I did a search here on Daily Kos and found no diaries about Biochar. This is an overlooked but very important concept that this community should be exposed to, so I have been volunteered to do the honors.
This website is perhaps the best introduction.
Below the Great Orange S thingy is a short summary......
Biochar is the result of burning biomass without sufficient air [oxygen] to completely turn to white ash, leaving "charcoal", which is then mixed with some compost and/or compost "tea".
Then we can bury this mixture in our gardens or indoor plants for noticeably more growth, water and nutrient retention, and atmospheric carbon sequestration.
For those who would like more on the evolution of our understanding of these very useful properties, here is a great, short introduction about the discovery of Terra preta in the Amazon jungle.
Another recent article suggests our agricultural soils have been depleted of their proper carbon ratio. Since it seems to be relatively very easy to produce a good quality soil amendment grade biochar I am going to lobby my tiny town Fire Chief to build a charcoal producing pyramid the next time we have a yard waste burn pile event here. If local gardeners, vegetable and ornamental, become aware of it we can begin growing more better food and flowers and future trees. Just kidding.
This should be one of the methods we employ to avoid the accumulation of more carbon dioxide in our planet's atmosphere. More renewables, less fossil fuels, greater energy efficiency, more mass transit and infrastructure maintenance, and more and better Progressives elected. Yeah, part of the Green growth industry that can veer us towards a solution. We might be able to pull this off but on my bad days I think we people are just too loony.
This is just a short introduction; there are many wrinkles and nuances to the biochar idea that are important that I have not explored much yet. An almost inseparable one is that there are volatiles and oils driven off in the production process that don't have to be just burned and discarded as waste.