This phoenix is made from the average human’s carbon footprint (every year)

Normally when I think about climate change – I feel an overwhelming sense of despair.

Earth Overshoot Day – the day we spend our carbon budget for the year – gets closer every single year. 

But last year, I discovered a glimmer of hope.

• A glimmer, based on indigenous wisdom, to sequester carbon into the ground with fire.
• A glimmer based in science, which has been the subject of tens of thousands of research papers over the last decade.
• A glimmer based on economics, which, with the help of the IRA in the US has become responsible for 89% of verified carbon removal credits in the entire history of the market.

The name of this material is Biochar and the moment I learned about it, I knew I had to find a way to make art with it.

So what is Biochar and how is it made?

Let’s start with Carbon Dioxide (CO2) – one of the greenhouse gases that is responsible for warming our planet.

When we burn organic material, let’s say a log on a campfire, that material is mostly made from carbon. As it burns, that Carbon (C) is exposed to Oxygen (O2) – and CO2 is formed.

However, if we burn that material in a low-oxygen environment (through a chemical process called Pyrolysis) then C, doesn’t meet O2… and all that’s left once the gases burn off is Carbon (C)!

That Carbon, created somewhere between 400-700 degrees Celcius, is called Biochar and it not only sequesters carbon, it can be used to rehabilitate the soil, make it more drought-resistant, host micro-organisms, absorb toxins, and improve yields.

It’s basically magic – helping with both climate adaptation and climate mitigation.

(Check out my Instagram video reel here explaining Biochar!)

But wait. Why burn material?!

Humanity produces an ungodly amount of organic material waste.

Think of all the leftover wood inside of a lumber mill, residue from farming (think coffee beans, rice husks, corn stalks!), or even your own food and yard waste.

If we’re lucky, that leftover material decomposes naturally, releasing carbon slowly into the atmosphere as it degrades.

But since we’re releasing over 35 Billion tons of CO2 every single year, we need to find a way to interrupt the natural carbon cycle of decomposition that releases even more CO2 into the air.

The easiest way to do that? You got it. Biochar.

And how does one go from learning about Biochar to making Art with Biochar?

After meeting Kathleen Draper, the author of Burn: Using Fire to Cool the Earth at a conference in DC, I ended up attending the Biochar Academy in Upstate NY.

There, I met 40 biochar entrepreneurs from over 20 countries – one of whom was Khom and Nui – the proud owners of a bamboo farm and biochar operation called Wong Phai.

Although they were small, they were super enthusiastic about the idea of collaborating, even though nobody had ever tried to create a large-scale installation like this out of biochar before.

I proposed three different ideas – and of course, they went with the most complicated one: A 6m tall giant phoenix, rising from the ashes, made from 4 tons of carbon, rehabilitating and healing the soil around it.

To build the phoenix, we first had to figure out how to manipulate the Biochar.

The goal of most Biochar operations is to grind up the biochar so that it can be easily blended back into the ground.

What we wanted though, were long brittle sticks of Biochar of different sizes, so that we could use them as feathers for different parts of their body.

To do that, Biochar had to be made using a double-barrel retort with bamboo packed as tightly as possible to minimize warping and bending. From there, the Biochar, although brittle, was strong enough to be drilled and tied together.

We found that although metal wires worked, recycled electrical wire was the best to hold our long stick of biochar together without cracking the material.

We then had to build the skeleton using steel wire and mesh.

The next important piece of the puzzle was ensuring that we created a solid skeleton, capable of holding up the entire installation.

At over 2 stories tall and extremely top-heavy, creating this art installation was no joke!

Thankfully, we had a young engineer, Teerasak Sirijan (First) & fabricators Anon Passada and Attasit Kamulsuk to help engineer a metal structure capable of supporting all of the weight.

The shape and structure of the phoenix were all bent into place by hand using metal wire, subsequently wrapped in a wire mesh, and covered by a dark black mesh.

As far as I know, this is the world’s tallest Biochar installation.

I love making large and audacious art projects – because it shows what’s possible.

With a climate solution like Biochar that desperately needs more adoption and awareness, I dream that this project catalyzes and inspires home artists and artisans to explore Biochar as a creative material.

Whether you make your own or collaborate with the thousands of emerging biochar entrepreneurs, I hope to see larger, more ambitious, and surprising biochar projects.

What I love most about Biochar is that it is accessible, hyperlocal, and apolitical.

Regardless if you have a backyard or millions of dollars to create a Biochar reactor – everyone can participate in the Biochar revolution. Just look up a tutorial online on how to make your own biochar and you’ll see how popular it’s gotten!

For biochar to be an effective carbon sink, you can’t transport it across great distances, otherwise, you’ve burned more carbon than you’ve sequestered in the ground. This means that Biochar will always be hyperlocal and regional – helping to promote rural economies and underprivileged communities.

Last but not least, Biochar brings people together from the left and the right. It is one of the only spaces in the environmental movement where you’ll find both sides eagerly working together as allies. The right is interested in how this technology can be used as an effective waste management tool that can increase both yields and profits, while the left is interested in how we can use this technology to combat global warming.

Overall, it’s a win, win, win.

If you loved this project, consider funding our friends at Wong Phai to help you remove some carbon from this planet!

Our friends at Wong Phai who helped us build this phoenix, are a small but mighty team that can sequester over 140 tons of Biochar, every single month.

If you want to both fight climate change and support a small local business – please consider a monthly donation to their work here, through their carbon verification partner Planboo.

Their registered Carbon Sink Manager, Planboo is an accredited institution that tracks the entire biochar process from start to finish! Their registered technology guarantees that the biochar you subscribe for actually gets put into the ground!

Every little bit counts. As it becomes more popular, prices will go down! We need your support to accelerate change today!

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