If you watched the video then I'm sure you're as intrigued as I was. Although I disagree with a lot of the language that Savory used (I think there are far more things that we can do to better manage the environment and make an impact on the recent jump in climate on this planet than just his one idea...), I did find his proposal worth consideration. If we were to make changed to how we treat our animals by completely getting rid of factory farming and instead allowing large heards of grazing livestock to be shepherded across some of the arid rangelands in the western part of the U.S., maybe we could also start improving soil quality and reducing some of the CO2 in the atmosphere. It would be great to see more vegetated lands in the American west. I've traveled a good deal around Colorado and the adjoining states and I've seen a lot of arid rangeland which is protected, but for which we don't suppor the local ecosystems. Although I would never be foolish enough to assume we could totally disrupt our human impact on atmospheric greenhouse gases just by simply improving the quality of rangelands (we need to focus on our attitudes and behaviors primarily), I do think that implementing Savory's plan on the large scale could actually improve our rangelands, allow for better living conditions for livestock (and thus much better meat for consumers), and might even give us some fairly immediate results with which to show legislators and the general public that our actions have an immediate impact on the world in which we live!
I am an astrobiologist, sci-fi geek, and professor of everything groovy. I write about science, culture, math, history, space, and science fiction. Perhaps like you, I'm seeking a greater understanding of the nature of life and asking myself why all of this really matters. Come with me, and we'll ask some questions together.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
How to Green the World's Deserts
Last night at Crossfit I squatted 315 lbs, pressed 155 lbs, and deadlifted 345 lbs. Needless to say I was pretty crunched on energy when we got home. We decided to have a tasty dinner while watching a TED talk and I stumbled upon the following talk by Allan Savory on his proposal for mitigation of our current troubles with rampant climate change.
If you watched the video then I'm sure you're as intrigued as I was. Although I disagree with a lot of the language that Savory used (I think there are far more things that we can do to better manage the environment and make an impact on the recent jump in climate on this planet than just his one idea...), I did find his proposal worth consideration. If we were to make changed to how we treat our animals by completely getting rid of factory farming and instead allowing large heards of grazing livestock to be shepherded across some of the arid rangelands in the western part of the U.S., maybe we could also start improving soil quality and reducing some of the CO2 in the atmosphere. It would be great to see more vegetated lands in the American west. I've traveled a good deal around Colorado and the adjoining states and I've seen a lot of arid rangeland which is protected, but for which we don't suppor the local ecosystems. Although I would never be foolish enough to assume we could totally disrupt our human impact on atmospheric greenhouse gases just by simply improving the quality of rangelands (we need to focus on our attitudes and behaviors primarily), I do think that implementing Savory's plan on the large scale could actually improve our rangelands, allow for better living conditions for livestock (and thus much better meat for consumers), and might even give us some fairly immediate results with which to show legislators and the general public that our actions have an immediate impact on the world in which we live!
If you watched the video then I'm sure you're as intrigued as I was. Although I disagree with a lot of the language that Savory used (I think there are far more things that we can do to better manage the environment and make an impact on the recent jump in climate on this planet than just his one idea...), I did find his proposal worth consideration. If we were to make changed to how we treat our animals by completely getting rid of factory farming and instead allowing large heards of grazing livestock to be shepherded across some of the arid rangelands in the western part of the U.S., maybe we could also start improving soil quality and reducing some of the CO2 in the atmosphere. It would be great to see more vegetated lands in the American west. I've traveled a good deal around Colorado and the adjoining states and I've seen a lot of arid rangeland which is protected, but for which we don't suppor the local ecosystems. Although I would never be foolish enough to assume we could totally disrupt our human impact on atmospheric greenhouse gases just by simply improving the quality of rangelands (we need to focus on our attitudes and behaviors primarily), I do think that implementing Savory's plan on the large scale could actually improve our rangelands, allow for better living conditions for livestock (and thus much better meat for consumers), and might even give us some fairly immediate results with which to show legislators and the general public that our actions have an immediate impact on the world in which we live!
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http://www.learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A3529.pdf
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