What Is At Risk and What We Can Do Now

By ADAM TURTLE

Environmental abuse is not new. Beginning with deforestation subsequently herding and agriculture, we (and our cultural antecedents) began to impact climate – locally at first as there were not many of us then regionally … and now globally. This accelerated incrementally but was still of more or less regional impact, as populations increased and urbanized (in a sense gave up widespread indiginosity – i.e. direct intimate contact with the land).

The appearance first of the plow and then the horse collar both allowed and were instrumental in further urban growth and the attendant disconnect with widening regional climatic impact. But populations were still small enough that when one group sufficiently abused and reduced carrying capacity of an area, they could war with neighbors and secure their area. Colonization was just part of the process for extraction based cultures. For more on this aspect, I recommend Dr. David Montgomery’s book “Dirt” (the story of civilizations as told by their soils) for those who believe our history is important.

The above was more or less incremental. Until the “Petroleum Age” when with seemingly free energy, things i.e. population, deforestation and general land abuse accelerated by orders of magnitude. Soon after WW1, the arms industry effectively declared war on nature – especially in agriculture. But unfortunately still with an extraction mind set premised on the (then and now) prevailing belief that the Earth belongs to us. In the early ’50s interest rates were considered usury if they exceeded 3%. This coupled with easy credit and the promise that we could have EVERYTHING and have it NOW, plus farms trying to monocrop using input driven “modern” techniques, led to eventually unsustainable debt loads and subsequent foreclosures and consolidation of land ownership, which led to urban migration … and round and round, leading to over production.

As. Dr. Wes Jackson of the Land Institute has noted, “We were the land’s before the land was ours!” Native peoples express this, “We did not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrowed (or hold in trust) from our descendants.” We are called to be stewards with “usufruct” not owners to enslave and abuse the land … and water and air … and now genetics. All contribute to our declining wellness and general well being!

I started with agriculture because unless we prefer to subsist on “Soylent Green” and live in crowded boxes, the current situation and coming unavoidable changes require us to rethink our driving attitudes/values if we hope to find our way to a sustainable future. Otherwise we will face the inevitable consequences. The Progressive Populist usually focuses on politics and economics but agriculture is the foundation of it all.

First, The Earth is not in danger! The planet will endure. It is the Biosphere and its systems and cycles that our actions are putting at risk beyond likelihood of recovery.

Second, it wasn’t only fossil fuels that were/are causitory to our situation. Agriculture, including attendant deforestation with “progress” first in machinery and then “Agrochemistry,” is currently considered a primary driver with a +/- 40% contribution to the atmospheric carbon. This now has a major “knock on” effect triggering cumulative cascading systems disruption. Some of which are only now beginning to be acknowledged.

Yes, we desperately need to sharply reduce or at least slow down our petrochemical contributions. But Right Now(!) we can initiate “carbon sequestration” (aka carbon farming) in the soil where it can sustain us. This is possible and is already in process thru what is being termed “intensive managed grazing” and no till, regenerative agriculture/reforestation. And it will call for many more small farmers/stewards on the land. Yes we will take an “economic hit,” even the rich can’t eat money. And it will involve more labor (less unemployment), and it will move us toward a return to our Biosphere’s sustainable carrying capacity. We are only now beginning to grasp the carbon sequestration potential … if … if …if.

To have an appreciation of our seemingly radical but very real positive options, I recommend “Humusphere” by H. Pommeresche (a recent translation from the German), also “Cows Save the Planet” by J.D. Schwartz both available from Acres USA, a monthly magazine subtitled “The Voice of Eco-agriculture” which also provides real up to date relevant information.

We have reached the point where the Climate Crisis should be (or become if you are newly aware of the situation) the backdrop for every choice/action each of us considers. The combination of ignorance and arrogance is toxic and cumulative. No more “me first”, we ARE all in this together and NOW is the time to awaken and act.

Please!

Adam Turtle is an ethnobotanist, bamboo researcher and Fellow of the Linnean Society. He and Sue Turtle are founders and co-directors of Earth Advocates Research Farm, Summertown, Tenn. See www.earthadvocatesresearchfarm.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2020

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