Make Climate Goals Attainable: Remineralize croplands
A truck spreading rock dust on a field. Photo by Ilsa Kantola, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana
Paris Climate Agreement metrics are just out of reach
As of July 2021, the top 10 fossil carbon emitting nations are failing to meet their 2030 green-house gas (GHG) reduction goals, as pledged under the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement defines a hard warming limit to 2°C, but current status quo climate initiatives – even if met – will lead to a global warming of 2.6 - 3.1°C. Heating of this magnitude could set forth a cascade of irreversible effects. The ...
Murky Waters: How Sediments Impact Greenland’s Melting Ice Sheets
Image caption: The sediment-rich meltwater river originating from Leverett Glacier in southwest Greenland, pictured in June 2012. Photo credit: Jon Hawkings
Few consequences of global climate change are as notorious as melting ice sheets. However, the process responsible for this phenomenon is not as straightforward, or as well-understood, as might be imagined.
Ice sheets are masses of glacial ice that form over land, covering a minimum of 50,000 square kilometers (20,000 square miles) [1]. During Earth’s most recent ice ages, ice sheets stretching into the Arctic ...
The Threat of Thawing Permafrost: Further impetus to remineralize the Earth
Photo by Sergey Dolya, sergeydolya.livejournal.com
A subterranean threat
A new study, published by a team of geologists at the University of Bonn, has presented scientists with a new worry: thawing permafrost. In the past year, the Taymyr Peninsula in Northern Siberia recorded its hottest summer to date. From May 2020 to March 2021, arctic temperatures rose a whopping 6°C above the typical 1967-2000 baseline. While this rising temperature alone is cause for concern, the deeper issue lies below the Earth’s surface.
The Taymyr Peninsula is coated with an imperme...
Prairie Grass Systems: Texan’s Invention Remineralizes Soil While Replenishing Native Flora
Imagine an irrigation system that does not rely on clear water to run through its small tubing orifices, but rather can provide a nutritious ‘dirty’ water, filled with fine rock dust and other particulates that can optimally feed soil microbes. That will be just one of many benefits with David Munson’s Prairie Grass Systems.
“We take a water slurry mix and inject it under the plants to provide a little bit of water to the plants, but also food for the soil organisms to attack the rock dust and feed the plants,” he says about his patented invention that ...
Geology Matters: Ontario farmer uses mining background to identify better soils
John Slack at Spanish River Carbonatite Complex
Educated at the Haileybury School of Mines, John Slack is a Canadian mining technologist-turned-farmer who uses his thorough understanding of geology to promote remineralization and sustainable soil fertility.
“Promoting the use of rock dust — and the throwing away of your fertilizer bag — has been a really tough row to hoe, but we’re now going to see major breakthroughs, particularly as we move to a ‘greener’ environment, where people are thinking about this more,” he said. “The fact of the matter is it ...
Regrounding Regenerative Agriculture
Photo: Fowler Clark Epstein Urban Farm, Regenerative Design Group 2018
For decades, organic farming was considered the pinnacle of environmentally friendly agriculture. Now, another movement is gaining traction, one which goes a step beyond simply eliminating certain harmful chemicals or improving the living conditions of livestock. Regenerative agriculture sharply diverges from conventional agricultural methods, incorporating practices such as low or no-till planting, rotating crops, planting cover crops, livestock grazing, and applying compost and manure. By aiming to ...
Prof. David Manning on Rock Dust: Quarries, Breweries and Beyond
Soils are a critically important natural resource, providing us with 90% of our food, lumber for construction, and natural fibers like cotton. Through plant and microbial activity, soils also play an essential role in shaping Earth’s atmosphere. The amount of carbon cycled through the plant-soil interface every seven years is equivalent to all the carbon in the atmosphere. Soils do all of this while only covering about a quarter of Earth’s surface. Sustainable soil management is therefore essential to mitigating climate change while preserving soil as a resource for ...
New UC Davis Center Paves the Way for Rock Dust Research
If the world were to judge soil remineralization based on what could happen, rock dust amendments might already be standard procedure for the world’s farmers. The potential to use rock dust as a carbon storage tactic for climate change mitigation is well known in the scientific community, in addition to its ability to improve agricultural yields and soil health. Benefits like these are enough to make any policymaker or farmer at least consider the use of soil amendment programs, but expectations alone are not adequate to persuade any party to go “all in.”
Stakehol...
Grow Your Own Nutrition: Jon Frank on Minerals, Biochar, and Ramial Chips
This article is based on an interview of Jon Frank conducted by Joanna Campe.
Nutrient dense foods are an essential component to a healthy diet, yet they can be difficult to come by. To address this issue, Jon Frank founded Grow Your Own Nutrition, a program focused on consulting people on growing their own nutrient dense foods wherever they are. This user-friendly program can be applied to any soil type. In an interview with Joanna Campe, Frank explained the methods he used to create this program, as well as the importance of soil fertility.
Dr. Reams and ...
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 ...
