The Weird Wild Wonderful World of Biochar – with Tom Miles, Kelpie Wilson, Myles Gray, and Josh

What is biochar and why should we care about it? A roundtable discussion with veterans of the biochar world.

Tom Miles –  TR Miles Consultants (ag and bioenergy) and US Biochar Initiative

Kelpie Wilson – Wilson Biochar

Myles Gray – US Biochar Initiative

Josh Kearns – A Field Guide to Biochar Water Treatment

Interest in biochar – “charcoal, with a purpose” – has been growing for 20 years. Biochar can enhance garden and agricultural soils and improve crop yields, provide a mechanism for drawdown and sequestering of atmospheric carbon, and provide a tunable engineered sorbent for a variety of water treatment and environmental remediation applications.

In this conversation, we discuss contemporary innovations and developments for using biochar to tackle a variety of sustainability challenges.

2024 North American Biochar Conference

February 12-14, 2024

Sacramento, CA

In this episode, Ashley and Jason talk with Michel Bauwens about his work developing ideas for a ‘cosmo-local’ society through the power of horizontal P2P networks, a reimagining of the commons, and crypto. Along the way they talk about ascending and descending civilizations, why he thinks we’re in a descending one, and what that potentiates in terms of reinvigorating local societies and provisioning systems through the power of superlinear collaboration networks

Michel’s work can be found here:

https://4thgenerationcivilization.substack.com/

https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Category:Civilizational_Analysis

For decades, indigenous communities in the Amazonian region of Ecuador have been impacted by petrochemical exploitation and monocultural ag for export. They have suffered from pollution and associated ill health effects, economic insecurity, and encroachment on their traditional territories from roads, oil wells, pipelines, and industrial ag plantations.

Grassroots groups such as Amisacho Restauracion and La Clinica Ambiental have been working with locals to develop permaculture and agroecology approaches to preserving rainforest biodiversity and deriving sustainable livelihoods.

In this conversation we delve into the environmental history of region and the work of Lexie Gropper and Luis Munoz at Amisacho. For example, they have developed a system for climbing morete palm trees and other large trees in the rainforest to harvest fruit without needing to cut the trees down. They have developed equipment for processing morete palm fruits and other foraged items from the jungle into preserved foodstuffs, skin and health care products, essential oils and natural medicines. And they’re developing new approaches to making biochar for water treatment and soil amendment from local waste biomass that otherwise is burned for disposal.

Ashley speaks with Geoffrey, @‌longstoryfarms, about his adventures away from home, including time spent in Chile, and his moving back home to be a productive member of his community.

Ashley and Feidhlim Harty of Ireland talk about ecological approaches to water, sewage treatment, constructed wetlands, and more.

Feidhlim runs FH Wetland Systems - Creating Spaces for Nature. Find more info at: https://www.wetlandsystems.ie

Join our book club community as Ashley, Donald, AC, Tiffani,

Tres and Simon delve into the urgent question: What are we going to do with the suburbs? As they discuss the repercussions of unrestrained suburban expansion and its impact on the environment, you'll gain insights into the challenges of unchecked growth, from encroaching wildlife to insurance woes. Join the conversation to explore alternative approaches to suburban living and sustainable urban development.

Ashley sits down with Andy and Keturah to talk about a future-oriented nomadic culture, drawing from the best of the past and the present. They also drop some exciting news at the beginning of the chat!

Follow Andy and Keturah on twitter:

https://twitter.com/shagbark_hick

https://twitter.com/KeturahAbigail

Read Andy’s substack at:

https://shagbark.substack.com/

Jason speaks with Elle (@neolithicrnsnc ) and Chaos (@chaosprime) about their village project World Tree house (@WorldTreeHealth ), Elle’s focus on creating a healing and meditation center and Chaos’s focus on building out the infrastructure for an off grid community. Along the way they discuss their diagnosis of the trajectory of society and how they see their project as a way to “rebuild before the collapse”

Ashley and Roland talk with Jonathan Rawles, son of famous survivalist James Wesley Rawles about religion, localism in the inner mountain west, the state of the redoubt movement and our thoughts on white nationalism.