permaculture

["Ben Martin Horst" <ben.martinhorst@gmail.com>]

Travis--
Thanks for posting the link ... I had referenced an earlier Ruddiman
paper in a post a couple weeks ago about the introduction of wet rice
culture being linked to anthropogenic warming due to methane
emissions, but I couldn't remember or find the source or author
(Ruddiman and Thomson: 2001, "The Case for Human Causes of Increased
Atmospheric CH4 over the Last 5000 Years," Quaternary Science Review
#22, 141.). I'm glad to see this paper.

Of course, even if the hypothesis that methane-related warming goes
back thousands of years is proven true, it still pales in comparison
to present-day anthropogenic CO2 warming. Nonetheless, I think it has
a profound impact on the way we think about human interaction
with/effect on the environment in a broader sense than just what
industrialized nations have been doing since 1750, as deeply important
as that may be. From a permaculture perspective, I think it makes it
clear in another way that if we are to live in tandem with the Earth's
natural cycles -- whether the changing of the seasons or the
23,000-year climatological cycles -- that we need to look for
inspiration not so much among pre-industrial agricultural peoples but
among hunter-gatherers and horticulturists.

Ben

> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 10:00:45 -0400
> From: Travis Miller <wyrdbrew@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] GLOBAL WARMING:- A different 'take' on it
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <FAF88E16-04B3-4906-993A-86B5920EED40@gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
> I recently read a paper on a theory that anthropogenic warming
> actually started thousands of years ago.  The gist of the paper is
> that anomalous quantities of CH2 and CO2 have been  dated to the
> early part of the holocene period.  The methane increases are along
> the same timeline as the increased use in domesticated ungulates and
> the CO2 increases are on the same timeline as deforestation by humans
> for use as farmland.  The hypothesis is that the domestication of
> animals and clearing of land got the global warming ball rolling and
> extended the cyclical warm period between glaciation and that we'd be
> well into an ice age if it wasn't for human activity.  Essentially,
> agriculture created global warming and industrialization made it more
> severe.  I'm not a climate scientist but the data and the basic
> premise seemed to make sense.
>
> Here is a link to the paper on Stanford's website.
>
> http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/
> Ruddiman2003.pdf
>
> This may have some bearing on discussion of how Permaculture can and
> should be used as part of a mitigation response to climate change.
>
> Travis
>
> "It is never to late to be what you might have been."
> - George Eliot
> -
>
>
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