Allan Savory: How to green the desert and reverse climate change

[Hash Zeppelin]

http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savo...rld_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html

^^Allan Savory: How to green the desert and reverse climate change

^^This is very interesting. He talks about using livestock to restore grasslands.

Allan Savory: Grassland ecosystem pioneer

Desertification of the world's grasslands, Allan Savory suggests, is the immediate cause of poverty, social breakdown, violence, cultural genocide -- and a significent contribution to climate change. In the 1960s, while working in Africa on the interrelated problems of increasing poverty and disappearing wildlife, Savory made a significant breakthrough in understanding the degradation and desertification of grassland ecosystems. After decades of study and collaboration, thousands of managers of land, livestock and wildlife on five continents today follow the methodology he calls "Holistic Management."

In 1992, Savory and his wife, Jody Butterfield, formed the Africa Centre for Holistic Management in Zimbabwe, a learning site for people all over Africa. In 2010, the Centre won the Buckminster Fuller Challenge for its work in reversing desertification. In that same year he and his wife, with others, founded the Savory Institute in Boulder, Colorado, to promote large-scale restoration of the world's grasslands.

Allan Savory: How to green the desert and reverse climate change

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

here

Fighting the growing deserts, with livestock: Allan Savory at TED2013

The growing desert

Allan Savory has dedicated his life to studying management of grasslands. And if that doesn’t sound exciting, just wait, because it touches on the deepest roots of climate change and the future of the planet.

“The most massive, tsunami, perfect storm is bearing down on us,” is the grim beginning to Savory’s talk. This storm is the result of rising population, of land that is turning to desert, and, of course, climate change. Savory is also unsure of the belief that new technology will solve all of the problems. He agrees that only tech will create alternatives to fossil fuels, but that’s not the only thing causing climate change.

“Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert,” he says. It’s a process that happens if we leave ground bare, allowing water to evaporate. Even heavy rainfalls will quickly vanish. Terrifyingly, about two-thirds of the world’s land is desertifying. This is huge, because ”the fate of water and carbon are tied to soil and organic matter. When we damage soils, we give off carbon.”

Even worse, we might think that only arid and semi-arid land is becoming desert, but tall grasslands are in danger as well. They can have a cancer “that we don’t recognize until it’s terminal form.”

This is mostly caused by livestock. Everyone knows this, says Savory. Scientists have known it for decades. Livestock damage the land, leading to dry ground, leading to desert. This makes sense, and turns out to be quite wrong.

A terrible mistake

In the 1950s, Savory helped to set aside large areas of Africa for national parks. As soon as they removed the people (to protect the animals), the land deteriorated. His theory, backed up by data, was that it was because there were too many elephants. That was “political dynamite,” he said, but a panel agreed with his assessment.

So they shot 40,000 elephants.

But the deterioration only got worse. The elephants were not the problem after all. Says Savory, “That was the saddest and greatest blunder of my life. I will carry that to my grave.” It did give Savory one thing: “I was absolutely determined to find solutions.”

Later, in California he was shocked to find similar problems in national parks, but there was no livestock nearby. So he looked at research stations where cattle had been removed, to prove that that would stop desertification. It didn’t. ”Clearly,” he says, “we have never understood what is causing desertification.”

If it wasn’t livestock, as had been assumed for centuries, what was it? “What we had failed to understand was that … the soil and vegetation developed with large numbers of grazing animals.” They also had predators, and so defended themselves by making herds, which are forced to move. This movement prevented over-grazing, while periodic trampling produced good soil. It wasn’t the livestock, but the way the livestock were kept by farmers.

The problems spiral out from this failure to understand. If grass dies on its own, at the end of a season, it must decay biologically before the next growing season. If it doesn’t, it will stifle the next growth. The typical method used to deal with that is to burn the grassland. That does remove the dead grass, allowing a new crop to grow, but it is very damaging, releasing an amount of carbon equivalent to 6,000 cars/second.

Holistic management

So what can they do? “There is only one option left to climatologists and scientists. That is to do the unthinkable: to use livestock, bunched and moving, as a proxy for the herds.” Those herds mulch it down, leaving both the trampled grass and their dung. The grass is then free to grow without having damaged with fire.

Now, how do you actually do that? Herders had 10,000 years of experience moving animals, “but they had created the great man-made deserts of the world.” And then 100 years of modern science that accelerated that process. Clearly more was needed.

He studied other professions — and found new management techniques. With this, he was able to develop what he calls Holistic Management — a way of moving livestock around to mimic the patterns of nature.

The results are stunning. For location after location he shows two comparison photos, one using his technique, one not. The difference is, “a profound change,” and he’s not kidding — in some cases the locations are unrecognizable (in one case the audience gasped). Not only is the land greener, crop yields are increasing. For example, in Patagonia, an expanding desert, they put 25,000 sheep into one flock. They found an extraordinary 50% improvement in production of land in the first year.

“What we are doing globally is causing climate change, as much or more than by fossil fuels,” says Savory. It is also causing poverty, suffering, and war. “If this continues, we are unlikely to be able to stop climate change even after we have eliminated the use of fossil fuels.”

He is currently using this on 15 million hectares on five continents. He estimated that if we do it on half the available land, the growth with take in enough carbon to go back to pre-industrial levles, while feeding people.

“I can think of almost nothing that offers more hope for our planet, for our children, for their children, and for all of humanity.”

 

[mpd]

Boy, his trial and error had terrible consequences. Sometimes science is not the answer.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^he was like the elephant hitler, and now her feels bad

 

[CosmicGiggle]

Very interesting thread Hash.

