Over the past week we discussed the idea of permaculture, agriculture that regenerates itself. Growing off of that, we talked about the “do-nothing” technique where humans let nature take its course, the central theme of Masanobu Fukuoka’s “The One-Straw Revolution.” The do-nothing technique was formed as a rebellion to both consumerism and the idea that humans have the ability to scientifically interfere with and out-smart nature. In his book, Fukuoka claims that “the living world is our greatest teacher.”
We can and should approach our world today with the same mindset. As soon as humans try to tinker with and alter natural patterns, we feel the consequences of the positive feedback loop we started. An example of this that we talked about in class was the concept of geo-engineering. Geo-engineering is the idea that we can combat climate change by introducing unnatural substances to the atmosphere to either block the sun, or remove CO2 emissions. One would think that blocking the sun, the earth’s greatest source of energy, would not be on the “To-Do” list for climate scientists but it is. In fact, it’s climbing to the top of many people’s agendas.
The science behind cooling the earth by blocking the sun involves injecting sulfur into the clouds in order to simulate a volcanic eruption which would scatter and reflect solar radiation from the stratosphere. Experts estimate that in order to cool the earth 1 degree it would cost around $20 billion and 6,700 flights to the atmosphere PER DAY. Not only does that sound infeasible, but the fossil fuel it would take to power all of those flights would be devastating.
I don’t know about you, but the thought of spending all of that money in order to simulate the aftermath of a volcanic eruption makes me sick. Not only do we not have a clue about how our atmosphere would respond to such actions, history has shown that the more humans try to get involved with nature, we tend to screw things up. In this instance, I think it’s time we take a page out of Fukuoka’s book and “do-nothing.” Let’s change the way we act instead of trying to change the way earth has been running for over 4 billion years.
Citations: Stockton, N. (2017). Climate Change is Here, It’s Time To Talk About Geo-Engineering. Wired. Retried from: https://www.wired.com/story/lets-talk-geoengineering/
