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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 12,004 Likes: 133
Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 12,004 Likes: 133 |
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 5,027 Likes: 98
old hand
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old hand
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 5,027 Likes: 98 |
I don't know about rain forests (other than the one we have) but I do know that we now have more forests than we did 100 years ago https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=do+we+have+more+forests+now+than+in+1900%3F
the biggest problem, as far as co2 is concerned it turns out that agriculture is one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gasses. (google co2 agriculture)
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257 |
I noticed that he wasn't talking about increasing soil carbon content directly by adding carbon, but rather changing the entire soil biome which resulted in increased carbon but also a lot of other beneficial changes. I wonder if skipping right to increased carbon gets you any of those things or actually suppresses them.
He told us they had an improved composting method that reduced salinity, but did not mention how they did that, or where the salt went. I would have liked to know that.
I've been to Asilomar many times for conferences. Lovely place. Highly recommended.
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257 |
Plants are generally not good for carbon sequestration. The carbon goes into the plant, mostly from the atmosphere, but later returns to the atmosphere when the plant burns, rots, or is eaten. The exception is plant carbon that enters the soil. This was actually the source of all that sequestered carbon in the form of oil and gas that accumulated over millions of years.
This happens in the oceans as well, with a certain amount of carbon capture always happening, moving through plants, shells, deposits on the sea floor, subduction, and carbonate mineral production (like chalk). Both of these are the main compartment of long-term carbon sequestration on Earth.
Rain forest is very poor at carbon sequestration because all the nutrients are in the standing plant biomass. Burn that, and the soil is pretty barren. Plant a few years of crops and take away the nutrients and you end up with very infertile soil. Going through an enrichment process with grasses, nitrogen fixers, cattle, compost, etc. might make the rain forest -> agricultural land conversion work.
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257 |
This is a very interesting lecture by the Professor pioneering high temperature liquid metal batteries for grid-level energy storage: Lecture It's pretty entertaining too! Which is pretty rare in such a topic. The really cool thing about these cells is that they can be cycled many thousands of times with no loss of capacity at all. My favorite quote: If you want to make dirt-cheap batteries, you'd better make them out of dirt. And preferably locally-sourced dirt.
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Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 2,994 Likes: 63
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 2,994 Likes: 63 |
I thank you guys, which proves you are never too old to learn.
It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 12,004 Likes: 133
Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 12,004 Likes: 133 |
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
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