Ben’s Reviews > The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change > Status Update

'Fifty-four percent of the atmospheric footprint of British agriculture is attributable to nitrogen fertilizer, a potent source of nitrous oxide. The other main components of chemical fertilizer, phosphate & potash, are nonrenewable mineral resources that are quickly depleting.' Green ammonia still produces nitrous oxide, which is a very potent greenhouse gas. Even green chemical fertilizers aren't future-proof.

Vaclav Smil showed me that the only reason ~2 billion are alive is because of the crops grown by the widespread application of nitrogenous fertilizers. Chemical fertilizer production consumes lots of fossil fuels. Moreover, a very large percentage of nitrogen is de-gassed from these fertilizers & released into the atmosphere. Nitrogen's global warming potential is 298 times that of CO2. Conundrum. Green ammonia when.

Bates has grossly mismarketed this book. He strikes me as a kind of impassioned reclusive polymathic genius who obsessively pores over the technical works of multiple fields to try to find detailed & therefore practicable syntheses. This is book is very deeply researched & very serious, even though I sense his impatience & disdain for both the academic & popular conventions that might make him more widely read.

Bates makes the fantastic point that land use changes to support renewables infrastructure, particularly hydroelectric dams, can be massively environmentally damaging. This is especially true in those rare cases where dams drain water from peat bogs, which are massive carbon sinks.

I learned the author is a prolific, principled, & influential lawyer & activist who's been writing about environmental justice for more than 50 years. This relentless dedication explains the unusually detailed & surprisingly fascinating historical prolegomena that thus far has made up the bulk of this book. Oh, the stupidity of men, such as Ford & Disney, who thought the Amazon was improved by ACd golf courses.

Excerpts from the diary of de Orellana reveal the existence of large populations & complex civilisations in Mesoamerica. The diseases that spread from Europeans to natives may have killed as much as 99% or more of the population, which, extrapolating backwards from current numbers, could have numbered as high as 1 billion. Biochar was the only way the Mesoamerican continent could have supported so many people.

The author continues to make undefended and specious claims about overpopulation and the annihilation of all life on earth. His reluctance to explain or defend himself and his tendency to make extremist instead of moderate claims makes me suspicious of all he's yet to say about the benefits of biochar.

This book is suspect from the get-go. It opens by insinuating that the global spread of chemical fertilisers after WWI occurred solely because explosives manufacturers needed alternative markets for nitrogen after the war. This is one explanation; claiming that it's the only explanation is cynical. It then claims that chemical fertilisers haven't increased crop yields. Read Vaclav Smil to dispel this propaganda.