I was attracted to this little book for two reasons: 1) "biochar" is apparently the same thing as the "terra preta" (dark fertile soil) found near the Amazon River and attributed to a now-disappeared civilization which created it, and I wanted to know more about how they did it, and 2) because the book postulates that use of biochar is supposed to help reduce global warming, and I'd like to know how it does that. These are complicated issues; the book deals with the creation and effects of biochar, but the author's main agenda seems to be around rethinking the current initiatives (such as those in the Kyoto agreement) that various nations are undertaking to contain global warming. Biochar, he says, has a role to play, but it is only a part of a larger solution to a fairly desperate crisis facing humanity.
Biochar, for those who don't know, is created from organic material that is burned into charcoal (using a process called pyrolysis). The "terra preta" discovered in the Amazon jungle is black because it contains a large amount of charcoal. The theory is that the ancient people who once lived in the region discovered a way to add charcoal to the soil, and this gave them a very fertile, productive soil that supported a large population and, amazingly, that soil is still there and still fertile. What happened to the people who created it? The best theory is that they were all but wiped out by a pandemic brought by Europeans.
The same fate (the being wiped out part) may face many more populations across the globe if nations don't begin to act more forcefuly on global warming. But what should they be doing? How does biochar fit into this scenario? Biochar, as we know from the example of the terra preta, can enrich the soil and keep it fertile for long periods. That would benefit the world through production of more food without soil-degrading and energy-consuming chemical fertilizers. But the real payoff (if I understand the author's point) is that biochar mixed into soil basically sequesters carbon, taking it out of the atmosphere. This is a good thing to do and has the effect of reducing carbon emissions that cause global warming. So far so good.
But the author also discusses current ways of counting carbon that use market mechanisms for buying and selling "carbon credits" and are supposed to provide incentives for nations and their citizens to use less carbon. But, that often doesn't happen. The author clearly does not think market forces can ever solve the problem of global warming. He says that small farmers the world over are the main producers of food, and most of them do not even operate in the global market. He thinks their main motivation for using biochar is not going to have anything to do with buying and selling carbon credits, but will simply come from the better production of food they will get by incorporating biochar into their soil.
The book makes many interesting points, but the author seems to wander all over and I got to the end still scratching my head trying to figure out what I had really learned here. Yes, I do know more about biochar than I did before reading this, so I guess from that standpoint the book succeeded. I didn't learn anything new about the people who created the terra preta, but I can't help but think about how their civilization disappeared back into the jungle. Could that also be the fate of our current global economy? When it comes to the big picture of what my country (USA) and other countries should be doing to avert a coming disaster from global warming, I admit that I am still confused.
However, I'd love to get my hands on some biochar or find a way to make some out of my yard wastes so I can improve the yield of my little backyard garden. I live in a place where the soil is basically sand, and I fight a constant battle to improve the soil enough to grow some tomato and cucumber plants. Clearly, the author had a larger purpose in this "briefing" book, but he DID convince me that biochar could help me and everyone else grow more of our own food, without resorting to chemical fertilizers, which he points out, actually deplete the soil. Perhaps millions of people with backyard gardens could make a difference. Or maybe not. Maybe we're all facing Armageddon over global warming, and there's not much any one of us can do about it. I just don't know.