By Alisha Fowler, Breakthrough Generation Fellow

This month's issue of Plenty Magazine put a spotlight on biochar, a type of charcoal produced from plant matter that could revolutionize our farmland and curb global warming emissions on a global scale.

Biochar's roots are found in ancient Amazonia. While much of the soil found in the Amazon basin today appears yellowish and barren, it is dotted with patches of rich, black loam pointing to the existence - or signs of the previous existence - of a much richer substrate. Archaeological evidence reveals that Pre-Colombian Amazonian farmers sustainably managed their cropland by mixing charcoal and fish bones into their soil. Amazonian charcoal prevented the leaching of nutrients out of the soil, increased available nutrients for plant growth, increased water retention, and reduced the amount of needed fertilizer. While their specific recipe for success is long gone, farmers today could sow Amazonian charcoals modern equivalent, biochar, into their fields and reap the same sweet rewards.

Beyond enriching the soil in the bread bowl of the world, biochar could significantly curb global warming emissions. All plants absorb carbon dioxide as they grow and the gas is released back into the atmosphere when the plants decompose. But, converting plants into charcoal at the end of their lifecycles can stabilize their carbon, preventing any re-release. Charcoal can store carbon for hundreds or even thousands of years, far longer than the lifespan of a leafy green plant. Biochar has also been shown to decrease nitrous oxide and methane emissions from soil, further reducing greenhouse gas emissions. When plant matter is charred, it gives off fumes that can be condense into a carbon-negative bio-oil capable of powering an engine.

Agriculture only accounted for 6.2 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2005, but biochar's influence could extend beyond the realm of traditional agriculture and absorb greenhouse gases from all activities. Biochar could, in theory, solve our global warming woes. According to Robert Brown, director of Iowa State University's Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies and International Biochar Initiative Advisory Committee Member , charring half the crop residues from one square mile of farmland would lock away enough carbon to offset the emissions from 330 vehicles. Extrapolate this to a global scale and bio-oil and biochar production could sequester roughly 9.5 billion metric tons of carbon every year, more than enough to offset all global emissions today.

There are considerable downsides with any developing technology and biochar is no exception. Careless biochar production could produce dangerous toxic waste. The energy needed to produce and transport biochar could also outweigh the carbon-storing benefits if traditional energy sources such as petroleum are utilized for these steps. The downsides, however, seem far less significant than burning copious amounts of fossil fuels for the rest of eternity.

While there are certainly drawbacks and much to learn about the production of biochar, one thing is clear: the biggest barriers to developing this new technology are economic. If aggressively pursued, this technological solution could be cheap, easy and help us reduce dangerous emissions, fast. To me, biochar is a potentially powerful global solution worth seriously exploring. Let's break through the economic barriers, and create a market for this powerful earth and climate scrubber.