Ancient skills 'could reverse global warming'
Ancient techniques pioneered by pre-Columbian Amazonian Indians are about to be pressed into service in Britain and Central America in the most serious commercial attempt yet to reverse global warming.
Trials are to be started in Sussex and Belize early in the new year, backed with venture capital from Silicon Valley, on techniques to take carbon from the atmosphere and bury it in the soil, where it should act as a powerful fertiliser.
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Char doesn't actually contain nutrients. They have been burnt out of the charcoal. However, burnt carbon can absorb (or adsorb) and give out nutrients easily much as haemoglobin absorbs and gives out oxygen. This catches the nutrients that are provided by, for instance, compost and stops them from being leached down below the root zone of the plants. Can someone calculate how much carbon would be removed by charing all forestry and saw mill wastes and all domestic garbage. No need to grow trees especially for this purpose.