Biochar: Beyond Sequestration

I’ve started work on a film about biochar.  Biochar is many things, has many uses, and can be created many ways.  It can clean up polluted water as well as filter drinking water (like activated charcoal, but at a fraction of the cost).  It has many uses in agriculture: reducing the smell of manure, helping the growth of animals, and (most importantly) helping the growth of plants.  It does this by creating living spaces for the microbes and capturing water (up to seven times it’s weight).  It will also hold onto fertilizers, so they don’t get washed away.

One of the best things about biochar is that it sequesters carbon, as it can last for a thousand years in the soil.  We need to re-sequester the carbon we have been pulling out of the ground, and we need to figure out how to pay for that sequestration.