eached to the point of infertility. Massive dust storms pick up the loose soil and carry it as far as Tokyo and Taipei. During sunset, fumes from factories block out the sun well before it can be observed sinking below the horizon.
But all this may be finally changing.
In 2005, the Chinese government, in cooperation with the World Bank, completed the world’s largest watershed restoration on the upper banks of the Yellow River. Woefully under-publicized, the $500 million enterprise transformed an area of 35,000 square kilometers on the Loess Plateau — roughly the area of Belgium — from dusty wasteland to a verdant agricultural center.
The result of careful terracing, replanting of native vegetation and restrictions on grazing, the rejuvenated land now supports a thriving local agricultural economy. Even better, the new vegetation reduces flooding and dust storms by anchoring the region’s soil and is becoming a large carbon sink.
As the Copenhagen meeting on climate change begins, the restoration project may finally get the attention it deserves. A new film directed and written by John Liu, the founder of the Environmental Education Media Project and a veteran eco-film director, will tell the story of the Loess Plateau. The documentary, “Hope in a Changing Climate,” takes the story of the Loess Plateau as its lead, but quickly moves to Rwanda and Ethiopia where similar successes have come from a process known as forest landscape restoration.
Copenhagen is the first time forest landscape restoration will be on the agenda at a major international climate conference. Under what is known as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation Plus (REDD+), Copenhagen negotiators hope to establish a regulatory regime to fight deforestation and manage forested areas. Proponents of forest landscape restoration are hoping this could include recognition and support for projects across the globe.
That could be a major step forward in popularizing landscape restoration. The process suffers from being literally as exciting as watching grass grow. It can take decades for vegetation to fully return, and strict attention must be paid to mundane matters like grazing and over-planting. Mr. Liu’s documentary overcomes this stumbling block with jaw-dropping fades from muddy denuded landscapes to lush fields.
It is becoming harder to deny the importance of forest landscape restoration in combating climate change. A new study by the World Resources Institute shows that about 1 billion hectares of land could be restored across the globe. Rough estimates indicate that carbon sequestration through this process could eliminate 50 percent more carbon from the atmosphere than a proactive cessation of deforestation could.
Still, forest landscape restoration is decidedly complex. Because ecosystems vary based on geography, and lasting success depends on the support of local residents, the process is pesteringly cross-disciplinary. Any forest landscape restoration project requires the know-how of engineers, ecologists and soil scientists, plus an understanding of local economics and politics.
In the Loess Plateau locals built and must maintain the terraces that have brought about their ecosystem’s incredible recovery.
Much hangs in the balance of the Copenhagen talks, and although forest landscape restoration is a shining light in what has over the past few months become a darkening debate, it is no panacea. It must be implemented in combination with carbon cuts and sound anti-deforestation policies.…
c Framed Wellington bomber and you from your
own thoughts of him on his 'critical-path' sail-boat trips around
the lighthouse as well as his in-depth understanding of the urgent
need to address the potential of climate change disaster and his
dream of the potential of an EDEN-PROJECT like INITIATIVE,
which his daughter Allegra Fuller Snyder visited • in her capacity
as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Buckminster Fuller
Institute and most certainly established as an exemplar of the way
forward • with respect for and regard to the issue of Climate Change,
in juxtaposition to the likes of Lord Lawson, who has a history of
controversial appearances on the Today programme, to make a
number of inaccurate claims throughout his interview, which has
already attracted widespread criticism from scientists.
…
around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities.
It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun.
.…
fueled superstorms.
Daniel Oberhaus 02.27.2020 07:00 AM
For ages, earthlings regarded lightning as an indicator of godly wrath. To understand what displeased a higher power, you followed the damage from Thor's hammer strike, Raijin's drumbeat, or the javelins hurled down by Zeus.
Today scientists have their own God's-eye view of lightning, with instruments that orbit about 22,000 miles above the planet, monitoring nearly every single strike that flashes across the Western Hemisphere. Lightning, it turns out, is still an indicator: Increased electrical activity in the atmosphere is a bellwether for the onset of severe storms—a reflection of the damage inflicted not by any god but, at least in part, by human-made climate change.
To be sure, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has used a network of weather satellites to track storms since the mid-1970s. But six years ago, engineers at Lockheed Martin began assembling a new generation of four 6,000-pound weather satellites—known as GOES, or Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites—with an array of instruments that can track everything from plumes of volcanic ash to space weather. In orbit, each satellite looks like an old-fashioned movie camera pointed toward Earth, with a boom sticking out the back (a device for measuring changes in the planet's magnetic field to study solar wind) and a massive solar panel where you'd expect to see a film reel. In the place where the lens would go is a device that picks up emissions from oxygen molecules that get excited by the energy of an electrical storm: a lightning detector.
…
Added by Michael Grove at 12:53 on February 29, 2020