How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change | Allan Savory
Economy | Information | History | Online | Facts | World | Global | Money
"Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert," begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And terrifyingly, it's happening to about two-thirds of the world's grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes -- and his work so far shows -- that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector
Comments
-
Guys is it really possible?
-
There is evidences for his theory/method in history, there was millions (single to double digit) of bison in North America grassland before their extermination. Also millions of wildebeest in Africa. But didn't he stated, he was responsible for 40,000 elephant death.
-
Not sure about this one! As good as it sounds, maybe more false hope, given to us, to avoid the real radical solutions really needed. I'll keep an open mind on it and do more research on this guy and the science.
-
Easy for me to not believe anything he says because of his pretentious and self-inflated tone.... Regardless, this isn't a scientific theory. No real evidence to support these claims. Be skeptical! Eat less meat
-
Unfortunately I don't think he's factored in that cows produce methane which is over 200x more destructive to the environment than Co2...
-
40,000 Elephants! Seriously. As a scientist they couldn't see the early trends that their hypothesis was wrong around say 10,000 elephants?
-
I am a biologist and fedup with the doomsday propaganda. By
-
I strongly support and our joint action can save future of our Children and Grand children, Mankind.
-
If no one could find a blade of grass in a 100 mile run, why did the cows not starve to death? He does not explain that.
-
Awesome lecture and research... but
1:00 FAIL: 'Fossil fuels', so called, are the product of subsurface fungi and bacteria including anaerobic varieties. Oil fields are live, productive subterranean moss pits.
5:00 FAIL: We (mankind) never believed the world was flat. That myth was propagated under the Catholic Church in Europe alone. Egyptians, Myans, and Indians (among many) knew otherwise.
Burning makes the earth grow greener. The fire kills old and sickly trees, arrests parasitic infestations, activates fire-activated cones (seeds), and distributes magnificent quantities of perfect fertilizer (aka ash & smoke) over large areas. The CO2 released is rapidly absorbed by other plants.
SPOILER: Man discovers that animal life and plant life support each other!
*NOTE: C02 levels were 3x as high as today during the Jurassic period. That's why the plants got so big. The big plants supported big animals. I love CO2. Oh yeah; temperatures were a lot higher than too... and it DID NOT MAKE DESERTS. -
Well yes but livestock also need a lot of water.And as water is becoming the major issue in many parts of the World.Due to climate change.I don`t see this suggestion on a World scale working
-
Very cool. Geoengineering along with life extension are too future emerging technologies that fascinate me to no end. Think about all the cool things we could do with geoengineering. We could control environments to make them suitable as well as possibly even aid in preventing natural disasters. By controlling climate weather in a way can be controlled and regulated. We could make deserts green and have plants flourish in them. We could create new habitats for animals to dwell in. This is very moving. Things are starting to look up. Keep up the good work geoengineers you are doing an excellent job. :)
-
Forget missionaries, send Ecologists!
-
Scam science unsustainable money pit.
-
we call this the normelization of animal killing. Who belief this guy anyway, first there are to many animals, then there are to little. This is a product of an unbalanced mind.. Keep in mind,who would want to listen to a guy who killed 10.000 elephants?
-
It is a well known fact that Only NAture can cure this planet. Let's stop Factory farming of Animals (cows, Pigs, Goats, Poultry) and see a healthy planet and people. Otherwise, sick planet and overweight-undermanutrition people will be the norm.
-
haha why does it have to be 'violent horn of africa' that is really such a negative stereotype.
-
I found this talk interesting though lacking in hard data. That being said, the fields of bio-mimicry present some very input efficient alternatives to the corporate models we have been following for the past century at least. Two other documentaries i have seen seem to correlate with these theories. The first was involving a few beavers that had been introduced to a very arid valley deep in the last stages of desertification in Arizona or New mexico. What they found ,was that within a couple of years these Beavers had managed to restore the ecosystem to pristine condition, with all the abundance that other wildlife in the area so badly needed. They did this by Harvesting the deep ponds of water that they needed in order to practice their prefered method of defence, Diving deep out of reach of predators. The second documentary was a presentation by Micheal Pollan, Who, while in the process of explaining that all farms had a maximum capacity for optimal holistic production. He called these systems "Holons" In one of these, the technique was to follow behind the herds of cattle with large rolling cages of poultry who would in turn eat the grubs in the manure contibute their own droppings high in nitrogen, in turn fertilizing the next growths of grass. I was wondering if Africa had Beavers, and if these rolling poultry cages might help to promote bio-diversity while simultaneously providing a secondary source of protein for rural farmers without dramatically increasing workloads- this is all very Lo-Tech and cost efficient
-
I grew up farming cattle. In order to survive, cows need water and 20-30 pounds of grass per DAY. Without supplemental feeding, how the heck can you feed animals in a place where there is no grass within 100 miles? 21:23 This is a load of bull manure. Ridiculous and impossible that he can start GRAZING animals in a place WITHOUT GRASS. That's like drinking water without having a water source.
Even if he brought in all the animals and they pooped on some grass seed, it still will take 2 months or more before the grass is established to be able to be grazed... are they supposed to be on a dirt & sand diet for 2 months? There's NO WAY. -
i must be missing something.....if the land in a specific area is already desertified, what are the herds going to graze on, in order to defecate, roam onto other lands etc. and mimic nature in the way he has described, in order to rejuvenate the degraded land.
22m 20sLenght
25365Rating