Reposting an interesting article from CNN!

Can Biochar Save the Planet?

Biochar’s high carbon content and porous nature can help soil retain water, nutrients, protect soil microbes.

“This machine right here is our baby,” said UGA research engineer Brian Bibens, who is one of a handful of researchers around the world working on alternative ways to recycle carbon.

Bibens’ specialty is “biochar,” a highly porous charcoal made from organic waste. The raw material can be any forest, agricultural or animal waste. Some examples are woodchips, corn husks, peanut shells, even chicken manure.

Bibens feeds the waste — called “biomass” — into an octagonally shaped metal barrel where it is cooked under intense heat, sometimes above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the organic matter is cooked through a thermochemical process called “pyrolysis”.

In a few hours, organic trash is transformed into charcoal-like pellets farmers can turn into fertilizer. Gasses given off during the process can be harnesed to fuel vehicles of power electric generators

Biochar is considered by many scientists to be the “black gold” for agriculture.

Its high carbon content and porous nature can help soil retain water, nutrients, protect soil microbes and ultimately increase crop yields while acting as natural carbon sink – sequestering CO2 and locking it into the ground.

Biochar helps clean the air two ways: by preventing rotting biomass from releasing harmful CO2 into the atmosphere, and by allowing plants to safely store CO2 they pull out of the air during photosynthesis.

“Soil acts as an enormous carbon pool, increasing this carbon pool could significantly contribute to the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere,” said Christoph Steiner, one of the leading research scientist studying biochar. “It gives us a chance to produce carbon negative energy.”

Worldwide use of biochar could cut CO2 levels by 8 parts per million within 50 years, according to NASA scientist James Hansen.

Global carbon levels in the air have been steadily increasing at an alarming rate since the 1980s, according to NOAA. Since 2000, increases of 2 parts per million of CO2 have been common, according to NOAA. During the 1980s rates increased by 1.5 ppm per year.

The process of making biochar can also lead to other valuable products.

Some of the gases given off during the process can be converted to electricity, others can be condensed and converted to gasoline, and there are also some pharmaceutical applications for the by-products, said Danny Day President and CEO of Eprida, a private firm in Athens, Georgia currently exploring industry applications for the biochar process.

Although scientists look to biochar to improve the future, its origin lies in the past.

For centuries indigenous South Americans living in the Amazon Basin used a combination of charred animal waste and wood to make “terra preta,” which means black earth, in Portuguese.

Thousands of years later, the terra preta soil remains fertile without need for any added fertilizer, experts say.

“These terra preta soils are older than 500 years and they are still black soil and very rich in carbon,” said Steiner, a professor at the University of Georgia. Reducing the need for deforestation to create more cropland.

By using biochar concepts, terra preta soils have been proven to remain fertile for thousands of years, preventing further harmful deforestation for agricultural purposes. But still more large-scale tests need to be conducted before biochar technology can be rolled out on a global scale.

Day says biomass — that otherwise would be thrown away –could be developed into entirely new markets for biofuels, electricity, biomass extracts and pharmaceutical applications, in addition to biochar.

“We have 3 billion people out there who are at risk for climate change and they can be making money solving our global problem,” said Day.

Industries can now begin to look at farmers around the world and pay them for their agricultural wastes, said Day. “They can become the new affluent.”

 Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

Those of you who live in Washington state and order our products must pay sales tax (wholesale accounts are exempt).

As of today, April 1, 2009 (and NO this isn’t an April Fools joke!) sales tax has increased in just about every city.

Sales tax here is destination based…meaning sales tax is charged at YOUR city’s rate not ours.

However….To make things easier for me our website is automatically defaulted to our city’s tax rate (Lynnwood) which now is at 9.5% (one of the highest in the state!).  If I didn’t do this I would have to reconfigure our website and enter in each and every city (over 300!) and the corresponding tax rate….which would mean YOU would have to scroll down and pick your city.

To save us both time and energy we will adjust your invoice to reflect the correct sales tax. You will be emailed a final invoice which will show the correct amount!

I’m sure at some point in time I will have to break down and enter in each city/sales tax rate….but I’m going to put this off for as long as possible…..

Do you blame me??

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com

If you don’t have a student loan(s) then chances are you know someone who does…and you know the insurmountable and almost impossible task of being able to pay off those student loans in a lifetime!

Our country puts a high regard on furthering your education with fancy degrees. Students graduate with happy thoughts of getting a job in their particular field, earning a living and gratefully paying back those loans.

But what really happens (especially in our current economy) is that students graduate and simply cannot find a job in their chosen field….most are happy to find any job at all.

