how cattle might help mitigate the effects of climate change

 

The largest possible tsunami storm is approaching us. We are facing an increasingly bleak reality as a result of this perfect storm, and it is quite understandable that we do so with the full conviction that technology can help us solve our problems.

As our population approaches 10 billion, more and more land is turning into desert, and, of course, climate change, all of these factors are contributing to the perfect storm we are currently seeing.

There is no longer any doubt at all: we will only use technology to address the issue of replacing fossil fuels.

But there are numerous more factors contributing to climate change besides fossil fuels, carbon, coal, and gas.

Land that is becoming a desert is referred to as desertification, and this only occurs when we leave too much bare ground. There isn't another reason.

There are places where humidity is constant all year round.

On those, it is nearly impossible to make sizable bare ground regions. No matter what you accomplish, nature quickly undoes it.

Desertification is taking place in areas where there are months of humidity followed by months of dryness.

Fortunately, modern space technology allows us to view it from space, and when we do, you may reasonably discern the proportions.

Generally speaking, the places that are green are not desertifying, but the parts that are brown are, and these are by far the largest regions on Earth.

This photo was taken in the Tihamah Desert as 25 millimetres, or an inch, of rain was falling; around two thirds of the world is decertifying. 

Consider 200-liter water drums as a metaphor for this situation.

Every hectare of that area received more than 1,000 water drums that day.

The landscape looked like this the following day. What had happened to that water? While some of it flooded, the majority of the water that permeated the soil simply drained away, just like it would in your garden if you left the soil exposed.

Now that water and carbon fates are intertwined with soil organic matter, soil degradation results in the release of carbon. Returned to the atmosphere is carbon.

Only arid and semi-arid regions of the planet are experiencing desertification, while tall grasslands with high rainfall rates like this one are unimportant.

The majority of the soil in the grassland you just saw, however, is barren and covered in an algal crust, which increases runoff and evaporation. If you stare at grasslands instead of down into them instead.

That is the cancer of desertification, which we do not detect until it has reached its final stage.

We now understand that livestock, mostly cattle, sheep, and goats, overgraze the vegetation, stripping the soil bare, and emitting methane as a result.

From Nobel laureates to golf caddies, almost everyone is either aware of or was taught this.

Now, consider the arid landscapes in Africa that you can see here.

National parks like this one are most affected by desertification in Africa.

Furthermore, this region has been devoid of livestock for more than 70 years. Where this grassland was green in 1961, it had become that by 2002.

It is obvious that we have never fully comprehended the causes of desertification, which has wiped out numerous civilizations and today poses a threat to all of humanity.

If you take one square metre of dirt and leave it naked like this, I can assure you that it will be significantly cooler at morning and significantly hotter at noon than the same area of ground if it is only covered with plant litter.

The microclimate has been altered by you. By the time you are doing that and significantly increasing the amount of bare terrain on more than half of the planet's territory, your macroclimate is shifting.

However, we still do not fully comprehend why it started to occur 10,000 years ago. Why did it suddenly pick up speed? We didn't comprehend that at all.

What we had overlooked was the fact that the soil, vegetation, and seasonal humid habitats of the Earth all originated in conjunction with massive herds of grazing animals and formidable pack-hunting predators. Currently, joining herds is the primary method of protection against predators that hunt in packs; the larger the herd, the safer the individuals are.

vast herds now urinate and crap all over their own food, but because of their constant movement, which allows us to see where a herd has passed, vast herds were able to prevent overgrazing of plants.

A typical seasonal grassland is shown in this image. Four months of rain have just passed, and eight months of dry weather are about to begin.

And observe the transformation as it enters this protracted dry season. Now, all of the grass you can see above ground needs to biologically decompose before the following growing season; otherwise, the grassland and the soil start to deteriorate.

If it doesn't decompose biologically, it switches to oxidation, a very slow process that kills grasses and causes woody plants and bare soil to grow instead, which releases carbon.

We have traditionally employed fire to stop that. Furthermore, burning one hectare of grassland releases more harmful pollutants than 6,000 cars, leaving the earth naked and releasing carbon.

And every year, we burn more than a billion hectares of grasslands in Africa, and almost anyone talks about it.

As scientists, we can defend the burning because it does clear the dead matter and promote plant growth.

What could we do to maintain the health of this grassland that has dried up in our area? Remember that I am currently discussing the majority of the world's territory.

Without contributing to desertification and climate change, we cannot reduce animal populations to make them relax more.

We cannot burn it without contributing to climate change and desertification. What will we do next? Scientists and climatologists are left with no choice but to imitate nature by using herds and predators as a stand-in for livestock that is gathered and migrating.

 There is no other alternative left to mankind.

Let's do that, then. We'll do it on this patch of grassland, but only in the foreground. In order to emulate nature, we will have a significant impact on it; have a look at that.

Every gardener among you would realise that all of that grass is now covering the soil as dung, pee, litter, or mulch, and that soil is prepared to absorb and hold rain, to store carbon, and to break down methane.

 And we did that, without using fire to damage the soil, and the plants are free to grow.

It was obvious that more was required than just bunching and moving the animals, and humans had never been able to handle nature's complexity over thousands of years.

 But biologists and ecologists had never tackled anything as complex as this. 

This region is entering the lengthy dry season after receiving four months of exceptionally strong rains that year.

 However, as you can see, practically all of that rain has evaporated off the soil's surface.

Despite the rain having just stopped, their river is dry, and 150,000 people are receiving food assistance on a nearly constant basis.

Now let's travel to our nearby land on the same day and examine that with the same amount of precipitation.

 Our river is tidal, wholesome, and pure.

We no longer have much concern about dry years because everything is now more productive, including grass, shrubs, trees, and wildlife.

And we did it by expanding the number of cattle and goats by 400%, designing the grazing to resemble nature, and integrating them with all of our other animals, including elephants, buffalo, giraffes, and other species.

But that's how our land appeared before we started. No matter how much rain we had, this location has been barren and degrading for more than 30 years.

 Watch the marked tree and see the change as we use livestock to mimic nature.

At the base of the tiny tree that was identified, we had lost more than 30 centimetres of soil at this place, which had also been bare and eroding.

And again, watch the change just using livestock to mimic nature. 

Additionally, there are now some downed trees there as a result of the better terrain now luring elephants and other animals. This property in Mexico was in awful shape, and I had to label the hill because of how drastically things have changed.

The vast grasslands of Patagonia are turning to desert as you see here. 

The man in the centre is an Argentine researcher who has recorded the gradual degradation of that area over the years as they continued to reduce the quantity of sheep.

With scheduled grazing and 25,000 sheep in one flock, they're actually imitating nature, and they've seen a 50% boost in the land's productivity in the first year.

In the Horn of Africa, pastoralists freely admit that their imitation of natural grazing patterns is their best chance of preserving their culture and their families.

Ninety-five percent of that land can only feed people from animals.

I should probably remind you that I'm talking about the majority of the planet's land here, which determines our fate, including the world's most violent area, where only animals can feed people from around 95% of the land. I think that what we are doing on a global scale is contributing to climate change just as much as, if not more than, fossil fuels.

But much worse than that, it's fueling war, social unrest, violence, starvation, and poverty, and as I speak to you, millions of men, women, and children are suffering and perishing as a result.

And if this continues, we are unlikely to be able to stop the climate changing, even after we have eliminated the use of fossil fuels.