biochar and practical carbon farming. The reintroduction of this time-tested agricultural practice can help: Bring new life to desert landscapes Filter and purify drinking water Derive efficient energy from biomass waste materials Increase world food reserves while drastically reducing reliance on fossil fuels Bring greenhouse gas emissions to below zero. Stepping back from the brink of irreversible climate change will require deep and lasting social changes and significant industrial emissions reductions. Carbon farming practices could form an important part of a new agricultural paradigm, one that places priority on ecological restoration, protecting biodiversity, healing the atmosphere and oceans, and once again becoming a garden planet. Bates has woven together a highly engaging interdisciplinary answer to climate change ... a lively page-turner that blends clear-headed analysis with nuts-and-bolts advice ... enough danger to wake us up, but enough opportunity to emerge feeling hopeful. - Tracy L. Barnett, journalist and founder/editor of TheEsperanzaProject.org Albert Bates teaches permaculture and appropriate technology and has written several books on energy and the environment including The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook .

Flap

HOW THE DIRT BELOW OUR FEET CAN SAVE US FROM EXTINCTION This comprehensive and well-informed review of current initiatives and technologies is a tour-de-force. It is hard to imagine a technical subject-compounded of organic chemistry, archaeology, rural economics, climate science, and microbiology-presented with greater drama or clarity. - Peter Bane, publisher, Permaculture Activist Conventional agriculture pollutes our water, is a major contributor to climate change and has degraded soil carbon by as much as 80 percent in most of the world's breadbaskets. Created by burning biomass in the absence of oxygen, biochar has the unique ability to withhold carbon from the atmosphere while simultaneously building soil fertility. Author Albert Bates traces the evolution of this extraordinary substance from the ancient dark earths of the Amazon to current practices. The Biochar Solution combines a detailed analysis of our global climate and food predicament with techniques for the production and use of biochar and practical carbon farming. The reintroduction of this time-tested agricultural practice can help: Bring new life to desert landscapes Filter and purify drinking water Derive efficient energy from biomass waste materials Increase world food reserves while drastically reducing reliance on fossil fuels Bring greenhouse gas emissions to below zero. Stepping back from the brink of irreversible climate change will require deep and lasting social changes and significant industrial emissions reductions. Carbon farming practices could form an important part of a new agricultural paradigm, one that places priority on ecological restoration, protecting biodiversity, healing the atmosphere and oceans, and once again becoming a garden planet. Bates has woven together a highly engaging interdisciplinary answer to climate change ... a lively page-turner that blends clear-headed analysis with nuts-and-bolts advice ... enough danger to wake us up, but enough opportunity to emerge feeling hopeful. - Tracy L. Barnett, journalist and founder/editor of TheEsperanzaProject.org Albert Bates teaches permaculture and appropriate technology and has written several books on energy and the environment including The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook .

Author Biography

Albert Bates was a delegate to the Copenhagen climate conference, trying to point the world back towards a stable atmosphere using soils and trees. His books include Climate in Crisis and The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook. Working with the Global Ecovillage Network he has taught appropriate technology, natural building and permaculture to students from more than sixty nations.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Dr. Vandana Shiva
Introduction BOOK I: Losing the Recipe
Chapter 1: The Roots of a Predicament
Chapter 2: Sombroek's Vision
Chapter 3: Conquistadors
Chapter 4: El Dorado
Chapter 5: The Great White Way
Chapter 6: The View from the Bluff
Chapter 7: Confederados
Chapter 8: Hartt's Breakthrough
Chapter 9: City Z BOOK II: Agriculture and Climate
Chapter 10: Making Sand
Chapter 11: The Moldboard
Chapter 12: Changing the Paradigm
Chapter 13: The Amazon and the Ice Age
Chapter 14: Predicting Climate's Meander BOOK III: Capturing Carbon
Chapter 15: Carbon Farming
Chapter 16: Understanding Soil
Chapter 17: The Soil Food Web
Chapter 18: The Role of Ruminants
Chapter 19: Compost
Chapter 20: Tea Craft and Designer Biochar
Chapter 21: From Biochar to Terra Preta
Chapter 22: Making Charcoal
Chapter 23: Stove Wars BOOK IV: Gardening the Earth
Chapter 24: Milpas
Chapter 25: Chinampas
Chapter 26: Trees
Chapter 27: The Power of Youth
Chapter 28: Greening the Desert
Chapter 29: Sahara Forest
Chapter 30: Drey's Challenge BOOK V: At the Turning Point
Chapter 31: The Biochar Critique
Chapter 32: Carbon Trading
Chapter 33: The International Biochar Initiative
Chapter 34: Permaculture Marines
Chapter 35: Carbon-Negative Communities Notes
Index
About the Author

