Global Climate Solutions

By Ryan D. Hottle

Dr. R. K. Pachauri graced the Columbia University campus this morning for an unveiling of a Masters Program in Sustainable Development sponsored by the MacAurthur Foundation.  Led by the initiative of Jeffery Sachs and John MacAuthur, the educational program seeks to develop an international cooperative learning structure using advancements in information and communications technologies to train the next generation of environmental and social leaders.

Often times when I hear professors and/or famous-people-in-suits speak at conferences or panels,  I walk away thinking, “if they only understood the real threats of climate change, peak oil and myriad of other environmental and economic challenges that are facing us.”  That wasn’t quite the case with Pachauri, however.  As Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), he’s got a pretty good inkling as to what’s coming for us if we stay on the business-as-usual track: complete, devastating, and irreversible climatic destablization.  

I had the opportunity at the end of the panel discussion to ask him on his take on the climate.  He said he remained “optimistic.”  I then proceeded to ask him what he thought about Dr. James Hansen’s research which suggests 350 ppm (NOT 450 or 550 ppm) was the safe upper limit of CO2 in the atmosphere.  He said that he was very sympathetic to Hansen’s research and likewise believed that we need to drastically reduce emissions.

I then asked the question I’ve been posing to a great deal of my professors here at Columbia: Do you know about “Biochar”?

Biochar is quite well be the most promising technology of the 21st century to help solve global climate change, global hunger, and produce energy.  In a single process called “pyrolysis,” we have the ability to generate clean energy, sequester significant quantities of CO2 and produce a powerful soil ammendment to boot.

Pachauri’s response: No.  Never heard of it, at which time I had ready a business card on the back of which the printed clearly the words:

“Dr. Johannes Lehmann, Cornell University,“

I briefly explained the concept of carbon negative energy production.  The IPCC Chairman said he thought that this sort of bioenergy technology sounded very promising and said he would look more into it but that he was late for lunch.

Let’s hope he does.