Jim Laurie

Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming

One of the tenets of this blog is that nature is, or should be, the unquestioned authority for life on earth — 3.8 billion years of survival street cred! — and I’m always seeking to highlight individuals and groups whose actions seem to agree.

The results of holistic land management are clear on the left half of the photo, datelined Karoo, South AfricaHence, my delight to share news of Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, a high-level conference being conducted by the group Biodiversity for a Livable Climate over three days next month at Tufts University near Boston.

The conference lists over two dozen speakers, including Seth Itzkan, William Moomaw, and Hugh McLaughlin, as well as Jim Laurie and John E. Carroll, both of whom I’ve featured previously in these pages (here and here, respectively).

It’s difficult (or brave, or foolhardy), therefore, to generalize what their outlook is, but with that acknowledgement, here goes: An ideal place for sequestering carbon is in our soils, which not only removes it from the upper atmosphere but dramatically restores or enriches ecosystems while improving agriculture on those soils where it is practiced.


Keeping carbon down on the farm

Under the influence of Michael Pollan and others, I've written previously about how we've lost the connection between the food we eat and the world that produces it.

I don't know which should strike you as more absurd, that such a disconnect could occur, or that I could be the one mentioning it, again — I'm suburban all the way, a middling house-plant grower at best, and until recently, didn't even understand what other people meant by having a connection to the land.

Jim Laurie, speaking on holistic management to an MCAN advisory committee gathering at Redbone's in Somerville, Mass.

And yet, here I am again, brought along this time by Jim Laurie, whom I heard speak Tuesday night at Redbones BBQ in Somerville, which I take pain to mention because they've been strong community supporters as long as they've been around. On Tuesday, they hosted the Mass. Climate Action Network, serving grass-fed beef donated by Chestnut Farms of Hardwick.


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