Review

"Reading like a detective story and marked by impressive scholarship, Albert Bates' latest book has placed the biochar solution and the vision of a truly regenerative agriculture and settlement squarely in the center of the global crisis. New historical evidence that climate is remarkably responsive to human impacts had me gripping the edge of my seat. The comprehensive and well-informed review of current initiatives and technologies is a tour-de-force, and the grasp of the global policy debate equally sobering. It is hard to imagine a technical subject - compounded of organic chemistry, archeology, rural economics, climate science, and microbiology - presented with greater drama or clarity."- Peter Bane, Permaculture Activist "In The Biochar Solution, Albert Bates demonstrates the flaws of the story on which industrial civilization is based and offers the living of a new story that will be created by changing our relationship with the planet, and specifically its carbon element. As a result of decades of experience, Bates is better equipped than anyone I know to guide us in slowing climate change by creating carbon-neutral cities and solidly sustainable agriculture."- Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., author of Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization's Collapse "This book should be required reading for every policymaker, as well as everyone who eats food, breathes air, enjoys life and wishes to continue doing so. Bates has woven together a highly engaging interdisciplinary answer to climate change that draws on archaeology, history, ecology, chemistry, philosophy, and his vast and eclectic personal experience, a lively page-turner that blends clear-headed analysis with nuts-and-bolts advice. The Chinese symbol for crisis, he reminds us, is comprised of two words: danger and opportunity. He gives us both sides of that coin - enough danger to wake us up, but ample opportunity to emerge feeling hopeful."- Tracy Barnett, multimedia travel journalist, author and founder and editor of The Esperanza Project, "For things to remain the same, everything must change. Before I traveled to Copenhagen for the climate conference, a Benedictine monk asked me if I thought the survival of the human race was politically feasible. I have reflected on that question many times since then. As The Biochar Solution illustrates, climate change cannot be dealt with solely through scientific and economic means. Social and motivational transformation are essential components of the equation."- Feargal Duff, Senior Advisor to the Foundation for Economic Sustainability, Ireland

Promotional

How the dirt below our feet can save us from extinction.

Long Description

How the dirt below our feet can save us from extinction

Review Quote

Review BioScience Magazine, October 2011 For those who are not scientists directly involved with biochar, this is a book worth reading. It presents the science that got biochar rolling, the technologies already available, and how to use it to enhance food security and restore degraded agroecosystems. It is well designed for international agricultural aid staff, nongovernmental organization activists, and agricultural extensionists. Anyone interested in climate change mitigation and adaptation will gain something from this book, because Bates is careful to point out that mitigation and adaptation will only succeed if global society decides to change the ways it thinks about population and consumption. BioScience, Vol. 61, No. 10 (October 2011), pp. 831-833 University of California Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences May 2011 CHOICE The basic premise of this book is that the carbon cycle must be balanced for a healthy planet. To prove this idea, Bates, an instructor and writer (Climate in Crisis, 1990; The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook, 2006), claims that when ancient Amazonian civilizations collapsed, rain forests engulfed the cities and roads. Archaeologists and historians are still puzzled about the reasons for the demise of these Amazonian empires. Bates asserts that starting around the ninth century, Europe began growing colder due to massive sequestering of carbon from the atmosphere by these new immense Amazonian forests. He examines several techniques for combating global warming, such as using biochar and less destructive tilling techniques, and restraining global corporations that manufacture synthetic fertilizers and genetically modified seed stocks. The author also recommends massive tree planting and a change in cultural attitudes about how humans manage Earth's resources. One unique solution to global warming is to provide poor, rural third world people with biochar stoves that generate needed heat and produce biochar. Agricultural use of biochar would reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and slow down global warming. Summing Up: Recommended. All undergraduate students and general readers interested in biochar. -- K. Bennett, emeritus, Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Promotional "Headline"

