Already in the first post of the Geoengineering Series, I mentioned that humans have been affecting the climate also by agriculture. With the deforestation goes down the ecosystem in that particular area as every tree has lots of beings that live with just one particular tree. Usual claim is that the soil is poor after the forest was cut down. Well, the ecosystem changed entirely. Before, the canopy was providing shade, moisture, food and shelter for the beings that live beneath and with the trees; the fallen leaves usually rot and provide nutrition. So when there is no more shade the shady plants don't thrive and bugs have nowhere to hide. I know this all very simplistic, but I’m not trying to have a lecture on biology or biodiversity here. What I’m trying to present is, that the missing trees lead to missing other species, and altogether lead to poor soil; changed landscape (from rainforest to field, for instance), doesn’t produce as much moisture, clouds, and precipitation as the missing trees once did. Besides, crop plants have other qualities than trees, and after harvest the greenery usually isn’t lest on the soil to cover it, so the nutrition and the shade are gone. While every forest represents the lungs and the home for many species, is the rainforest disappearing very quickly, the estimate is the size of Great Britain annually.
The page Rainforest Concern states that the main causes of rainforest destruction during the past 50 years are: cattle ranching, agriculture, logging, oil companies, and dam building.
Other way the forests are disappearing is by wildfires, which have been raging around the planet last year. Or by sleet. It takes decades for such forest to recover.
Yet, another way found in US in 2008 in Mt. Shasta city is by excess aluminum in the soil. It was found that the trees are dying off because of the aluminum, which was found in the drinking water, soil, deer antlers, and trees. Now, aluminum is in the soil in trace amounts, but excess amount would kill the plants. Decades ago, we had planted a lemon tree in an aluminum flower pot, and the tree died, so I presume the same other plants would suffer the same fate. Dry trees burst into flames more easily. Also other type of trees like eucalyptus trees, which in groups produce highly flammable vapor above them, or pine, spruce and fir trees, are more easily flammable due to the resin.
Agriculture
Sure, we all eat grains, vegetables and fruits, and unless we live in some warm climate, we heat our apartments. The process of cutting down trees for heating, construction and making way for fields has been an ongoing process for millennia. But cutting down forests to plant soy and use it for making gasoline is outrageous. The other thing is that when the forests clearers use the slash-and-burn technique to clear land they later use it for monoculture – single cash crops like rice, citrus fruits, oil palms, coffee, cocoa, opium, tea, soybeans, cacao, rubber, and bananas are planted there, or drought resistant grasses from other parts of the planet if the forest is cleared for cattle. Where once grew a variety of plants and thrived a variety of animals, now are bigger patches of single plants, whereupon fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other methods of modern agriculture are used, because single crops are more prone to pests and diseases. Many times GMO plants are planted and the crops are sprayed by airplanes. The fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides wash down the streams affecting other life depending on those once clean streams.
“Deforestation causes erosion, silting of rivers, landslides and floods. It strips water-absorbing and flood-controlling vegetation that prevents these disasters and problems.” Rainforest Deforestation
What we can expect above such areas is changed wind currents and changed weather patterns. They might change just slightly. While the forests usually help create precipitation and contain moisture, above the deforested area the warm air updraft usually affect the air currents differently.
Permaculture
Of course, anyone can consider the above facts a baloney. No problem. I still have to present one very special agricultural way which has clearly changed the climate locally. It is the permaculture farm of Sepp Holzer in Salzburg Province in Austria; his farm is in the mountains near Salzburg. But as he had created some ponds on the mountain slope, the Sun warms the pond’s water and the Sun’s reflection off the water surface raises the temperature a bit, so he is able to grow cherries and grapevine above 1000 m altitude, and of course other vegetables, crops and fruits. Now, I don’t say that he is the only or the first person to have changed the microclimate, as Chinese have obviously have done it long before with their terraced hills for rice, the only thing is he grows a variety plants and breeds different animals, a very mixed species. It seems that his idea was more about how to create favorable microclimate than enormous yield of a single crop. If you read the following excerpts from Holzer’s book Permaculture, you’ll get the idea of what I’m trying to explain.
I certainly don’t try to say that other parts of the planet or other countries don’t have the problem described in the second excerpt; I only try to present that it might be solvable. Permaculture is many times known as three-story garden. One attempt was carried out in Kenya, where it also changed the microclimate. The sand was used as a filter for drinking water, the fruit trees made the climate moister and food more available. Yet, what little has been changed on the ground to alleviate the problem of the missing trees, shouldn’t be destroyed from above in the form of atmospheric geoengineering.
So, there is a question: Do we really know what we are doing on the Earth and to the Earth, to all the beings? Or, are we just totally unaware of our actions and the consequences of them? Do we all serve the following unknowingly: Deuteronomy 7: 1-2, 5-6? Would you be willing to follow it and carry it out, if you would know what it really means?
Leaving the Sky and the Oceans Intact
This post is part of a series in Geoengineering Series in an effort to present idea that people should start understanding that the sky and the oceans should remain intact, as well as the Earth as a whole, thus also the mainland. But, because humans can’t just dismiss all the industry and construction, and all the rest, we can’t declare the whole Earth a national park, even if we would most probably be way better off by doing so. Even if it is already some 100 years or more too late it is still worth a try. The way I see it, is to give the sky and the oceans the legal status of a national park where chemical experiments with weather or anything else are officially not permitted and not-tolerated, including influencing tropospheric rivers by electromagnetic means. But to whom such a motion/demand in a petition form should be delivered to?
Previous posts in geonegineering series:
Geoengineering Series #10 - Agendas
Geoengineering Series #9 - Legislation Regarding Geoengineering
Geoengineering Series 8 – Photographic Intermezzo for the 1 -10%
Geoengineering Series #7 – The Abuse of Struck and Unstruck Sound
Geoengineering Series #6 – Modern vs. Ancient Weather Weapons
Geoengineering Series #5 – Trading Geoengineered Weather?
Geoengineering Series #4 - Poisoning the Garden of Eden
Geonegineering Series #3 – Using Frequencies
Geoengineering Series #3a – Using Frequencies (a frequencies table)
Geoengineering Series #2 – Weather Modification Jobs
Geoengineering Series #1 – Global Warming and Climate Change