Burn

In order to rescue ourselves from climate catastrophe, we have to reverse the flow of greenhouse gases and send them down, not up. An ancient practice - the transformation of impoverished soils into fertile black earth by converting organic materials into long lasting carbon - points the way. Yet the benefits of this carbonized material, now called biochar, extend far beyond soil. Employed to its full potential, it can run the carbon cycle in reverse, moving carbon from wasted resource:

• into agricultural systems, rebalancing the carbon, nitrogen, and related cycles; enhancing nutrient density; and conditioning land to withstand flooding and drought

• to cleanse water by carbon filtration and trophic cascades

• to shift urban infrastructures - buildings, roads, bridges, and ports - to incorporate drawdown materials and components

• to drive economic reorganization to incentivize 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 with bold new solutions to climate change that can begin right now.