The GreenplanetFM Podcast with Tim Lynch

Dennis Frank interviews Kiwi biochar advocates Graham Smith (an Aucklander) and Trevor Richards (who lives in Kuala Lumpur).Biochar is a carbon-negative soil improvement technology that takes at least 25% of organic carbon out of the cycle and converts it into solid mineral carbon that remains stable in soil for thousands of years.It increases soil fertility and raises agricultural productivity, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers.  It slows evaporation by helping soil retain moisture, which reduces nutrient-leaching and the need for irrigation.Decomposing biomass adds large amounts of methane and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and so does traditional wood-burning and composting.  Burying biochar instead reduces the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.Sequestering carbon in the ground is now a sensible way to mitigate global warming, according to prominent scientists such as James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia hypothesi