Jul 23, 2022 05:42 PM
(This post was last modified: Jul 23, 2022 06:01 PM by C C.)
'Regenerative' Farming: AOC's over-hyped climate change solution
https://www.acsh.org/news/2022/07/22/reg...tion-16445
INTRO: Politicians have a complicated relationship with science. When they think the evidence comports with their political goals, they love scientists and the work that they do. However, when their ideology clashes with the data, our representatives twist themselves in knots to avoid conforming their views to the facts. Case in point, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted the following comments about regenerative agriculture on July 20:
The tweet included a clip of a hearing during which handpicked experts answered softball questions, giving Ocasio-Cortez's opinion a gloss of scientific legitimacy. That plays well in the media and generates lots of likes and retweets, but it doesn't make anything she said true.
The reality is that regenerative agriculture, as commonly defined today, can't “protect” the global food supply from climate change; it can't even feed a small country. To achieve the kinds of sustainability gains Ocasio-Cortez described, we need technology-driven farming that utilizes every available tool.
What is regenerative farming? It's actually difficult to pin down a clear definition. Most growers and agricultural scientists are interested in sustainable, efficient farming practices that allow us to feed more people while preserving our natural resources. But that's not what advocates of regenerative farming typically mean when they use the term; their definition is often couched in ideological assumptions... (MORE - details)
Past environmental threats didn’t just disappear
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/07/...disappear/
INTRO: Conservative political commentator Matt Walsh took to Twitter last Wednesday to say that the widely held belief that humans are causing climate change is, in fact, a crock. The podcaster and Daily Wire columnist apparently knows this because previous environmental issues we were concerned about in the past—namely acid rain and holes in the ozone layer—disappeared, never to be heard about again.
“Remember when they spent years telling us to panic over the hole in the ozone layer and then suddenly just stopped talking about it and nobody ever mentioned the ozone layer again?” Walsh tweeted. “This was also back during the time when they scared school children into believing that "acid rain" was a real and urgent threat,” Walsh tweeted again
It’s true that you don’t hear much about acid rain anymore, and discussions about humanity’s long-standing propensity to metaphorically kick the planet in the groin have largely moved away from the ozone layer to newer, flashier issues like sea level rise, rising global temperatures, and mass species die-offs served with a side of ecosystem collapse. (Although, if you know where to look, you can still find mention of the ozone hole.)
One could, as Walsh does, take this to mean that acid rain and holes in the ozone layer simply went away on their own and were thus never anything to worry about—and that, by extension, current fears about climate change are similarly misplaced.
This would be the wrong way to take things. Ozone layer holes and acid rain have actually been dealt with in many parts of the world. In these two cases, efforts to combat environmental issues have worked. Well, mostly, at least... (MORE - details)
https://www.acsh.org/news/2022/07/22/reg...tion-16445
INTRO: Politicians have a complicated relationship with science. When they think the evidence comports with their political goals, they love scientists and the work that they do. However, when their ideology clashes with the data, our representatives twist themselves in knots to avoid conforming their views to the facts. Case in point, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted the following comments about regenerative agriculture on July 20:
Many small farms are now using ‘regenerative’ farming techniques that indigenous people have been using for centuries - and in doing so, they may have found the key to protecting our entire global food supply from climate change. pic.twitter.com/migH5zFsD3
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) July 20, 2022
The tweet included a clip of a hearing during which handpicked experts answered softball questions, giving Ocasio-Cortez's opinion a gloss of scientific legitimacy. That plays well in the media and generates lots of likes and retweets, but it doesn't make anything she said true.
The reality is that regenerative agriculture, as commonly defined today, can't “protect” the global food supply from climate change; it can't even feed a small country. To achieve the kinds of sustainability gains Ocasio-Cortez described, we need technology-driven farming that utilizes every available tool.
What is regenerative farming? It's actually difficult to pin down a clear definition. Most growers and agricultural scientists are interested in sustainable, efficient farming practices that allow us to feed more people while preserving our natural resources. But that's not what advocates of regenerative farming typically mean when they use the term; their definition is often couched in ideological assumptions... (MORE - details)
Past environmental threats didn’t just disappear
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/07/...disappear/
INTRO: Conservative political commentator Matt Walsh took to Twitter last Wednesday to say that the widely held belief that humans are causing climate change is, in fact, a crock. The podcaster and Daily Wire columnist apparently knows this because previous environmental issues we were concerned about in the past—namely acid rain and holes in the ozone layer—disappeared, never to be heard about again.
“Remember when they spent years telling us to panic over the hole in the ozone layer and then suddenly just stopped talking about it and nobody ever mentioned the ozone layer again?” Walsh tweeted. “This was also back during the time when they scared school children into believing that "acid rain" was a real and urgent threat,” Walsh tweeted again
It’s true that you don’t hear much about acid rain anymore, and discussions about humanity’s long-standing propensity to metaphorically kick the planet in the groin have largely moved away from the ozone layer to newer, flashier issues like sea level rise, rising global temperatures, and mass species die-offs served with a side of ecosystem collapse. (Although, if you know where to look, you can still find mention of the ozone hole.)
One could, as Walsh does, take this to mean that acid rain and holes in the ozone layer simply went away on their own and were thus never anything to worry about—and that, by extension, current fears about climate change are similarly misplaced.
This would be the wrong way to take things. Ozone layer holes and acid rain have actually been dealt with in many parts of the world. In these two cases, efforts to combat environmental issues have worked. Well, mostly, at least... (MORE - details)
