[Stoves] Biochar is making its way into the oceans,

[Philip Lloyd]

Dear Stovers

Crispin has drawn attention to the "horror finding" that significant amounts
of organic carbon are finding their way into the oceans.

It is fun teasing these people. Were they aware that fire is a major part of
forest regeneration? Indeed, some seeds require smoke in the moisture they
receive in order to germinate.  Did they know that the deforestation of the
US, that took place between 1850 and 1920, was of the same size as the
Amazon Basin?

Some 30 years ago I studied 'waldsterben' in the Harz Mountains.  By soil
sampling we found that every 150 years or so, the floor of the forest had
burned - but when we sampled it, it was 200 years since the last burn, and
the trees were now dying from old age.  Man had not wished to live with
forest fires, and had put them out, so the forests had aged unnaturally, and
'waldsterben' had nothing to do with acid rain, and everything to do with
man not understanding Nature.

Is it a disaster that carbon now enters rivers and goes to the sea?

Laugh, and the world laughs with you!

Philip Lloyd