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Burn: Igniting a New Carbon Drawdown Economy to End the Climate Crisis
An 800-CEO-READ "Editor's Choice" March 2019
How We Can Harness Carbon to Help Solve the Climate Crisis
In order to rescue ourselves from climate catastrophe, we need to radically alter how humans live on Earth. We have to go from spending carbon to banking it. We have to put back the trees, wetlands, and corals. We have to regrow the soil and turn back the desert. We have to save whales, wombats, and wolves. We have to reverse the flow of greenhouse gases and send them in exactly the opposite direction: down, not up. We have to flip the carbon cycle and run it backwards. For such a revolutionary transformation we'll need civilization 2.0.
A secret unlocked by the ancients of the Amazon for its ability to transform impoverished tropical soils into terra preta--fertile black earths--points the way. The indigenous custom of converting organic materials into long lasting carbon has enjoyed a reawakening in recent decades as the quest for more sustainable farming methods has grown. Yet the benefits of this carbonized material, now called biochar, extend far beyond the soil. Pyrolyzing carbon has the power to restore a natural balance by unmining the coal and undrilling the oil and gas. Employed to its full potential, it can run the carbon cycle in reverse and remake Earth as a garden planet.
Burn looks beyond renewable biomass or carbon capture energy systems to offer a bigger and bolder vision for the next phase of human progress, moving carbon from wasted sources into soils and agricultural systems to rebalance the carbon, nitrogen, and related cycles; enhance nutrient density in food; rebuild topsoil; and condition urban and agricultural lands to withstand flooding and drought; to cleanse water by carbon filtration and trophic cascades within the world's rivers, oceans, and wetlands; to shift urban infrastructures such as buildings, roads, bridges, and ports, incorporating drawdown materials and components, replacing steel, concrete, polymers, and composites with biological carbon to drive economic reorganization by incentivizing carbon drawdown
Fully developed, this approach costs nothing--to the contrary, it can save companies money or provide new revenue streams. It contains the seeds of a new, circular economy in which energy, natural resources, and human ingenuity enter a virtuous cycle of improvement. Burn offers bold new solutions to climate change that can begin right now.
How We Can Harness Carbon to Help Solve the Climate Crisis
In order to rescue ourselves from climate catastrophe, we need to radically alter how humans live on Earth. We have to go from spending carbon to banking it. We have to put back the trees, wetlands, and corals. We have to regrow the soil and turn back the desert. We have to save whales, wombats, and wolves. We have to reverse the flow of greenhouse gases and send them in exactly the opposite direction: down, not up. We have to flip the carbon cycle and run it backwards. For such a revolutionary transformation we'll need civilization 2.0.
A secret unlocked by the ancients of the Amazon for its ability to transform impoverished tropical soils into terra preta--fertile black earths--points the way. The indigenous custom of converting organic materials into long lasting carbon has enjoyed a reawakening in recent decades as the quest for more sustainable farming methods has grown. Yet the benefits of this carbonized material, now called biochar, extend far beyond the soil. Pyrolyzing carbon has the power to restore a natural balance by unmining the coal and undrilling the oil and gas. Employed to its full potential, it can run the carbon cycle in reverse and remake Earth as a garden planet.
Burn looks beyond renewable biomass or carbon capture energy systems to offer a bigger and bolder vision for the next phase of human progress, moving carbon from wasted sources into soils and agricultural systems to rebalance the carbon, nitrogen, and related cycles; enhance nutrient density in food; rebuild topsoil; and condition urban and agricultural lands to withstand flooding and drought; to cleanse water by carbon filtration and trophic cascades within the world's rivers, oceans, and wetlands; to shift urban infrastructures such as buildings, roads, bridges, and ports, incorporating drawdown materials and components, replacing steel, concrete, polymers, and composites with biological carbon to drive economic reorganization by incentivizing carbon drawdown
Fully developed, this approach costs nothing--to the contrary, it can save companies money or provide new revenue streams. It contains the seeds of a new, circular economy in which energy, natural resources, and human ingenuity enter a virtuous cycle of improvement. Burn offers bold new solutions to climate change that can begin right now.
303 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 26, 2019
26 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 24, 2019
I am obviously biased because I co-authored this book, but I was away from it for more than 6 months after I last saw the galleys (while teaching permaculture in Western China) and then was out of the reach of FedEx and DHL when it was printed, so I had to wait until it got to Audible and download the audiobook to see what I had done, and how faithfully it had been reproduced.
