4 ms·

"Of course there are myriad reasons why its way of farming will not translate easily, notably that its success was achieved at a time when the climate was relat

"Of course there are myriad reasons why its way of farming will not translate easily, notably that its success was achieved at a time when the climate was relatively stable whereas now uncertainty looms." This seems like a pretty big caveat to me, especially when you look at how many civilizations have collapsed in the past due to exactly this very reason.

zppx 16y ago
Caveat for what exactly? Technological transfer for Africa and Asia tropical climates? Or for the Brazilian agricultural model? For the second case I can give an opinion, Brazil is a country with a fair amount of climate seasonal variations, where I live in São Paulo we have rainy summers and dry winters, and in the 24 years that I lived there were a fair amount of uncommon events in climate (including hot winters and dry summers), and yet year after year as long I can remember the crop yield rose, both in Brazil and in São Paulo. I do not see how this can change in the short and mid-terms without a global climate mess that would also affect other countries in the globe. EDIT: As mkr-hn pointed I do not know the difference between weather and climate, I think that the basic idea still stands.
- mkr-hn 16y ago
  That's weather, not climate. Climate is something measured over centuries. Climate is thousands of little weathers collected and analyzed.
- grammaton 16y ago
  It's a caveat for both - the brazilian model, and technological transfer to other climates. However, what I was really thinking of was the idea that Brazil's model represents a resounding answer to malthusian objections. This may be true if a lot of other things pan out, but assuming that climate remains the same is a pretty big assumption.
neves 16y ago
Brazil — and tropical countries btw -- climate is much more stable than temperate countries. In almost all of Brazil, there's just really two seasons: the rainy one, and the dry. It is less susceptible to climate changes.

zppx 16y ago

Caveat for what exactly? Technological transfer for Africa and Asia tropical climates? Or for the Brazilian agricultural model? For the second case I can give an opinion, Brazil is a country with a fair amount of climate seasonal variations, where I live in São Paulo we have rainy summers and dry winters, and in the 24 years that I lived there were a fair amount of uncommon events in climate (including hot winters and dry summers), and yet year after year as long I can remember the crop yield rose, both in Brazil and in São Paulo. I do not see how this can change in the short and mid-terms without a global climate mess that would also affect other countries in the globe. EDIT: As mkr-hn pointed I do not know the difference between weather and climate, I think that the basic idea still stands.

mkr-hn 16y ago
That's weather, not climate. Climate is something measured over centuries. Climate is thousands of little weathers collected and analyzed.
grammaton 16y ago
It's a caveat for both - the brazilian model, and technological transfer to other climates. However, what I was really thinking of was the idea that Brazil's model represents a resounding answer to malthusian objections. This may be true if a lot of other things pan out, but assuming that climate remains the same is a pretty big assumption.

neves 16y ago

Brazil — and tropical countries btw -- climate is much more stable than temperate countries. In almost all of Brazil, there's just really two seasons: the rainy one, and the dry. It is less susceptible to climate changes.