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Imagine, shooting 40,000 elephants to prevent the land in Africa from going to desert because scientists thought the land couldn’t sustain them, only to find the effort was for naught and the idea as to why was totally wrong. That alone was a real eye opener.
Every once in awhile, an idea comes along that makes you ask, “gee why hasn’t anybody seen this before?”. This one of those times. This video below is something I almost didn’t watch, because my concerns were triggered by a few key words in the beginning. But, recommended by a Facebook friend, I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did, because I want every one of you, no matter what side of the climate debate you live in, to watch this and experience that light bulb moment as I did. The key here is to understand that desertification is one of the real climate changes we are witnessing as opposed to some the predicted ones we often fight over.
It is one of those seminal moments where I think a bridge has been created in the climate debate, and I hope you’ll seize the moment and embrace it. This video comes with my strongest possible recommendation, because it speaks to a real problem, with real solutions in plain language, while at the same time offering true hope.
This is a TED talk by Dr. Allan Savory in Los Angeles this past week, attended by our friend Dr. Matt Ridley, whose presentation we’ll look at another time. Sometimes, TED talks are little more that pie in the sky; this one is not. And, it not only offers a solution, it shows the solution in action and presents proof that it works. It makes more sense than anything I’ve seen in a long, long, time. Our friend Dr. Roger Pielke Sr., champion of studying land use change as it affects local and regional climate will understand this, so will our cowboy poet Willis Eschenbach, who grew up on a cattle ranch. I daresay some of our staunchest critics will get it too.
To encapsulate the idea presented, I’ll borrow from a widely used TV commercial and say:
Beef, it’s what’s for climate
You can call me crazy for saying that after you watch this presentation. A BIG hattip to Mark Steward Young for bringing this to my attention.
“Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert,” begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And terrifyingly, it’s happening to about two-thirds of the world’s grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes — and his work so far shows — that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert.
Published on Mar 4, 2013
There’s a longer version with more detail below, about an hour long. Also worth watching if you want to understand the process in more detail:
Feasta Lecture 2009
Extracts available at vimeo.com/8291896
Allan Savory argued that while livestock may be part of the problem, they can also be an important part of the solution. He has demonstrated time and again in Africa, Australia and North and South America that, properly managed, they are essential to land restoration. With the right techniques, plant growth is lusher, the water table is higher, wildlife thrives, soil carbon increases and, surprisingly, perhaps four times as many cattle can be kept.
feasta.org/events/general/2009_lecture.htm
Recorded 7 November 2009, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
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Herodotus
The History Book 2
Libyans (and of them many races) extend along the whole coast, except so much as the Hellenes and Phonicians hold; but in the upper parts, which lie above the sea-coast and above those people whose land comes down to the sea, Libya is full of wild beasts; and in the parts above the land of wild beasts it is full of sand, terribly waterless and utterly desert.
The coastal strip in Herodotus’ time was very fertile and productive.
Now taking what was said at the end of the lecture about losing large amounts of soil in one of the pictures, and sequestering all the CO2 since the industrial revolution; does that mean that desertification has contributed more than burning fossil fuels to current CO2 levels? So the current biosphere sequesters about half the CO2 produced and desertification will sequester more than half; therefore CO2 has the effect stated in the models then a new iceage could be on the cards?
Many thanks for link to a very informative video. It would be very interesting to have a discussion among those who have looked at Allan Savory’s solution in a more systematic fashion. Clearly it is not simply a case of doing studies – viz., Allan’s 40,000 Elephant story illustrates – but it makes sense to simply have more information on the first and second order effects of his approach and to understand what might be some of the boundary conditions.
Even so, Allan’s tone and optimism was extraordinarily refreshing.
What about the methane produced by all those extra millions of sheep? I only listened to the youtube 22 minute version, and I didn’t notice methane discussed.
kootenaybob
“Given the opportunity, individuals will prove to be far better stewards of the land than governments or well-meaning organizations.”
I think we are finding that as we peal back the layers neither government or most of these organizations are well meaning….
Paul Homewood wrote: “So why has modern man forgotten it?”
We’ve had two generations of farmers taught by the universities that chemical fertilizers, monoculture and pesticides are the way to increase crop yields. And in fact, for a short period of time, that will work (look at any research on crop yields over the last 100 years to see this), but it takes a terrible, long-term toll on the soil. I believe this kind of high intensity, single crop focus, has fundamentally changed how many people relate to the land. I think it is one example of how we’ve lost the formula for short term gain and don’t understand the longer term damage.
It’s difficult to say that people five generations ago were wiser or had hidden knowledge when we had things like the dust bowl and extreme poverty and poor yields in farming generally in earlier times. There is a primary difference in people doing things just because they work, and understanding why they work. In the first case, there is a tendancy to innovate and lose the formula because you do not have the critical understanding. This is why, however frustrating the scientific process may be, however much it seems to ignore “common sense” (things everyone knows to be true) in the short term, it can bring a more complete understanding even when it brings you back to where you started in terms of processes and methods. When properly done, now you know why you are doing it and how to adjust and tune as required by circumstances.
