216 results for author: Joanna Campe

Remineralization Goes Mainstream: Major media outlets recognize the power of rock dust

Application of silicate material to cropland. Beerling et al. demonstrate that enhanced rock weathering, achieved by adding crushed basalt or other silicate material to soil, is an effective strategy for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Photo by: Ilsa B Kantola break Last year, the journal Nature published an immensely-popular study on remineralization. With more than 20,000 views, this article may be the most widely-read paper on enhanced weathering to date, and several major media outlets have picked up on it as well. In The Washington Post, Lindsay Layton explains clearly: “Spreading rock dust on the ground could pull carbon ...

Prairie Grass Systems: Texan’s Invention Remineralizes Soil While Replenishing Native Flora

Imagine an irrigation system that does not rely on clear water to run through its small tubing orifices, but rather can provide a nutritious ‘dirty’ water, filled with fine rock dust and other particulates that can optimally feed soil microbes. That will be just one of many benefits with David Munson’s Prairie Grass Systems.  “We take a water slurry mix and inject it under the plants to provide a little bit of water to the plants, but also food for the soil organisms to attack the rock dust and feed the plants,” he says about his patented invention that allows for maximum production of forage crops for cattle — native prairie ...

Cycling for Change: Oregon Lawyer Bikes to D.C., Promotes GHG Petition

Dan Galpern is bicycling 4,705 miles, through 19 states and two Canadian provinces, to accomplish one goal — pressure the White House to use its full executive authority in order to address climate change. During more than 11 years as a legal and policy advisor to James E. Hansen, former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, Galpern witnessed little coherence in federal climate change approaches, as the government failed to assume leadership on mitigation efforts. “No legal liability to date has been attached to prior carbon pollution, and there should be,” he says, adding fossil fuel producers have not only profited by ...

Remineralization Slam Dunk: NYC Dirtball Court Scores One for the Earth

Would you like to combine pickup basketball with offsetting carbon emissions? On Governors Island in New York City, you can! In June 2021, residents of the area gathered on the island for the grand opening of New York City’s first Dirtball court.  Dirtball is an interactive environmental art exhibit —a basketball court incorporating remineralizing concrete, a garden, and a birdhouse— designed and executed by Kosmologym, an art and game design collective with the goal of challenging players to build relationships to ecological systems.  “There’s all these layers of trying to get those playing Dirtball to recognize the different natural ...

Rock Dust Key to Club Root Cure, May Unlock 20 million + Acres For Remineralization

This is an update to our previous article: Remineralize the Earth | Plant Nutrition Technologies, Inc: Commercializing Remineralization while Protecting Waterways. Line break Remineralization truly is the gift that keeps on giving. We’ve known for decades that rock dust-based fertilizers are key to regenerative agriculture: in addition to eliminating the ills of artificial fertilizers, they foster healthy soils, grow nutrient-dense foods, and sequester carbon. But new research has discovered another application for rock dust that could protect farmlands and save the canola industry billions of dollars. Plant Nutrition Technologies, Inc. (PNTI) ...

Investing In Our Global Future: UKRI funds enhanced rock weathering research

The awesome power of rock dust will be on full display in Glasgow, Nov. 1-12, during the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Scotland’s largest city is hosting this year’s global summit, which assesses the urgency of the climate crisis and establishes legally-binding legislation for developed nations to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In preparation, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is spending US$43.8 million on demonstrator projects investigating GHG removal by enhanced rock weathering (ERW), biochar, afforestation, bioenergy crops, and peatland restoration. David Beerling, professor of Natural Sciences at ...

Geology Matters: Ontario farmer uses mining background to identify better soils

John Slack at Spanish River Carbonatite Complex Educated at the Haileybury School of Mines, John Slack is a Canadian mining technologist-turned-farmer who uses his thorough understanding of geology to promote remineralization and sustainable soil fertility. “Promoting the use of rock dust — and the throwing away of your fertilizer bag — has been a really tough row to hoe, but we’re now going to see major breakthroughs, particularly as we move to a ‘greener’ environment, where people are thinking about this more,” he said. “The fact of the matter is it does work.” Slack began his professional life employed with a progressive ...

ArtifexBalear in Mallorca: From regenerative agriculture to marine ecosystem restoration

A tour of Miquel's Farm I had the opportunity to interview Miquel Ramis, the multifaceted founder and director of ArtifexBalear, and he took me on a virtual tour of his farm. On the outskirts of Palma de Mallorca, in a forest garden brimming with raspberries and asparagus, Miquel grows around 14 varieties of different plants. They are planted and grown densely, and they are chosen for their synergy in relation to each other. In the garden, Miquel has built and installed bat houses and two prototypes of houses for insects such as ladybugs, mason bees and butterflies. The old stone finca, a 17th century estate, includes stonemasonry, blacksmithing, and ...

Plant Nutrition Technologies, Inc: Commercializing Remineralization while Protecting Waterways

It’s tough to teach an old dog a new trick, and the agricultural industry has relied on NPK fertilizers for almost 100 years with essentially no alternatives for large farms. That is to say that for a century, conventional fertilizers have been the only proven “trick” that could produce enough food for our swelling population, and so the consideration of other fertilizers has gained little ground within the large-scale agriculture industry. But as pollution and runoff from artificial fertilizers pose greater threats to human and environmental health, markets are increasingly looking for sustainable alternatives that can eliminate the waste ...

Regrounding Regenerative Agriculture

Photo: Fowler Clark Epstein Urban Farm, Regenerative Design Group 2018 For decades, organic farming was considered the pinnacle of environmentally friendly agriculture. Now, another movement is gaining traction, one which goes a step beyond simply eliminating certain harmful chemicals or improving the living conditions of livestock. Regenerative agriculture sharply diverges from conventional agricultural methods, incorporating practices such as low or no-till planting, rotating crops, planting cover crops, livestock grazing, and applying compost and manure. By aiming to not merely avoid harming the environment, but in fact actively combat global ...