Comments on: Pyrolising the Planet http://permaculture.org.au/2009/03/30/pyrolising-the-planet/ Changing the world one site at a time Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:07:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Don Miller http://permaculture.org.au/2009/03/30/pyrolising-the-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-30639 Don Miller Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:07:29 +0000 http://permaculture.org.au/?p=1233#comment-30639 There are plenty of "Peter Reads" still out there. Almost all of the soil erosion disasters I have spent the last 40 years trying to repair have been created by "Economic Development" (the others were either geological or caused by over-population). There are also more than enough governments willing to sell or lease "undeveloped" land - despite the plight of the evicted long term residents, who had been doing minimal damage to the planet with their sustainable lifestyles. I suspect that James Lovelock's worst predictions are not too far from future reality. By all means try to intelligently repair past mistakes - but that will not allow us to sustain the unsustainable. There are plenty of “Peter Reads” still out there. Almost all of the soil erosion disasters I have spent the last 40 years trying to repair have been created by “Economic Development” (the others were either geological or caused by over-population).

There are also more than enough governments willing to sell or lease “undeveloped” land – despite the plight of the evicted long term residents, who had been doing minimal damage to the planet with their sustainable lifestyles.

I suspect that James Lovelock’s worst predictions are not too far from future reality. By all means try to intelligently repair past mistakes – but that will not allow us to sustain the unsustainable.

]]> By: Evan http://permaculture.org.au/2009/03/30/pyrolising-the-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-30467 Evan Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:35:52 +0000 http://permaculture.org.au/?p=1233#comment-30467 Look no-one is suggesting we should cut down rain forrests to supply the materials we need to make biochar, just that we should use organic waste products that would normaly end up in landfill. If the correct method of pyrolisis is used to convert materials such as forrestry and cropping waste and dried sewage and the like, there would be several useful by-products from the process. These include several liquid chemicals and collectable gasses and of course the "char" which can then be added to soils of all kinds to improve their fertility. DON'T BE SO DISMISSIVE OF ANYTHING THAT MIGHT HELP OUR PLANET RECOVER FROM THE DAMAGE WE HAVE ALREADY DONE. Look no-one is suggesting we should cut down rain forrests to supply the materials we need to make biochar, just that we should use organic waste products that would normaly end up in landfill.
If the correct method of pyrolisis is used to convert materials such as forrestry and cropping waste and dried sewage and the like, there would be several useful by-products from the process.
These include several liquid chemicals and collectable gasses and of course the “char” which can then be added to soils of all kinds to improve their fertility. DON’T BE SO DISMISSIVE OF ANYTHING THAT MIGHT HELP OUR PLANET RECOVER FROM THE DAMAGE WE HAVE ALREADY DONE.

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