At this point in the scientific argument, few if any people with any credibility doubt the reality of global warming, in fact that is really no longer the issue. The debate is over the economic consequences of proposed solutions, which drives the last remaining doubts being expressed over global warming. Given the enormous scale of the problem, any effective solution will have costs that are also enormous. Government intervention is fraught with political problems as wealthy interests are willing to spend enormous sums to delay any countermeasures that will affect their welfare.
Fortunately, there is a solution and you see it being implemented all over the world. Small units, from the family to farms to other businesses, are implementing green policies and lowering their carbon footprint. The method to remove additional carbon from the atmosphere put forward in this book is the creation of charcoal, an easy process given a biomass raw material and then incorporating it into the soil. There is a great deal of evidence that charcoal will restore the fertility of depleted soils. This is not a new idea, when I was young a relative that was an old farmer was adamant about spreading the ashes from his wood stove on his garden and farm fields. What makes this solution practical is that it is a tactic that could be used by small farmers around the world and could be done at a profit.
Agriculture produces an enormous amount of biomass, a great deal of which could be utilized. Bruges describes historical and recent examples of societies and farmers that have converted biomass into charcoal and achieved significant improvements in soil fertility. Given that the carbon in the charcoal stays locked in the soil for thousands of years, this is an effective way to "permanently" extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The threat of global warming is real and we may have already reached the tipping point of no return. Solving this problem is going to take a concerted and diffuse effort and the use of charcoal is yet another effective tool that can be used. This is a fascinating book as it puts forward a solution where carbon can be extracted from the atmosphere in a profitable manner that is easy to implement.