Gerry Parker
And who will manage these vast herds? Why the big, giant central government that’s who. They will direct where and when they go and hell be to any private person that stands in the way. No thanks. I’d rather live with Edgar Friendly than follow the Cocteau plan.
This is one of the most epic memes to be put out about global warming …
“”If any period in time had a sustained temperature change similar to what we have today, we would have certainly seen that in our record,” he said. It is a good indicator of just how fast man-made climate change has progressed.
A century is a very short period of time for such a spike.
Mineral dust could curb global warming
Scientists map Antarctic sea ice
Obama calls for action on climate change
It’s supposed to be cold
The Earth was very cold at the turn of the 20th century. The decade from 1900 to 1909 was colder than 95% of the last 11,300 years, the study found.
Fast forward to the turn of the 21st century, and the opposite occurs. Between 2000 and 2009, it was hotter than about 75% of the last 11,300 years.
If not for man-made influences, the Earth would be in a very cold phase right now and getting even colder, according the joint study by Oregon State University and Harvard University. Marcott was the lead author of the report on its results.”
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/08/world/world-climate-change/index.html
I notice Dr. Savory includes a scene from Jornada Experimental Station. Does anyone know if he has ever expressed an opinion on (or perhaps influenced) cattle management on the station? I seem to recall someone commenting, when I took pictures out there, that there had been some problem with the critters wanting to get into the weather station fenced enclosure. Given the general bare ground, I can see why they would:
http://gallery.surfacestations.org/main.php?g2_itemId=66229
Thank you. I am having a discussion on the political and economic risk issues associated with infrastructure and agricultural investments in the Sahara and southern Med regions. This will be getting some exposure.
I have a hunch that desert land and cyclical catastrophic droughts that enlarge such areas for a period of time are a necessary part of oceanic fertilization from iron dust carried to the oceans on the waves of hot, dry winds. This is not to say we have any hope at all of greening up the African fertilizer store. We can green the edges but that is about it.
Tinkering with our lands, oceans, and air in order to somehow orchestrate climate and weather is a silly pie in the sky dream. But it could keep us benevolently occupied with that sky instead of filling it with bomb carrying planes. However, I don’t want to pay for it out of my hard earned salary.
So…No thanks. If this dude wants to volunteer his time to pursue such activities fine. But I can’t afford to foot the bill.
I’ve long thought that land use changes were the biggest factor in the CO2 increases we see today. This was reinforced by the Japanese CO2 tracking satellite. It’s nice to see this idea taking hold in real research.
I suspect that Savory is using the climate change issue to push his agenda. Notice he stated that restoring one half of the areas currently under stress to their natural state would return CO2 to its pre-industrial levels. Essentially, he is saying that our emissions are nothing compared to the affect of land use. Can we now use some of the wasted money on climate change research to fund efforts in restoring the land? Don’t hold your breath.
” Alexander Harvey says:
March 9, 2013 at 6:52 am
All very good but it is underpinned by holism and at its core profoundly anti-science.”
I see no reason ranchers who own private land couldn’t do this. They can sell some of the cattle to make a living. The input costs will be small compared to intensive cattle feed lots.
Leg said (2:02 am)
“I wholeheartedly agree with your biofuel sentiments. However I would suggest being circumspect with regards to Jared Diamond. He is a bit of a Malthusian in my opinion and his work made him the darling of the “chicken-little, let’s see who we can scare into giving us money” crowd. I find his theories interesting, but not exactly hopeful as you see in Savory’s work.”
The biggest problem with Diamond’s book is the near complete lack of sources. When I read his various interesting points I say to myself “I’d like to see the sources and data. But where are they?”
What makes this man look smart is that he gets to compare his successes to his epic failures.
Dry land framers in North America have been employing the same practices since the dustbowl years of the dirty thirties. Burning of stubble used to be standard practice, now it is almost unheard of, and for the precise reasons he mentioned. Crop rotation, not new. Livestock herds being rotated through pasture land in segments, not new.
But the part of this video that p*ssed me of the most is this guy’s certainty that this solution of his is our only choice. He’s just as wrong about that as he was about shooting 40,000 elephants. He made a gross ignorant mistake resulting in massive damage due to his certainty then, and he is repeating his certainty now. Not that what he is advocating will cause the kind of mess he caused the first time round, but by being so entirely certain again he is cutting off the possibility that there are other options still. He can’t think of any, so in his arrogance he makes the same mistake he made with the 40,000 elephants and decides that his ignorance dictates the answer.
Dry land farmers grow 5 foot tall grasslands every year. Then they cut them down with swathers. Run the swaths of grain through combines which take the grain out and return the broken up straw to the land. Zero til seeding preserves the root systems in the soil to better hold it together and keep it from drying out. Manure collected from cattle in livestock operations like feed lots is spread mechanically on the crop land. In other words, we’ve been getting similar results using different techniques to tackle the exact same problems for decades. These techniques are in part why the American and Canadian prairies have not returned to the dust bowl times even in years of reduced rainfall.
