Increasing our plant cover (e.g., in forests, crops fields, pastures and deserts) is a deceptively simple way to lower local, regional and global temperatures
Thank you for this thought provoking question. What we know, and you point out well, is that there are no 'quick fixes'. Further there are no single issue fixes. the focus on carbon is understandable but misses the real complexity of living in Nature on the planet.
There are too many of us living a lifestyle that requires destruction, extraction, removal and waste of resources, continual reduction of diverse plant cover and thus tremendous species loss. The future will require 'fewer and less'. We have to get off of the growth spiral, the expectation of GDP growth and the focus on 'economic development' as the primary motivation for massive human activity.
So, yes, increasing flora cover and concurrent fauna activity will change the current trajectory of global warming. The question is whether we will have a sufficient population getting the message and making major lifestyle changes soon enough I believe. It can happen; the more our way of life gets broken by climatic disasters and the consequent suffering opens us to a simpler more connected to Nature reality, the more likely we can turn the corner. When conventional energy sources are disrupted, we develop alternative strategies, often ones that rely on community cooperation.
My hope is that new generation thinking and ingenuity ( as in 'cloud milking' ) along with population decreases, and the growth of regenerative practices will turn the tide. It may well take major economic disruption as well. But, whatever way it comes about, increasing natural diverse plant and animal cover will be both a result and a contributing factor to modifying global warming.
Yes, it can be done by changing the level of reradiated infrared heat from the ground. I do this at my home by using radiant barrier foil in my attic space. Instead of heating up by convection and conduction in summer, the barrier takes the amount penetrating the roof via ab sorption-conduction and attempted radiation from that surface downwards. Instead it then hits the radiant barrier and goes out back upwards as radiant energy. Tens of thousands of homes in the U.S. south and southwest can be so modified. A Polish engineer that I met at COP 24 gave me his paper on a similar approach but simply with white high reflective roofing shingles and paints modified for high reflectivity. He posited that there are enough roofs to solve the problem without resorting to the Bill Gates money sucking global atmospheric spraying process.
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An issue with your approach here is the law of unintended consequences particularly where it comes to where the reforestation is to be done. Again I post here the hazards currently at play in one location only.
would like to draw attention to is the work of Scripps atmospheric chemist, K. Prather. In a story on line from 2014 in High Country News called The Dust Detectives you will read an incredible story of what impacts our western rainfall events.
To that story I will add that I tried to contact her twice also to get her comment and clarification on her finding viral particles on the dust she analyzed. Recently, doing some research I found out that not only has China refused to slow coal fired power plant construction (sulfur can round out dust particles creating less western states rainfall overall) but China is also
now doing oil and gas development in the Tarim Basin (think our Permian Basin but dryer) in the Taklamakhan Desert. I hypothesize that this industry can contaminate the dust to where it never makes it to the west coast of North America. And finally, the Chinese in the western Taklamakhan are doing some of the largest windbreaks I have noted geographically which its encirclement was completed in November 2024. That is also likely reducing the critical dust uptake that eventually gets to NM. Hence why we possibly are seeing more intense drought than historical records. But again just my hypothesis. Its not a climate change denier claim but another factual factor to add in anthropogenic changes. (I also gave two major climate talks over the last 30 years. One was done with the now deceased Dr. William Kellogg of the Aspen Institute. Most recently in 2018 at a national convention.)
China is continuing greening the Taklamakhan now by expanding the windbreaks to a fully greened and wider shelter belt due for completion in 2050. It cannot continue without imo damaging us by reducing agriculture, hydropower, and sutainability of human settlements depending on water.
Self composting companion planting in irrigated fields I have been giving a lot of thought to. When we plant seedlings we do so at a spacing to allow the plant to grow into so at maturity it is the best for market, in the meantime the spare ground is a disadvantage to the farmer as you lose the water and fertilizer applied and it increases the Vapor Pressure Differential so more water is needed. If we plant a cover ground cover that dies off when shaded we can store the water and nutrients reduce weeds and decrease the VPD. The larger the crop the easier the solutions. Competition would be the key but there have been interesting studies on the rotting vegetation of brassica varieties releasing natural crop protectants into the soil so the plant and maybe companion plants will have a boosted natural defense to insect attack. All very interesting Many thanks
Yes we can restore the climate and our quality of life by planting more plants in our neighborhood. We are part of natural systems, stewards of ecosystems.
When a property owner clears away all the vegetation and puts in a parking lot there is a disruption in the ecosystem. The hard surfaces absorb heat and rain water no longer infiltrates into the ground. The land becomes a heat Island. Destructive stormwater erodes, dumps sediment, warms the ocean and contributes to sea level rise.
The word comes from on high: Decarbonize. We must buy more green energy. The old maple tree must be cut down to make way for solar panels in order for future maples to live.
The answer is not to ban parking lots or to fine the property owner. The answer is age old, do it in concert with nature. Install parking places with permeable pavers beneath and vegetation beside. Add shade with raised solar panels above.
And the local microclimate will not change. The water cycle continues to turn. Water droplets nucleate on organic particles to form cumulous clouds. There are less dust particles, no haze. And when parking you car you may smell the vegetation and keep an eye on the sparrow.
