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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] permaculture Digest, Vol 51, Issue 20

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  • From: "Ben Martin Horst" <ben.martinhorst@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] permaculture Digest, Vol 51, Issue 20
  • Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:52:53 -0700

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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