Gone Surfing  

Posted by Big Gav

I'm off on holiday for the next 2 weeks, so Peak Energy will be going on hold until I get back. I'd like to wish all of you a Happy Christmas / Holidays/ Hanukkah / Summer or Winter solstice or whatever name it is you give to the end of year holiday season, and I hope to see you back next year.

Its been quite a fun year for me - the political tide has turned somewhat, with the neocons on the ropes in the US and the Rodent out on his backside here in Oz, plus a steady stream of encouraging news about solutions for both peak oil and global warming (even if nothing meaningful has been done about either during the year from a political point of view).

For those new to the site, or regular readers who have somehow failed to read every single post, here is a sample of some of the posts I most enjoyed writing throughout the year :

* The Future Of Venture Capital - The year kicked off with a look at the latest (and most desperately needed) trend in technology investment - cleantech.
* Bright Green Buildings and Dark Green Buildings - A look at energy efficient architecture. Viridian Pope Emperor Bruce Sterling linked to this one from his Wired blog, which made the year from the point of view of this disreputable outpost on the edge of the Viridian world.
* The Shockwave Rider - A homage to John Brunner and the accuracy of his futurism. Easily my favourite post, even if it did generate some weird indirect feedback and some bizarre domains in the logs. Back in the search results at Google at last, after being exiled to some dark memory hole for several months after a brief stay on the front page of a search for "Shockwave Rider" straight after it was published. You can find it via Yahoo (number 7 today) too, but it seems to have disappeared from Live / MSN now. Chances are, if you read it you will learn something new.
* The Fat Man, The Population Bomb And The Green Revolution - Another book review that went a little feral - this time I looked at Herman Kahn's "The Next 200 Years" and tested some of his predictions. Make your "peak food" doomer friends read it.
* Black Earth - A look at Terra Preta / Biochar.
* The Turning Of The Worm - Further exploration of the world of soil.
* Better Living Through Green Chemistry - Who needs fossil fuels when you can make bioplastic ?
* Geothermia Revisted - A look at the potential power we could harness from the centre of the earth.
* Running Cars On Lawn Cuttings - An update on developments in the world of cellulosic ethanol.
* Tapping The Source - A brief look at some ocean energy projects. I'll do a much larger version next year.
* Queensland Shale Oil Billions in The Balance ? - An update on the question of shale oil.
* Jump Starting Electric Car Production - An update on developments in the world of lithium ion batteries.
* Iraq, Oil, Law And Order - The war in Iraq drags on, and should be a lesson to everyone as to why we need to abandon oil as an energy source anyway (amongst other much needed reforms). This one outlines the background behind the oil law the US is trying to get the Iraqi government to pass (thus far utterly unsuccessfully). While some peak oil followers find this inconvenient to acknowledge, there is far more oil under Iraq than is commonly believed, and a basic understanding of the proposed oil law combined the history of Iraqi oil exploration demonstrates what the war was all about. More at The Iron Butt Strategy, Honest John ?, and We're Not In Iraq For The Figs.
* The Air Car - A Breath Of Fresh Air Or A Waste Of Breath ? - Are these things for real ?
* Peak Oil In The Australian - Are these guys for real ?
* Should Natural Gas Be Used To Power New Zealand ? - Or these ones ?
* Use Your Vote Wisely - Mission accomplished - RIP Rodent.
* A Theory Of Market Power - Bits and pieces about energy politics and economics. I might try some free market philosophy around the economics of abundance next year that tries to come up with a system that both libertarians and marxists would find appealing (secure in the knowledge that I'll probably be roundly denounced by everyone).
* Dynamite Surfing. Totally off topic but a great piece of viral marketing.

