“Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert,” begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And it's happening to about two-thirds of the world’s grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes — and his work so far shows — that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert.
Pre-learn 12 terms:
12 terms
Watch:
Allan Savory
Vocab
arid
give off
run off
evaporation
blunder
plant litter
a proxy
methane
mimic
pastoralist
tackle
for illustrative purposes
1. What causes climate change besides
fossil fuels?
2. Why is year-round humidity important in
avoiding desertification?
3. Why does bare ground release carbon? Why
is this bad?
4. How can we “store” carbon?
5. How much of the Earth is desertifying?
6. What do most people believe causes
desertification?
7. What do you think “political dynamite”
means?
10. How have the planet’s the “seasonal
humidity environments” developed?
11. What prevents over-grazing in these
environments?
12. What happens if dead grass doesn’t
decay before the next growing season?
13. How do we justify burning large areas
of grassland?
14. What does Savory believe is the only
way we can avoid desertification and climate change?
15. What makes this such a challenging
problem? What is the answer?
16. What does he mean by “predator
friendly”?
Discuss:
1.
What do you think of what Savory did in his younger years in making National
Parks?
2. Is
desertification happening in parts of your country?
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