Can Dirt Save the Earth?

Re:Can Dirt Save the Earth? by monktastic1 on Sunday December 09, 2018 @09:22PM (#18644738)

> 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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI

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.

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Re:Can Dirt Save the Earth? by kiliantics on Sunday December 09, 2018 @10:20PM (#18644925)

I remember being blown away by that video but apparently there has been some criticism of Savory's work. Searching his name returns a few critical articles such as this one:

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2017-2-march-april/feature...

He has responded to some of them and sticks to his claims. It seems the picture is very complicated and we haven't figured it out just yet.

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Re:Can Dirt Save the Earth? by mr_overalls on Monday December 10, 2018 @10:31AM (#18648554)

The Earth doesn't "want" to do anything. It's a collection of physical, geological, chemical, biological, etc. processes that can exist in a variety of semi-stable equilibria - some small number of which are amenable to human life. There is no evidence of any intentionality of any sort, no teleology, no preferred "healthy" state.

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Re:Can Dirt Save the Earth? by grondilu on Monday December 10, 2018 @03:44AM (#18646259)

There is also Freeman Dyson's talk called "heretics thoughts" according to which global warming is mainly a land management issue.

https://youtu.be/8xFLjUt2leM

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