One of the worlds leading Soil Carbon activists and NSW farmer Michael Kiely [pictured] is the Convener of the Carbon Coalition & Carbon Farming . Today he writes to the Agmates community:
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We wish to thank you for the part you played in 2008 to make it the “(Unofficial) Year of Soil Carbon” in Australia.
Your actions – though you may have been unaware of it at the time – helped elevate the issue to the point of consideration. The Government has been forced to take a stand on soil carbon and the Opposition has pushed them into a corner to. Such fun!
The success we had made the year just gone a very happy one for all who understand the value of soil. Your actions gave us the will to persevere. And this is the Year to Persevere as Australia becomes the “Crucible” in which the fate of the issue could be decided for other nations as well, by precedent.
For 2009, to coincide with the run up to the IPCC’s Copenhagen meeting, we would like to be staging a global event in the form of a “Virtual Real Time Webcast Conference”. It could link 5 continents and continue for 24 hours, with all sessions being streamed continuously from the moment they are held – creating a range of blog and discussion groups interactions that could go on for months afterwards.
- Imagine the first nation to speak as the dawn crosses the International Dateline – Tuvalu. An island nation that is sinking beneath the Pacific. The world needs to know about the refugee calamity that could dwarf anything seen before. And conflict between peoples for resources is what leads to genocide. That’s the downside.
- Next comes New Zealand – a country ‘saturated’ in soil carbon, according to the scientific establishment.
- Then on to Australia where a new term has been coined for our ancient, degraded soils: “buggered.” But carbon farmers are registering 1% to 2% increases in soil carbon in less than 12 months -it’s all in the biology, the conventional soil scientist’s blindspot.
- Next we have the lead country in this unique global gathering. China can turn on a sixpence, as they demonstrated with the Olympics, and we would have world-beating examples of tillage engineering and mulches, etc
- Then on to South America for a stunning array of world’s best practice tillage and especially Maria Cristina’s pastures that grow so much carbon.
- Next stop Columbus, Ohio….
And on to Copenhagen where China, India and the US jointly announce that they will join the global effort from the next period if they can count the vast amounts of soil carbon they can sequester – in other words they insist on “special case” treatment for soil carbon because of the unique role it can play in buying us time (by sequestering large tonnages over 20-30 years while the low emissions energy alternatives gain critical mass).
“You have got to have a vision,” said William Albrecht. “Unless you do, nature will never reveal herself.”
Cheers
Happy Old Year- Michael
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