Amazon.com: The Assault on Reason: Books: Al Gore

Amazon.com: The Assault on Reason: Books: Al Gore:

A bit strange to post an Amazon "article", I know. There are no affiliate codes here though, just some insightful comments from Al Gore, such as:

"How do you spur people to action in a crisis like this without using fear?

"Gore: I often open the slideshow by talking about the 'climate crisis.' The English meaning of the word 'crisis' conveys alarm, but the Chinese and Japanese expressions use two characters together: the first means danger, but the second means opportunity. The animations do help to convey some of that sense of danger--but the opportunities are enormous. We are beginning to see companies taking advantage of the new markets that are emerging as they innovate and put to market the technologies that we need to solve this crisis. Some have become ubiquitous, like the hybrid electric engine and compact fluorescent light bulb. There are thousands of opportunities like this all around us if governments will show the type of bold leadership that we need--and work with industry to exploit these opportunities."

Researchers eye ancient plant as source of biofuel

Full Story Here

By Les Blumenthal

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A plant that flourished in Europe roughly 3,500 years ago could become a major source of biofuel.

Researchers say that camelina, planted on millions of acres of
marginal farmland from eastern Washington state to North Dakota, could
help power the nation's drive for cleaner energy.

"This is the most exciting crop I have seen in my 30 some years
in this field," said Steven Guy, a professor at the University of Idaho
and a crop-management specialist."

via: TreeHugger

Sweet News: Organic Bees Are Thriving (TreeHugger)

Thankfully...

Sweet News: Organic Bees Are Thriving (TreeHugger)

"The buzz around organically maintained beehives seems to be "Epidemic? What epidemic?" (That and maybe "Someone should tell the Queen to start laying off the royal jelly, if you know what I mean.") While record numbers of bees in North America and Europe are vanishing en masse in a worrying trend experts have dubbed "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD), organic beekeepers are reporting no losses."

Kelpie Wilson | Birth of a New Wedge

I sent a related article to Tom Ward, and i am eagerly expecting his perspective. I know Tom is a proponent of charcoal and is a leading thinker in "Social Forestry"--the interface of the urban and the rural/zone 5 area.

A carbon-negative source of energy which is also a soil-mineral remediation treatment may sound too good to be true, but the argument is promising.

Tom?

Kelpie Wilson | Birth of a New Wedge

"The first meeting of the International Agrichar Initiative convened about 100 scientists, policymakers, farmers and investors with the goal of birthing an entire new industry to produce a biofuel that goes beyond carbon neutral and is actually carbon negative. The industry could provide a "wedge" of carbon reduction amounting to a minimum of ten percent of world emissions and possibly much more....

"One reason for the excitement is agrichar's potential to address a range of problems from poor soil fertility to waste disposal to rural development. About half the world's population relies on charcoal for cooking fuel, and the production of charcoal drives deforestation in Africa and other places. Smoky, inefficient charcoal kilns pollute the air with noxious gases that harm health and heat the planet.

"An effort to replace these kilns with modern, efficient pyrolysis units would relieve the pressure on forests by reducing waste and adding the ability to use any source of biomass, including agricultural waste products such as rice hulls. The ultimate objective is to produce enough charcoal to have some left over to bury and increase soil fertility, leading to a bootstrapping effect where increased yields provide both more food and more biomass for energy.

"Projects discussed at the agrichar meeting ranged from a household-size pyrolyzing stove that produces both cooking gas and charcoal, to industrial-scale units capable of processing large waste streams from sugar mills, pulp mills, poultry farms and even municipalities."