The Biochar Debate. Charcoal's Potential to Reverse Climate Change and Build Soil Fertiility
David Friese-Green, James Bruges
Language: English
Published by Chelsea Green Pub Co, 2010
- Softcover
- Used

Seller: Barksdale Books, Almere, NetherlandsBarksdale Books
AbeBooks seller since August 5, 2025
Condition: Used - Good
£ 8.75
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
The Biochar Debate is the first book to introduce both the promise and concerns surrounding biochar (fine-grained charcoal used as a soil supplement) to nonspecialists. Charcoal making is an ancient technology. Recent discoveries suggest it may have a surprising role to play in combating global warming. This is because creating and burying biochar removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Furthermore, adding biochar to soil can increase the yield of food crops and the ability of soil to retain moisture, reducing need for synthetic fertilizers and demands on scarce fresh-water supplies. While explaining the excitement of biochar proponents, Bruges also gives voice to critics who argue that opening biochar production and use to global carbon-credit trading schemes could have disastrous outcomes, especially for the world's poorest people. The solution, Bruges explains, is to promote biochar through an alternative approach called the Carbon Maintenance Fee that avoids the dangers. This would establish positive incentives for businesses, farmers, and individuals to responsibly adopt biochar without threatening poor communities with displacement by foreign investors seeking to profit through seizure of cheap land. The Biochar Debate covers the essential issues from experimental and scientific aspects of biochar in the context of global warming to fairness and efficiency in the global economy to negotiations for the future of the Kyoto Protocol.; paperback met fris en schoon binnenwerk. Recht boekblok. Gaaf omslag met scherpe randen en rechte heoken, geen leeslijntjes in de rug.…
Seller Inventory # 945488
- Title
- The Biochar Debate. Charcoal's Potential to Reverse Climate Change and Build Soil Fertiility
- Author
- David Friese-Green, James Bruges
- Publisher
- Chelsea Green Pub Co
- Publication year
- 2010
- Condition
- Good
- Binding
- Softcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 160358255X
- ISBN 13
- 9781603582551
- Illustrator
- Friese-Greene, David
- Series
- Book 14 of 17: Schumacher Briefings
- Seller catalogs
- Biology: general
The Biochar Debate is the first book to introduce both the promise and concerns surrounding biochar (fine-grained charcoal used as a soil supplement) to nonspecialists. Charcoal making is an ancient technology. Recent discoveries suggest it may have a surprising role to play in combating global warming. This is because creating and burying biochar removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Furthermore, adding biochar to soil can increase the yield of food crops and the ability of soil to retain moisture, reducing need for synthetic fertilizers and demands on scarce fresh-water supplies.
While explaining the excitement of biochar proponents, Bruges also gives voice to critics who argue that opening biochar production and use to global carbon-credit trading schemes could have disastrous outcomes, especially for the world's poorest people. The solution, Bruges explains, is to promote biochar through an alternative approach called the Carbon Maintenance Fee that avoids the dangers. This would establish positive incentives for businesses, farmers, and individuals to responsibly adopt biochar without threatening poor communities with displacement by foreign investors seeking to profit through seizure of cheap land.
The Biochar Debate covers the essential issues from experimental and scientific aspects of biochar in the context of global warming to fairness and efficiency in the global economy to negotiations for the future of the Kyoto Protocol.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
A brilliant, readable review on the critical need to restore our degraded lands back to fertility be it to sequester greenhouse gases naturally, support forests, improve soil moisture or increase crop yields. Bruges outlines how supporting natural terrestrial sequestration is the cost-effective, proven practice to extract carbon from the atmosphere, and that this can be augmented via the use of soil amendments such as biochar. He concludes with examples that elucidate why tying biochar-based land-management solutions to one-size-fits-all market incentives risks time, money and public health. Our students say, It s a 101 must read a strong recommendation, indeed. --Alison Burchell, Geologist, Natural Terrestrial Solutions Group
The buzz of interest and activity around biochar in recent years is accelerating. In this concise but engaging book, James Bruges gets us up to speed with the ecology, economics and politics of biochar. Over three decades of speaking about and teaching permaculture, I have come across very few sustainable technologies that appear to change the rules about how to work with nature. Biochar is one of those few. Could biochar be the simple solution by which we can save civilisation from the twin crises of resource depletion and climate catastrophe? This sounds like an absurd claim, but not one that can be easily dismissed. James Bruges steers a course between the hope and the hype. --David Holmgren, co-originator of the Permaculture concept and author of Future Scenarios
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Barksdale Books
Almere, Netherlands
AbeBooks seller since August 5, 2025
Shipping rates from Netherlands to U.S.A.
| Item | 8 to 60 business days | 8 to 60 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 17.00 | £ 50.99 |
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