This is part 5 of A Climate Counternarrative.
This discussion has avoided the merits of the climate narrative until now because it would have distracted. Curbing plumes of carbon dioxide tied to poor land stewardship is straightforward, and per above those are the only emissions that matter. Atmospheric carbon dioxide varies during the year. The seasonal bottoms are around where [NOAA GML] highs were years earlier. Better land stewardship could soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide quickly, so any effects of carbon dioxide on climate would be no cause for concern. With this being said, topsoil loss genuinely affects the climate.
Essentially, soil with less carbon holds less water, as does soil with less cover. Runoffs lead to erosion, bare soil, and ponds. The first means more topsoil loss. The other two fuel water evaporation. Water vapor is the greenhouse gas that actually matters, so climate modelers may want to mind soil management more. The real concern, however, is rainfall.
Inland water evaporation contributes to inland rain. Water that has run off downstream cannot produce downwind rain. Drying landscapes become drier and drought prone over time, with intermittent floods tied to runoffs. Droughts and floods fuel yet more topsoil loss. And with it, this cycle.
Topsoil loss is fueling desertification, in other words. Or more precisely, the two are the same. Plantations, overgrazing, and infrastructure like roads that channel water downhill compound the above issues and habitat loss. Those are unequivocally man-made. Anthropogenic climate change could be renamed man-made desertification. It is being counterbalanced by other man-made processes. Human activities are diverting entire rivers and depleting underground water reservoirs. These will eventually run dry, because soil evaporation and runoffs also reduce water infiltration.
Desertification is straightforward to reverse. Harvest water, slow it down to help it soak in, and limit soil evaporation using a combination of plants, mulch, and windbreaks. That will rehydrate a landscape, as evidenced by the restoration of the Arvari River, the Loess Plateau, and other projects. It can also re-green a desert, as has been done in Al Baydha and Niger.
We can even do that at scale with bulldozers and seed pellets. The Great Depression era swales near Tucson, AZ show that abandoned mounds are enough to re-green a desert. Homesteaders and guerrilla gardeners routinely use seed pellets to plant fruit trees. Soak the pellets in strong tea to repel the animals that might eat the seeds. Add temporary fencing to keep grazers from eating the saplings. Bulldozers, drones, and fencing could rapidly transform entire landscapes.
A Climate Counternarrative | Next: Disputable Science
About the Author
Denis de Bernardy is the author of A Natural Language. His work exposes environmental big lies and puts solutions in front of the actual problems.
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