Terra Preta

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Terra Preta

Author : Ute Scheub
Publisher : Greystone Books
ISBN 13 : 1771641118
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (716 download)

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Book Synopsis Terra Preta by : Ute Scheub

Download or read book Terra Preta written by Ute Scheub and published by Greystone Books. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terra preta is the Portuguese name of a type of soil which is thought to have almost miraculous properties. The newspapers are flooded with reports about “black gold,” scientists believe that two of the greatest problems facing the world – climate change and the hunger crisis — can be solved by it. The beauty of it is that everyone can do something about it because since 2005 the secret of producing this black soil has been revealed — and it is a secret that seemed to have been lost forever with the downfall of the once thriving Indian culture of the Amazon basin. The recipe is astonishingly simple as all you need are kitchen or garden wastes, charcoal and earthworms, so it can be produced on every balcony or on the smallest of garden plots. The trio of authors Scheub, Pieplow and Schmidt, set off on a treasure hunt and condensed all the knowledge about the world’s most fertile soil into a convenient guidebook. In addition to a sound instruction manual on producing terra preta and organic charcoal (biochar), the handbook covers fundamental principles from climate farming to closed-loop economy. It makes a passionate plea against synthetic fertilizers and genetic technology and offers indispensable advice to all those who feel strongly about healthy food. Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.

Amazonian Dark Earths

Author : Johannes Lehmann
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1402025971
Total Pages : 510 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Amazonian Dark Earths by : Johannes Lehmann

Download or read book Amazonian Dark Earths written by Johannes Lehmann and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-02-25 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dark Earths are a testament to vanished civilizations of the Amazon Basin, but may also answer how large societies could sustain intensive agriculture in an environment of infertile soils. This book examines their origin, properties, and management. Questions remain: were they intentionally produced or a by-product of habitation. Additional new and multidisciplinary perspectives by leading experts may pave the way for the next revolution in soil management in the humid tropics.

Amazonian Dark Earths: Wim Sombroek's Vision

Author : William I. Woods
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1402090315
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Amazonian Dark Earths: Wim Sombroek's Vision by : William I. Woods

Download or read book Amazonian Dark Earths: Wim Sombroek's Vision written by William I. Woods and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-11-16 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amazonian soils are almost universally thought of as extremely forbidding. However, it is now clear that complex societies with large, sedentary populations were present for over a millennium before European contact. Associated with these are tracts of anomalously fertile, dark soils termed ‘terra preta’ or dark earths. These soils are presently an important agricultural resource within Amazonia and provide a model for developing long-term future sustainability of food production in tropical environments. The late Dutch soil scientist Wim Sombroek (1934-2003) was instrumental in bringing the significance of these soils to the attention of the world over four decades ago. Wim saw not only the possibilities of improving the lives of small holders throughout the world with simple carbon based soil technologies, but was an early proponent of the positive synergies also achieved in regards to carbon sequestration and global climatic change abatement. Wim’s vision was to form a multidisciplinary group whose members maintained the ideal of open collaboration toward the attainment of shared goals. Always encouraged and often shaped by Wim, this free association of international scholars termed the “Terra Preta Nova” Group came together in 2001 and has flourished. This effort has been defined by enormous productivity. Wim who is never far from any of our minds and hearts, would have loved to share the great experience of seeing the fruits of his vision as demonstrated in this volume.

Amazonian Dark Earths: Explorations in Space and Time

Author : Bruno Glaser
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3662056836
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Amazonian Dark Earths: Explorations in Space and Time by : Bruno Glaser

Download or read book Amazonian Dark Earths: Explorations in Space and Time written by Bruno Glaser and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-14 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Sacred Soil

Author : Robert Tindall
Publisher : North Atlantic Books
ISBN 13 : 1623171180
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (231 download)

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Book Synopsis Sacred Soil by : Robert Tindall

Download or read book Sacred Soil written by Robert Tindall and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2017-07-18 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating description of how utilizing the biochar embedded in terra preta, the recently rediscovered sacred soil of the pre-Columbian peoples of the Amazon rainforest, can cut our dependency on petrochemicals, restore the health of our soils, remove carbon from our overheating atmosphere, and restore the planet to pre-industrial levels of atmospheric carbon by 2050. The authors show that the rediscovery of terra preta is an opportunity to move beyond the West’s tradition of plunder and genocide of the native civilizations of the Americas by offering an invitation to embrace the deeper mystery of the indigenous methods of inquiry and to participate in an animate cosmos that gave rise to such a powerful soil technology. Sacred Soil, in recognizing the need for biocultural regeneration, takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the phenomenon of biochar soils, utilizing mythopoeic, historical, anthropological, and scientific perspectives to embrace the deep past, the vexed present, and the prospectus for our future. Coming at this crucial juncture in human history, the potential resting in biochar is also an open doorway into the indigenous ways of knowing that enabled the pre-Columbian Amazonian high civilizations to support a population of millions while leaving their lands more fertile than when they arose.

