Donnerstag, 30. September 2010 / 14:37:37
Trees a cure for climate change?
Recently Time magazine featured an article that
demonstrated links between cloud cover and climate change. This should
come as no surprise and yet the data shows a decline in low level
cloud cover as ocean temperature warms.
This is not good news because clouds reflect sunlight and are a very
important source of global cooling. In fact the amount of water vapour
in the air is far greater than the amount of CO2 in the air and water
vapour is a green house gas like CO2. And yet because water vapour can
be turned into clouds, water vapour is a bit like a switch. Increase
clouds - decrease temperature, Decrease clouds - increase temperature.
You see, water vapour is transparent to visible light and thus lets in
the sunlight but it is opaque to infrared light (heat) so it traps the
heat just like CO2 or a greenhouse. Now if the conditions are right,
water vapour forms tiny ice crystals and/or water droplets in the air.
There needs to be low temperature and there needs to be tiny particles
like dust in the air and when water vapour does this trick, it makes
clouds that are white and are opaque to all light. This means, that while
the clouds do not let heat escape they, also prevent the sunlight from
fully reaching the earth.
So clouds are a net benefit. So it would appear, that to fight climate
change, you might wish to increase cloud cover. And you would be correct
in thinking that. In fact there are designs for giant machines to make
clouds and yet it would appear to be an act of hubris to try to use
artificial means to address the problem of climate change. If you can
increase the cloud forming material in the air, you might be abel to
address the issue using natural means, but until recently we did not
understand where a lot of the material that seeds clouds came from.
Recent research though has been demonstrating a link between tiny
airborne bacteria and cloud formation.
So called bio-precipitation has received little attention in the past
and is now becoming better and better understood. It turns out that
plants have bacteria on their leaves that, when blown into the air by
the wind, are very good at seeding clouds so that they can hitch a ride
on the rainfall back down to the earth.
If you imagine the wind blowing across a plain of grass, it will pick
up some bacteria. But if you imagine the wind blowing through a forest,
then you can imagine that from the tall trees in the canopy, there will
be far more bacteria picked up and blown high into the air. Here then
is a link between forests and cloud cover. What makes this so
significant, is that this also means that there is another link that
you can immediately infer, the link of cutting down forests and
increasing climate change.
It is well known that one major cause of desertification, where the
land dries out and becomes desert, is deforestation. Now consider that
cutting our forests also reduces the chances, that clouds can form. The
picture becomes grim indeed. Yet there is also cause for hope, perhaps
even celebration, because if cutting down trees makes climate matters
abruptly worse then the converse is likely to be true.
Planting trees in forests can very likely cause more biomass to be
blown into the air and thereby an increase in cloud cover and thus a
return to a lower temperature on the planet. As well planting trees
into bio-diverse sustainable forests can be done relatively quickly
and possibly even profitably. This is very good news because it gives
us a direct natural method of combatting climate change that we did
not understand before.
If we could increase global cloud cover by just 2%, we would be able to
halt climate change long enough for us to develop the energy
miracles we need to reduce our carbon foot print. To do this, we need
to change mind sets and get really clever at designing new forests
that can support people, bio-diversity and generate income.
All over the world, there is a feeling that cleared land is more
valuable than forested land. Farmers and developers see the effort
they have to put in to fell the trees and remove the forest. They
then feel like the cleared land is worth more because it is manageable
and has had the effort of clearing put into it.
Forests are often seen as impediments to progress with a residual
value being the value of the timber that can be harvested during
clearing. A big problem in the world to day is that once the land is
cleared of its forest it tends to degrade in quality. Precious soils
erode, vital nutrients are lost and irrigation often is needed which
brings new problems like salination, where the land retains too much
salt. The cleared land often becomes worthless, so new land is then
cleared of forest.
While we must stop deforestation it is also clear that we must do more
and better than that. Using advanced ethical design techniques it is
possible, to rehabilitate degraded land and replant the forest. If it
is done in an intelligent way, it is possible to produce a range of
cash crops in a bio-diverse massive forest garden that easily makes the
rehabilitated land more productive and more valuable than even the
freshly cleared land. It is possible to feed people and animals both
domesticated and wild simultaneously in such a food forest.
The key is education and knowledge. Once you understand permaculture
design principles it is quite cheap and much easier to plant a forest
that can support your family. Also land ownership rights can play a
vital role. Once people understand how to make a sustainable living
from an area of forest, it is powerful to allow them ownership of the
land albeit for specific purpose.
We have an opportunity to use reforestation to restore the balance of
the world and to provide for billions of people and while we have many
fixed mindsets about forests, we also have the greatest chance ever for
global education with the penetration of mobile internet across the
planet to disseminate techniques like permaculture design to even the
poorest of the poor in the world.
So what can you do? There are thousands of organisations dedicated to
protecting forests and to reforesting. Join one such as weforest.com
There are many permaculture design courses in the world. Go and learn
for your self! Plant trees in your own habitat and donate to
organisations like the green belt movement so they can also plant
trees in their habitat.
Above all share what you have just read with others so that we all
might create a movement that boycotts products from clear felled and
unsustainable farming practices and so that we may all finally put a
real value on forested lands that allows us to treasure what is surely
the greets asset we can pass on to our children and future
generations.
von Bill Liao (Quelle: news.ch)
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Links zum Artikel:
Time-Magazine-Artikel
Der im Text erwähnte Artikel im Time-Magazine
Wissenschaftlicher Artikel über Ursache von Wolken
Der im Text erwähnte Aufsatz zum Zusammenahng von Wäldern und Wolkenbildung
Weforest
Bill Liaos Wiederaufforstungsinitiative
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