<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Getting distracted]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by Russ http://www.grist.org/article/getting-distracted/ Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:14:57 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/getting-distracted/1 Pocketbook issue

Guys, please, let's stay focused on the important question here: how much is a cap-and-trade system going to cost?

Yes, I too find it edifying to watch the fat Americans squabble over their wretched nickels and dimes while untold thousands wither and die.

]]> Pocketbook issue

Guys, please, let's stay focused on the important question here: how much is a cap-and-trade system going to cost?

Yes, I too find it edifying to watch the fat Americans squabble over their wretched nickels and dimes while untold thousands wither and die.

]]> Comment #2 by Pangolin http://www.grist.org/article/getting-distracted/ Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:14:10 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/getting-distracted/2 One duck, 50 kilos charcoal and...

time to understand.

The duck represents the duck/rice/fish ecosystem that produces far more useful calories per acre than the 20 acre rice deserts that I am familiar with. It requires close supervision by the farmer but not so much work as you would think. Other symbiotic crop cycles have been demonstrated in most cropping cycles but the knowledge isn't spread or demonstrated where the global equivalent of Joe Sixpack can observe them in operation.

The charcoal is to be powdered and spread on a test plot that the farmer can watch for a few years. The promise of a biochar agricultural system is that it can simultaneously reduce input costs for local farmers and increase crop health and outputs. It may not be Terra Preta but it will make a serious dent on his energy return on investment at the one-peasant-with-a-hoe level. Oh, and it's also our only hope of sequestering those extra gigatons of carbon in the atmosphere short of the mythical, magical, technofix.

Time is the most crucial factor. Time to understand what's happening to crop cycles, time to watch a neighbor try a permaculture plot in the corner of his land and then try it himself. Time to work with what he has rather than whatever technical magic that we aren't going to give him while our economy staggers like a drunk who's slugged down some methanol. Time is what we don't have as everything is happening "faster than expected."

The only thing to do is to keep bailing until after we're sunk.

Put the Carbon Back

]]> One duck, 50 kilos charcoal and...

time to understand.

The duck represents the duck/rice/fish ecosystem that produces far more useful calories per acre than the 20 acre rice deserts that I am familiar with. It requires close supervision by the farmer but not so much work as you would think. Other symbiotic crop cycles have been demonstrated in most cropping cycles but the knowledge isn't spread or demonstrated where the global equivalent of Joe Sixpack can observe them in operation.

The charcoal is to be powdered and spread on a test plot that the farmer can watch for a few years. The promise of a biochar agricultural system is that it can simultaneously reduce input costs for local farmers and increase crop health and outputs. It may not be Terra Preta but it will make a serious dent on his energy return on investment at the one-peasant-with-a-hoe level. Oh, and it's also our only hope of sequestering those extra gigatons of carbon in the atmosphere short of the mythical, magical, technofix.

Time is the most crucial factor. Time to understand what's happening to crop cycles, time to watch a neighbor try a permaculture plot in the corner of his land and then try it himself. Time to work with what he has rather than whatever technical magic that we aren't going to give him while our economy staggers like a drunk who's slugged down some methanol. Time is what we don't have as everything is happening "faster than expected."

The only thing to do is to keep bailing until after we're sunk.

Put the Carbon Back

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