Ancient Amazonian Indians 'offer' modern weapon against global warming

Washington, January 14 (ANI): Biochar, a material that the Amazonian Indians used to enhance soil fertility centuries ago, may help slow global climate change threatening the modern world, scientists have observed.

Kelli Roberts and colleagues explained how Amazonian Indians' way of combining the charcoal and organic matter into the soil to improve soil fertility sparked interest in biochar's modern potential.

Experts noted that a mass production of biochar could capture and sock away carbon that otherwise would wind up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

The study concludes that several biochar production systems have the potential for being an economically viable way of sequestering carbon permanently storing it while producing renewable energy and enhancing soil fertility.

The report was published in ACS' Environmental Science and Technology. (ANI)