How to save the world? A global journey into making our lives better…

Here is one of the largest scale project I have yet seen to battle climate change. It is also one of the strongest in terms of hopes it generates.

Instead of using high-tech ultra-expensive only-for-rich-countries solution promoted everywhere, this one is cheap and benefit the poorest. In actual fact, it creates a proper green economy by taking a desolate arid valley the size of Belgium and turns it into a lush oasis of life and abundance, creating wealth and taking subsistence farmers out of poverty.

All over the world, the same process of desertification seems to repeat itself and lead entire ecosystems into death.
Poor agricultural practices, misunderstanding of the way the nature works, excessive logging, uncontrolled over-grazing… leads to soil erosion, reduction of fertility, poor moisture retention, droughts and floods, and catastrophic failure of the ecosystem and the economy.

John D. Liu has been working and documenting the changes of the Loess plateau in China for over 15 years. In 1995 The Chinese Government, acted very strongly to rehabilitate the plateau, and local people – both perpetuators and victims of the devastation – became part of the solution. This was a long process and people worked hard, but they are proud of what they achieved – and rightly so!

Human impact on the climate is not simply from the flagrant emission of carbon dioxide and began long before industrial scale emissions. Carbon disequilibrium is a symptom of a larger systemic failure – we are reducing biodiversity, and this has altered fundamental earth processes that we rely on for life. We must act as a species to restore ecosystem function wherever it has been disrupted. We know what is needed; we know it works; and we know from the history of other civilizations that have collapsed what the consequences are of failing to act.

Is there a place you believe would benefit from the lessons of the Loess plateau? Please comment…