39 Ways to Save the Planet

Author : Tom Heap
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1473532795
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (735 download)

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Book Synopsis 39 Ways to Save the Planet by : Tom Heap

Download or read book 39 Ways to Save the Planet written by Tom Heap and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-10-14 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We got ourselves into this. Here's how we can get ourselves out. We know the problem: the amount of biodiversity loss, the scale of waste and pollution, the amount of greenhouse gas we pump into the air... it's unsustainable. We have to do something. And we are resourceful, adaptable and smart. We have already devised many ways to reduce climate change - some now proven, others encouraging and craving uptake. Each one is a solution to get behind. In 39 Ways to Save the Planet, Tom Heap reveals some of the real-world solutions to climate change that are happening around the world, right now. From tiny rice seeds and fossil fuel free steel to grazing elk and carbon-capturing seagrass meadows, each chapter reveals the energy and optimism in those tackling the fundamental problem of our age. Accompanying a major BBC Radio 4 series in collaboration with the Royal Geographical Society, 39 Ways to Save the Planet is a fascinating exploration of our attempt to build a better future, one solution at a time. A roadmap to global action on climate change, it will encourage you to add your own solutions to the list.

Amazonia in the Anthropocene

Author : Nicholas C. Kawa
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 147730844X
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

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Book Synopsis Amazonia in the Anthropocene by : Nicholas C. Kawa

Download or read book Amazonia in the Anthropocene written by Nicholas C. Kawa and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widespread human alteration of the planet has led many scholars to claim that we have entered a new epoch in geological time: the Anthropocene, an age dominated by humanity. This ethnography is the first to directly engage the Anthropocene, tackling its problems and paradoxes from the vantage point of the world’s largest tropical rainforest. Drawing from extensive ethnographic research, Nicholas Kawa examines how pre-Columbian Amerindians and contemporary rural Amazonians have shaped their environment, describing in vivid detail their use and management of the region’s soils, plants, and forests. At the same time, he highlights the ways in which the Amazonian environment resists human manipulation and control—a vital reminder in this time of perceived human dominance. Written in engaging, accessible prose, Amazonia in the Anthropocene offers an innovative contribution to debates about humanity’s place on the planet, encouraging deeper ecocentric thinking and a more inclusive vision of ecology for the future.

Gardening with Biochar

Author : Jeff Cox
Publisher : Storey Publishing, LLC
ISBN 13 : 1612129560
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (121 download)

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Book Synopsis Gardening with Biochar by : Jeff Cox

Download or read book Gardening with Biochar written by Jeff Cox and published by Storey Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2019-01-22 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bio-activated charcoal — called biochar — is the new darling of organic gardeners, embraced for its outstanding abilities to enrich the soil and improve plant growth. Gardening with Biochar is the first comprehensive guide to understanding, making, and using it effectively in the home garden. In this highly accessible handbook, long-time garden writer Jeff Cox explains what biochar is and provides detailed instructions for how it can be made from wood or other kinds of plant material, along with specific guidelines for using it to enrich soil, prevent erosion, and enhance plant growth. Now widely available at garden centers, biochar is also being lauded for its ability to sequester carbon in the soil, making it good for the health of the planet, as well as the plants.

Biochar for Environmental Management

Author : Dr. Johannes Lehmann
Publisher : Earthscan
ISBN 13 : 1849770557
Total Pages : 449 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (497 download)

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Book Synopsis Biochar for Environmental Management by : Dr. Johannes Lehmann

Download or read book Biochar for Environmental Management written by Dr. Johannes Lehmann and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2009 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Biochar is the carbon-rich product when biomass (such as wood, manure, or crop residues) is heated in a closed container with little or no available air. It can be used to improve agriculture and the environment in several ways, and its stability in soil and superior nutrient-retention properties make it an ideal soil amendment to increase crop yields. In addition to this, biochar sequestration, in combination with sustainable biomass production, can be carbon-negative and therefore used to actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with major implications for mitigation of climate change. Biochar production can also be combined with bioenergy production through the use of the gases that are given off in the pyrolysis process.This book is the first to synthesize the expanding research literature on this topic. The book's interdisciplinary approach, which covers engineering, environmental sciences, agricultural sciences, economics and policy, is a vital tool at this stage of biochar technology development. This comprehensive overview of current knowledge will be of interest to advanced students, researchers and professionals in a wide range of disciplines"--Provided by publisher.

