Redwood Reader

The two articles in the Sentient TImes covering Paul Stamens new book Mycelium Running both advance our arguments while falling short of total understanding. Heis statements about carbon export do not explain the process of that export, which is what we have been calling glomalin destruction. He suggests, for example, innoculated wood chips to restart the massive fungal networks destroyed by logging and agriculture. He seems to think much of the carbon is harvested and burnt off. Our studies show much of it remains in the soil after these processes but is subsequently lost in erosion that follows these activities. However, either glomalin is a component of All mycelium rather than just mycorhizzia or we are looking at decomposers and missing the essential carbon storage process in glomalin formation and deposition. The descriptions of the massive amounts of fungi in the soil are very good.
His descriptions of spongy water bearing soil are right on and the catastrophic loss of higher mammals as carbon export continues. He also includes sequestration of heavy metals in the soil as the are absorbed into the fungi. The ability of these to improve our biosphere is clear to him but the exact mechanism is still just out of sight. For this reason I recommend his book although I have not read it yet. I have read his earlier works and can see the evoltion in thinking. And it gives ideas on the nature of mycelium networks but lacks the insight of the role of mycorhizzia in the formation of glomalin and its deposition. He hints at a Gaia but fails to see how the fungi actually create the needed environment that allows the great diversity in fungi and plant life.
His realization of the trouble in Singapore is similar to my own recognition of the loss to ecosystems of mowing grass short instead of allowing plants to restore the atmospheric carbon balance with the ability to replenish soils simply by aiding the plant half of the mycorhizzia symbiosis. Where to start is exactly where nature will start when man is gone- by leaving things alone to allow plants and fungi to process earths' elements as they have always done.
This should all be good reading for Al Gore, and I hope he will continue to learn as well as educate the people on these vital subjects that allow for action instead of simply an overwhelming sense of impending disaster.