Why farmers and environmentalists are excited about biochar

[@NarlepoaxIII]

"Charcoal-like substance." I mean, yeah. Charcoal is indeed like charcoal.

[@Makingnewnamesisdumb]

Are you sure you're not describing regular charcoal?

[@ChristopherCurtis]

I don't think it's that different, except regular charcoal is already captured; biochar is manufactured from new carbon sources.

[@Makingnewnamesisdumb]

@@ChristopherCurtis how do you mean? And why does that make a difference?

[@ChristopherCurtis]

@@Makingnewnamesisdumb I may be reading too much into the report, but I gathered that carbon capture was part of the appeal. Trees pull carbon out of the air. We can turn tree waste into biochar and use it as a beneficial agricultural product. This improves soils and _maybe_ reduces fertilizer needs (via nitrogen fixation of some of the organisms that live in it), while also sequestering carbon (the "it's stable" part). You could dig up charcoal (and make activated charcoal from it) and use it for similar purposes, but that *probably* (assumption here) uses more net carbon than making the equivalent (activated charcoal is "equivalent enough" to biochar) product from new carbon sources and leaving the old carbon where it lie. So, in whole, however small, it's a net win-win for agriculture and climate.

[@Makingnewnamesisdumb]

@@ChristopherCurtis Do you think charcoal is mined?

[@ChristopherCurtis]

@@Makingnewnamesisdumb Not anymore. Professor Google tells me that some charcoal contains coal and some is made from petroleum. Perhaps "biochar" is meant to exclude those. Perhaps it's just specific to the temperature and method of production. Perhaps it's just marketing BS. Thx.

[@jamesbelshan8839]

From what I’ve seen, it is a type of charcoal. Charcoal made at lower temps still has some volatiles/tars/oils in it, while high-temp process burns those off and leaves just pure carbon. Charcoal with those tars break down and release their carbon much sooner than the pure carbon, decades vs hundreds of years. Also opening the pores with steam or other method, and inoculating the char (populating it with bacteria, nutrients, etc) are steps that are beyond basic charcoal.

[@adamstuartclark]

Does its carbon capturing capacity outweigh the carbon produced from making it?

[@ANTSMR_Dango]

So you make coal to reduce the effect of burning coal. Big brain.

[@HalkerVeil]

Literally what the amazon has already in it and what tree's do on their own. So maybe stop cutting down tree's to make this crap?

[@UhtredOfBamburgh]

What if the climate changed into a better climate? Who says it changes worse, its impossible to predict

[@bradleyarcher9840]

… you’re joking right?

[@UhtredOfBamburgh]

@@bradleyarcher9840 Its a good question. the climate has always changed. Some millennia were more hospitable to human life and some millennia were less. If you don't like thinking for yourself and let other people do it for you I am forced to think you only believe what you believe because your mind is susceptible to cult-like following of things the media puts on us

[@bradleyarcher9840]

The climate is changing, we have higher temperatures across the globe, on average last year we was 1.5degrees higher on average, we have increased forest fires in Canada and Australia, we have the UK with temperature up to 40degrees, we have air pollution at an all time high. Please explain to me what’s better? I’m not a climate scientist so I don’t make bold statements, but I do listen to what they have to say and look at what’s going on around me. I suggest you not get on your high horse when someone challenges you as it makes you look petty and ignorant. I enjoy having warmer summers in the UK but I don’t like the bigger picture and the road we’re heading down.

[@UhtredOfBamburgh]

@@bradleyarcher9840 Im not on a high horse. Science that cannot have questions asked about it is not science. I'm not even saying climate change going out of control isn't real, I'm questioning it which is what smart people do. You're on the proverbial high horse you speak of though because you think people are supposed to believe everything they are told automatically. Furthermore, you used some anecdotal evidence about you think there Australia was pretty hot and you think there are more fires. Well if we're going to use anecdotal evidence like you, the last 3 winters I experienced were really cold and the summers were much more mild recently than ones when I was younger. Lastly climate change AKA all the weather and geology in the entire world has so many variables involved that no accurate model can portray it accurately. For example you cannot guess how the ocean currents would affect the world weather if we assume warming changes the current. You just got told something by either a school teacher or by a news channel and you auto-assume the future of the earth. I actually do science, not climate science, but I completely understand scientific reasoning and QUESTIONING