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...Specialists have just met in Perth to discuss the secrets of rock dust, a quarrying by-product that is at the heart of government-sponsored scientific trials and which, it is claimed, could revitalise barren soil and reverse climate change.

The recognition of the healing powers of rock dust comes after a 20-year campaign by two former schoolteachers, Cameron and Moira Thomson. They have been battling to prove that rock dust can replace the minerals that have been lost to the earth over the past 10,000 years and, as a result, rejuvenate the land and halt climate change.

To prove their point, the couple have converted six acres of open, infertile land in the Grampian foothills near Pitlochry into a modern Eden. Using little more than rock dust mixed with compost, they have created rich, deep soils capable of producing cabbages the size of footballs, onions bigger than coconuts and gooseberries as big as plums.

"This is a simple answer which doesn't involve drastic life changes by anyone," Ms Thomson said. "People don't have to stop driving cars to do this, just spread some rock dust on their gardens. We could cover the earth with rock dust and start to absorb carbon in a more natural fashion which, along with reducing emissions and using a combination of other initiatives, will have a better and faster response."...

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Using little more than rock dust mixed with compost,

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[ 21 March 2005: Message edited by: nonesuch ]

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Originally posted by Contrarian:
Better than baking soda, better than absorbshun, it's rock dust! This sounds like snake oil to me; like back when the prairies were being settled and everyone thought if we planted enough trees it would change the climate; possibly that might have been true, but in fact we could not plant enough trees to make that big a difference, and many were killed by drought in the 1930s. It's too easy, it can't solve the whole problem.

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No, not the whole problem. Rock dust containing essencial minerals (or metals) are good, like iron, zinc, magnesium etc.. As far as converting CO2 to carbohydrate using plant growth (especially trees) is a good idea. That added application to a reduction CO2 emissions from combustion engines would be a start. With this pine beetle infestation that's going to be a great challenge to all our human resources.

Another thought I was working on was a theory on heat transduction to electricity: a cooling system that produces electricity instead of using it (a win win theory). Supercooling air to solidify CO2 into a solid and using it in manufacturing and horticulture are two byproducts of the system. Another is using the electricity to produce hydrogen from water for a different combustion system. Supercooling is used in many manufacturing systems, so this method would self economizing.

Finally an amusing thought from that: if we put enough heat to electricity transducers at the north and south poles, we could refreeze them.