Then shock hits…..hard. They get a statement with their loans and interest rates and the resulting monthly payments. With interest rates as high as 18% repayment is impossible. It is all some of them can do to just make the interest payments but it does nothing to reduce their original loans. Some of these students will NEVER pay back their loans!

I would like you to read the story below then after that please sign up so we can all urge congress to revamp the student loan repayment process so our students do not have to go into a lifetime of debt to further their education (which we all benefit from!).

It’s not that students dont want to pay back their loans….they simply can’t due to the outrageous terms and interest rates!

**

Student Loan Nightmare – Help Wanted

Samantha Hillstrom
CNN Production Assistant

I’m about to talk about two little words that make most people cringe. The mere mention of these words usually incites the same reaction in everyone: a) fear b) denial c) a throbbing headache and d) the desire to run away screaming and crying and begging to go to a “happy place.” Yes, I am talking about STUDENT LOANS. If you don’t have one, you know someone who does and you sympathize with them. In the midst of the credit crisis, home foreclosures and bailout turmoil, the amount of debt that graduates are facing is overwhelming.

I am 23-years-old, two years out of college and I am sitting on $115,000 of student debt. And based on my lender’s loan terms, I only have roughly 12 years to pay it off. How much does that make my monthly payment, you ask? A whopping $1,200 a month. And let’s just say my lifelong dream career in television doesn’t lend itself to that. The only option my bank is giving me is to go on “graduated repayment plan.” That means that for four years I will only be paying off the interest every month. How much is that? Well, $115,000 with interest rates between 4-8%… that’s about $600 a month and that doesn’t even touch the principal amount. People don’t pay off houses in 12 years and I am expected to pay off this student loan in an entry level position?

Some might say, “Sam, you shouldn’t have gone to a private school in New York City if you wouldn’t be able to pay it off.” Well, I made a lot of mistakes when signing up for my loans, but I was uneducated on the process and on the repayment and now I’m stuck. I share the same anxiety as the families struggling to pay their mortgages. How was I ever to expect the financial crisis that was going to happen and where can I get some help?

And why do I have such a short amount of time to pay off my loans? Because of the current financial crisis. Due to the economic downturn, my lender isn’t consolidating loans. If I were able to consolidate, my repayment time would extend to 30 years…just like a home mortgage. Now that wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem, in that I would still owe more than $500 a month with the principal and interest, but it would buy me a bit more time and stretches out the money.

Here is my question: why aren’t student loans receiving the same attention, same care and forgiveness as every other loan in America? I have to say that I am lucky to have a job right now and was especially lucky to get a job right out of college. Can you imagine what kind of pressure and stress the 2009 graduates are feeling in this time of uncertainty? Veterans of the workforce can’t find work right now. What about the recent college grads with no work experience and tens of thousands of dollars of unforgivable debt underneath them?

There is a grain of hope that will come when the Income-Based Repayment Plan, part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, will take effect on July 1. The program will cap off borrower’s monthly payments at 10% of their gross income for 25 years with the rest of the debt being forgiven. However, that only applies to federal loans (which is only one of my four loans).

According to the Federal Education Department, in 2009, the amount of outstanding federal student loans is $544 billion, up $42 billion from last year. Where is our bailout? Where are our options? The default rate on student loans this year is already at 6.9%. That’s a 13% increase from last year.

Recently, Rev. Jesse Jackson started a campaign called “Reduce the Rate” urging the Obama administration to reduce the interest rates of student loans to 1%….the same amount of interest the banks are getting.

Jackson’s plan proposes the following…

• Reduce the interest rate on all student loans to 1%.
• If banks can borrow at 1% or less, then so should our students.
• Extend the grace period before loan repayment begins from 6 months to 18 months for students who graduate.
• In these tough economic times, it takes a college graduate an average of 6 months to 1 year to find a job. The rules should reflect this reality.
• End the penalties assessed to schools for student loan defaults.
• Schools should not be held accountable for students who don’t pay back their loans.
• Increase Pell Grants to cover the average yearly cost of a public
• 4 year institution instead of the amounts in the current stimulus package–$5,350 starting July 1 and $5,550 in 2010-2011

I chose to go to a private school and I chose to work in a field where the starting salaries are low. Does that mean that I chose to live a life of struggle, wondering how I am going to pay my rent, afford the basics of living and still stay in my chosen career field…all while putting up with high interest rates and an amount of debt that brings me to tears?

**

**Here is how YOU can help!**

Join the movement to help make student loans affordable by signing up at www.reducetherate.org!

With college costs continuing to soar and more college graduates struggling to make their student loan payments, the Reduce The Rate Petition is urging lawmakers to extend the benefits of the federal bailout to students.

Rebecca

Country Meadow Ltd.

Eco-Friendly Spa Products

Gentle on your body…

Gentle on the earth…

www.countrymeadowltd.com