Davin News Server

Scientists Say....

We Can Halt Global Warming for $300 Billion!

These U.N. Climate Scientists Think They Can Halt Global Warming For $300 
Billion. Here's How

They won't, but then... THAT'S their grift. SAY they're saving us... have a 
forever job.

$300 billion. That's the money needed to stop the rise in greenhouse gases and 
buy up to 20 years of time to fix global warming, according to United Nations 
climate scientists. It's the gross domestic product of Chile, or the world's 
military spending every 60 days.

The sum is not to fund green technologies or finance a moonshot solution to 
emissions, but to use simple, age-old practices to lock millions of tons of 
carbon back into an overlooked and over-exploited resource: the soil.

"We have lost the biological function of soils. We have got to reverse that," 
said Barron J. Orr, lead scientist for the UN Convention to Combat 
Desertification. "If we do it, we are turning the land into the big part of the 
solution for climate change."

Rene Castro Salazar, an assistant director general at the UN Food and 
Agriculture Organization, said that of the 2 billion hectares (almost 5 billion 
acres) of land around the world that has been degraded by misuse, overgrazing, 
deforestation and other largely human factors, 900 million hectares could be 
restored. 

Returning that land to pasture, food crops or trees would convert enough carbon 
into biomass to stabilize emissions of CO2, the biggest greenhouse gas, for 15-
20 years, giving the world time to adopt carbon-neutral technologies.

"With political will and investment of about $300 billion, it is doable," 
Castro Salazar said. We would be "using the least-cost options we have, while 
waiting for the technologies in energy and transportation to mature and be 
fully available in the market. It will stabilize the atmospheric changes, the 
fight against climate change, for 15-20 years. We very much need that."

The heart of the idea is to tackle the growing problem of desertification - the 
degradation of dry land to the point where it can support little life. At least 
a third of the world's land has been degraded to some extent, directly 
affecting the lives of 2 billion people, said Eduardo Mansur, director of the 
land and water division at the FAO.

Marginal lands are being stressed around the globe by the twin phenomena of 
accelerated climate change and a rate of population growth that could lift the 
global tally to almost 10 billion people by 2050, he said. Much of that growth 
is in areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where land is already 
highly stressed.

"The idea is to put more carbon into the soil," said Orr. "That's not going to 
be a simple thing because of the natural conditions. But keeping the carbon in 
the soil and getting that natural vegetation, grazing land etc. thriving again 
- that's the key." 

Last month, at a UN conference on desertification in New Delhi, 196 countries 
plus the European Union agreed to a declaration that each country would adopt 
measures needed to restore unproductive land by 2030. The UN team has used 
satellite imaging and other data to identify the 900 million hectares of 
degraded land that could be realistically restored. In many cases, the 
revitalized areas could benefit the local community and host country through 
increased food supply, tourism and other commercial uses.

Key to returning dry lands to vegetation is the use of fertilizer, said Mansur. 
"Fertilizers are essential for increasing productivity. Good fertilizer in the 
right quantity is very good for the soil."

But decades of poor agricultural practices in both rich and poor nations have 
resulted in misuse, either from using the wrong products, using too much 
fertilizer, or in some areas using too little so that the soil loses its 
nutrients.

"The problem unfortunately is big and it is growing," said Mansur. "The main 
cause of emissions from agriculture is poor land management. But the solutions 
are known: Sustainable land management, sustainable water management, 
sustainable soil management." 

Mansur stresses that the problem isn't about reclaiming desert, but restoring 
wasteland that was productive before human intervention.

"Don't mix desertification with desert," he said. "A desert is an ecosystem. 
There are deserts on the planet that have to be preserved."

Nor is it merely a matter of planting trees, since each area has to be 
considered in terms of the people who live there and how they can live on the 
land sustainably.

Kenya, for example plans to plant 2 billion trees on 500,000 hectares to 
restore 10% of its forest cover, but it is also working on ways to adapt to the 
changes in climate.

We have to improve our livestock and crops to be drought resistant or drought 
tolerant," said Kennedy Ondimu, director of environmental planning and research 
at the country's Environment Ministry. "We have to look at developing our 
indigenous vegetables and indigenous livestock gene bank apart from embracing 
hybrid crop varieties and livestock varieties. We need to prioritize animal 
breeding."

In Costa Rica, farmers are using deforested land to produce CO2 neutral coffee, 
which commands premium prices among consumers. The nation is also replanting 
rain-forest to encourage eco-tourism, which has become the country's second-
biggest earner.

