Biochar has multiple potential environmental benefits, foremost the potential to sequester carbon in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years at an estimate. Studies suggest that crop yields can increase as a result of applying biochar as a soil amendment. Some contend that biochar has value as an immediate climate change mitigation strategy. Scientific experiments suggest that greenhouse gas emissions are reduced significantly with biochar application to crop fields. Obstacles that may stall rapid adoption of biochar production systems include technology costs, system operation and maintenance, feedstock availability, and biochar handling. Biochar research and development is in its infancy. Nevertheless, interest in biochar as a multifaceted solution to agricultural and natural resource issues is growing at a rapid pace both nationally and internationally.

via Environmental Legislation: Biochar: Examination of an Emerging Concept to Mitigate Climate Change.

Anila, the smokeless stove that uses agro-waste to burn and makes charcoal as a by-product. Photo/CORRESPONDENT

Human induced cumulative environmental tweaks are leading to Climate Change

As Africa prepares to celebrate Earth Day this week, there is a growing unease as new scientific evidence puts Africa square in the same carbon foot print with India and China in contributing towards climate change.  Africa has been very vocal about climate change (the scenario of global warming), and not willing to shoulder any blame about green house gas emissions, until the latest NASA black carbon report.

Lately however, the issue of landuse change especially deforestation has been discussed at length and there is almost consensus that forestry needs all the different forms of support to arrest the continued degradation.  REDD has become a favourite tool and most African States are in favour.  A few  civil society organisations  are however critical and questioning the design of the model.

Agriculture on the other hand remains a topic outside the climate change discussions despite it being at high risk and a main livelihood for the 500 million inhabitants of Africa.  Agriculture is one of the most central issue towards the security of Africa and the survival of its people.   The focus has remained in the protecting the forestry sector and promoting good practice in an area where options have yet to be identified; eg where will the locals get their fuel wood, building material etc.

The question of Africas contribution to climate change has narrowed down to what Africa can get out of the global Financial mechanisms, but little in terms of the innovation that can come from this continent.  In fact, it is becoming almost gospel that “our own home grown problems” of poor governance and environmental corruption are no longer issues and it all boils down to climate change.  Whether it is illegal logging, inept politicians, poor land policies, self driven land degradation, the blame has shifted to global warming or climate change.

It is the high time we faced the reality, the short term fluctuations do not negate the fact that “there is human induced” environmental changes whose cumulative effect is leading to Climate Change, and especially so in Africa!!

Carbon dioxide emissions amongst five other greenhouse gases may endanger human health and well-being according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based on a review of scientific evidence.

The EPA cites a number of impacts that may impact significantly on US citizens, including:

• (1) an increased risk of droughts and floods
• (2) sea level rise
• (3) more intense storms and heatwaves
• (4) harm to water supplies, agriculture and wildlife

STOP: Okay, these are the same impacts that have been predicted as the likely outcomes of climate change and in some cases, these are not future events, these are occurrences that are being recorded on a daily basis all over the world, America included.

In Africa according to a recent report- there has been megadroughts lasting for centuries when the earth has entered a warming phase, which is part of the normal pattern in sub-Saharan Africa.  However, the stress of a warming world will make these dry periods more severe and more difficult for the people who live there, the temperatures are expected to rise by 5 to 10 degrees F (2.77 to 5.55 degrees C) this century, the scientists said, even if there is some curbing of the greenhouse emissions that spur climate change. Does it mean that it is too late to do something?  Maybe, there is still hope.

Lets find out what other gases are culprits to the EPA judgement before we move to the mathematics; the other gases that are contributing to the warming of the earth- Methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

Obviously most of us do not know where the other gases come from but at least everyone knows where Carbon Dioxide comes from; primarily the burning of fossil fuels.  Carbon Dioxide is an easy gas to target, and since it is linked to commerce, the Cap and Trade is specifically looking at taking care of that problem.

While carbon dioxide may be the No. 1 contributor to rising global temperatures, scientists say, black carbon has emerged as an important No. 2, with recent studies estimating that it is responsible for 18 percent of the planet’s warming, compared with 40 percent for carbon dioxide. Decreasing black carbon emissions would be a relatively cheap way to significantly rein in global warming — especially in the short term, climate experts say. Replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could provide a much-needed stopgap, while nations struggle with the more difficult task of enacting programs and developing technologies to curb carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel.

By Degrees – Third-World Stove Soot Is Target in Climate Fight – Series – NYTimes.com.

But the awareness of black carbon’s role in climate change has come so recently that it was not even mentioned as a warming agent in the 2007 summary report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that pronounced the evidence for global warming to be “unequivocal.” Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of environmental engineering at Stanford, said that the fact that black carbon was not included in international climate efforts was “bizarre,” but “partly reflects how new the idea is.” The United Nations is trying to figure out how to include black carbon in climate change programs, as is the federal government.