1. Background (as of today the 18th, because I am snipping much material)
a. I promised this note on the 17th as I responded favorably to Oliver
Morton, who
b. on the 16th gave a cite to a Slate article from 2013 by James
McWilliams mostly on Allan Savory - as he said “perhaps not” to a message
c. on the 15th from Andrew Lockley, who suggested that ag and climate
issues were “too boring”, as he responded to my message
d. also on the 15th trying to keep alive the ag-climate message to
this list, by my responding to a message
e. on the 12th from Andy Parker rebutting an ETC site message (and
including the “ag-climate” issue)
f. on the 11th, from Jim Thomas who criticized Andy’s last message in
a sequence of four exchanges, that we heard about
g. on the 11th in a long message sent to this list by Simon Nicholson,
on behalf of the dcgeongineering list (where ag and peasant topics were
prominent).
2. I enjoyed and can support the theses in the McWilliams article in Slate
(from 2013), using the site given by Oliver at:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2013/04/allan_savory_s_ted_talk_is_wrong_and_the_benefits_of_holistic_grazing_have.single.html
Three of the better cites McWilliams gave to support his view that Savory has
oversold his holistic management (HM) approach are at:
https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/view/11560/10833
(2003 - on not very impressive HM results in Zimbabwe)
https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/view/11450/10723
(2000; similar, for US)
http://planet3.org/2013/03/17/alan-savory-freeman-dyson-and-soil-sequestration/
(2013, by Michael Tobis, with some climate credentials)
I found no mention of enteric methane release in this Slate article -
which I consider the main Geo reason to be concerned about cattle. I found
several other McWilliams articles related to meat, such as
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/green_room/2010/01/beware_the_myth_of_grassfed_beef.html
3. Because of the Tobis link, I spent some (not recommended or cited) on
Freeman Dyson’s non-complimentary review of the climate book by Prof.
Nordhaus. This review apparently was panned by many. But in the process, I
re-scanned Dyson’s 1977 article on CDR, via afforestation/reforestation, which
can be found at: http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/files/Dyson_Energy_1977.pdf
Dyson came close to, but missed, the ag-climate topic of this thread
(including biochar). I cannot find Dyson has ever written about biochar or
other forms of Geo.
4. By chance, I did finally find the enteric methane topic to be fully covered
by McWilliams - in a September 2014 (New York Times, I think?) article entitled
“The People’s Climate March”, But this article in fact is mostly about
problems associated with environmental aspects of meat production including,
but not limited to, methane. See http://james-mcwilliams.com/?p=5552 Key is
the first sentence: “I collaborated on this piece with Kip Anderson,
co-director (with Keegan Kuhn) of Cowspiracy.” (Not “Conspiracy”.) This is a
movie found at: http://www.cowspiracy.com/ (with >50 web cites at
http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/). The movie cost $9.95, which I spent, and
recommend now to anyone seriously interested in cattle and/or methane as a
“Geo” topic. But the cites are (probably) all free. In résponse to a comment,
McWilliams said he relied for some of his data on a 2010 paper by Pelletier and
Tyedmers, found at http://www.pnas.org/content/107/43/18371.full
5. The 1.5 hour movie is being shown every few days somewhere, but it won’t be
easy to see. I now am hoping to hear from others what I shouldn’t believe in
this film and web site (any blame for raising this subject should be placed on
Oliver for suggesting the McWilliams paper yesterday). I now have to spend
time looking through the 50+ citations. This movie is effective propaganda,
with most blame being placed on environmental organizations; I have been a
member of most listed; I believe Andrew will find that this is non-boring “Geo”
material.
Be warned about this cowspiracy site if you are a meat-eater. The
arguments are only partly of a geo character - although climate is the main
theme. As undoubtedly intended, I am now thinking more seriously about
becoming a vegan.
Ron
On Dec 17, 2014, at 9:52 AM, Ronal W. Larson <[email protected]> wrote:
<snipped 10 times the above amount>
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