Thank you for this thought provoking question. What we know, and you point out well, is that there are no 'quick fixes'. Further there are no single issue fixes. the focus on carbon is understandable but misses the real complexity of living in Nature on the planet.
There are too many of us living a lifestyle that requires destruction, extraction, removal and waste of resources, continual reduction of diverse plant cover and thus tremendous species loss. The future will require 'fewer and less'. We have to get off of the growth spiral, the expectation of GDP growth and the focus on 'economic development' as the primary motivation for massive human activity.
So, yes, increasing flora cover and concurrent fauna activity will change the current trajectory of global warming. The question is whether we will have a sufficient population getting the message and making major lifestyle changes soon enough I believe. It can happen; the more our way of life gets broken by climatic disasters and the consequent suffering opens us to a simpler more connected to Nature reality, the more likely we can turn the corner. When conventional energy sources are disrupted, we develop alternative strategies, often ones that rely on community cooperation.
My hope is that new generation thinking and ingenuity ( as in 'cloud milking' ) along with population decreases, and the growth of regenerative practices will turn the tide. It may well take major economic disruption as well. But, whatever way it comes about, increasing natural diverse plant and animal cover will be both a result and a contributing factor to modifying global warming.
Yes, it can be done by changing the level of reradiated infrared heat from the ground. I do this at my home by using radiant barrier foil in my attic space. Instead of heating up by convection and conduction in summer, the barrier takes the amount penetrating the roof via ab sorption-conduction and attempted radiation from that surface downwards. Instead it then hits the radiant barrier and goes out back upwards as radiant energy. Tens of thousands of homes in the U.S. south and southwest can be so modified. A Polish engineer that I met at COP 24 gave me his paper on a similar approach but simply with white high reflective roofing shingles and paints modified for high reflectivity. He posited that there are enough roofs to solve the problem without resorting to the Bill Gates money sucking global atmospheric spraying process.
-
An issue with your approach here is the law of unintended consequences particularly where it comes to where the reforestation is to be done. Again I post here the hazards currently at play in one location only.
would like to draw attention to is the work of Scripps atmospheric chemist, K. Prather. In a story on line from 2014 in High Country News called The Dust Detectives you will read an incredible story of what impacts our western rainfall events.
https://www.hcn.org/issues/46.22/the-dust-detectives
To that story I will add that I tried to contact her twice also to get her comment and clarification on her finding viral particles on the dust she analyzed. Recently, doing some research I found out that not only has China refused to slow coal fired power plant construction (sulfur can round out dust particles creating less western states rainfall overall) but China is also
now doing oil and gas development in the Tarim Basin (think our Permian Basin but dryer) in the Taklamakhan Desert. I hypothesize that this industry can contaminate the dust to where it never makes it to the west coast of North America. And finally, the Chinese in the western Taklamakhan are doing some of the largest windbreaks I have noted geographically which its encirclement was completed in November 2024. That is also likely reducing the critical dust uptake that eventually gets to NM. Hence why we possibly are seeing more intense drought than historical records. But again just my hypothesis. Its not a climate change denier claim but another factual factor to add in anthropogenic changes. (I also gave two major climate talks over the last 30 years. One was done with the now deceased Dr. William Kellogg of the Aspen Institute. Most recently in 2018 at a national convention.)
China is continuing greening the Taklamakhan now by expanding the windbreaks to a fully greened and wider shelter belt due for completion in 2050. It cannot continue without imo damaging us by reducing agriculture, hydropower, and sutainability of human settlements depending on water.
https://www.indiatoday.in/environment/story/china-is-turning-its-largest-desert-into-a-forest-heres-how-2641694-2024-11-28
Self composting companion planting in irrigated fields I have been giving a lot of thought to. When we plant seedlings we do so at a spacing to allow the plant to grow into so at maturity it is the best for market, in the meantime the spare ground is a disadvantage to the farmer as you lose the water and fertilizer applied and it increases the Vapor Pressure Differential so more water is needed. If we plant a cover ground cover that dies off when shaded we can store the water and nutrients reduce weeds and decrease the VPD. The larger the crop the easier the solutions. Competition would be the key but there have been interesting studies on the rotting vegetation of brassica varieties releasing natural crop protectants into the soil so the plant and maybe companion plants will have a boosted natural defense to insect attack. All very interesting Many thanks
Yes we can restore the climate and our quality of life by planting more plants in our neighborhood. We are part of natural systems, stewards of ecosystems.
When a property owner clears away all the vegetation and puts in a parking lot there is a disruption in the ecosystem. The hard surfaces absorb heat and rain water no longer infiltrates into the ground. The land becomes a heat Island. Destructive stormwater erodes, dumps sediment, warms the ocean and contributes to sea level rise.
The word comes from on high: Decarbonize. We must buy more green energy. The old maple tree must be cut down to make way for solar panels in order for future maples to live.
The answer is not to ban parking lots or to fine the property owner. The answer is age old, do it in concert with nature. Install parking places with permeable pavers beneath and vegetation beside. Add shade with raised solar panels above.
And the local microclimate will not change. The water cycle continues to turn. Water droplets nucleate on organic particles to form cumulous clouds. There are less dust particles, no haze. And when parking you car you may smell the vegetation and keep an eye on the sparrow.