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Posted by Patrick Van Haren on April 02, 2013

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New options in creating a better climate.

Almost everybody is aware of global warming and that carbon emissions are a big issue. A recent report by Dr. Johannes Lehman of Cornell University titled " Biochar reduces nasty nitrous oxide emissions on farms " highlights a significant but under-reported issue and a new potential solution. “Carbon Dioxide has a quiet but strong partner in climate warming crime – nitrous oxide. This nasty gas is usually produced on farms from animal manure waste and the use of synthetic fertilizer. In fact, nitrous oxide in agricultural soil has 298 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide.” In an urban environment, we are not worried about confined animal feeding operations, but we are still contributors to nitrous oxide production. Every compost system that is not working right (carbon to nitrogen ratios, moisture levels, etc.,) can be contributing nitrous oxide into the air. While each residence may be contributing on...

Weather Whiplash

Link to NPR story Fascinating. Does deteriorating soil quality ever get mentioned in these stories? Rarely. The ability of our soil to handle drought and flooding is determined by its quality. Quality is the amount of pores in the soil which absorb moisture. Those pores are made by microbes living off of the organic matter in the soil. When that organic matter is gone, a soil can no longer hold the flood of water. That means plants die and ground cover dies out. The next drought, that soil tightens and hardens even more. It has lost its ability hold moisture which can help it get through the drought, so now the drought is really bad. It kind of makes me think of one of those expanding spirals of crises, and with each event the crises seem to be as bad or worse than the previous ones.

Rhinoceros Beetles

We recently had some fun with our kids when we discovered a few dozen enormous Rhinoceros Beetle grubs in our shredded mulch pile. If you haven’t seen a picture of these, click here . While some people might get an ick reaction, the fact is that these indigenous critters are very high in protein (40%) and could be an important food resource in times of desperation. One report suggests that the larvae sell as pets for $3000/lb in Japan (for grubs in excellent condition). This link shows the grubs cooked up Thai style with a coconut sauce. For the kids that really want to get grossed out, check out this youtube link of some tough guy eating the grubs raw. I figure that the idea of eating grubs can’t be too far off from eating shrimp. We were fortunate to discover these critters (about 60 of them) growing in a poly bin of 10 month old shredded leaves. Last fall, we collected about 70 bags of neighbors fall leaves. We shredded ab...

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