What is Biochar?

Terra Preta- Indigenous made Biochar soils.

Biochar excites me. I think it could be the answer to world hunger and trigger huge reductions in rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere. Sounds alright, hey?!

Biochar, or Terra Preta, is a type of charcoal and like any is created through the process of Pyrolysis (burning when no or very little oxygen is present).
Archaeologists exploring Brazil’s Amazon basin recently discovered that certain areas, where previous ancient indigenous communities were known to have been, had black soils- rich in charcoal and organic matter.

Further studies showed that this was no accident and that in fact the elements present in the soils allowed crops and harvests to flourish. This was to be a revolutionary discovery the Amazonian soils, despite all their abundance, are known to be severely lacking in basic soil nutrients- but here was an ancient method of agriculture that through the natural introduction of Terra Preta was turning the soils into some of the most fertile.

With deforestation the beast it is today, slash and burn techniques destroy huge swaths of forest. Current techniques mean all nutrients runs off the land very quickly and new forest must be felled – an on going and hugely unsustainable process. But slip the  potential of biochar into that process and the future of the Amazon becomes a far more hopeful tale than the one it remains today.

Moreover, slip a few Pounds of Biochar into your home garden, or even a few kilo’s into your farmers fields and suddenly the future of food and farming has its silver lining.

What we now know about Biochar, is that it sequesters Carbon from the atmosphere. James Lovelock is a huge ambassador for the ancient and now re-emerging technology, suggesting that “Biochar not only contains the potential to revolutionize modern agricultural practices, but it could also play a key role in keeping CO2 in our soils”.

If this unearthing (excuse the pun) of such an indigenous secret can truly help rebalance our planet today, surely this can only be a testament to what we still have to learn from the indigenous cultures who personified connection between Man and Earth.

In my next post, I take you through a step my step process of how to make Biochar at home in your Garden and from there we will look at how to apply it and gain the best benefits from this true black-gold, an ancient wisdom, destined for the future.

For those interested in further info, this BBC Horizon Documentary gives a nice historical context to the discovery- as well as a glimpse at its potential. Please note this documentary is old and the studies since have gone a long way further in uncovering it’s benefits.

Occupy Totnes

My home town of Totnes is a special place. As you drive past the “Welcome to Totnes” sign, your met by another with the words; “You will never leave again”- your not really, but sometimes I think I might as well just put the sign up myself, so people realise this may be their first and last visit.

This special town is now growing it’s own Occupation, but local authorities look set to do their utmost to squash any further displays…see more below.

Email to South Hams District Council about the issue.

There is no 99% or 1%, We Are the 100%

This is Our Story

I am certain that it is better to fight for something than to fight against something.

When I visited Occupy Wall Street for a couple of days, about three weeks ago now, I found a community of very organised activists. A community of academics, intellects, civil service workers, parents, children, unemployed, students, doctors, musicians, artists and travelers – the only person not at that meeting place, the only person not taking their seat at the “Table for the future”, were the bankers and the politicians, the CEO’s and the stock brokers; who we have now lumped, squashed and pushed into this coined expression of ‘the 1%’.

They never received an invitation and today I can’t help wondering, who are they really…

If this revolution ( I call it that, because it has all the traits of one), really is the story we want to tell, then maybe we already know it’s ending, its outcome…
About 2 months ago I was in a chilly room  in Sao Paulo, Brazil, helping my girlfriend with some study work on the French Revolution. As I came to the end of a brief analytical description of that time and the massive process France went through and how the States people rose up against the establishment, I was left with the realisation that we are repeating their story. We are fighting a corporate dictatorship as they did. We are demanding greater rights. We are attempting to tear down their castles of gluttony, but to replace them with what? How does this story end?
This 99% we feel united behind will reshape society according to our values, become the drivers of society…surely? We will create the world we dream of until the next generation of 99%ers feel they have been born into a rigid structure that they didn’t agree to and then they too will march..

Well it doesn’t have to be that way. What happened to every human being on this earth having a role to play in our story. The young students and unemployed youth of our society often feel hostility towards those in power, they often see their freedoms restricted by others actions.

They see a world and societal structure that they are born into but not welcomed to participate within. They see old agreements that they are expected to fall into without ever agreeing to them. They now see a corporate stranglehold from the very top, that appears to threaten all of their future dreams and so it is no surprise that now they have woken and now they are angry…

But I beg you-let’s stop reinventing the wheel. Let’s stop letting history repeat itself- instead let us create a story. A story of such magnitude, of such hope and undeniable possibility that we co create a societal reconstruction and transformation that even goes beyond our wildest dreams- created with everyone’s participation.

It’s time to come to the table. To join the discussion. We need everyone.

We need the CEO’s, the politicians, the bankers and the stock-brokers. I strongly believe this and I know such a notion might make some of your stomachs turn, but these are human beings, fathers, mothers, brothers, teachers and intellects. If they are corrupt it is because of a corrupt system that made them that way. They were a healthy cell, dropped into a cancerous environment. It’s not about removing them; it’s about transforming the system.

There is no 1%. There is no 99%. Segregation and separation never achieved anything. Never. It’s time we came to the table. Us- the 100%.