*CA-CoP* *CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE*
*for sustainable production intensification*
Dear Subscribers,
For your kind information. Thank you to Hendrik Smith in South Africa.
*Amir Kassam *
*Moderator*
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: www.fao.org/ag/ca
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Hendrik Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 5:55 AM
Subject: Soil erosion may get us before climate change does
To: [log in to unmask]
Transition Voice: Soil erosion may get us before climate change does
<http://transitionvoice.com/>
[image: Link to Transition Voice] <http://transitionvoice.com/>
------------------------------
*Soil erosion may get us before climate change does*
<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/TransitionVoice/%7E3/3jYHjs9IJAU/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>
Posted: 30 Nov 2014 09:01 PM PST
*[image: Syrian ruins]*
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcveraart/5340040974/in/photolist-98T78Y-mGNkHP-9WkFAv-emsZHv-9njaC5-d61TcC-p9xamc-aizMUM-aaxtG8-c5GgEj-9qwgbW-cGEpEU-9s9X7T-oGYSdo-p7LMoJ-aaAmvQ-9ZcjNj-aYk1VV-fDKyuT-feGpmT-98T5Sm-dJyiDv-p73AeP-dKUvMc-cGLygG-a3hXuC-kNxyxv-8Nj5D4-o5Txve-p2Vm9Y-aGW6kk-bmPcwf-cGFeHw-cGEsSh-cGEt99-cGEwKf-aYk212-dDhFU4-98PXDT-en5M2K-en61Cp-nnUVwC-cGLzcL-nC9dv8-eieYmP-cGKejj-dGbP34-p9NUsB-aaxKPk-aaxw1z>
Before centuries of irrigation and over-farming, much of the Middle East
was once lush. Photo: Marc Veraart/Flickr .
Outside the entrance of the glorious Hall of Western History are the marble
lions, colorful banners, and huge stone columns. Step inside, and the
popular exhibits include ancient Egypt, classical Greece, the Roman Empire,
the Renaissance, Gutenberg, Magellan, Columbus, Galileo, and so on. If we
cut a hole in the fence, and sneak around to the rear of the building, we
find the dumpsters, derelicts, mangy dogs, and environmental history.
The Darwin of environmental history was George Perkins Marsh, who
published *Man
and Nature* in 1864 (*free download*
<https://archive.org/details/manandnatureorp00marsgoog>). Few educated
people today have ever heard of this visionary. Inspired by Marsh, Walter
Lowdermilk, of the Soil Conservation Service, grabbed his camera and
visited the sites of old civilizations in 1938 and 1939. He created a
provocative 44-page report, *Conquest of the Land Through Seven Thousand
Years* (*free download*
<http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/Lowd/Lowd2.html>). The government
distributed over a million copies of it.
Lowdermilk helped inspire Tom Dale of the Soil Conservation Service, and
Vernon Gill Carter of the National Wildlife Federation, to write*Topsoil
and Civilization*, published in 1955 (*free download*
<http://www.soilandhealth.org/copyform.aspx?bookcode=010113>). Both
organizations cooperated in the production of this book. Following the
horror show of the Dust Bowl, they were on a mission from God to promote
soil conservation.
Dust Bowl photo gallery: *Washington D.C. dust storm 1935*
<http://photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov/netpub/server.np?find&catalog=catalog&template=detail.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=729722&site=PhotoGallery>
. *Approaching dust storm*
<http://photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov/netpub/server.np?find&catalog=catalog&template=detail.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=731360&site=PhotoGallery>
. *Dust Bowl farm yard*
<http://photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov/netpub/server.np?find&catalog=catalog&template=detail.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=1757&site=PhotoGallery>
. *The aftermath*
<http://photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov/netpub/server.np?find&catalog=catalog&template=detail.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=729716&site=PhotoGallery>
.
Civilization its own worst enemy
The book’s introduction gets directly to the point, “The very achievements
of civilized man have been the most important factors in the downfall of
civilizations.” Civilized man had the tools and intelligence needed “to
domesticate or destroy a great part of the plant and animal life around
him.” He excelled at exploiting nature.
His chief troubles came from his delusions that his temporary mastership
was permanent. He thought of himself as “master of the world,” while
failing to understand fully the laws of nature.
Readers are taken on a thrilling tour of the civilizations of antiquity. We
learn how they developed new and innovative strategies for
self-destruction. Stops include Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean
basin, Greece, China, India, and others. No society collapses because of a
single reason, but declining soil health is always prominent among the
usual suspects — no food, no civ.
The civilization of Egypt was the oddball. It thrived longest because of
the unique characteristics of the Nile Valley. Then, in the twentieth
century, the Egyptian government strangled the golden goose by building
dams, which ended the annual applications of fertile silt, led to soil
destruction, and shifted the system into self-destruct mode.
Mesopotamia (Iraq) was home to a series of civilizations that depended on
irrigation. Creating and maintaining irrigation canals required an immense
amount of manual labor, which legions of slaves were unhappy to provide. At
the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, deforestation and
overgrazing led to growing soil erosion, which flowed downstream, regularly
clogging the canals. Eroded soils have filled in 130 miles (209 km) of the
Persian Gulf. Today, the population in this region is only a quarter of
what it was 4,000 years ago.
*[image: Topsoil and Civilization]*
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806111070/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0806111070&linkCode=as2&tag=transitionvoice-20&linkId=3T62M7Z2ERAIRUTA>
An oldie but a goodie: *Topsoil and Civilization* by Vernon Gill Carter and
Tom Dale, University of Oklahoma Press, 1974. Available by*free download*
<http://www.soilandhealth.org/copyform.aspx?bookcode=010113> or on *Amazon*
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806111070/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0806111070&linkCode=as2&tag=transitionvoice-20&linkId=3T62M7Z2ERAIRUTA>
.
Over the centuries, the region of Mesopotamia was conquered and lost many,
many times. For the most part, replenishing soil fertility with manure and
other fertilizers was a fairly recent invention.
The glory that was Rome, the longevity that is China
In the old days, an effective solution to soil depletion was to expand into
less spoiled lands, and kill anyone who objected. Throughout the book, the
number of wars is stunning. The tradition of farming is a bloody one. It
always damages the soil, sooner or later, which makes long-term stability
impossible, and guarantees conflict.
Rome, Greece, and other Mediterranean civilizations were all burnouts,
trashed by a combination of heavy winter rains, sloping lands, overgrazing,
deforestation, soil depletion and malaria. The legendary cedars of Lebanon
once covered more than a million acres (404,000 ha). Today, just four tiny
groves survive.
“Deforestation and the scavenger goats brought on most of the erosion which
turned Lebanon into a well-rained-on desert.” Much of once-lush Palestine,
“land of milk and honey,” has been reduced to a rocky desert.
Adria was an island in the Adriatic Sea, near the mouth of the Po River in
Italy. Eroding soils from upstream eventually connected the island to the
mainland. Today, Adria is a farm town, 15 miles (24 km) from the sea, and
its ancient streets are buried under 15 feet (4.5 m) of eroded soil.
In Syria, the palaces of Antioch were buried under 28 feet (8.5 m) of silt.
In North Africa, the ruins of Utica were 30 feet (9 m) below.
Even now, in the twenty-first century, there are dreamers who purport that
China provides a glowing example of sustainable agriculture — 4,000 years
of farmers living in perfect harmony with the land. Chapter 11 provides a
silver bullet cure for these fantastic illusions. “Erosion continues to
ruin much of the land, reducing China, as a whole, to the status of a poor
country with poor and undernourished people, mainly because the land has
been misused for so long.”
Save the swales
The authors aim floodlights on the fundamental defects of civilization, and
then heroically reveal the brilliant solution, soil conservation.
Their kinky fantasy was *permanent agriculture*, which could feed a
gradually growing crowd for the next 10,000 years — a billion well-fed
Americans enjoying a continuously improving standard of living. Their
vision went far beyond conservation, which merely slowed the destruction.
Their vision was about harmless perpetual growth, fully developing all
resources, bringing prosperity to one and all, forever. Oy!
At the same time, they were excruciatingly aware that humankind was
ravaging the land.
The fact is that there has probably been more man-induced erosion over the
world as a whole during the past century than during any preceding
thousand-year period. There are many reasons for the recent rapid
acceleration of erosion, but the principal reasons are that the world has
more people and the people are more civilized and hence are capable of
destroying the land faster.
The book is more than a little bit bipolar.
For readers who enjoy the delights of mind-altering experiences, I recommend
*Topsoil and Civilization*, a discourse on soil mining. Also read its
shadow, a discourse on forest mining, *A Forest Journey
<http://wildancestors.blogspot.com/2012/06/forest-journey.html>*, by John
Perlin. Your belief system will go into convulsions, and then a beautiful
healing process begins.
You will suddenly understand that the stuff you were taught about the
wonders of civilization was an incredibly delusional fairy tale.
The real story is one of thousands of years of accelerating population
growth, ruthless greed, countless wars, enormous suffering, and
catastrophic ecocide. Suddenly, the pain of baffling contradictions is
cured, the world snaps into sharp focus, and the pain of being fully
present in reality begins — useful pain that can inspire learning and
change. Live well.
Soil erosion photo gallery: *Gulley erosion*
<http://luirig.altervista.org/pics/display.php?pos=137735>. *Alabama cotton
field* <http://luirig.altervista.org/pics/display.php?pos=179658>. *Iowa
sheepwreck* <http://luirig.altervista.org/pics/display.php?pos=137754>. *Iowa
sheet erosion* <http://luirig.altervista.org/pics/display.php?pos=137761>.
*Originally published on* *What Is Sustainable
<http://wildancestors.blogspot.com/2014/11/topsoil-and-civilization.html>*
*where
you can find other reviews of books on soil and agriculture:* *Dirt: The
Erosion of Civilizations
<http://wildancestors.blogspot.com/2012/04/dirt-erosion-of-civilizations.html>,*
*Against the Grain
<http://wildancestors.blogspot.com/2012/02/against-grain.html>,* *Farmers
of Forty Centuries
<http://wildancestors.blogspot.com/2011/08/farmers-of-forty-centuries.html>,
and* *Pillar of Sand
<http://wildancestors.blogspot.com/2012/07/pillar-of-sand.html>.*
*– Richard Reese, Transition Voice*
<http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/TransitionVoice?a=3jYHjs9IJAU:NwyiYT0QBQA:yIl2AUoC8zA>
<http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Eff/TransitionVoice?a=3jYHjs9IJAU:NwyiYT0QBQA:qj6IDK7rITs>
You are subscribed to email updates from Transition Voice
<http://transitionvoice.com/>
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now
<https://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=yqsAnHQrxi-bhoMBvaINmc8KI24>
.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United
States
########################################################################
To unsubscribe from the CA-Cop-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.fao.org/scripts/wa-fao.exe?SUBED1=CA-COP-L
|