Fran Farmer wrote:
~misfit~ wrote:
....
It's always amazed me how, as a race we seem to be fixated on reducing
carbon emissions only as a way of preventing a large swing in global
temperatures. Surely another useful method would be to start to replace all
of the large swathes of vegetation that the planet has lost in the last few
millenia?

i dunno what you've been reading, but there are plenty
of people who are working on reforestation and restoration
of habitats.

the problem is that the balance is still tipped too
heavily in favor of the exploitation of natural resources.
until the poisoners and destroyers are put back into
balance the system will continue to degrade.

unfortunately, with most people on the planet living
in cities there is little knowledge any more at the
cultural level about what topsoils and ecologies are
like and what they need.


England used to be covered almost from coast to coast in forest if we go
back six or seven thousand years. Here in New Zealand it's been much more
recently that the forests that cloaked the country have been decimated (only
six or seven hundred years since polynesians arrived and started
deforestation, there are artists here who specialise in making furniture and
objet d'art out of 500 year old wood sourced from tree stumps dug out of
farm land. The last remains of some of the giants which dominated this
land). We all know about the decline of the South American rain forest and
the way the South-east Asian rain forests are being cleared to grow oil
palms....

Heck, in old testament times large areas of the Middle East was largely
'forested' - or at least covered in scrubland Goats were the biggest agents
of 'deforestation' there, grazing on young trees until there wasn't enough
re-growth and the old trees died off. Goats raised by humans for food.

Greece too used to well covered with trees in ancient times and now much
of it is like parts of Oz - olives and poor land because the top soil
went along with the trees.

the Greeks and Romans did quite a number, but it just followed
on the agricultural practices of peoples in the middle east or
northern Africa. however, by upping the extractive practices a
notch and never returning organic materials to the soils they
soon stripped the topsoils bare.

when you have renters instead of owners there is little incentive
to treat the land well.

the overall culture must change to get land restoration to
work over the longer term.


....
I suggest that we need to start growing forests and, when we've got enough
start 'ploughing (some of) them under' then re-planting. Put all of that
carbon back underground where we got it from. Or (and this just popped into
my head) use it for making massive amounts of cheaper (goverment/s
subsidised? Economy of scale?) carbon-fibre and use it to make light strong
structural materials that will last for a very long time.

shrug Sorry for the OT stream-of-consciousness writing provoked by that
one sentence.

What you had to say was both interesting and relevant IMO. I agree with
you about trees. I'm always propagating trees of some sort or other.
And even if we just restricted the planting of trees to urban areas
because they are so good for shade and lowering the temperatures in the
city deserts, then I'd still see the value in what you have to say.
But we certainly need far more trees on this planet. We could get rid
of at least 50% of the population and we'd still have too many humans.

until more people start dying from ecosytem failures
i don't see much changing on the larger scale.

there are localised small patches where people are
working to restore and improve things, but it isn't
yet a large enough effort to counter the destroyers and
poisoners.


songbird