As a species, humans have been causing climate change since the very beginning by slowly consuming the environment.

The 1%ers of biblical times consumed the Cedars of Lebanon to build palaces causing more areas of desert to form in the Middle East.

We also have the ability to reverse the negative effecs of the progression of civilization as show by the successful experiment above.

..... problem is that changes to large areas of land that could lead to positive climate change would most likely span borders involving 'enemies' and would involve the active cooperation of diverse countries/governments/people having their own needs and agenda's.

I often wonder at the shake-ups that would occur in the Middle East if Lebanon were to slowly replant those missing cedars - you know, the domino effect.

 

[LubdaNugs]

I really didn't go in expecting to watch the whole video, but that was captivating. Thanks for the post Hash.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

One thing they didnt cover is that the animals carry grass seed and nutrients in their fur and dung.

 

[fungzyme]

Too bad we don't have the huge roaming herds of millions of bison in the American heartland anymore.

Of course, they'd be kind of a nuisance these days - trampling suburban back yards, trampling crops, tripping over irrigation lines...

Guy named Joel Salatin has been doing this on his farm in Virginia for decades. Rotating all his animals so that all of them benefit and all of them contribute to the health of his pasture land - and they do all the work for him. I like this qute of his:

The most important aspect of grassland is the grazing animals that eat the grass. Along with the grazing itself and their trampling effect, it is the action of the animals' dung and urine in fertilizing the topsoil that makes such lush growth and crop density possible.

Pasture and grazers can almost be viewed as a composite creature, the one an aspect of the other. In a sense the grazers cause the pasture: remove the animals and the land changes.
from
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_pasture.html

Interesting dude.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Texas used to be mostly lush grassland. It's mostly desert now, due to 'modern' ranching and farming practices. Horrible.

The midwest used to have areas with 6-7 FEET of humus built up... it's down to 2-3 feet in the more productive areas... and gone in the rest.

Here in the Fairplay area of the Rocky Mountains... 10,000 feet above sea level... used to be awesome wheat and hay farming. Now the land has been stripped and the water doesn't hang around. Same rainfall as the past... but not enough stays to support crops anymore.

Saw some 'record harvest' video of 100+ harvesters reaping wheat or someshit. All I saw was mass raping of the land. Wow.


Just... Wow.

Stay Safe!

 

[HidingInTheHaze]

TED is a nice series.

Another person with interesting idea's to help reverse the destruction of our planet and make our lives more efficient is futurist Jacque Fresco and his "Venus Project". Some of his idea's are not feasible, still interesting to think about.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

stockmangrassfarmer.com

70 year old newsletter I subscribe to on Management Intensive Grazing (MIG) ranching.

Good stuff

Stay Safe!

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

Texas used to be mostly lush grassland. It's mostly desert now, due to 'modern' ranching and farming practices. Horrible.

The midwest used to have areas with 6-7 FEET of humus built up... it's down to 2-3 feet in the more productive areas... and gone in the rest.

Here in the Fairplay area of the Rocky Mountains... 10,000 feet above sea level... used to be awesome wheat and hay farming. Now the land has been stripped and the water doesn't hang around. Same rainfall as the past... but not enough stays to support crops anymore.

Saw some 'record harvest' video of 100+ harvesters reaping wheat or someshit. All I saw was mass raping of the land. Wow.


Just... Wow.

Stay Safe!

My Grandma lived through the first dust bowl in the depression, and she says it's happening again. The land is all dried up and the industry is sure to go with it.

 

[unspoken]

Texas used to be mostly lush grassland. It's mostly desert now, due to 'modern' ranching and farming practices. Horrible.

You just completely made that up man. Calling bullshit.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

You just completely made that up man. Calling bullshit.

I don't make shit up and I try not to talk about things I don't know much about.

American colonists flooding into Texas during the 1830s were primarily farmers and not ranchers, but they quickly saw the significance of lush pastures where cattle could thrive with minimum care. Men who came to Texas to plow and plant became cattle raisers. Cattle raising remained a domestic industry during the republic and early statehood, supplying the small urban population, immigrants, and the bartering trade.

Not all of Texas is scrub and crap. A lot MORE of Texas is scrub and crap today, because of 'modern' farming and ranching practices.

Do some research before jumping next time. Thanks.

Stay Safe!

 

[unspoken]

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you think you just proved? Also, I have taken university classes on water and land management from a professor who is responsible for getting a lot of the protected lands in tx protected in the first place. I have taken classes on tx geography/geology from phds, one of them including a tx wildland firefighter. I dated a girl for years and became good friends/smoking buddy of her father who owns and ranches thousands and thousands of acres of texas land. I guess that counts as research, but maybe not as serious as reading a newsletter.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Actually... it doesn't count as research really... most of that information is the source of the problem. *shrug* Also never said anything about Texas and a newsletter. Completely different subjects.

This issue affects every state in the union that farms and ranches. The destruction is absolutely mind boggling. Texas is just a prime example. Look up how many areas in Texas used to have productive ranches. I'll leave it up to you to figure that one out.

The education your professor is passing on is probably part of the issue as well. Lots of 'protection' schemes in place are actually damaging to the environment. Don't know if that's your prof for sure... but I can tell you that's the status quo for the majority today.

Thanks.

Stay Safe!

 

[unspoken]

I still don't see what point you have made at all? You probably have no idea what is being taught. None of it said current farming methods are ok, just btw. I just wanted to make sure that you understand that what you first said and what I responded to was and still is complete b.s.

Also I have kayaked/hiked/camped the preserve, and it definitely is not damaging the environment. It is genuinely protecting the most biodiverse area in the state.