"You could take the first step by ~~walking and cycling instead of driving a car~~ going vegan."
Fixed it.
Did you see this farther down on the same page?
The 1000 Liters of water in the Bathtub corresponds to the 1000 Gigatons of CO2 we have added to the atmosphere since 1750. The inflow of 50 L/m into the bathtub corresponds to the 51 Gigatons of greenhouse gases we are emitting each year. When the Killing machine faucet is shut off, it reduces the net inflow into the bathtub to 5 L/m, a 90% reduction in the inflow, which corresponds to the 87% reduction we expect in real life. The 2000 Liters of Vegan Reforestation potential corresponds to the 2000 Gigatons of CO2 that can be stored through rewilding grazing lands. The 350 Liters in the Aerosols cistern corresponds to the one-third increase in radiative forcing that will occur when aerosols disappear as well as the outgassing of CO2 that will occur from the ocean/land as we reduce CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
To put it another way:
The bathtub basically represents the world climate system. The water in the bathtub represents the greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) that humans have put into the atmosphere, responsible for the warming of the planet.
The baby represents life on Earth, the majority of which will be killed in a mass extinction if climate change continues too far. This is represented by the baby drowning in the bathtub full of water.
The burning machine represents the burning of fossil fuels (petroleum, coal, natural gas, and all of the related substances like tar sands and oil shale). The faucet on the left side represents the greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, contributing to climate change.
The "Aerosols" cistern represents the amount of warming that has not occurred due to the cooling effect of air pollution reflecting sunlight back into space. If the air pollution (largely caused by burning fossil fuels) were to dissipate, such as by shifting to cleaner-burning fuels (low-sulphur diesel fuel, for example) or by no longer burning fuel for energy at all (shutting down the "burning machine" in this analogy), then all of the warming cancelled out by the pollution will occur. This is represented by the water in the cistern flowing out into the bathtub; removing the aerosol pollution has the same effect as adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
The killing machine represents the animal exploitation industries, including but not limited to animal agriculture. The smaller faucet on the right side represents the greenhouse gas emissions of these industries due to deforestation, animal respiration and flatulence, fermentation of waste, and so on.
The drain of the bathtub represents the rate at which forests and other natural vegetation could capture greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide), removing them from the atmosphere and removing their effect on the climate. This only applies if the forests are allowed to grow back, which is currently not the case due to the huge amount of land used by animal agriculture for grazing and the production of feed crops (maize, soya, palm oil, and so on). This is representing by the animal parts and secretions blocking the drain.
The 2000L Vegan Reforestation Potential tank represents the total amount of carbon dioxide that could be captured and removed from the atmosphere, negating its effect on the climate, if the land currently used for grazing cows/goats/sheep/others were allowed to regrow into forest. It is called the "vegan" reforestation potential because in order for that land to be freed from grazing so that the forests to grow back, people need to live vegan.
The climate bathtub model is meant to illustrate that ending the use of fossil fuels without ending animal exploitation would not only not solve the climate crisis, it would immediately make the problem worse due to the reduction in aerosol pollution. It is crucial to first "unblock the drain" by putting an end to the industrial-scale killing of other animals in order to stop the climate bathtub from overflowing and drowning the baby (killing most life on Earth). The order of operations matters. Like algebra class.
Does that help?
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Only 17% of peatlands, vital to curbing climate change, are protected, study finds
(news.mongabay.com)
That was fast! The leaves are slightly different than the photo there on Wikipedia, but perhaps Palicourea elata? The genus seems right. Thanks!
Not my photo, but the photographer doesn't know what it is, and I don't either. Understory herbaceous thing.
There is one type of regenerative agriculture that is good and should be promoted: Regenerative Veganic Agriculture. Veganic farming is the organic cultivation of plants and crops with a minimal amount of exploitation or harm to any animal. For instance, no use of animal manure or bone/fish meal, and use instead mulch, vegetable compost, green manure, or chipped branched wood. No pesticides and no use of animals to plough fields either. Veganic farmers try to produce their sources of fertility directly on the farm and use crop rotation and polyculture. Regenerative Veganic Agriculture is the transformation of veganic gardening or small-scale veganic farming into a scalable solution to address the current global environmental crisis.
Regenerative veganic agriculture is exactly what is needed, especially tree-based agriculture (agroforestry) using syntropic methods to build fertility. If more people would convert pasture land to largely tree-based agricultural systems, like various projects are doing around the world, then that would spare existing forests from agricultural expansion while simultaneously planting trees as a by-product of growing food on land that would not have otherwise been allowed to naturally reforest itself anyway. It is by far the most sensible and sustainable form of agriculture, with the potential to be the most ethical as well.
It most certainly is NOT Chrysophyllum cainito, but thanks for trying. Those are some beautiful photos.
“Let’s not do the old plant-and-pray” method, said Hurteau. “Let’s plant where we know that their chance of survival is quite high.”
Forest Service rules generally require planting the same species at the same elevations as before a fire, but the agency will “need to be flexible moving forward,” said Jason Sieg, acting supervisor of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests & Pawnee National Grassland.
This is important. Finding suitable places to plant the trees can make a big difference in the survival rate. Trying to force plants to grow in a pre-determined location, regardless of current environmental conditions, is basically what industrial agriculture is doing (and using huge quantities of water and fertiliser in order to sustain).
For now, that might mean replanting at different elevations or collecting seeds from another location. Eventually, researchers say it could require planting species not found in an area originally — an option many have resisted.
“I’ve seen people go from saying, ‘Absolutely, we cannot move trees around’ to, ‘Well, maybe let’s try it at least, and do a few experiments to see if this will work,’” said Camille Stevens-Rumann, interim director at the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute.
“We need to start being creative if we want trees on our landscapes,” she said. “We’re in a place of such drastic climate change that we are not talking about whether or not some of these places will be a different kind of forest, but whether or not they will be forests at all.”
In desperate situations, when the goal is simply to get some type of forest growing back in a particular location, then it's important to choose "the best trees for the job" regardless of where they come from. Usually those will be native species, but not necessarily, especially in very disturbed ecosystems and those severely affected by climate change. If foreign trees aren't likely to pose a threat, then we mustn't discriminate against them; that would be the plant equivalent of speciesism and xenophobia. (If farmers discriminated in such a way, then there would be no peaches in North America, no tomatoes in Europe, no watermelons in Asia, and so on.)
Thank you for taking the time!
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Which Köppen-Geiger or Trewartha climate zone? USDA hardiness zone 13b could be the Brazilian Amazon or the southern coast of Tamil Nadu or somewhere in Somalia... If I recommend mangosteen, and you live in Somalia, then I'm complicit in the death of the queen. Specific climate info please!