ATHENS, Ga./EWORLDWIRE/June 9, 2004 --- The head of the University of Georgia's Biological and Agricultural Engineering department, Dr. Dale Threadgill, opens the landmark Energy & Agricultural Carbon Utilization Symposium at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education on June 10. The two-day symposium and the VIP session Friday afternoon coinciding with the closing of the G8 Summit on Sea Island, Georgia, will disclose evidence from worldwide experts in both renewable energy production and agricultural carbon utilization for a sustainable and attainable future. Speakers include scientists from energy and agricultural research facilities around the world that have been studying these two separate but merging tracks to sustainability.
A historical perspective of agricultural carbon amendments by ancient Amerindians will be provided by archaeologist Dr. William Denevan, professor emeritus of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, anthropologist Dr. Clark Erickson, University of Pennsylvania, and soil scientist, geographer, archaeologist Dr. William Woods, Southern Illinois University. Dr. Don Reicosky, USDA Agricultural Research Service, will present impacts of intensive farming on soil carbon, crop productivity and climate change.
Dr. Makato Ogawa, Director, Biological and Environment Institute, Kanso Ltd, Kansai Electric Power Company, Japan's second largest electric power company along with Dr. Yasuyuki Okimori and Dr. Kunio Kawamoto will present studies on carbon amended soil fertility, longevity of amended carbon in soils and economic evaluation of large scale carbon amended soils for clean development mechanism sequestration strategies.
Austrian research scientist Christoph Steiner will present a multi-year study of carbon-amended soil. Steiner and collaborating scientists from several countries conducted field demonstrations recreating ancient man-made soils from Brazil called "terra preta". Dr. Johannes Lehman and a team from Cornell University will offer additional evidence of the terra preta soil phenomena and performance of the man-made carbon amended soils. Presenting scientists offer an elegant yet sustainable marriage of energy with agriculture where topsoil improves with each year of farming increasing yields.
In short, energy production releases carbon to the atmosphere accelerating greenhouse gas buildup and climate change. Agriculture is plagued with degraded soils, which have lost essential carbon and trace minerals from intensive farming or erosion. Since topsoil contains more than four times the quantity of carbon than the atmosphere, energy with agricultural carbon utilization offers an economical win-win solution to climate change mitigation. It can even lead to carbon negative energy supplies. If widely adopted, renewable and clean energy plus the utilization of agricultural carbon amendments for topsoil restoration offers a sustainable future.
For more information please visit the symposium website at http://www.georgiaitp.org/carbon
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