The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change

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.