How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change | Allan Savory
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters bring it up in climate and food threads as a hopeful, if contested, idea about grazing and soil carbon.
What it is
Allan Savory's TED talk arguing that desertification of grasslands can be reversed with holistic managed grazing, which he says would also help reverse climate change. TED notes that other scientists have challenged his claims.
Recommended by 9 HN commenters across 9 different months, 2013 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec monktastic1 · 2018-12 · on “Can Dirt Save the Earth?”
> This view ran counter to a lot of conservationist thought, as well as a great deal of evidence. Grazing has been blamed for turning vast swaths of the world into deserts. But from Creque’s perspective, how you graze makes all the difference. This is the idea behind this fantastic TED talk: [this video] We're largely focused on high-tech ways to "fix" the Earth, but the Earth has known how to do it since forever. Finding ways to use her own intelligence seems like a great idea.
Recommends boon · 2013-03 · on “Bills seek end to farm animal abuse videos”
I would eat dog if it wasn't raised as someone's pet. Actually I just got back from Vietnam, and I'm pretty sure I ate both dog and cat at some point. Didn't bother me because they didn't raise them as pets. They raised them with the intention of eating every little bit (without wasting any part of the animal, I might add). You can grow fond of plenty of the animals that we eat on a normal basis, pigs in particular. We also have a tendency to anthropomorphize animals which can lead to attachment. Factory farming is indeed a huge problem, because it requires so much fossil fuel, grain, and antibiotics, and destroys the land and causes global warming. But the fix is not to stop eating animals,
Recommends xamolxix · 2014-10 · on “How Wolves Change Rivers [video]”
Reminds me about this TED talk [this video] where Allan Savory speaks about the behavior of herbivores with/without predators and the impact on flora. Fascinating, really. I hope the day will come when we understand the biosphere of this wonderful planet we live on.
Recommends dx034 · 2018-01 · on “Britain's Next Megaproject: A Coast-To-Coast Forest”
But those are often desert. And desertification could (in part) be caused by overly protecting the area (e.g. not allowing cattle). Good video to watch: [this video]
Recommends andersha · 2018-10 · on “Carbon Removal Technologies”
We can manage grassland and savanah. Grasses exudate a lot of their sugars (carbon) into the ground feeding the microbes. Holistically managed grassing is all about timing the regrowth and recycling the nutrients and fibers through the cow. The prairies are amazing ecosystem pumping carbon into the ground when properly managed. The knowledge is available, but this ted talk only has 2 million views. [this video]
Recommends yjhoney · 2019-05 · on “CO2 in the atmosphere just exceeded 415ppm for the first time in human history”
This Ted talk gave me hope to reverse climate change and seems plausible: [this video] Does anyone know / have experience whether this actually works?
Recommends wlib · 2020-08 · on “We should discuss soil as much as coal (2019)”
Glad to see this, a great related TED talk by Allan Savory that introduces why this is true can be found here [this video]
Recommends lcamach84 · 2021-03 · on “Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut”
When the herd eat grass it stimulates grass growth and grass is a huge carbon sink. there is a cool ted talk about this. [this video]