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Biochar Could Put Huge Global Dent in Greenhouse Gases

Forget elaborate, potentially hazardous geoengineering schemes for countering global warming: injecting aerosols into the atmosphere or seeding the ocean with iron is just too risky.

Instead, a new study suggests we should borrow an idea from ancient Amazonian farmers: biochar. Far from a hippie-environmentalist-crackpot "save the world" scheme, researchers have found biochar could be the real deal, able to sequester over a billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year.

Biochar is charcoal made from biomass that is slowly cooked at high temperatures though a process called pyrolysis. Unlike regular biomass, which releases carbon dioxide a decade or two after it breaks down, biochar is much more stable and can retain it for hundreds of years.

Analysis by Zahra Hirji

Full Story: http://news.discovery.com/earth/biochar-could-put-huge-global-dent-in-greenhouse-gases.html

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