A way out of the current climate crisis. And a way forward for the valuation of ecosystem services.
This presentation by Dr. Ranil Senanayake describes the important role that photosynthetic biomass plays in maintaining and regulating crucial life support systems, such as oxygen, water-cycling and soil creation. The valuation of photosynthetic biomass has the potential to offer livelihood opportunities for the world's rural people and at the same time offers an investment opportunity that could restore and maintain healthy ecosystems.
Presentation: Farmer-led climate adaptation - Project launch and overview by ...
A way out
1. A way out of the current global crisis
by looking
"Beyond the Current Appreciation of
Climate Change and Bio Mass"
Ranil Senanayake
frsensanayake@gmail.com
2. Biomass
• Biomass is the physical
weight (accumulation) of
photosynthetic and
biosynthetic compounds.
It is counted as a total of
both living and non living
compounds
3. Why is biomass important ?
• It represents the fixed carbon content of any
place.
• It represents the productivity of any place.
• It contains a component that is vital to the
sustainability of life on this planet
‘Photosynthetic Biomass’ (PB)
• It represents the ecological capital of any
place.
4. Biomass is created through photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis is the process that binds solar energy into a long
lived, usable form. It is energy in this form, that powers much of
the activity of life
• Light energy is absorbed by
various specialized organic
compounds in plants such as
chlorophyll, which conduct the
process of Photosynthesis
• CO2+H2O + Sunlight -> Sugars
+ O2
6. Why is Biodiversity important ?
Trees account for only 1% of the biodiversity of any forest
• It represents the network of
living organisms that make up
an ecosystem. The more
complex or diverse the
ecosystem the more
sustainable it is.
• It is a record of the history of
life at any given place. It
suggests the most appropriate
ecosystems for any area.
• It provides the indicators by
which change can be assessed.
• It contains organic information
that will be critical for future
industry
7. The diversity of life cycles Carbon and locks up
the excess into the fossil pool
8. Two visions of oil
• In Sri Lanka, an official communiqué displayed
in the nation’s newspapers states “No oil
means no development, and less oil, less
development. It is oil that keeps the wheels
of development moving”. Sri Lankan
Government communiqué 1979
• In Ecuador, the Shuar an Amazonian tribe
under whose land lies massive deposits of oil,
oppose its mining, they say : “Oil represents
the spirits of the dead ask it for power and
you scarifice your children”(CESR, 2000)
9. The myth of Economic
Development through
consumption leads to
oil addiction
12. Why Biotic Carbon is different to
fossil carbon
• Biotic (biological) Carbon
• Biotic Carbon - has a very significant chemical signature in
the ratio of its 13C to 12C and always contains the isotope
14C.
• Biotic Carbon has sequestration rates measured in tens of
thousands years
• Fossil Carbon
• Fossil Carbon lacks 14C and has a lower 13C to 12C ratio
does not belong in the modern or biotic cycle.
• Fossil Carbon has sequestration rates measured in tens of
millions years
14. The Drivers of Climate Change
• 1. An addiction to fossil fuels
• 2 Irresponsible consumerism as a driver of
‘development’.
• 3 Diminution of the natural cooling factor
• 4 The subsidy enjoyed by fossil energy.
Global Warming is the consequence
15. Has Global Cooling a role in
Climate Change ?
• Cooling actions on the ambient temperature of the
planet :
• Evapotranspiration
• Albedo
• Shading
• Upwelling
16. Water functions of Photosynthetic Biomass
1.Cleaning groundwater
2. Cooling ambient environment
3. Contributing Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN)
4.Cycling the atmospheric water reservoir (over
28,300 GT/yr)
17. Photosynthetic Biomass
Cooling the Ambient
Environment
• 1 Tree = 10 AC units, 120,000 x 10 = 1,200,000
BTU /day
• 450 trees /ac = 540,000,000 BTU/day
• 1100 trees /ha = 594,000,000,000 BTU/day
• Cooling loss per minute through forest loss =
5940,000,000,000 BTU
• Cooling loss per year through forest loss =
29,106,000,000,000,000 BTU
19. Mountain Forests
Contributing Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN)
( an increase in global albedo by 1-2% can
diminish the warming effect of CO2 by over 50
years.)