First off, I have nothing but praise for Tia Rider, the audiobook's voice actor. It was a bit odd to hear my thoughts spoken as if by a woman author but she really did it well. I believe she actually improved the book by how she chose to emphasize or de-emphasize words and phrases. I was very impressed.
The book, whether read or listened to, is the product of many years of travel, interviews, studies of the scientific literature and contemplation. It takes a hyperwicked problem — climate change — and breaks it apart, into discrete solutions that can be combined into a holistic approach Kathleen Draper and I called carbon cascades. We looked at the ways in which civilization has become a heat engine and what it would take to decouple human well-being from waste, heat included. That led us on a search that became an adventure that became a thrilling conclusion: climate change can be reversed! Our proposal is for a displacement strategy that uses more carbon, not less.
The star of this show is carbon, a miraculous element that makes life as we know it possible. We have had a wrong-headed approach to carbon since we first discovered fire. It is not too late to change, but what that change will bring is a complete revolution on a par with the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the digital revolution. What had seemed an expensive nightmare making climate scientists and policymakers white-knuckled is instead an enormously profitable opportunity that will keep business entrepreneurs busy for centuries.
I could say more, but readers need to discover this for themselves.
First off, I have nothing but praise for Tia Rider, the audiobook's voice actor. It was a bit odd to hear my thoughts spoken as if by a woman author but she really did it well. I believe she actually improved the book by how she chose to emphasize or de-emphasize words and phrases. I was very impressed.
The book, whether read or listened to, is the product of many years of travel, interviews, studies of the scientific literature and contemplation. It takes a hyperwicked problem — climate change — and breaks it apart, into discrete solutions that can be combined into a holistic approach Kathleen Draper and I called carbon cascades. We looked at the ways in which civilization has become a heat engine and what it would take to decouple human well-being from waste, heat included. That led us on a search that became an adventure that became a thrilling conclusion: climate change can be reversed! Our proposal is for a displacement strategy that uses more carbon, not less.
The star of this show is carbon, a miraculous element that makes life as we know it possible. We have had a wrong-headed approach to carbon since we first discovered fire. It is not too late to change, but what that change will bring is a complete revolution on a par with the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the digital revolution. What had seemed an expensive nightmare making climate scientists and policymakers white-knuckled is instead an enormously profitable opportunity that will keep business entrepreneurs busy for centuries.
I could say more, but readers need to discover this for themselves.
April 20, 2021
This book has some good information for the use of charcoal (bio-char in their words). The issue with the book, which is actually addressed in one of the last chapters is that they sell the charcoal as the savior of the earth, something that should be used for absolutely everything when its not even a fraction of what needs to be done to help save our environment. Though there are some very good uses for charcoal and derivatives, the author sold them as these insane innovations that will create hundreds of billions of dollars. They really missed out on two major points that should cause readers to view their solutions in a different light.
1. Charcoal/bio-char has been around for a long long time. When it was discovered that they could use it as fertilizer it became known as potash (ash found in the pots where people burned wood and other bio materials), this was the precursor for artificial fertilizers. Though this was great for food production is was awful for the environment. so many people started burning trees down for potash that they deforested huge areas and caused extensive damage to our air. Those effects are still felt and can be viewed in many places.
2. The author seems to completely look the other way when it comes to the amount of energy it takes to convert bio products into charcoal/bio-char. The amount of emissions coming out of the process are not outweighed some of the uses of charcoal.
This book was clearly written by someone who has done a lot of research, they present a bunch of figures, but they seem to have missed the point. Giving me a list of 1000 uses for charcoal doesn't prove that its good for the environment, it just shows that we are very good at shaping chemical structures to fit our consumer needs.
I hope readers see the discrepancies in the book (stating that total emissions are 30 gigatons in one chapter and then 60+ in another) as a sign of how much work needs to be put in to quantify how much we need to do, and to challenge the status quo.
1. Charcoal/bio-char has been around for a long long time. When it was discovered that they could use it as fertilizer it became known as potash (ash found in the pots where people burned wood and other bio materials), this was the precursor for artificial fertilizers. Though this was great for food production is was awful for the environment. so many people started burning trees down for potash that they deforested huge areas and caused extensive damage to our air. Those effects are still felt and can be viewed in many places.
