Regenerative Agriculture Can Stop Global Warming From Getting Worse!
Most people can see what is happening to our climate. It’s getting worse and more dangerous every year. Just look around. Extreme weather events are occurring more frequently with disastrous effects. Heat waves, forest fires and floods are just a few extreme weather events that are killing more people around the globe and causing untold damage to our environment. This last summer heat waves out West lasted for weeks causing the hottest June on record for the U.S. According to one CBS News article it was a rare 1-in-1,000 year event that will likely happen once every 5 to 10 years by 2050. Heat waves are caused by warm weather heat domes that stall over specific regions due to the unpredictability of the jet streams.
Temperatures reached just under 120 degrees Fahrenheit in some cities and up to 130 degrees in Death Valley. These are killing temperatures to humans, plants and animals.
It is a scientific fact now that the global average temperature has risen 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900 after hundreds of thousand years of normal average temperatures, all caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Nature is not the cause behind this; humans are. Rising temperatures are what is causing climate change.
The latest United Nations report, Climate Change 2021, released in August by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) clearly states the urgency of the Climate Crisis situation.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the Working Group's report was nothing less than "a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable".
The IPCC report states that the Paris Accord goal is to limit the average global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2050. We are already at 1.2 degrees Celsius and rising fast.
Another UN News Article quotes, “Many of these changes are unprecedented, and some of the shifts are in motion now, while some - such as continued sea level rise – are already ‘irreversible’ for centuries to millennia, ahead, the report warns. But there is still time to limit climate change, IPCC experts say. Strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases, could quickly make air quality better, and in 20 to 30 years global temperatures could stabilize.”
The UN is holding a crucial COP26 (Conference Of the Parties) in Glasgow, Scotland from October 31 to November 12, 2021. Hopefully, participating nations will set new agreements to achieve the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The climate activist organization I belong to, called Climate Reality Project (CRP), is committed to helping the world achieve this goal. A complete explanation of COP26 and what we are fighting for is found in a new CRP ebook pdf titled The Countdown To COP26. Everything comes down to an “existential choice—for global leaders and for the rest of us.” We need to Act Now to prevent the worst to come.
One of the best ways to reach COP26 targets is to implement Regenerative Agriculture (RA) best practices among farmers and ranchers worldwide. RA is not a new concept for it has been around for many years. RA is best defined as a system of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances the entire ecosystem of the farm. Through carbon sequestration, carbon is captured in the soil by pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere to reverse the damages caused by climate change. It offers increased yields, resilience to climate instability, higher soil health and vitality for farming communities.
What is not as well known to the public is the dramatic effect RA has on reducing greenhouse (GHG) emissions such as CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) in the atmosphere. CO2 is the major reason why our atmosphere is warming the planet. Concentrations of CO2 have risen to over 400 parts per million (ppm) since the mid 1700’s when the industrial revolution began.
The eventual goal of the Paris Accords and COP26 is to reduce the level of GHGs to Zero emissions by 2050. A more immediate goal is to achieve what is called Drawdown by 2040 or earlier. Drawdown is defined as “the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline. This is the point when we begin the process of stopping further climate change and averting potentially catastrophic warming. It is a critical turning point for life on Earth.”
One big problem with this scenario is the fact that the atmosphere has already accumulated over 950 gigatons of CO2 and other GHGs over the last 150 years of human development per one Global Study. So even if we reach Drawdown, the world will continue to warm up to disastrous levels unless we find a better way to draw down these excess levels of GHGs.
Again, one of the best solutions is to implement Regenerative Agriculture Best Practices. The main reason is because RA creates healthy soil which is how nature keeps the planet cool enough for human life. Nature depends on healthy soil root systems to feed plants which draw down carbon dioxide from our atmosphere through photosynthesis that produces oxygen and stores excess carbon in the ground. Photosynthesis is the key to life and a cooler planet.
This “soil carbon sponge” as Walter Jehne calls it, is the way nature balances our hydrological or water cycle that cools the planet with rain. RA is the best way to create this carbon sponge and cannot be achieved if the soil is left exposed to the sun and weather. The soil must be covered at all times to keep its plant root systems intact and allow microbes to feed the plants that feed the animals and provide the nutritional value our food supplies now lack due to industrial farming methods.
Regenerative Agriculture is one of nature’s best solutions, if not the best solution, to solving the climate crisis and even reversing global warming before it is too late. Don’t allow doomsayers or anti-climate naysayers to convince otherwise.
Now is time to Act! Nature has the solutions to quickly stop this Climate Crisis.
Donald Viecelli Climate Reality Project Leader Member of Climate Reality Project: Chicago Metro Chapter: