It’s about slowing down the release of carbon, people speed up the release of it much much faster, than it naturally releases, and that is dangerous, also burnt rubber smell would be enough to make me want to move, burnt rubber is much more than an increase in the release of carbon, it’s also stinky pollination that releases chemicals in to the air, just like burning trash which is way worst than some people would like us to think, I have been exposed to mass trash burning multiple times, I rather smell horse or cow manure. Not to mention when certain things get burnt, like electronics, chemicals, that is very bad for a person’s health, there is a reason why firefighters die young. There needs to at least be some rules in societies, although there is a lot of abuse of power in governments all around the world, and there are plenty of things that government should not be trying to control, I am not going to say any more about this, so that it does not turn in to politics.
we need some co2 for sure, and we need some oxygen too. you would get pretty sick if you were breathing 100% oxygen all the time or something. I think it’s the majority of the air is nitrogen anyway, it’s a different mix of needed things in layers in the atmosphere.
Part of the reason mountain climbers need tanks- they are in a different layer of air. Like how topsoil needs different things than bedrock.
I hate being told what to do by people, but nature is a different story. It’s not like I can defiantly argue my lungs into wanting to breathe water just cause I feel like it haha
I wish I had the option of a food forest on every square inch, but without a fence around the entirety of the yard, it’s pointless.
F——-ng deer.
Food forests sound great but outside of the tropics it is a pipe dream. If you want to produce food to put a dent on the million or so calories needed per person per year, and you are working with the limited resources your average person has, it is one of the worst ways to go about it.
Then again, this is for a goal of food production with limited resources. Forests obviously have other benefits that makes them critical.
I’m on a bit over an acre. Maybe half is forested? I do manage some of it; clearing the underside promoted the squash berries (high bush cranberries), melon berries, lots of wild elderberry, ground dogwood berries, lots of rose hips, fiddle ferns, lots of mushrooms, a steady supply of wood and mulch from fast growing cottonwood, I should tap a large birch for sap, have used spruce roots for twine, medicinals, plus lots of other uses. Calorically speaking two of my apple trees could outproduce the food aspect.
food forests do work in the north if you focus on 90-95% of it being edible. by spacing similar fruiting trees and bushes apart and planting something else in between, it breaks the pest and disease pressure from easily passing to another similar tree or bush. under planting onions, garlic, and aromatic herbs discourages pests and confuses them with their smells and it gives you something to eat as well. Egyptian onions are awesome. you plant a few bulbils and in 3 years have a 15ft. patch of perennial onions you never have to plant again. i plant spring and fall garlic so i have a steady supply on the south side of my trees and bushes. even potatoes can be planted in the fall to start to grow in the spring for a bigger, earlier harvest. if you dont plant them all together it makes it hard for bugs to get to the next plant. not all of it works but much of it does and i really like the wild look as it grows in. Siberian pea shrub is a n fixer and great for pollinators. grows fast from seed and helps other plants near it to flourish. its z2 and drought hardy. try some. i feed the seed to my chickens . its 40% protein. I even grow vegetables around my trees and bushes. they really like growing under the woodchip mulch. no need to water.
If the environment allows. There is a reason why there are some areas where 4 acres is plenty of space to feed a family and others were no less than 20 is needed; fertility, soil composition, weather, water; it all dictates the bearing capacity of a soil.
You have seen pictures of my soil; water-sorted glacial drift (rocks) with an overburden of wind-sorted silt and sand. And I’m one of the lucky ones; the area is peppered with micro climates where in my house snow cover could be gone for a month while in a 10 mile radius plenty of places are still snowed in. 20 hours of sunlight can be extremely productive, but not without a lot of shenanigans. Heck this doesn’t even touch on the huge percent of stuff that would not grow at all unless properly managed.
I used to live in the tropics. Down there I would not even need to ‘create’ a food forest from scratch; many things can be just plopped into the wild forest itself and it would grow and fruit with minimal care. Bananas and plantains could not care less about 8’ tall weeds; they just tower over them. Ñames, passion fruit, chayote squash, they are vines that just looove to climb all over the place. Wild mango, pana, and avocado trees are big; upper canopy monsters. All sorts of citruses are incredibly happy at the edge of the forests along papaya. Boggy? Start plopping yautia, batata, yucca, and all sorts of root veggies and just come back in a year to harvest. Heck pretty much none of those suffer from many pests. Shit what I really would want is a cacao tree :’(
Also not buying the ‘pest will leave them alone’ theory. Last year it was a bad year for the sawfly larva. In my forest it is hard to tell from a distance currant from ground cranberry, but last year you could see which was which; the sawfly found every single one and the larva went to town stripping every single leaf on the currants.
dont get me wrong. my food forest by itself couldnt sustain us. its part of the equation but other resources would be needed to supplement. my chickens/rabbits fill in that void. for you guys moose , bear. and caribou would fill that void. in or lakes here there are a over abundance of yellow perch. most people consider them trash fish. in lean times they are a excellent protein and fertilizer source that can easily be caught in large numbers. we are also getting 2 milk goats next spring. tired of paying $5 a gal.
I wish I could commit to chickens, rabbits, and goats. When I retire I plan on spending a good chunk of the winter away from Alaska. Dormant plants can just sleep away, animals are not as hands off.
we are considering the same. shutting this place down in nov. and come back in may. the wife has her best friend and another friend in N.C and T.N. thinking of buying a lot somewhere down there and putting a trailer on it. rent a uhaul trailer to bring the animals with us back and forth… now that would be funny to see!
I live in a California suburb, been in this house 35 years. It had a front lawn bordered by juniper bushes. Not much to do but water the lawn, mow and keep the junipers trimmed. Pool in the backyard with planting beds, nothing special. While I worked it stayed the same as when I moved in. Upon early retirement I changed it all over a 3 year period (as I did it myself), ripped out the lawn and the junipers. Planted many drought tolerant perennials, California natives, 2 raised beds of veggies and a couple of fruit trees. I now have a bit more work, but lots of color and more wild life, birds, lizards, the occasional racoon and coyote. Next to no chemicals, the hardest part is dealing with our drought but I’m in better shape the most of my neighbors that are watching their lawns turn brown with mandated 1 day a week watering. No HOA, so I’ve even had vegetables growing in the parkway.
I like this idea and would support it at election time.
Not if it’s well aerated. Methane production occurs in low oxygen environments. Composting does release some of the carbon stored in the inputs as the bacteria respire co2. Plenty of that carbon sticks around though, and helps improve the soil, leading to better plant growth, which stores more carbon. Basically, carbon is flowing in both directions but through judicious action you can make sure more flows into your land than out.