The Institute For Carbon And Nutrient Sequestration
Catchments and Carbon
Introduction
The correlation between global temperature rise and increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is used as definitive proof that emissions of carbon, as the dioxide, are the cause of climate change. The media in particular have closed down discussion of the phenomena and any attempt to raise the issue is effectively banned as heretical.
Governments, in the UK and elsewhere, are being pushed into accepting a zero carbon target as a major plank of policy. Primary within this policy is the abolition of coal, oil and hydrocarbons as a source of energy and transport fuel.
At one time the presentation of theories and hypotheses into the education system were closely policed in order to avoid the charge of brainwashing and indoctrination. These descriptors were usually reserved for totalitarian systems of government who could ill afford the free thinking of the scientific method to impact on their dictates.
Yet, without discussion or permission, zero carbon will apply and impact on society from henceforth and a “GCE “ will be introduced to assist our children into the brave new world of zero carbon.
Large amounts of taxation, disguised as subsidy, a more palatable word, are being raised from the people to expend by offshore companies on wind turbines and solar farms. Sadly the replacement of fuel for thirty million cars powered by hydrocarbons with electricity will require far more wind than even the politicians are able to raise.
Perhaps one should also point out that banning fossil fuels in their entirety will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by only some thirteen percent of total from all sources and will impact not at all on the climate change model put forward nor the actual instability being experienced.
The correlation mentioned above comes from pairing temperature rise with carbon dioxide concentration. However correlation is not causation and there are other correlations the examination of which provide the basis for a more scientific and rigorous hypothesis for climate instability.
Perhaps it would be wise to consider alternate scenarios for what should be defined as “climate instability” rather than the official global warming scenario.
This site and the accompanying book examine a number of the carbon emissions from the other sources listed by the IPCC and link the emission to the impact that they have on the natural environment.
In particular the book examines the present system of agriculture and demonstrates that in its entirety a major impact is being imposed on the hydrological cycle of the planet and that this is the true cause of the present weather disruption being experienced.
A second activity, deforestation, reinforces the first disruption of the water cycle and together they represent a major threat to the world climate that will not be in anyway stabilized by the end of fossil fuel use.
The destabilization of the worlds weather system goes hand in hand with the disruption of natural ecosystems. The air, water and soil compartments are all under threat from the disruption of the main ecosystem components. These are soil carbon being oxidized and emitted into the air, nitrogen, mainly as ammonia and nitrate from fertilizer now polluting aquifers and rivers and phosphorous, a scarce resource, once again damaging the aqueous environment.
Part two of the book and the site examines the methodology pioneered in sequestering these nutrients and the soft engineering required to stabilize our catchments against flooding.
The situation
The present scenario for “climate change” presents a simplistic correlation between temperature increase and carbon dioxide concentrations. Areas of impact are examined such as fossil fuel use, coal, oil, and the emissions are added up to produce an emissions inventory. In theory the atmospheric carbon dioxide is supposed to trap heat, as infra red, and is therefore the main contributor to global warming.
Carbon however is the fundamental element of organic life. To remove it from an ecosystem is to turn an active biological microcosm which supports all life on the planet into a sterile sandy desert devoid of all life.
Within this change lies the true reason for rapid and unstable temperature rise. All life processes require water for their activity. Carbon, as humic material, is the magic ingredient that holds water into soil and binds the soil together. Remove carbon, release the water and the soil is dead.
Furthermore the water content is the heat transfer fluid for the planet. Puncture and drain a radiator in a car and in a very short time the engine overheats and seizes up, remove water from soil and the ecosystem of the world becomes unstable and can no longer balance the heat flux of the planet.
Furthermore water, as the universal solvent, is the medium within the soil in which microbiological and nutrient cycles operate. Bacteria are responsible for fixing carbon and nitrogen into the soil to be made available to plants. Bacteria and fungi together extract phosphorous from clay and minerals to complete the life cycles of plants.
The mass balance that kept these cycles in equilibrium with deep organic soils fed and maintained by nutrient from cattle have now been disrupted by force feeding of nitrogen and phosphorous into soils that are devoid of carbon.
Application of large amounts of fertilizer, as well as producing poor quality food, severely damages aquifers, rivers and the sea. The key elements of our food and ecosystem, water, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous have been disassembled into a broken jigsaw that people struggle to reassemble.
Damaging the soil in this way sends signals to the rest of nature and the healthy microcosm of soil life is replaced by pests and damaging fungi which then require the spraying of toxic materials to preserve the crop in good condition.
Unfortunately this deadly cycle of damage and poisoning of the environment is now widespread and efforts are being made to redress the balance.
For the Institute the process of remediation and repair begins with the concept of catchment management by first of all sequestering carbon into the soil and water to the environment. Engineering is a function of shaping soil, clay and plants whilst minimizing concrete and steel
Systems built in this way can deal with storm overflow (of sewage), sewage itself, thereby returning carbon and other nutrients to the soil and ammonia and nitrates can be removed from river and aquifer water. A knowledge of soil and plant science enables polluting phosphorous to be sequestered and the toxic pesticides to be removed from farm runoff.
The Institute has proven over many years that biological nutrient recovery is a feasible option for many of our pollution problems.
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