Global Warming an excuse for poor land management

Thirty years ago, the Antsokia Valley in Ethiopia was a dust bowl where millions of people faced starvation. Today, thanks to help from around the world, it is a thriving, lush place with much improved farming methods. Instead of trying to prove that global warming is irreversible, we need to concentrate on managing populated areas so that people's livelihoods can be maintained. Money spent on climate change would be better spent on aid for third world countries to make them self-sufficient. Nobody wants to be a charity case, self-determination brings dignity and self-worth -- something everyone deserves. 

• During the 1984-85 drought, World Vision participated in a massive relief operation that saved the lives of millions of people.
  
  
• After the drought subsided, World Vision worked to train farmers in better ways to manage forests, running small-scale farms and connecting households to local resources.
  
  
• Today, 30 years later, children are now thriving in the lush green landscape of Antsokia, which was one of the hardest-hit areas in the drought.
  
  

Thirty years ago:



Today:



http://www.worldvision.org/press-release/antsokia-valley-transformed-over-30-years-says-world-vision

What a great accomplishment!

Hear Hear, Shelagh!

How do you connect Global Warming with Poor Land Management?

Global warming is blamed for all the natural weather occurrences that have happened in recent times. The truth is that droughts, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis etc. are part and parcel of an evolving world. We get in the way and try to occupy land, which should be left uninhabited, because of its natural beauty. When the weather destroys that beautiful landscape, we look for reasons and started apportioning blame. Instead, we should be looking at ways to improve the lives of those who live in areas without natural irrigation, so that they can live sustainable lifestyles. We should not be trying to fix the unfixable. The ozone hole is shrinking. Is that because of human activity or is it something that would have happened anyway? How would we know? Far better to use money to help provide clean water and a healthy environment.

Shelagh,

AMEN!

I agree with your analysis, Shelagh, but can Global Warming be used as an excuse for Poor Land Management?  Global Warming is happening.  Poor Land Management also happens.  Does the one precipitate the other? 
Farmers are constantly adjusting their weather-related planting seasons.  Harvesting seasons have also changed.  Not to adjust, is poor management.

No, global warming should not be used as an excuse for anything, Abe. There has been no warming for the last eighteen years. This September and October have been exceptionally mild, but August was a cool month and below average for the time of year in the UK. We have just experienced an Indian summer, a saying that goes back at least two hundred years, so nothing to do with global warming!

I know that you are a keen advocate of the global warming theory, but it really is becoming unfashionable:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/526191/Climate-change-is-a-lie-global-warming-not-real-claims-weather-channel-founder

Does it really matter? Shelagh's OP reports of management programs are significant examples of what we can do to counter the effects of extreme weather. The cause seems irrrelevant. I don't hear proponents of global warming and climate change saying the effects are irreversible so much as I hear them say we have a responsibility to treat nature with respect. The idea that they might see their perception of the cause as an excuse to do nothing to work with the problem in order to find solutions is new to me.

Why can't both views be valid?

The problems are local not global, Ann. Highlighting global warming as an issue that we should tackle is obfuscation of the facts. You are right, we should be doing all the things that are necessary to create a clean and safe environment irrespective of climate change.

Shelagh wrote:

... we should be doing all the things that are necessary to create a clean and safe environment irrespective of climate change.

No argument there.

Actually, the very conservative, ultra-Republican, anti-global warming people in Florida take it very seriously and are taking action because they see evidence of the reality of what they do  not believe in because to believe in global warming means spending money and forcing industries to do the same. In fact, Florida is on the forefront of taking global warming seriously and taking action to protect its coastal areas and related issues.

DK.  I see much of that where I live.  The environment is a Number One priority.  Proper waste disposal has been in effect for a long time.  Fossil fuels are being replaced with Wind and Solar sources and much of our energy come from these sources.  The use of insecticides is strictly controlled.  Bees have become a symbol of what is required to protect them.  Habitats exist in most regions to protect a variety of species.  What is done here will not change the world, but it can set an example of what can and needs to be done for the survival of all living things.  Refusing to accept or recognize the cause of disease, the disruption of planting/harvesting cycles or even health issues doesn’t alter the course of events. 
Whether it is war or disease, there is a cause.  Resolving the problems begin at the source

Abe F. March wrote:

Whether it is war or disease, there is a cause.  Resolving the problems begin at the source

Ebola is a local problem that cannot be solved globally; it must be contained. The same with climate. Blaming changes to your local environment on global warming won't resolve the problem. It might, in Florida, make people feel less guilty about the damage they have reeked on their finely balanced ecosystem to believe that their problem is a global one when it is, in fact, a local one. The damage industry inflicted on Florida was allowed by the state governments. Charity begins at home; so does blame.  

BTW, DK, when you posted about the problems with clean water in Florida, I mentioned it to my husband. He said that there are enough millionaires in Florida to sort the problem out, and they know it's in their best interests so will make sure the money's available. From what you say, he's right. We didn't link the problem to climate change/global warming; there was no need to.

There is a saying that when a butterfly in Africa flutters its wings, it begins a process that could result in a hurricane striking the Gulf Coast in the US.

The problems may begin locally, but eventually become global concerns.  The locality cannot be contained in this interactive world we live in today.

We all live on the same planet, and with today's knowledge and technology, ought to be able to begin setting aside blaming and pinpointing causes so that we can work together for common solutions, whether the difficulty has to do with disease, natural damage, aggression, or whatever.

I think of my children, as children, saying she (or he) started it.

Just me.

The butterfly effect is chaos theory. It's the reason long-term weather forecasting is impossible. The irony is that we cannot predict next month's weather, but we are one hundred percent certain that the world will be a warmer place in fifty year's time, and even more certain about the weather in one hundred year's time. Of course, by then, we will all be dead, so no one will be able to prove us wrong.

And Chaos Theory, generally, is about the idea that order is inherent in nature, an evolving order that must go through periods of chaos in order for the necessary changes to occur.  The old way no longer fits, but the new is not yet clearly formed, so we go through the chaos until the new order is in place, or something to that effect

I remember us getting into a similar discussion at least once before.  We talked, among other things about fractal geometry and the random number generated Mandelbrot Set.  The set always begins with that black bug-like thingy, and then begins to diversify into more and more complex images, but if you hone in on and magnify a small portion of the complex image, you eventually will fing a repetition of that little black bug, ever so slightly modified, but still clearly recognizable - the symbol for a pattern that always repeats itself, but in its own new way.  A universal form that remains throughout, even as the world evolves - not random chance, but a pre-determined design that defines how the changes can take shape

In the meantime, we have to cope with the chaos brought n by human interference, which begins locally, but spreads, so that the problems eventually become global.  Left to itself, nature would eventually re-order itself, but that wold take a very long time if we did not step in and find faster solutions, like those described in the OP.

At least, that's the way I see it. I don't see a conflict.