21. Photosynthetic Biomass is the only
production system that maintains
the
Global Oxygen Cycle
The creation and destruction of molecular Oxygen
are in near equilibrium, but local concentrations will
change radically in response to increased
combustion or deforestation
However, the destruction of the Ozone in the
stratosphere that is being felt today can be
controlled by an increase in Oxygen production.
The increase of respiratory diseases in cities today
is a direct result of lowering oxygen concentrations,
as the levels of oxygen fall these diseases will
increase radically.
.
22. In the end it is the leaves of plants that
comprise the terrestrial Photosynthetic
Biomass
23. The standing stock of forest biomass is 283 billion
Tons
Thus its photosynthetic biomass (leaves) is about
28.3 billion tons
24. Other Photosynthetic biomass stocks non tree
(60.8 GT, marine 3Gt. Approx 93.1 Gt total)
These are the drivers of the planetary life
support system, unvalued to date and being
lost at an exponential rate
25. Placing a value on being able to
continue living
• The current value of the global carbon market
is about $125 billion (2010)
• This amount is what keeping climate change
at bay is estimated to be worth
• If keeping the life support system of the
planet functioning is worth a similar amount
• A kg of photosynthetic biomass should be
worth about $ 1.35/kg
26. The unique value of
Photosynthetic Biomass
• Photosynthetic biomass can only retain
value as long as it is living. - A leaf on a
tree, for instance, has value as PB only as long
as it is carrying out the activity of
photosynthesis, pluck that leaf and the activity
ceases and so does the value. - The economy
will, for the first time begin to put a value on
life.
27. The gains in recognizing the value of
Photosynthetic Biomass
• An increase of Photosynthetic Biomass
anywhere will render that area more
productive in environmental services as well
in economic opportunities.
• It will change urban – rural relations into a
more equitable and sustainable state.
• It will rapidly increase the biomass capital of
the planet locking up Carbon Dioxide.
29. Analog Forestry is a silvicultural system
that seeks to create a tree-dominated
ecosystem that is analogous to the
original mature ecosystem in
architectural structure and ecological
function.
Principles of Analog Forestry
Formula Database
Map
34. Perspectives of Analog Forestry
• It is designed as an act of compensation perhaps for an abused area.
• It is designed from a perspective of architecture, with overstory, understory etc.
• It is designed from an understanding that Nature will self-complicate, given the
opportunity.
• It is designed speculatively, based upon best understandings.
• Its design reflects the personal aesthetic preferences of the designer. For instance, another
designer, with the same knowledge, might well create a somewhat different forest, but
that had the same outcomes as another analog forest designer.
• It is designed as a piece of eco-social work. By this it is meant that, the species selected
that in due course, self-complicate, are designed to be of use to society, with the express
intention of giving society the task of protecting, enhancing and benefiting from this act of
creativity.
• It creates a new class of labor in society. By this is meant, a person who is simultaneously,
consciously educated to be both top predator and top conserver. (Harrison 2002-2009)
• The principal act of conservation, the understanding built into the education of the new
class of people, is that the harvest preserves the system (Harrison 1986).
• Therefore, the very act of maintaining an analog system, be it aquatic, open-canopy forest,
grass and shrublands, or any mixture, including closed-canopy forest, has similar properties
in their creation and in their maintenance.
• This kind of work and this kind of husbandry precludes both monocultural activities on the
ground and above all the kind of society that creates monoculture of the mind.
(Harrison in Senanayake 2013)
35. FOREST GARDEN PRODUCTS
CERTIFICATION SYSTEM
Healing Nat ure,
Rewarding Farmers and
Providing Choice f or Conscious Consumers
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