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Munson Intro:
Quite simply, finely ground rock dust from many available sources has a
broad spectrum of minerals and trace elements that are essential for life on
Earth. The lack of minerals in the soil is a real existential threat to man that
far exceeds any threat from CO2 by any order of magnitude. Without
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remineralization with rock dust to create a better environment and clean up
our food supply chain, we will not live in a world of abundance. Plants
without adequate nutrition become hosts for disease and insects. Sick
plants attract microbes and various parasitic organisms. Plants that are
unhealthy cannot maximize their potential for carbon sequestration and
serve a unhealthy food continuum towards a negative existence. Unhealthy
plants make for sick animals and people who eat them, both lacking the
nutrients they need. It is all a cycle that needs to be healthy in order to
have healthy outputs, which translates to a better environment and higher
quality of life. We’re in a dark situation with our soils and must take action
now! The future can be full of life with just a little sprinkle of rock dust.
So Let’s Rock & Get Real!
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Trevor:
Did you know the largest desert fuels the lungs of our earth?
That’s right, NASA’s satellite CALYPSO revealed that every year an
enormous amount of dust takes a transAtlantic journey over 1,600 miles
from the Saharan desert to the Amazon Rainforest? 132 million tons of dust
to be precise. Another 43 million tons settles to mineralize the rich marine
life of the Caribbean Sea. An ancient African lakebed in Chad provides
much of the 22,000 tons of phosphorus minerals that annually take this
long trip over the ocean to nourish Amazonian plants and trees. So dust
from the world’s largest desert actually feeds the world's largest rainforest.
Wow, that is a trip!
Now back to David.
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Munson Breakdown:
We are going take a little more time in this episode to break this rock dust
down, because without rock minerals, life cannot exist. Not all rocks are
created equal, though. They vary widely in mineral composition, with many
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rocks largely lacking in vital nutrients required for a rich soil and nourished
plant life. Some of the best soils originate from silicate rock, which is deep
within the Earth. Volcanic activity is spewed out as lava hardening at or
near the surface. This process is continuous, constantly establishing new
surface rock from molten rock stores below the crust. Weathering by wind
and water breaks the silicate into small pieces, which microorganisms then
attack, extracting nutrients. These microorganisms leave behind clay
particles so small that they flow like water. Gritless and smooth, clay has a
cation-exchange capacity, meaning it can hold nutrient ions. Organisms
break down the rocks to extract nutrients and make other compounds,
often using CO2 through photosynthesis. In fact, some of the world’s most
fertile soils exist where nature has already broken-down rock matter for the
life forms that feed on it. For example, glaciers that have crushed rock into
powder and where volcanoes have scattered ash and rock particles. For
glacial rock dust, this process began thousands of years ago during the
Last Glacial Maximum, as vast ice sheets at least a half-mile thick cut deep
into the bedrock, erasing what topsoil preceded it. So we can really learn
from the glacial past to help solve the present deficiencies in our soil today.
Earth has an abundance of rocks, but the best type of rock for
remineralizing the earth is basalt. Basalt has a unique, wide array of
nutrients, and it’s shown to deliver significant improvement agriculturally. It
is one of the most common rocks on Earth, but it’s not distributed uniformly
across the Earth. It’s a volcanic rock so there’s an abundance of it in areas
where there’s been volcanic activity. The role magnetism plays in the world
of soil and plants, as in chemistry generally, is important and can be quite
mysterious. Basalt has unusual characteristics, including a property called
paramagnetism, which is having a set of physical characteristics including:
(i) a slight reaction to a magnetic field, and (ii) no permanent magnetism or
independent generation of a magnetic field. Broad-spectrum rock dust with
high paramagnetic qualities, like basalt, builds soil’s ability to sequester
carbon long-term.
It is one treatment that is not in the conventional soil science library, as it is
not a proprietary product that can be sold for a high profit. Compared with
the lush, richer soils of mountainous volcanic islands, islands formed from
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limestone have lower soil fertility. Limestone and dolomite can also be
great for our soils, because they contain concentrations of calcium and
magnesium. If the soil is deficient in magnesium, it needs dolomite. For
calcium deficiencies, limestone is the answer. A combination of nutrients in
our rock provides the greatest foundation for Earth’s ecosystem. Measuring
the hydrogen (pH) of soil or water is easy, and for many years, scientists
considered it the most relevant thing to measure in soil. However, William
Albrecht, acclaimed soil scientist, determined that although near-neutral pH
is preferable, it is also important that basic elements are in the right
proportion as well, for optimal soil chemistry. Soil becomes increasingly
acidic as rock nutrients leach out with rainfall. Soil that is either too acidic or
too basic does not allow plants to grow well. As important as biology might
be for healthy soil, chemistry is also key. The so-called cation-exchange
capacity of soil measures the soil’s ability to hold positive nutrient ions such
as calcium and magnesium to clay particles and humus. Albrecht was a
pioneer in determining the ideal amounts of nutrients in the soil, observing
that a mix of about 68 percent calcium ions and 12 percent magnesium
(with lesser amounts of phosphate, potassium, and other) allows for
optimal growth of many types of crops. Sadly, most of the world’s soils are
so demineralized, like in the American Southwest, soils simply don’t have
adequate mineral composition to revive without regenerative intervention.
Soils are part of our planet’s carbon cycle, which limits the amount of CO2
in the air and regulates the climate. The take home here is that CO2 in the
soil reacts with rock dust to form bicarbonate and calcium carbonate.
Bicarbonate is soluble in water and will eventually make its way into the
oceans where it counteracts ocean acidification. Calcium carbonate is a
solid mineral that can store carbon for millions of years. Eighty percent of
all the carbon on Earth is stored in rocks as calcium carbonate. So rock
dust remineralization of soils takes advantage of bio enhancing the most
abundant carbon sink on the planet to passively remove CO2 from the
atmosphere, while also improving soil fertility! Fertility that makes plants
and trees grow taller, with thicker trunks and stems, bigger, more abundant
leaves, and improved nutritional status. There’s so much impact we can
have on our environment with just the right sprinkle of rock dust, which is
why I’m thrilled to introduce you to Joanna Campe, founder of the non-profit
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organization Remineralize the Earth. She has devoted her life to the
powerful work these minerals can do and is a co-editor of the go-to book on
rock dust called Geotherapy. Joanna thanks for joining us and for sharing
your passion on rock dust remineralization.
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(Joanna’s bit to be filmed later, approx 2 min)
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