sam, there is also an issue of population growth, slash and burn was okay in a non-industrial society with few people, but with a population explosion, and in the context of additional problems from industrial pollution, it increasingly becomes problematic, Michel 2011/2/14 Samuel Rose <[email protected]>
2011/2/8 Michel Bauwens <[email protected]>:
http://www.gaiafoundation.org/content/highlights-2010-and-path-ahead
Dear Carolina,
I wonder if you had any comment on this? Is this a good thing?
Michel
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An aside: I thought it was interesting that Gaia Foundation lists http://www.gaiafoundation.org/content/biochar as a "False Solution".
Christoph Steiner has some serious research work into biochar and terra preta/terra mulata http://biochar.bioenergylists.org/?q=taxonomy/term/118 and the archaeology of biochar in Amazonia.
Janice Thies's work is also worth reading on this subject http://css.cals.cornell.edu/cals/css/people/faculty.cfm?netId=jet25
Turns out that biochar at least *was* part of the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples of Amazonia (and North America). It was even part of the very ecology itself (natural ecologies evolved and adapted to human fire activities on both continents. We can still see this today in species like the Jack Pine native to my home here in Michigan http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_22664-60337--,00.html which adapted to a landscape where indigenous peoples regularly started fires).
The contrasting argument is that the ecology of biomass in those times likely was able to easily afford regular burning, where now massive deforestation has reduced the global capacity. Still, I think the ecologies of Amazonia totally change without indigenous people and fire transforming the landscapes. It is part of the real heritage of the place from what I understand.
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