“There is one way we could save ourselves, and that is through the massive burial of charcoal” James Lovelock Converting biomass into charcoal type char which can be used to improve soil fertility, while also trapping carbon dioxide, certainly has major attractions. Some energy is generated too. But a key issue is whether, in net [...]

South Africa has even less water than previously thought, a study has found. Scientists have warned that the country, with 98 percent of its surface water allocated for use, faces tough decisions as it becomes hotter and drier. But the Water Resources of South Africa 2005 study, the fifth of its kind, found 4 percent [...]

The biochar process is carbon negative: it removes net carbon from the atmosphere. When a green plant grows it takes CO2 out of the air to build its body. All of the carbon in the plant came from CO2 taken out of the air, and returns to the air when the plant dies and decomposes. [...]

By Mike Cohen Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) — South Africa will oppose any international treaty to reduce carbon emissions if it cuts the country’s economic growth rate, government spokesman Themba Maseko said. “Developed nations in our view have a much greater responsibility” to reduce emissions, Maseko told reporters in Cape Town today. “We believe that other [...]

Despite the fact that logging rates in the Amazon skyrocketed in June, the figures put out by the Deforestation Detection in Real Time (DETER) and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) say that it looks like 2008-2009 was a great year for the rainforests, with logging rates dropping 46%. Could this rate – as [...]

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest living organism, is under grave threat from climate warming and coastal development, and its prospects of survival are “poor,” a major new report found on Wednesday. While the World Heritage-protected site, which sprawls for more than 345,000 square km (133,000 sq miles) off Australia’s east [...]

Scientists wonder whether rising CO2 may trigger something else that further warms the climate Fifty-five million years ago, the world was a much warmer place. The poles were ice-free year-round. Palm trees grew in Alaska. Forests stretched right into the Arctic Circle. There, swamps like those in today’s southeastern United States hosted alligators, snakes, and [...]

The Science of 350 Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. Learn more about 350 – what it means, where it came from, and how to get there.Visit www.350.org and join their campaign to get back to 350ppm.