2 comments

Anonymous   says 2:37 PM

Terra Preta Update: Happy Surfing Gav,


TP UPDATE 12/17/07

UN Climate Change Conference: Biochar present at the Bali Conference

http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/steinerbalinov2107



SCIAM Article May 15 07;

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=5670236C-E7F2-99DF-3E2163B9FB144E40



After many years of reviewing solutions to anthropogenic global warming (AGW) I believe this technology can manage Carbon for the greatest collective benefit at the lowest economic price, on vast scales. It just needs to be seen by ethical globally minded companies.

Could you please consider looking for a champion for this orphaned Terra Preta Carbon Soil Technology.

The main hurtle now is to change the current perspective held by the IPCC that the soil carbon cycle is a wash, to one in which soil can be used as a massive and ubiquitous Carbon sink via Charcoal. Below are the first concrete steps in that direction;

S.1884 – The Salazar Harvesting Energy Act of 2007

A Summary of Biochar Provisions in S.1884:

Carbon-Negative Biomass Energy and Soil Quality Initiative

for the 2007 Farm Bill

http://www.biochar-international.org/newinformationevents/newlegislation.html

Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Biomass by 2030by Ralph P. Overend, Ph.D. and Anelia Milbrandt
National Renewable Energy Laboratory


http://www.ases.org/climatechange/toc/07_biomass.pdf

The organization 25x25 (see 25x'25 - Home) released it's (first-ever, 55-page )"Action Plan" ; see; http://www.25x25.org/storage/25x25/documents/IP%20Documents/ActionPlanFinalWEB_04-19-07.pdf
On page 29 , as one of four foci for recommended RD&D, the plan lists: "The development of biochar, animal agriculture residues and other non-fossil fuel based fertilizers, toward the end of integrating energy production with enhanced soil quality and carbon sequestration."
and on p 32, recommended as part of an expanded database aspect of infrastructure: "Information on the application of carbon as fertilizer and existing carbon credit trading systems."

I feel 25x25 is now the premier US advocacy organization for all forms of renewable energy, but way out in front on biomass topics.



There are 24 billion tons of carbon controlled by man in his agriculture and waste stream, all that farm & cellulose waste which is now dumped to rot or digested or combusted and ultimately returned to the atmosphere as GHG should be returned to the Soil.

Even with all the big corporations coming to the GHG negotiation table, like Exxon, Alcoa, .etc, we still need to keep watch as they try to influence how carbon management is legislated in the USA. Carbon must have a fair price, that fair price and the changes in the view of how the soil carbon cycle now can be used as a massive sink verses it now being viewed as a wash, will be of particular value to farmers and a global cool breath of fresh air for us all.

If you have any other questions please feel free to call me or visit the TP web site I've been drafted to co-administer. http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node

It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal (Clorox), Novozyne the M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of EPRIDA , Dr. Antal of U. of H., Virginia Tech folks and probably many others who's back round I don't know have joined.



Also Here is the Latest BIG Terra Preta Soil news;

The Honolulu Advertiser: “The nation's leading manufacturer of charcoal has licensed a University of Hawai'i process for turning green waste into barbecue briquets.”

See: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007707280348



ConocoPhillips Establishes $22.5 Million Pyrolysis Program at Iowa State 04/10/07

Glomalin, the recently discovered soil protien, may be the secret to to TP soils productivity;

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2003/030205.htm


3R Environmental Technologies Ltd. (Edward Someus)
WEB: http://www.terrenum.net/

The company has Swedish origin and developing/designing medium and large scale carbonization units. The company is the licensor and technology provider to NviroClean Tech Ltd British American organization WEB: http://www.nvirocleantech.com and VERTUS Ltd.
http://www.vertustechnologies.com

The International Agrichar Initiative (IAI) conference held at Terrigal, NSW, Australia in 2007. ( http://iaiconference.org/home.html ) ( The papers from this conference are now being posted at their home page)



Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
(540) 289-9750
shengar@aol.com

Anonymous   says 10:22 PM

Happy Hunting Gav.

The boys at Chaser coined a phrase that describes a lot of the "journalism " at The Oz - "newstainment".

SP

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