Slash and Char as Alternative to Slash and Burn

Author : Christoph Steiner
Publisher : Cuvillier Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3867274444
Total Pages : 189 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (672 download)

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Book Synopsis Slash and Char as Alternative to Slash and Burn by : Christoph Steiner

Download or read book Slash and Char as Alternative to Slash and Burn written by Christoph Steiner and published by Cuvillier Verlag. This book was released on 2007 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The extraordinary fertility of manmade Terra Preta soils in the Brazilian Amazon provided the incentive to study the effects of soil charcoal amendments on soil fertility, nutrient cycling, and soil biology. The existence of Terra Preta suggests that tropical soils, which are notorious for being infertile, can be greatly improved. The agricultural produces charcoal out of fallow vegetation instead of converting it to carbon dioxide through burning. Slash and char improves soil quality by transferring organic carbon into recalcitrant soil organic matter pools. This newly described agricultural practice has important implications for the earth's carbon budget and sustainability in tropical agriculture.

Before Columbus

Author : Charles C. Mann
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416949003
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (169 download)

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Book Synopsis Before Columbus by : Charles C. Mann

Download or read book Before Columbus written by Charles C. Mann and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-09-08 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A companion book for young readers based upon the explorations of the Americas in 1491, before those of Christopher Columbus.

Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes

Author : William M. Denevan
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780199257690
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (576 download)

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Book Synopsis Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes by : William M. Denevan

Download or read book Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes written by William M. Denevan and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes examines Indian agriculture in South America. The focus is on field types and field technologies, including agricultural landforms such as terraces, canals, and drained fields, which have persisted for hundreds of years. What emerges is a picture of mostly successful indigenous farming practices in difficult environments--rain forests, savannahs, swamps, rugged mountains, and deserts.

Burn

Author : Albert Bates
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1603589848
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Burn by : Albert Bates

Download or read book Burn written by Albert Bates and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to rescue ourselves from climate catastrophe, we need to radically alter how humans live on Earth. We have to go from spending carbon to banking it. We have to put back the trees, wetlands, and corals. We have to regrow the soil and turn back the desert. We have to save whales, wombats, and wolves. We have to reverse the flow of greenhouse gases and send them in exactly the opposite direction: down, not up. We have to flip the carbon cycle and run it backwards. For such a revolutionary transformation we’ll need civilization 2.0. A secret unlocked by the ancients of the Amazon for its ability to transform impoverished tropical soils into terra preta—fertile black earths—points the way. The indigenous custom of converting organic materials into long lasting carbon has enjoyed a reawakening in recent decades as the quest for more sustainable farming methods has grown. Yet the benefits of this carbonized material, now called biochar, extend far beyond the soil. Pyrolyzing carbon has the power to restore a natural balance by unmining the coal and undrilling the oil and gas. Employed to its full potential, it can run the carbon cycle in reverse and remake Earth as a garden planet. Burn looks beyond renewable biomass or carbon capture energy systems to offer a bigger and bolder vision for the next phase of human progress, moving carbon from wasted sources: • into soils and agricultural systems to rebalance the carbon, nitrogen, and related cycles; enhance nutrient density in food; rebuild topsoil; and condition urban and agricultural lands to withstand flooding and drought • to cleanse water by carbon filtration and trophic cascades within the world’s rivers, oceans, and wetlands • to shift urban infrastructures such as buildings, roads, bridges, and ports, incorporating drawdown materials and components, replacing steel, concrete, polymers, and composites with biological carbon • to drive economic reorganization by incentivizing carbon drawdown Fully developed, this approach costs nothing—to the contrary, it can save companies money or provide new revenue streams. It contains the seeds of a new, circular economy in which energy, natural resources, and human ingenuity enter a virtuous cycle of improvement. Burn offers bold new solutions to climate change that can begin right now.

Dirt

Author : David R. Montgomery
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520933168
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis Dirt by : David R. Montgomery

Download or read book Dirt written by David R. Montgomery and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-05-14 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.

