THE MAGIC CARPET OF FUNGI, WITH RODGER SAVORY

Hart: You've mentioned the importance of fungi. Fungi are often neglected and misunderstood in farming, ranching and ecological restoration. What special role do fungi play in the process of turning deserts into grasslands?

Rodger: When I was in school, we had the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom, we didn't even know fungi existed.

And when I was in college, we still had the plant and the animal kingdom. And now we at least admit that there's a plant, animal and fungi kingdom, but our knowledge base of it is extremely limited.

Now, as for my excitement with the fungi kingdom … we all know fungi rot things. And we all know that to have a life cycle, you've got birth, growth, death and decay

Decay is the fungi’s role.

What we didn't realize was that birth is also the fungi’s role. So if the fungi are not sending out messages to plants to germinate and start growing, the birth doesn't even begin. So we can't have decay—and we can’t have birth—without fungi.

Now, know that … but we don't know that. So if you buy legume seeds, as a crop farmer, it's “inoculated.” All that means is, we've put fungi with it. So we know we need fungi, but we don't connect the dots.

I'm around 50 years old. I’ve learned to concentrate on the fungi. If we get the fungi right, other things fall into place. Where this was first demonstrated to me was one of the first biological carpets that I did really successfully. It really shook me as a researcher. It was in Zimbabwe. We put down the biological carpet and about two weeks later, the first rains came and it was just fascinating to watch, because the first thing that happened was the dung beetles buried all the dung.

And then the second thing that happened was a carpet of different fungi germinated, and fruiting bodies came up.

If I had to guess how many different species of fungi germinated on this one biological carpet, I would guess it was over 1,000 different species. There were little blue ones, little pink ones, yellow ones, big white ones and brown ones. It was just the sea of fungi.

And then the fungi all shriveled and wilted. Ten days later it rained and turned into a “Chia Pet” of fresh, new forage, germinating and growing. And then six weeks later a village woman in the area started yelling and screaming and got all excited because a grass that they hadn't seen since they were children was suddenly visible and available.

That was about 20 years ago. That was the first time I saw this distinct, an undeniable connection between fungi and the grasses starting to germinate. That's when I started to concentrate on fungi and pay attention.

So fungi are not just involved in decay, but also birth and emergence of plants.

"Turning Deserts Into Grasslands," with Rodger Savory
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nf9O_Cs2MQ0&feature=youtu.be

Blíží se doba bezmasá? Místo hovězího mají lidé jíst zeleninu, plánuje EU - Seznam Zprávy
https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/ekonomika-blizi-se-doba-bezmasa-misto-hoveziho-maji-lide-jist-zeleninu-planuje-eu-228162

„Díky přechodu ke stravě obsahující více rostlin a méně červeného a zpracovaného masa a více ovoce a zeleniny se sníží nejen rizika život ohrožujících onemocnění, ale také dopad potravinového systému na životní prostředí.“

tis wronk

New climate paper calls for charging big US oil firms with homicide | Oil | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/22/big-oil-companies-homicide-harvard-environmental-law-review

The paper is rooted in part in the growing body of evidence fossil fuel companies knew of the harm their products caused and misled the public about them.

Attorneys general and cities have used that information to sue oil companies for financial damages caused by rising seas, wildfires and heat. But the new paper argues that oil companies’ climate research and continued fight to delay climate regulations amount to a “culpable mental state” that has inflicted harm on people, including death.

“Once you start using those terms, you come to realize that’s criminal law,” said Donald Braman, a law professor at George Washington University and Arkush’s co-author. “Culpable mental state causing harm is criminal conduct, and if they kill anybody, that’s homicide.”

Braman argued that pursuing homicide charges would have a greater impact on fossil fuel companies than the cases currently wending their way through court in part because the penalties would be steeper. Rather than paying a fine, homicide charges could open up an array of other outcomes that could materially alter how companies operate.



Climate Homicide: Prosecuting Big Oil For Climate Deaths by David Arkush, Donald Braman :: SSRN
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4335779

Prosecutors regularly bring homicide charges against individuals and corporations whose reckless or negligent acts or omissions cause unintentional deaths, as well as those whose misdemeanors or felonies cause unintentional deaths. Fossil fuel companies learned decades ago that what they produced, marketed, and sold would generate “globally catastrophic” climate change. Rather than alert the public and curtail their operations, they worked to deceive the public about these harms and to prevent regulation of their lethal conduct. They funded efforts to call sound science into doubt and to confuse their shareholders, consumers, and regulators. And they poured money into political campaigns to elect or install judges, legislators, and executive officials hostile to any litigation, regulation, or competition that might limit their profits.

Today, the climate change that they forecast has already killed thousands of people in the United States, and it is expected to become increasingly lethal for the foreseeable future. Given the extreme lethality of the conduct and the awareness of the catastrophic risk on the part of fossil fuel companies, should they be charged with homicide? Could they be convicted?

In answering these questions, this Article makes several contributions to our understanding of criminal law and the role it could play in combating crimes committed at a massive scale. It describes the doctrinal and social predicates of homicide prosecutions where corporate conduct endangers much or all of the public. It also identifies important advantages of homicide prosecutions relative to civil and regulatory remedies, and it details how and why prosecution for homicide may be the most effective legal remedy available in cases like this. Finally, it argues that, if our criminal legal system cannot focus more intently on climate crimes—and soon—we may leave future generations with significantly less for the law to protect.

The Role of Ruminants in Reversing Global Warming
Seth J. Itzkan at Middlebury College, March 14, 2023

The Role of Ruminants in Reversing Global Warming
https://vimeo.com/809822356#t=2028s


Dear Friends, It was an honor to give the talk "The Role of Ruminants in Reversing Global Warming" to an audience at Middlebury College last week.

Special thanks to Emily Landenberger and Molly Anderson for making that happen.

Additional special thanks to regen grazier visionary and legend, Abe Collins, and Josh Lucas of Lucas family farm. Your work is greatly appreciated. https://www.facebook.com/lucasfamilyfarms/
Original poster is here.

The Role of Ruminants in Reversing Global Warming - Middlebury Food Co-op
https://middlebury.coop/event/the-role-of-ruminants-in-reversing-global-warming/

A Culková
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10221197809083524&id=1494582298&post_id=1494582298_10221197809083524

Pavel je na návštěvě v Nemecku. Tušíte, zda diskutovali i klima? Já tedy doufám, že to ten článek, viz. komentář, jen zamlčuje. Nepřjde mi adekvátní mluvit o životech a bezpečnosti bez toho, že se probírá jak hluboce transformovat společnost směrem k uhlíkové neutralitě. Jinak je to tedy nevídané přehlížení ohrožení bezpečnosti, zdraví a otázka přežití miliard lidí na planetě. Chápu, že je za hranicemi válka, ale klima nepočká ani minutu. Krize jsou souběžné a nemůžeme jednu vytěsňovat pro druhou. Řešit se musí najednou. Bohužel.


M Berg:

agenturní zpráva AFP:

Kontroverzní témata byla při Pavlově inaugurační návštěvě z velké části vynechána. Steinmeier na dotaz upozornil, že obě vlády mají rozdílné představy například o klimatické a energetické politice. "Dnes jsme nenastolili žádnou z otázek, které bychom označili za sporné," řekl Pavel.