Living on the island of Kauai I had an incredible epiphany regarding the ecological challenges we are facing as a human civilization. I looked at a map of the globe and what I saw was stunning. Wherever a great ancient civilization existed it is surrounded by a desert.
http://faculty.ucc.edu/egh-damerow/ancients.htm
The Middle East (Ancient Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Persia) North Africa (Ancient Egypt) the Indian subcontinent (Ancient India), Mongolia and Northern China (Ancient China) Mexico (Ancient Aztec and Mayan).
All of these civilizations clear cut the trees around them to sustain their life and build their cities. The result has been barren arid deserts. Its not hard to put this together when you really look at our globe.
Its not a coincidence that the most profitable and populous nations are all centered around the remaining green belts which we are consuming. This strategy is failing miserably and we are running out of water and fertile earth. There is only one way to reverse this: Replant what we took out.
(Olympic Rainforest off the Skokomish river north fork WA State)
Trees have a versatile job that they accomplish in our ecosystem. They cool the earth with their shade, shed their foliage and create rich loamy dirt as that foliage decomposes. All the while they hold the earth in place by sheltering it from the elements allowing moisture to collect underneath them. This in turn builds a reservoir of freshwater which we call groundwater.
Once we cut the trees away the earth they created dries up and blows away. Then the silt and heavy elements settle at the bottom (sand), and the air becomes arid (dry) resulting in almost nonexistent rainfall.
Moisture literally attracts moisture. This photo above is of The Weeping wall (the crater in the center of Wai'Ale'Ale on Kauai which is 5.5 million years old) it is the wettest place on earth recieving over 9 feet of rain a year! The photo below is to show how the clouds are sucked into the crater (moisture atracting moisture).
The main goal of these tree planting projects is to bring the rain back to where it falls no more thus creating ample supplies of freshwater and vegatation. (I'll be discussing the planting strategies in later entries).
The basics behind my plan is to use our human ingenuity to rapidly cultivate and replant the forests we've cut down over the last 10,000 years. Since we have so thoroughly destroyed the ecosystems in these deserts we created we are going to have install new ones in their stead.
During the Devonian Period (about 419 million years ago to about 358 million years) life was just beginning on earth. There was no major animal or plant life to speak of. Over the 62 million year period nature slowly and beautifully crafted the lush and gorgeous ecosystems we enjoy to this day.
We have destroyed 47% of that ecosystem and the rest will fall apart much faster due to the higher populations of tree destroying and consuming human
beings.
(The Sahara Desert from space)
Our advantages to rapidly reversing our current situation are vast since we still have a large amount of resources left intact. Nature took 62 million years building this from scratch but in the beginning of it seed bearing plants didn't even exist.
(Smoke rising from the Amazon Rainforest (seen from space) as it is burned down for cow pastures to provide humanity with cheap fast beef)
Seeds are plentiful and there are many drought tolerant warriors that are heat and cold resistant. These plants and trees, while not necessarily "native" to these areas, will get the job done. By combining responsible water management and sustainable cultivation practices we can effectively and swiftly use the tools at our disposal to transform the deserts of our world into lush forests.
(Our project starting space from space... the big bend in Columbia river where it is brown is the Hanford reach)
Please get involved and support and participate in this effort. We are facing our own extinction if we keep trotting ignorantly down it. Change or your great grandchildren will be the last of our legacy.
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