The Big Ratchet

Author : Ruth DeFries
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465080936
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis The Big Ratchet by : Ruth DeFries

Download or read book The Big Ratchet written by Ruth DeFries and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How an ordinary mammal manipulated nature to become technologically sophisticated city-dwellers -- and why our history points to an optimistic future in the face of environmental crisis Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet is the story of how it happened, of the ratchets -- the technologies and innovations, big and small -- that propelled our species from hunters and gatherers on the savannahs of Africa to shoppers in the aisles of the supermarket. The Big Ratchet itself came in the twentieth century, when a range of technologies -- from fossil fuels to scientific plant breeding to nitrogen fertilizers -- combined to nearly quadruple our population in a century, and to grow our food supply even faster. To some, these technologies are a sign of our greatness; to others, of our hubris. MacArthur fellow and Columbia University professor Ruth DeFries argues that the debate is the wrong one to have. Limits do exist, but every limit that has confronted us, we have surpassed. That cycle of crisis and growth is the story of our history; indeed, it is the essence of The Big Ratchet. Understanding it will reveal not just how we reached this point in our history, but how we might survive it.

Archaeological Soil and Sediment Micromorphology

Author : Cristiano Nicosia
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118941071
Total Pages : 500 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (189 download)

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Book Synopsis Archaeological Soil and Sediment Micromorphology by : Cristiano Nicosia

Download or read book Archaeological Soil and Sediment Micromorphology written by Cristiano Nicosia and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-08-10 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeological Soil and Sediment Micromorphology goes beyond a mere review of current literature and features the most up to date contributions from numerous scientists working in the field. The book represents a groundbreaking and comprehensive resource covering the plethora of applications of micromorphology in archaeology. Archaeological Soil and Sediment Micromorphology offers researchers, students and professionals a systematic tool for the interpretation of thin sections of archaeological contexts. This important resource is also designed to help stimulate the use of micromorphology in archaeology outside Europe, where the technique is less frequently employed. Moreover, the authors hope to strengthen the proper application of soil micromorphology in archaeology, by illustrating its possibilities and referring in several cases to more specialized publications (for instance in the field of plant remains, pottery and phytoliths). Written for anyone interested in the topic, this important text offers: Contributions from most of the world's leading authorities on soil micromorphology A series of chapters on the major topics selected among the most recurrent in literature about archaeological soil micromorphology Systematic descriptions of all important micromorphological features Special analytical tools employed on thin sections, such as SEM/EDS, image analysis, fluorescence microscopy, mass spectrometry, among others Numerous cross-references 400 illustrated full-colour plates The resource provides the most current and essential information for archaeologists, geoarchaeologists, soil scientists and sedimentologists. Comprehensive in scope, Archaeological Soil and Sediment Micromorphology offers professionals and students a much-needed tool for the interpretation of thin sections of archaeological contexts.

The Brazilian Amazon

Author : Joana Bezerra
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319230301
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (192 download)

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Book Synopsis The Brazilian Amazon by : Joana Bezerra

Download or read book The Brazilian Amazon written by Joana Bezerra and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to analyse the current development scenario in the Amazon, using Terra Preta de Índio as a case study. To do so it is necessary to go back in time, both in the national and international sphere, through the second half of the last century to analyse its trajectory. It will be equally important analyse the current issues regarding the Amazon – sustainable development and climate change – and how they still reproduce some of the problems that marked the history of the forest, such as the absence of Amazonian dark earths as a relevant theme to the Amazon. In a world in which the environment gains each time more space in the national and international political agenda, the Amazon stands out. Known around the world for its richness, the South-American forest is the target of different visions, often contradictory ones, and it plays with everyone’s imagination. This is where the terra preta de índio – Amazonian Dark Earths - are found, a fertile soil horizon with high concentrations of carbon with anthropic origins, which has generated great interest from the scientific community. Studies on these soils and their so singular characteristics have triggered crucial discussions on the past, present and the future of the entire Amazon region. Despite its singular characteristics, the importance of Amazonian Dark Earths – and a history of a more productive and populated Amazon – was hidden since its discovery around 1880 until 1980, when it is possible to identify the beginning of an increase in the number of research on these soil horizons. These hundred years between the first records and the beginning of the increase in the interest around these soils witnessed structural changes both in the national arena, with the military dictatorship and a change in the place of the Amazon within internal affairs, and in the international arena with changes that reshaped the role of the environment in the political and scientific agendas and the role of Brazil in the global context.