Still, the tide of desertification won't be easy to turn. In India, more than 
20% of the country is considered wasteland and scant water resources are making 
the situation worse. In Chile, home to the world's driest desert, the Atacama, 
the government is spending $138 million improving irrigation as the region's 
driest decade on record forces fruit farmers to migrate south to escape the 
advancing desert. Further north in Brazil, the worst fires in years ravaged the 
world's largest rain-forest.

Yet, Castro Salazar says dozens of countries are fighting back with programs 
designed to reverse the loss of farmland and at least 20 nations have major 
efforts underway to replant lost forests.

"All these countries were able to keep producing the food they needed and 
growing the forest cover," he said. "The myth was that in order to increase 
your productivity and your food sovereignty and security you needed to slash or 
burn the forest. We documented that it's not true." 

http://www.fao.org/global-soil-
partnership/resources/highlights/detail/en/c/1237415/
http://www.fao.org/land-water/news-archive/news-detail/en/c/1062760/
https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-
prospects-2017.html
https://www.unccd.int/
https://www.unccd.int/news-events/new-delhi-declaration-investing-land-and-
unlocking-opportunities


=====

April:

Another Meter Of Snow Hits The Alps
Europe's Crop Losses Worsen - "The Biggest Disaster Of The Last 100 Years"
Frost Damage Reported From France To Ukraine
Growers In Canada And Northeast Also Suffer
Australia To Shiver Into May, Defying BoM Predictions 

Record Cold Strikes Northern Ontario

Rare April Snow Continues Across Europe

Europe Breaks Historic Low Temperature Records As Rare Spring Snow Falls on 
Major Cities

Norwegian Ski Resort on For Bumper Summer Season

Europe Freezes

No Spring In Sight For Much of Russia

Temperatures Are Falling Globally

Feet of Spring Snow Pound Colorado

U.S. Braces For Record April Cold

Socal's Back-To-Back Bumper Snow Seasons

Cold And Snow To Persist Into May Across Europe

Scabbard on For Cold April

Switzerland's Snow Matches Historic 1974-75 Season

Heavy Snow Slams Northwestern Iran

Europe Braces For Spring Freeze

Another Three Avalanche Deaths In The Alps

Indian State Suffers Coldest April Day on Record

Today's Arctic Sea Ice Extent Matches 1996

Snow Remains In Northern India

54 Spots

NZ's Record-Cold March

Rare April Snow Hits Bay Area

More Snow For Midwest/New

Scandinavia Extends Historic Cold Spell, As Europe Sets Snow Records

Feet Of Spring Snow Pound Colorado

Southern Cal's Back-To-Back Bumper Snow Seasons

Svalbard On For Cold April

Indian State Suffers Coldest April Day On Record

The Arctic Was Warmer In The 1920s

Germany Regrets Disbanding Nuclear Plants, It Was A "Mistake"

Yukon Snowpack Breaks Records

Early Snows Hit Australia's Ski Fields

It's Still Snowing On Kilimanjaro... Al Gore Was Wrong (as usual)

Alyeska Exceeds 700 Inches

Rare April Snow Hits Boise

Montreal's Snowiest April Since 2010

Clearing Crews Reach Baralacha

Antarctica At -75.8C (-104.4F)

Alta Posts Rare Back-To-Back 600+ Inch Winters

Indian Army Rescues 80 Trapped By Spring Snowfall

Remarkable Antarctic Sea Ice Recovery

April Nor'Easter Drops Feet Of Snow

600,000 Lose Power As 'Spring' Storm Batters Quebec

Avalanche Hits Helicopter In The Alps, Killing 3

Scandinavia Breaks Historic Low Temperature Stretch

New Zealand's Record-Cold March

Rare April Snow To Dust Bay Area Peaks

More Snow For The Midwest/Northeast

Scandinavia Extends Spell Of Historic April Cold, As Europe's Mountain Snow 
Breaks Records

Sweden Sets Coldest April Temperature

Swiss Avalanche Kills 3

Utah Snowpack At 132%, California Defies The 'Experts'

Anchorage Only 6.3" Away From All-Time Record

Colder-Than-Average March At Vostok

Antarctica Dips Below -100F

"Significant Spring Snowstorm" Takes Aim At Canada/Northern US

April Snow Builds Across Europe's Higher Elevations