Last weekend I had the privilege of spending two days with former US Vice President Al Gore. Along with 170 other trainees, hand-picked from business and community groups throughout Australia, I learnt of Al's passion and knowledge on the subject of global climate change and leapt at the opportunity to become a Climate Change Ambassador. In doing so, I can keep climate change in the minds of the public and our policy makers. It is the action we take in the next decade that will determine the degree of warming future generations will have to manage.
Skeptics have become an endangered species
There has been some debate in the popular press about the connection between the burning of fossil fuels (and subsequent CO 2 emissions) and climate change. There have also been conspiracy theories about the role of the nuclear power industry and its role in promoting climate change, in order to put pressure on politicians to build more nuclear power plants. In modern democracies, unchecked media reports can disproportionately skew public opinion, and many are exploiting this uncertainty as an excuse not to act.
The journal Science undertook a survey in 2004 to collate articles relating to climate change over the last 50 years. They found that the number of scientific studies dealing with climate change, published in scientific journals during the previous ten years, was 928. The number disagreeing with the global consensus that greenhouse gas pollution has caused most of the warming of the last 50 years, was zero! In the same ten year period, 53% of articles in the popular press were casting some doubt on human-induced climate change – so ask yourself, who are you going to trust, journalists or climate scientists?
The time for debate about human-induced climate change has passed, the science is definitive. The skeptics are fast becoming 'denialists,' so now is the time to act. We have a window of about ten years to change the way we produce and consume energy. If we do nothing future generations will ask why.
In order to halt or reverse climate change, there are two things we can do. Firstly we can reduce our CO2 emissions, and secondly, we can actively lock-up carbon from the atmosphere by gardening organically. The more we do both of these things, the better our global climate.
There are many things we can do inside our homes to reduce energy consumption and thus emissions, but let's see what gardeners can do.
Design your garden to help you save energy.Don't underestimate the capacity of a well-designed garden to reduce the energy demands of a building it surrounds. Planting small deciduous trees and vines in front of your northerly windows means you will have less heating demand in the winter (as the sunlight can come pouring in) and less cooling demand in the summer (as the shade provided by your garden will cool your house).
Grow some of your own food
There is an enormous amount of fossil fuel in much of the food we eat. Think of the petroleum-based fertilizers used to grow crops and pastures, the fuel for agricultural machinery, and the electricity to process food. Then there is the fuel used to transport it, and the electricity used to refrigerate and display the produce. Now you can start to appreciate how much CO 2 is being released to get your food to your table. In time we will see greater use of renewable energies in this production cycle, but by growing some food at home you can have an impact now, without having to wait for others to act.
You can create a little corner of the globe where you can recharge your spirit surrounded by beautiful ornamental and edible plants, providing you with a comfortable environment whilst also contributing to your larder.
Putting carbon back in the ground
Reducing carbon emissions is one thing, but how can we actively take existing carbon out of the atmosphere? Plants are the key because they take CO² from the air, break the molecule down to its components, release the oxygen and lock the carbon in their tissues. So by growing plants we can pull CO² out of the atmosphere. Growing trees locks up carbon as the tree stores the carbon in the form of wood. Soil itself can also lock up carbon especially where organic management techniques aimed at increasing organic matter are used. Look after your soil by adding high amounts of compost and manures.Minimise soil disturbance and enhance soil fauna activity, to increase your soil's ability to sequester carbon. The healthier your soil is, the more plant growth you'll get and the more carbon it will capture.
So plants can capture carbon and soils can store it, but how do we get the carbon to stay there? As plant material breaks down, some of the carbon captured is re-released into the atmosphere. So, once a soil has increased its carbon content through good gardening practices, we need to maintain the life in the soil to hold that carbon there. This is something good gardeners do anyway, in the process of enriching their soils.
The capacity of soil to store carbon long-term can be greatly assisted by using a product known as “Terra Preta” (“Dark Earth” in Portugese). This material, known as “Bio-char,” is found in deep sediments of the Amazon River and can lock up carbon in soils for up to 1,000 years. Bio-char is a by-product of burning organic wastes and crop residues at low temperatures and without oxygen for biofuel production. It's a win-win. In the process of producing a renewable fuel, the by-product can be added to soils to dramatically increase the soil's carbon storage capacity for millennia. This summer Digger's is embarking on a field trial of a bio-char product, called Agrichar, produced in a demonstration plant on the NSW Central Coast. Keep an eye out for this product in the future.
Climate change is happening, but there are plenty of things we can all do that will make a difference. Gardening has the potential to gladden more than just the heart, you can help save the world as you create a bountiful garden.