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>It could be so. The theory is that if we were to implement that, we should start at the coasts, establish dense forests there, and then continue planting inlan

>It could be so. The theory is that if we were to implement that, we should start at the coasts, establish dense forests there, and then continue planting inland. While I certainly agree that chopping down the Amazon is terrible, I think you're vastly oversimplifying things with this theory. Some things just don't grow well in some places, and soil is important too. You can't just plant a bunch of trees in the desert: there's no soil there, just sand. Sure, you could start small at the coast and move inland as the ecosystem changes and soil quality is improved, but this is something that would probably take many centuries or longer. Grasslands, savannas, etc. have been around for far, far longer than human civilization; they're not something we created with deforestation, and ruminants like cows(' ancestors) have been around far longer than us, grazing in these places. Chopping down forests to make more places for cows obviously is a bad idea, but I'm not convinced that it's feasible to take places that have been grazed by animals for millennia and somehow turn them all into nut tree forests.

myshpa 3y ago
> You can't just plant a bunch of trees in the desert ... soil and microbiome ... I'm aware. There are methods like enhancing the sand with soil sludge (nutrients & microbiome), for example. > something that would probably take many centuries or longer. Destruction is fast, regeneration slow. Those deserts might as well be a product of previous civilizations overgrazing. Environmental Implications of Livestock: Goats https://epar.evans.uw.edu/research/environmental-implications-livestock-goats https://epar.evans.uw.edu/research/environmental-implication... Blame it on the goats? Desertification in the Near East during the Holocene https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0959683616670470 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09596836166704... > Grasslands, savannas ... they're not something we created with deforestation Mongolia for example was much more forested in the past. Apx. 50% of current age grasslands and savannas were previously forests. Also, natural grazers prefer different plants than cows, so the compositions and storage capacity of pastures and grasslands differ extremely. > I'm not convinced that it's feasible to take places that have been grazed by animals for millennia and somehow turn them all into nut tree forests We don't have to. Just afforest those pastures and rewild the rest. It would protect the biodiversity for future generations. https://xkcd.com/1338/ https://xkcd.com/1338/

myshpa 3y ago

> You can't just plant a bunch of trees in the desert ... soil and microbiome ... I'm aware. There are methods like enhancing the sand with soil sludge (nutrients & microbiome), for example. > something that would probably take many centuries or longer. Destruction is fast, regeneration slow. Those deserts might as well be a product of previous civilizations overgrazing. Environmental Implications of Livestock: Goats https://epar.evans.uw.edu/research/environmental-implications-livestock-goats https://epar.evans.uw.edu/research/environmental-implication... Blame it on the goats? Desertification in the Near East during the Holocene https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0959683616670470 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09596836166704... > Grasslands, savannas ... they're not something we created with deforestation Mongolia for example was much more forested in the past. Apx. 50% of current age grasslands and savannas were previously forests. Also, natural grazers prefer different plants than cows, so the compositions and storage capacity of pastures and grasslands differ extremely. > I'm not convinced that it's feasible to take places that have been grazed by animals for millennia and somehow turn them all into nut tree forests We don't have to. Just afforest those pastures and rewild the rest. It would protect the biodiversity for future generations. https://xkcd.com/1338/ https://xkcd.com/1338/