MIT’s New En-ROADS Simulator Gives Insight on the Impact of Remineralization on Climate
Dr. John Sterman presenting the En-ROADS Simulator.
Rock weathering removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and remineralizing the soil with silicate rock dust can speed this process up, but just how much of an impact can enhanced rock weathering have on global climate change?
To better understand the magnitude of the impact that remineralization could have on global climate change, we can turn to the En-ROADS simulator, developed by Climate Interactive, Ventana Systems, and MIT Sloan1. En-ROADS allows users to test scenarios that include changes in taxes, ...
Wild Urban Spaces: Growing Micro Forests for a Greener Planet
Completed forest trail walk project. Photo courtesy of Acacia Eco.
Overview
With over 30 years of horticultural experience, Wild Urban Spaces, founded by James Godfrey-Faussett, is working to improve our environment through rapid-growth micro forests, which range from small, urban forests all the way to larger hectare forests. Based in the UK, Wild Urban Spaces uses their knowledge of organic and innovative environmental processes to create these micro forests. Their efforts to regreen the Earth teach people how to make their own impact on the environment and create a ...
The Odyssey of Matteo Mazzola – Rock Dust for Regenerative Agriculture in Italy
Matteo Mazzola, founder of Terra Organica and graduate in Agriculture, holds seminars on regenerative agriculture on a regular basis in Italy and abroad. He works as a consultant and instructor at various farms, including the ISIDE farm, which he co-founded, employing the principles of Nutraceuticals and Agroecology. He has learned from world-renowned teachers, thus consolidating the principles of soil regeneration.
“During my childhood I had my first contact with the world of agriculture,” Mazzola says. “The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour ...
Get Real: David Munson, Jr. Wants Realistic Solutions to Climate Change
David Munson, a Dallas-based philanthropist, has formed the Get Real Alliance to pursue “realistic solutions” to climate change and other global issues. Rock dust and biochar play a central role. He lays out the ideas behind this alliance in his upcoming book, “Get Real: A Positive Solution to Climate Change.”
In particular, he advocates for an increased focus on carbon sequestration in addition to carbon emissions, for a couple of reasons. First, he judges emission reduction to be difficult to achieve, and thus likely insufficient. Second, reducing carbon ...
Hurricane Pummels Equinox Farm, but Remineralized Cannabis ‘Orchard’ Resurges
Hurricane Isaias brought 60-mile-an-hour winds to the Berkshires that toppled trees around Equinox Farm in Sheffield, Massachusetts, beating down much of this year’s outdoor cannabis crop in the process.
Fortunately, says Ted Dobson, general manager and farmer-in-chief, cannabis is vigorous, like growing an “annual orchard,” and soon after seeing the devastation of Mother Nature’s wrath, he was back at work, having trellised 3,300 plants less than three weeks after the storm. The crop is recovering nicely.
“The average plant size is six feet tall, and ...
Seeds of Education: RTE Teams Up with NASCO to Help Ghana Students Grow Trees
Remineralization initiative at Ghana schools
Remineralize the Earth is teaming up with the NASCO Foundation, which aims to plant fruit-bearing trees at 23 schools in Ghana, to teach students to care for nature as part of the ongoing fight against global climate change, while also contributing to the financial sustainability of their schools and generating local employment.
For its part, RTE plans to coordinate the application of rock dust at one to three of the schools to create a more diverse agroforestry system along with the cashew trees. Potential candidates for the ...
Rock Powder with Biochar: Synergies & Co-Benefits
Rock powder and Biochar are two of the most powerful tools for reversing climate change, especially when used together! Tom Goreau explains the synergies and co-benefits. (Originally published by Global Carbon Alliance.)
Biochar and rock powders can provide major, cost-effective, atmospheric CO2 sinks to reverse climate change through nature-based solutions, or planetary BioGeoTherapy.
These methods produce major synergies and co-benefits when practiced together, but the benefits of each method have been measured in isolation, without positive feedback from combinati...
Rock Dust Crop Dusting: Pulverized Rock Makes for Effective Pesticide
As long as there has been agriculture, there have been insects, mites, and other creatures eager to share in the bounty. Pests remain an enduring problem for agriculture. Increasingly, communities are seeing even pesticides designed to deter or eliminate pesky insects become a liability as essential pollinator populations decline, unwanted toxins infiltrate crops—endangering farmers and consumers—and insects develop resistance to traditional deterrents and poisons. One possible solution: rocks.
Crushed rocks, to be precise. Seeding mineral-poor soils with pulveri...
Barbuda Limestone Soil Crop Growth Stimulated by Montserrat Volcanic Ash
Fig. 1 Principal John Mussington surveying the plants. The plot receiving the volcanic ash on the left, and the control plot on the right.
Introduction
Soil fertility depends on the geological history of the minerals in it, climate, and their management. Oceanic islands are either limestone or volcanic, the only exception being the high granite islands in the Seychelles, an ancient small continental fragment. Most limestone islands, including all atolls, are low and flat and are much drier than the high wet volcanic islands. Volcanic islands are much more fertile, ...
Basalt Rock Dust Increases Carbon Capture Fourfold
A research team within the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation has demonstrated basalt rock dust as a method of improving crop yield and sequestering carbon.
