Global Warming, Gaia Hypothesis and Permaculture
I hear a lot of my friends say things like “global warming, schlobal warming! … that’s nonsense … look how cold this winter is” and “the global warming myth is just being used to control our lives more” and so on. Well, I have studied this a lot now and I would ask you to consider some points …
(1) Joel Salatin – America’s most influential farmer – recently wrote “History will vindicate Allan Savory as one of the greatest ecologists of all time.” “Folks This Ain’t Normal” (2011), p. 175 … OK, so what does Allan Savory have to say?
(2) Allan Savory wrote the following … “Simplistic and counter intuitive as it may be the fate of civilization today hangs on two slender threads – the correct management of livestock [WHAT??!!] and the rapid development of benign energy to sustain cities and mass transport. Excessive emissions of carbon and other gases from fossil fuels are not the only causes of global climate change, nor are they the greatest cause of climate change, as popularly espoused. … To avert disaster on a scale almost unimaginable a global strategy is required that addresses carbon emissions while effectively dealing with biodiversity loss and biomass burning to reverse desertification that is not caused by atmospheric carbon buildup.”
(3) N. Africa was once lush and fertile. Now it is a desert. What happened? Archaeological evidence indicates that it was improper agriculture – that is, agriculture that degrades soil, such as tillage and improper livestock management. See my article HERE for some science papers on this topic.
(4) Gaia Hypothesis. Lovelock and Margulis. No, this is not just New Age crap. It’s real science. One major part of it basically states that the earth’s Hydrologic Cycle is heavily influenced by terrestrial vegetative cover. In the recent book from MIT Press, “Scientists Debate Gaia” (2008), on page 303, we read “The results here are consistent with the results of other studies which demonstrate that the replacement of higher albedo desert with lower albedo vegetation in North Africa increases the regional rainfall by increasing the intensity of the summer monsoon.” Google it for yourself. In other words, overgraze N. Africa and/or till it to death by planting wheat, corn, soybeans, etc., thereby removing vegetative cover and guess what happens? Less rain. This in turns makes even less vegetative cover and before you know it … you’ve got DESERT, precisely what we have now in N. Africa – the Sahara Desert. I first learned about this mechanism from Joel Salatin in his book “Salad Bar Beef” and later confirmed it by Googling science papers like this one.
(5) Have a look at Google Earth and notice how many areas of the world are now desert or are quickly becoming desert. It’s scary. Allan Savory is right.
(6) If you do more reading along these lines, you find out that droughts and floods (and presumably ice storms and snowstorms) will become more severe and more frequent, the more we strip our land surfaces of vegetative cover.
What to do about this?
(1) Google Allan Savory’s TED Talk and watch it. Allan Savory is one of the keynote speakers at the largest Permaculture event ever, next month. Go if you can. You can hear Allan, Joel and many other Permaculture leaders.
(2) Oppose tillage and support proper grazing management with your food choices as best you can.
(3) Realize that Jesus is coming back and will make a New Heavens and a New Earth (thank God!) but until that happens, the Genesis Stewardship Mandate has not been revoked. Let’s be good stewards!