People automatically assume that just because I'm a dude, I get weak in the knees for rare steaks, Craftsman tools, cars, Wii games, and the Victoria's Secret catalog. Okay, so they may be dead on about the catalog, but ixnay on the meat (I'm a vegetarian), I can't stand tinkering in the garage, my main mode of transportation is hoof or bike and I've got no time for games since I'm too busy trying to green the world. Kermit had it right -- there's so much to do and it's not exactly easy, but I'm not complaining either. The best things in life are worth fighting for. When I'm not busy spreading the word about adopting more responsible lifestyle changes, I'm a voracious reader of other people's eco-ideas...which leads me to the point of this blog post.
Pioneering green ideas and innovative technologies that make you get up out of your comfy chair and say, "Hell yeah!!" are exactly what we need in this world right here and right now. I take my hat off to scientists and other creative thinking folks who've got it going on in their brains...maybe I even envy them more than what might be considered normal. (Okay, let's just say that I'm an eco-sci-groupie.) But here's the thing -- a "what if" scenario that might take me a month or more to come up with (after blowing through 10 pounds of paper and logging in 18,000 hours on my computer) is just the dot above the i in a talented scientist, engineer, designer or inventor's vast portfolio of "cute thoughts for a rainy day". When they break out the big eco-guns as so many of them have been doing lately by announcing grand plans for....say, halting the desertification of the Saraha via natural bacterial "gluing," I want to learn more.
Well, thanks to a recent Popular Science article, equally enthralled eco-geeks like myself were treated to the latest crop of farming ideas that might launch the second coming of the green revolution. Lest ye forget, it's tough to eat as sustainably as possible when your food is habitually flown in from the other side of the world. Plus, we're dealing with an increasingly warming planet and loopy weather patterns that can absolutely obliterate crops at the blink of an eye. The fact that more land continues to be consumed by urban sprawl, and -- oh yeah -- we'll have about nine billion mouths to feed by the year 2050...well, it's easy to see just how much pressure is mounting to come up with viable agricultural solutions that are not only innovative but also eco-friendly. Here are a few of the "greener" solutions that have recently been proposed and are in the testing stages as I write this:
1) Add self-sustaining Bio-Soil Enhancers to all crops in order to produce 90% greater yields, replenish vital nutrients to the ground and offer a health insurance policy against the infiltration of crop pathogens. Composed from a cocktail of naturally occurring soil microbes, this liquid additive is currently being tested now and could be available in a field near you in the very immediate future. Sounds a lot better than using petro-based fertilizers, but could those microbes potentially throw a wrench in the plan by leaping out of the fields and onto the streets? (Or maybe I've just been watching too much SciFi TV...oh, forgive me..."SyFy" he said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes with great exaggeration.)
2) Set up a desert-locked greenhouse (modeled after successful pilot efforts in the United Arab Emerites, Tenerife, and the Canary Islands) called the Sahara Forest Project that boasts a “concentrating solar power” plant that would generate all of the energy necessary to operate its built-in self-desalizination plant. How would it work? Prevailing winds would be channeled via a system of fans and simple evaporators to convert nearby seawater into fresh water that would irrigate greenhouse crops and also be used for human consumption. This same ocean water would also be transformed into plant-happy humidity inside the greenhouse, ensuring that crops would thrive. In addition to taking the burden off of our natural freshwater supply, the Sahara Forest Project would be responsible for generating food in a traditionally barren region.
3) Give biomass (plant material, vegetation and agricultural waste) the slow-roast by stoking it in a fire and then allowing it to smolder in very intense heat which generates little or no oxygen. Rather than producing CO2, this technique creates as much as 50% solid charcoal -- effectively sequestering carbon and giving the atmosphere a much-needed reprieve. Once the biochar is incorporated back into soil, it consistently restores vital nutrients to the earth, helps soil retain more water and acts as a very organic form of fertilizer which in turn can help crops to go forth and multiply.
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