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Comment by hosh | Hacker News Reader

Among my friends, we came to the idea that whether or not we each agree that humans caused climate change, we should still take care of the planet.

There is a lot more going on than greenhouse emissions. Soil health is in many ways, more vital, and mainstream commercial farming practices degenerate our soil year after year. We make poor use of water. Ocean acidification is problematic. It is impossible to sustainably fish — regenerative kelp and fish farms are a better practice. Diversity is how we can become more resilient, and we have been making it go away because diversity is too complex.

Growing and buying local, helping our neighbors will build stronger communities and resilient economies; thinking globally, systemically, and holistically allows each of us to contribute something meaningful for something greater than ourselves.

We can take care of the land, of each other, and still get our fair share.

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All of these are problems. None are more urgent to resolve than climate change.

All the buying local in the word won’t mean anything at all when vast swathes of land are inhospitable to human life, there is unprecedented mass displacement, a lack of potable water, and all the other horrors that are coming unless act fast and big.

(Also ocean acidification is a consequence of climate change — they are absorbing co2.)

All those problems are systemic problems where the system enters a state of degeneratiom. Those “act big and fast” are not sustainable (not enough resources, time, effort, will — political or otherwise).

Those same degenerate processes can be reversed by taking advantage of the very second-order effects and feedback loops. Do things that will regenerate and restore the land. Regenerative agriculture has a much bigger impact than reducing carbon emissions. Even stuff like, modifying the “slash and burn” for clearing out to Amazon to “slash and char” taps into that feedback loop.

Buying local — or better yet, growing local, like in your backyard — isn’t just to develop resiliency for what is to come. There are specific practices local people can do to restore and regenerate the local ecosystem. They are highly specific to the local area.

Everytime you buy from outside the local area, you are contributing towards overharvesting, but you can’t see it because it doesn’t give you the feedback loop that locality does.

It is the same with potable water. We have very poor water management practices. As an example, Tucson sits on a plateau. It pumps water from the canals (sourced from the Colorado River; Arizona is at the bottom of water rights among four states). That water gets purified to drinking water standards all so that residents can flush their toilet and water their lawns. Meanwhile, the local aquifer has been depleting, and rainwater was not being captured in the soil.

Tucson is also the city that pioneered municipal codes for better water management because some residents pioneered greywater systems and curb cuts to capture monsoon rain.

But you want to see an example of communities fixing their potable water situation? How about this one: https://youtu.be/-8nqnOcoLqE

It does not require big actions.

> Among my friends, we came to the idea that whether or not we each agree that humans caused climate change ...

If peace with your friends is the priority, then that's great. If the truth and future of humanity and of you and your friends is the priority, then that's highly irresponsible.

> There is a lot more going on than greenhouse emissions. Soil health is in many ways, more vital

In what way is it more vital? Will more people die and more money be lost?

I think you missed the point. It wasn’t to have peace with my friends. It is unifying on the common ground of caring for the earth and taking action.

As far as soil goes, there is a lot going on there. Soil is living and dirt is not. Having soil means having plants, fungi, microbes all participating. Bare dirt strips away the ecosystem’s ability to regulate water and temperature. Living soil with at least polycropping (in cultivated land) changes the microclimate — making it cooler or warmer, wetter, less wind erosion.

Monocropped agriculture using fertilizers, herbicides, fungalcides, and pesticides is why every year, we see upticks on temperature on the satallites correlating to planting and harvesting cycles.

It is connected to poor water management. Poor soil does not hold water very well and now you keep adding more to get less. Monocropping doesn’t just mean our food supply chain is one year of failed crops from shortages, it also means the thin, depleted soil is unable to sequester carbon.

> thinking globally, systemically, and holistically

What does this even mean in practice?

See https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51947019-the-regenerativ...

That's not "practice", that's a book. I'm asking what _you_, _specifically_ do to achieve your stated goal of "thinking globally, systemically, and holistically". Did you give up travel and vacations, perhaps? Get rid of your car? Stopped buying crap you don't need? Switched to locally sourced plant based diet? Moved to a smaller house in a warmer area where it doesn't need to be heated for 6 months in a year? Be as specific as you can. It's not idle curiosity, for two reasons. For one thing I dislike people who just talk about stuff, collect the online brownie points, and then don't really do anything (I'm not saying you're one of them though). For another, I'm trying to modify _my own_ lifestyle to be less carbon heavy, but without ruining my family's quality of life too much.

I am in the process of turning my front yard into a perennial food forest using drought-tolerant native plants. I am adding more edibles in my back yard. I am converting the xeriscaping back into something that things grow on. I am changing the topography of the backyard and frontyard to incorporate dryland rainwater harvesting techniques. I will end up getting the front yard certified as a wildlife refuge to get my neighbors off my back. I have secured seeds cultivated by the Hopi and will be attempting to use their traditional planting method that does not use irrigation. I have onsite composting and have plans to add biochar and vermicomposting. Since I started eating a lot of mushrooms, there are possibilities to cultivate then in the kitchen cabinet; I don’t have the acerage to inoculate deadfall like I hear some folks doing this. I have plans to get some kind of greywater system going.

All of that is to separate the carbon cycle from the hydrological cycle. I am actively planting on the yard I have for food resiliency, and as a side effect, carbon sequestering. The amount this small ecosystem will sequester will increase once I get biochar into the mix.

There is already a slight cooling effect happening. I am looking for ways to plant in a way to shade the house during summers. If I were able to build from scratch, I’d try for earthship designs or at least use rocket mass heating/cooling, which would minimize the amount of solar cells needed to provide electricity.

We have already reduced meat consumption for health reasons. I have already been working remote for years before the pandemic, so no commute. We already got the house to energy-star certification, got the solar, got a high-efficiency ac unit, upgraded the windows … but there are far better things we haven't tried. I had already practiced minimalism before I met my wife.

When my child grows old enough, I am looking for ways to participate in the community. The local high school has a gardening club and one possibility is to join it as an advisor to introduce polyculture, companion planting, composting, etc.

Another is joining or creating groups working with food pantries to introduce perennial food forests. Or get a master gardener certification and start teaching this stuff locally.

Being able to grow locally — and it doesn’t get as local as the backyard — does not just promote food resiliency and shorten supply chain, it can help rebuild the soil.

I posted that book because it teaches frameworks on what someone can do in their own life to make a difference without needing heroic effort, or activism even. The actual things I am doing are what permaculturists are doing right now.

I am not trying to get brownie points. I am practicing articulating the worldview and practices to the HN tech crowd. Your feedback is appreciated.

Nice Order Of The Nine Angeles symbol you have there

I am familiar with that order and what they do, but the symbol on the cover refers to something else and is not the same symbol.

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