The sheriff called in his two most trusted deputies.  “Boys,” he said, “we’ve got ourselves a situation.”  Deputy Forrest Tree pulled up a chair as Deputy Aggie Culture sidled up against a filing cabinet.   Sheriff C. Questor* continued, ”You boys know I like to run a balanced program, but ever since the dawn of the Industrial Age we’ve been porking-up on CO2 in the atmosphere.  Now we’ve got over 40% more than has been the norm for tens of thousands of years.  Our system’s out of whack and causing problems.

        “You know we’ve been working hard to reduce the INPUT of more carbon into the atmosphere with ingenious ways to produce energy without burning carbon-releasing fossil fuels.  That’s great, but it’s not enough to get us back in balance.  Yup, you got it.  It’s round-up time.  We’ve got to round-up that excess carbon and pull it back OUT of the atmosphere.  And you’re just the team to do it!”

        The sheriff first huddled with Deputy Forrest Tree.  They made a list of priorities including: expanding reforestation of cleared areas, proper management of existing forests, expanding urban reforestation and proper fire management.

        Then he turned to Deputy Aggie Culture.  First, he reminded Aggie that some “industrial-ag” practices such as excessive use of chemical fertilizers are actually depleting carbon in the soil and sending into the atmosphere.  Fortunately, there are ways to turn that around.  Aggie’s list of priorities includes: reducing and reversing grassland conversion to tillage, use of cover crops, and better nutrient and manure management.
 
        But the champion practice for putting carbon into the soil is the use of BIOCHAR.  Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that’s made by burning organic waste material in a special process.  It then becomes a stable form of carbon that can’t easily escape into the atmosphere.  Also, the heat energy created during the process can be captured and used as a form of clean energy.  Adding biochar to the soil increases water retention, improves soil structure, decreases acidity, improves porosity, regulates nitrogen leaching, and improves microbial activity.  It’s a soil supplement powerhouse!

        Sheriff C. Questor walked his deputies to the door.  “It a big job, but we’ve got the tools to do it.  We’re counting on you because this ranch is our only home.  It’s where we’re all forever… Earthbound.”

        *Carbon Sequestration = Removing Carbon (in the form of CO2) from the atmosphere

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
                                                                                                                        Ecclesiastes 3
        “Put one less egg in the fry pan for me.” Grandpa announced as he set the basketful of fresh eggs on the pantry shelf.  “I found a cracked one in the hen house and ate it while finishing chores.”

        Grandpa and Grandma Warren had a much different mindset and relationship to the land than most of us do today.  Resources were highly valued, not to be wasted or tossed aside casually, even a cracked raw egg.  As much as possible, their farm operated under a “circular economy” where resources continually cycled through natural processes.  Cow manure fertilized the soil to grow the crops that fed the cows who produced milk and created more manure.

        Much of today’s economy operates in a more linear fashion.  We extract resources, create products, use them up and toss the residue in the landfill, down the river or into the atmosphere.  It’s a system that’s brought us great comfort and convenience while also creating problems like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating trash heap that’s twice the size of Texas.  According to the current edition of “National Geographic” two-thirds of everything we take from the Earth is wasted.  This system is destined to fail.

        It’s time for a new mindset, one in which resources continually circle back to be used again and again.  It’s time to shift to a model where trash is all but non-existent.  Pie in the sky you say?  Perhaps not; waste is a design flaw.  In the natural world there is no such thing as waste.

        Entrepreneurs and businesses are tuning in to the growing economic opportunities for repairing, reusing, refurbishing, recycling and repurposing materials and for composting and microbial digestion of biological matter.  And the use of renewable energy resources is expanding dramatically.  National Geographic states, “A world without waste sounds impossible.  But the vision of a circular economy – where we use resources sparingly and recycle materials endlessly – is inspiring businesses and environmentalist alike.”

        Ecclesiastes reminds us, ”There is a time for everything.”  Grandpa Warren would agree; NOW is the time for a shift in mindset.  Each of us in our own way can practice a more circular use of resources.  It’s the path to a brighter future here on our only home where we’re all forever… Earthbound.