Redwood Reader

210. More For Brokaw
Last night I watched Tom Brokaws two hour report on global warming- Global Warming: What You Need To Know on the Science Channel. It gave a good account of the observations that are currently occurring or being recovered out of the ice cores. It was in laymans terms and he didn't bother with too many graphss but it seems clear there is a problem. When we have looked at glomalin destruction with the advent of Western Civilization and add emissions from carbon sources long buried it seems obvious we need aggressively address this issue. Reducing energy use is the number one priority. The only other way to address the problem is to pump some of it back into the earth with drilling rigs.
Much was made of disappearing glaciers but no mention was ever made of revegetation in currently in low-0 or no vegetation will surely thrive in many places. The natural communities with strong survival qualities will gradually develop in lessened competition and adjustments for new realities. We can be sure the natural world will be adjusting many ways to this warming and CO2 rich atmosphere. Conditioning the environment for life is a living process basic to even the simplest creatures. Plant communities will form with the mycorhizzal associations and will thrive where conditions are good. Water is an essential for all life, and life will find it and try to ensure its supply, and it has a ready made method for much of the world. The destruction of the temperate forests and their ability to moderate the problem was never addressed.
The program sadly made little mention of the need to grow more forest, or increase glomalin production or protection, or maintaining large multispecies ecosystems-in-a-single-tree but did mention forest decline due to cutting in the Amazon. The ciritical difference is in how management can have an impact on global issues, and big problems need big solutions or we will be living in a chaotic world. Wildfire due to summer drought was well covered. Again, no mention was really made aboout the resilience of the forest depleted in its develpoment of water storage means, nor release of naturally stored carbon in disturbed or cutover lands. Less conditioned soil is holding less precipitation, there are fewer springs. As we have said earlier, this will be an opportunity for some people and that he who gathers the most CO2 will win- kidding, of course.
For the political and agricultural worlds it is pretty much either a matter of size or a crapshoot about your location and the effect on precipitation. Plants are naturally resilient but even so the world changes over time. The tools are in the soil to turn most any landscape into home for some form of life all the while absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.
I also watched a fasinating Animal Planet program-Leave It To The Real Beavers. This has been a great trip to observe them repeatedly and see some of the things they do, so the program was timely in my life. We see this is another ancient battle for land use between the tree communities which are cut and then drowned. Eventually the wetlands fill and go dry, ameadow comes in and the forest comes back. Nothing is said of the difference these ponds can have on locally available moisture moderation or carrying capacity of a mountain range in the summer. All in all, the beaver hurts us on trees but can provide water. This is more evidence that life moderates the environment for its own purposes.
As I drive down the country lane looking at pasture now I wonder how much CO2 could be processed a year if it was put back in trees. I wonder if flooding was a regular problem for Indians. I wonder how deep the native trees roots ran. I wonder if the mycorhizzal production is being impeded or aided by hotter summers and longer growing seasons.