This book will be promoted in partnership with the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology website: thegreatchange.com - may be changed to biocharsolution.com It will be promoted climate change activist groups, alternative agriculture groups and slow food groups. Excerpts will be offered to Mother Earth News, Permaculture Activist and On Earth . Advertising will be placed in Mother Earth News, E Magazine, Permaculture Activist, On Earth and Communities Magazine . A social networking campaign will be launched including a Facebook site for the book, Facebook and Google ads and promotions on Just Means and Wiser earth networks Review copies - between 100-150 review copies sent out to highly targeted list, including author requests, our "hit list" and appropriate media Author pitched as guest speakers at NSP-attended conferences, where appropriate

Description for Reader

Conventional agriculture destroys our soils, pollutes our water and is a major contributor to climate change. What if our agricultural practices could stabilize, or even reverse these trends? The Biochar Solution explores the dual function of biochar as a carbon-negative energy source and a potent soil-builder. Created by burning biomass in the absence of oxygen, this material has the unique ability to hold carbon back from the atmosphere while simultaneously enhancing soil fertility. Author Albert Bates traces the evolution of this extraordinary substance from the ancient black soils of the Amazon to its reappearance as a modern carbon sequestration strategy. Combining practical techniques for the production and use of biochar with an overview of the development and future of carbon farming, The Biochar Solution describes how a new agricultural revolution can reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to below zero while increasing world food reserves and creating energy from biomass wastes. Biochar and carbon farming can: Reduce fossil fuels inputs into our food system Bring new life to desert landscapes Filter and purify drinking water Help build carbon-negative homes, communities and nations. Biochar is not without dangers if unregulated, and it is not a panacea, but if it fulfills its promise of taking us back from the brink of irreversible climate change, it may well be the most important discovery in human history.

Competing Titles

The Biochar Debate: Charcoal's Potential to Reverse Climate Change and Build Soil Fertility James Bruges 9781603582551 $14.95 Chelsea Green Publishing Feb 2010 Biochar for Environmental Management: Science and Technology Johannes Lehmann 9781844076581 $79.95 Earthscan Publications Ltd. Mar 2009

Feature

The author created his own biochar with great results, which led him to research around the world. He spent three years traveling and researching for this topic to Brazil, Europe, and the American Midwest, engaged in field experiments for over two years, and read over 20 related books on the subject. The author is well-known and well-connected, and already has a substantial following. He is a seasoned speaker who has addressed audiences of up to 10,000 people. He is media savvy, with over 1,000 interviews and articles under his belt. This book will appeal to anyone attuned to environmental matters, gardeners, farmers, anyone interested in organics. Will have an academic and library market.

Description for Sales People

The author created his own biochar with great results, which led him to research around the world. He spent three years traveling and researching for this topic to Brazil, Europe, and the American Midwest, engaged in field experiments for over two years, and read over 20 related books on the subject. The author is well-known and well-connected, and already has a substantial following. He is a seasoned speaker who has addressed audiences of up to 10,000 people. He is media savvy, with over 1,000 interviews and articles under his belt. This book will appeal to anyone attuned to environmental matters, gardeners, farmers, anyone interested in organics. Will have an academic and library market.

Details