But this guy is absolutely certain that his way is the only way.
Just like he was certain that killing those elephants was the only way.
Other ways are under his nose and have been in practice for decades by thousands of farmers.
His service to the world is to undo some of the damage that he had wrought, while pretending that his ideas are not only new, but that they are the only ones that will work. What a giant pretentious…
I have nothing further to say about this guy that won’t get snipped.
How about we just do this thing and it will remove all the excess C02 and we will have millions of acres of irrigated farm land to replenish the ground water aquifers . . all win win win . . what say all of you in the Web World . . share this . .
A BOLD NEW ENERGY POLICY TO SAVE THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE!!!
We put millions of skilled workers on manufacturing jobs building 500 to 1,000 Nuclear power plant of a low cost standard design. This will provide all the energy to accomplish a full restoration of our industrial base. How will this happen you ask?
First we “MINE” the oceans for gold, silver, copper, uranium, methane, manganese and other valuable minerals and metals. It has been estimated that it will be profitable to mine gold from the seas at around $ 3,000 per ounce. Second we use cheap nuclear power to extract these metals which could make a profit to pay off the national debt. Third we use the byproduct “WATER” to farm the huge vacant dry south west feeding the entire planet with low cost food.
Finally we use the cheap nuclear power to build factories to manufacture everything the entire planet needs and we return to zero unemployment and can pay good wages because we have free energy that makes a profit in it’s creation.The money generated can payoff all debts, build nuclear reprocessing plants, research and develop a system to render nuclear waste harmless.
Just think, full employment, no energy crisis ever, gold to make money valuable, make the dollar the strongest currency on earth, end inflation, end government debt. Just imagine “AMERICA REBORN AND THE DREAM FULFILLED!!!
Saw this video several days ago and watched it a half of a dozen times since. Spent an entire day watching videos based on Allan’s concept and Allan Savory himself — probably 50 or more on Youtube. Very intrigued. Wasn’t sure whether this community would like it or not because of Savoy’s comments regarding CO2. Wasn’t even sure that alerting Anthony to it would be anything more than wasting my time. So I didn’t.
Good to see Anthony’s post and the positive comments as well as the skeptical ones too.
For a similar idea you might want to research terra preta, the pre-Columbian South American manner of chracoaling the soil (either intentionally or accidentally) and sequestering carbon for thousands of years as charcoal is very stable in the soil. I’ve been charcoaling my soil now for about 8 years. It works to add biodiversity to the soil.
If I had a farm or ranch I would use both of these concepts to enhance the soil.
Pamela Gray says:
March 9, 2013 at 7:35 am
“…This is not to say we have any hope at all of greening up the African fertilizer store. We can green the edges but that is about it…”
_________________
Even the best efforts at stopping Sub- Saharan desertification often meet with human- induced failure, of a sort. Goats are endemic among the peoples of the region and have quickly eaten anything planted as windrows, etc. to stop the dunes from advancing.
Where can I buy shares in such ventures?
Of course greenies don’t like methane producing cattle (even though they are vegetarian) so this could be an obstacle to removing lots and lots of the hated CO2 from our cooling atmosphere. In any case if these nasty even toed ungulates were to be responsible for such reductions there would then hardly be an excuse for centralised world government ruled by eco-warrior elites. It would wreck their plans for population reduction (at first sight – which is as far as they can see) so I think the idea that bridges might be built by posting such an excellent video expressing great hope for the world is moonshine.
The greenies will respond with ridicule. Demonstrable truth is anathema to them. There was hardly a model in sight and thus nothing for them to profit by.
Minor typos:
Sometimes, TED talks are little more that [THAN] pie in the sky; this one is not.
Beef, its [IT’S] what’s for climate
I’ve skipped many comments, so someone may have already pointed these out.
Now. back to the main attraction…..
IanM
Buffalo (bison) will grow fat on land that cattle will starve on. The meat is better as well.
Perhaps the plains Indians weren’t quite the ignorant savages they were portrayed by the white man.
“Endeavor to Persevere”
Elanor says:
March 9, 2013 at 1:15 am
That’s great, but I see a flaw… How can you graze thousands of cattle in an area with no grass or other such vegetation?
=========
this was answered in the question period at the end of the film.
It strikes me that this could work in Australia and perhaps Mongolia, maybe other parts of the world with stable governments – but North Africa? What army will stop the Tuareg from raiding and destroying the herds and dwellings of anyone trying to do this in their area? That’s what they do. (as the French have been dealing with lately) And Libya has turned into a collection of petty gang controlled fiefdoms most of which most westerners don’t even dare to enter anymore.
I don’t have time to watch this now. I have to go milk the cows.
Will watch it later though.
profitup10:
Nice ideas but a few gaps in the technology/cost chain there.
davdmhoffer:
Spot on. The guy is just another blinkered knowall who thinks that whatever he says must be true just because he said it.
His talk would have been perfect if only he could stop with the climate change nonsense. Stopping desertification and at the same time feeding people is genius. Bravo, well done. But, please shut up about climate change, which is just a red herring.