2. The author seems to completely look the other way when it comes to the amount of energy it takes to convert bio products into charcoal/bio-char. The amount of emissions coming out of the process are not outweighed some of the uses of charcoal.
This book was clearly written by someone who has done a lot of research, they present a bunch of figures, but they seem to have missed the point. Giving me a list of 1000 uses for charcoal doesn't prove that its good for the environment, it just shows that we are very good at shaping chemical structures to fit our consumer needs.
I hope readers see the discrepancies in the book (stating that total emissions are 30 gigatons in one chapter and then 60+ in another) as a sign of how much work needs to be put in to quantify how much we need to do, and to challenge the status quo.
October 4, 2024
I'll start by saying I still don't exactly understand how biochar is a carbon sink, but I think the Amazonian farmers who used it to build a solid agricultural system in the middle of the forest can attest to its efficacy. Bates takes us on a whirlwind tour of the many uses of biochar, from the systemic to the (literally) cosmetic, sequestering carbon at every turn and embedding it into every facet of our infrastructure. Far from a simple soil emendation, biochar can be added into cement, mixed into cow feed (reducing methane emissions), and used to purify water. Aside from these more structural uses, I for one was pretty floored by the many examples of complex pyrolytic reactions involving algae, from which derive both emendations, edible proteins, and potentially fuel. Bates's approach centers on creating closed loops around carbon which allow us to fully utilize its life-giving energy without seeping into the atmosphere. Perhaps the most exciting personally was a closed-loop methane system with the potential to turn dairy farming into a carbon sink. Much research to be followed up on.
December 30, 2019
First off, the title has nothing to do with the book. It's about biochar, which I also agree has potential to significantly help the earth regain balance. I totally agree with about 3/4 off this book. But the author is a lawyer not an engineer so he misses the big picture. However I appreciate the research. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Overall there is some great information in this book and I'm very excited to see where biochar can take us, but it's not as easy and cheap as the author makes it sound.
August 7, 2023
I enjoyed the book immensely. It shows a lot of what can be done to reduce carbon instead of sitting around and wringing our hands or desecrating our environment by blowing the tops off mountains for wind power project of dubious value. Nor does it seek to promote saving the environment through the exploitation of a minor. As one of the other reviewers of the book stated, if the assertions are only half true the possibilities are great. A few of the suggestions in the book seemed to me to be open to the potential for unintended consequences downstream. The book is a long promotional piece on the potential for reducing carbon emissions through the use of biochar. I wish those promoted by the book every bit of success possible.
If you want to read an environmental piece on the ability to solve environmental problems through science rather than socialist social engineering, I recommend this book.
If you want to read an environmental piece on the ability to solve environmental problems through science rather than socialist social engineering, I recommend this book.
May 31, 2019
This book presented a lot of inspiring opportunities to utilize carbon to our benefit. I enjoyed the discussions of emerging technologies and the carbon math calculations - both make the book a true guiding document to interrupt the status quo and turn carbon from foe to friend.
August 20, 2019
Thorough overview of biochar and multiple applications. Important for its carbon sequestering properties and versatility for a lot of different products. Possible replacement for many current materials which are not environmentally friendly.
May 20, 2021
eye opening ways to sequester carbon with waste forest and agricultural and the multiple ways to sequester for hundreds, even thousands, of years. For Ag it's a win-win for the soil and for the climate
December 29, 2019
Great way thinking out of the box using biochar
August 24, 2020
If half of what is claimed in this book is true, bio char and it's derivatives will play a huge role in the future of a sustainable energy and farming economy. The books cites many footnotes and is presented very scientifically, some of it being beyond my capabilities to fully understand. The author does break it down into laymens terms most of the time, and sometime I just had to accept the scenarios as cause for optimism that we still may have a chance to reverse the trend of buring up the planet by using the "pyrolating" method to create a material , bio char, that can be cascaded down ward into so many uses there is very little or no waste. Well worth the time to read, if even to skim or use as a reference.
August 18, 2019
Biochar - sounds like its the answer to everything.
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May 10, 2019Fascinating, suggesting many new ways to sequester carbon using char. I'm removing it from my GR queue because while I will likely soldier through it when I feel in need of something heavy and relevant to read, that's really not how I want to use GR.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews