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rcnaylor

A wild idea to help our yards help the planet

rcnaylor
15 years ago

Some folks here have lamented the down side to yards (use a lot of water, often get over fertilized and poisioned). However, I was reading an article today, and it seems to me the millions of acres of yards world wide might be put to a great climatalogical use if we just switched over to grasses bred up to reflect more sunlight. See the article below on one scientist making that suggestion for food crops.

A high-albedo diet will chill the planet

* 18:19 15 January 2009 by Catherine Brahic

* For similar stories, visit the Climate Change Topic Guide

The low-calorie diet is so 20th century follow the high-albedo diet if you want to be in with the latest trend. You could help save the planet from climate change and will be able to keep eating everything you do normally. (And you won't lose a gram.) You read it here first.

Researchers are proposing that one way of temporarily reducing global temperatures would be to replace existing crops with variant strains that reflect more solar energy back out to space. The overall effect would be the same as making large areas of the planet more mirror-like. Their calculations suggest this could cause average summer temperatures in temperate zones to fall by as much as 1°C.

Politicians have generally adopted the aim of limiting global warming to 2°C above 19th century averages, so a 1°C is not something to be taken lightly.

Plants reflects short wave energy back out to space much like snow and other light surfaces do. This is known as the albedo effect and is a key component of calculating the effects of climate change. As Arctic ice melts and is replaced by dark water, for instance, the region's warming is expected to accelerate.

Plants have higher or lower reflectivity depending on things like the shape and size of their leaves and how waxy they are. To Andy Ridgwell and colleagues of the University of Bristol in the UK, what is key is that different varieties of a same species can have more or less albedo.

Modelling the diet

"Different varieties of maize have different morphologies  their leaves are arranged in different ways from variety to variety," explains Ridgwell. Different varieties of barley and millet, two other major crops, have more or less waxy leaves.

Ridgwell and colleagues used a leading computer model to see what would happen if all crops worldwide were switched to higher-albedo varieties. They found that the global temperature averaged over 150 years would drop by 0.1°C. That's not much, but when the researchers took a closer look they realised that temperate regions would be far more affected than others.

In fact, because much of the land area in North America and Eurasia is taken up by agriculture, temperatures there could drop by as much as 1°C during summers. This would be welcome relief for regions which are forecast to suffer dangerous heat waves in the coming century.

"There is a real chance that dangerous levels of global warming could be realised. To avoid this, we need massive emissions reductions and soon. However, it is also prudent to plan in the event that this does not occur," says Chris Huntingfordthe UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. He adds that this particular proposal may have fewer unwanted consequences than other proposals to "geo-engineer" the climate, such as fertilising entire oceans with iron filings.

Bio-geo-engineering

Ridgwell's model suggests that crop yields would not suffer if farmers preferentially planted high-albedo varieties. Indeed for some crops yields might increase.

To be effective, the proposal, which the group call "bio-geo-engineering", would have to be rolled out world-wide. "It might sound a tall order to change the varieties grown of all major crop plants," concedes Ridgwell.

Farmers would need to be given incentives  most likely financial ones  to buy high-albedo varieties. The researchers say one way of setting up these incentives would be to make high-albedo farms eligible for carbon credits which could be sold on the carbon trading markets.

Ridgwell told New Scientist he had done "back-of-the-envelope" calculations that show that given the current price of carbon on the European carbon market, these credits could be worth $50 billion a year over 100 years. He says farmers could gain as much from selling the credits as they obtain from the EU biofuel subsidy.

"Climate change mitigation through plant breeding is a rather novel idea that merits consideration," says Eric Kueneman of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. "The down side might be that if this were to be promoted, it would take 10 to 15 years to get the varieties developed and into farmers fields in a major way."

Comments (12)

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Back in the 1970's studies were done and articles written that said that turf grass around your house, a lawn, was good and beneficial because that lawn would help lower the temperature around your house by about 10 degrees. Having a lawn is not inherently wrong, or terrible. It is what people do with that lawn that creates the problem.
    Overfertilization results in the need to overwater as well as mow frequently which results in putting pollution in the air from the power mowers used to cut that grass. When I was growing up, during WWII, there were no fertilziers to pour onto lawns, but the companies that made the gunpowder for that war needed a market for the products they could now make, fertilizer, so came the marketing effort that told everyone they were very negiligent if their lawn was not a lush green, high cost, money sink, and the more fertilizer that was applied the more problems developed which required buying from the same companies products to control these problems, most of which would go away if much less fertilzier was used.

  • rcnaylor
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yeah, I agree Kimmsr. That is why I try to go mostly organic. Most folks on this board already do, I'm sure.

    But, wouldn't it be neat if all us yardwhackos could actually do something to help counteract problems from global warming just by changing to grass that is a little different color?
    While I love my deep green KBG and TTF, I'd sure sign on to help fight climate change if they had a grass that was as healthy and good a cover that was just a different color that could make a difference in climate.

    A bit far fetched at this point, but, you never know, maybe some grass breeder is reading this board and going "hmmm." ;)

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The Current issiue of Organic Gardening magazine has a bit that says people in the USA spend $10 Billion each year on Nitrogen fertilizers and California alone spends $10 Billion to mitigate Nitrogen pollution.

  • rcnaylor
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    yeah, that is why since if we are going to do so much on yards, wouldn't it be neat if with just a little modification of our practices we turn that to something that might be a great benefit to the environment?

    Although the mitigation figure for Calif sounds more like a PR number from someone with a point they want to make. If it was all from homeowners, they'd pass a law to outlaw the sales of N fertilizer to consumers in a New York minute.

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The farmers, and producers of high Nitrogen fertilizers, are a very powerful lobby and there are very few legislatures that will cross them, even thought they are in a minority today and often do not represent the best interests of the rest of us.

  • rcnaylor
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I suspect the regulations that have been put in place for the Ag industry and other industries that contribute to nitrogen problems are probably a good balance of the equities involved based on what we have known.

    As we gain better understanding of our global ecosystem, it may need to be adjusted.

    Certainly, in a democracy there will always be a balanced achieved by various entities pushing for what they think is best for their own positions. We all need to become well educated and let our voices be heard if we want what we think best given full consideration.

    And, if lighter colored grasses might help and get developed, we might be able to take care of some of it all by ourselves. Wouldn't that be neat?

  • bpgreen
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    From the sounds of it, you guys would like the lawn I'm trying to get going. I've been overseeding with native grasses that are a lighter green and also require little or no fertilizer. They'll live with no additional water, but since we only get about 2 inches of rain during the summer, I'll probably water a couple of times a summer (instead of a couple of times a week) to keep the lawn green.

  • nckvilledudes
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Overseed the yard with clover and get the added benefit of a nitrogen fixing plant source to your yard so you don't have to add fertilizer.

  • greenstay
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    There are native grass hybrids out there, such as the Texas native buffalo grass. You can now find it as turfalo, with one variety for sun and another for shade. I have seen people in my neighborhood who never water and mow. They can add some nitrogen, but too much care brings in the weeds. Like burmuda grass. They look great and change color with the seasons. There are so many native grasses to choose from with so many sizes and colors.
    I can't see any reason to mess with mother nature. Global Warming, Global Weather Change there is no real proof of the main causes.

  • rcnaylor
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Of course, being a good steward of our reasources, such as by planting grasses that need less water and fertilzer is good.

    But, if global warming is happening and threatening to push us in to a whole different kind of weather epoch, I sure wouldn't have any problem growing a lighter shade of grass to to try to help mother nature balance out the higher temps that may be resulting from all the greenhouse gasses our industrial age has been pumping in to the atmosphere.

    While day to day temps, even a whole season can't be taken as indicators of changes in world wide changes, I was working outside yesterday and had to come in and put on a short sleeved shirt because it was so hot. An unheard of thing in 30 years of living in Amarillo, Texas. Also, when things like sheet ice at the poles start disapperaing, as we can see and measure, it becomes a little more difficult to stick our heads in the sand and say nothing is happening.

    Now, I agree we may not know for sure, sure, that man is "causing" it. It could be part of mother nature's big long term cycles. But, even then, its probably best for us to do what we can to balance the climate out, say with little things that might add up, like more reflective grasses growing in millions of yards around the country.

    Science tells us it is a fact that "nature" led to periods of weather that had high temps and mega-droughts in the past. Weather patterns that were non-man made that helped kill off a majority of species in the past.

    Helping mother nature keep things balanced, regardless of the cause, might be a pretty wise investment for us to make in our own well being.

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Keeping in mind that our world, this earth, is a closed ecological system everything we do has an impact on it and everyone else that lives on this earth. What you do in your small corner of this earth will impact people on another continent, not just your next door neighbor.

  • ronalawn82
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    rcnaylor, "Right plant, right place". I will stick my neck out and call that an absolute statement. Planting the right variety of crop makes all the difference. Plant breeding programs give us the "right" varieties.
    I know very little about this sunlight reflecting concept but it sounds like a win-win opportunity. I believe that human beings have a bond with the grass family that is primordial. So if we are bound to have some grass in our environment, it would be a bonus to obtain an additional benefit.
    Now, if only the plant breeders can be convinced.

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