Are you interested in fighting climate change? If so, you have come to the right place.
As teenagers and members of “Gen Z,” we are constantly being told that our world is dying and that the whole human existence is doomed because of so-called “climate change.” Scary information, daunting statistics, and severe threats to our lives are being thrown at us from every direction. According to older generations, we’re supposed to be the ones to save the world. But how are we supposed to do that? By posting a graphic on our Instagram stories…(I think it said something about planting a tree for every 10 reposts)? Sure, those things don’t hurt, but are they really the solution to solving icebergs melting, animals losing their homes, unpredictable hurricanes, mass deforestation and immense emissions of greenhouse gasses?
When it comes to the discussion of climate change, I know that, personally, I often feel overwhelmed, discouraged, or fearful. If you experience any of these feelings when such topics arise, then you’ve come to the right place. Any and all of these emotions are completely valid, and as a matter of fact, important to experience. It’s awesome that you are feeling this way because it means that you care, and caring is always the first step in solving a problem. Speaking of solving problems, let’s jump right into discussing the ways we can help combat our planet’s biggest problem: climate change.
I believe that education is the basis of all change. Education leads to empowerment, which ultimately manifests itself in ground-breaking ideas, great leaders, beneficial laws, and other solutions to problems. In this first blog I am going to introduce you to a concept that is very close to my heart, due to the fact that it's a tangible solution to climate change: regenerative agriculture.
By definition, regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, increasing resilience to climate change and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil. We can disregard the more complex terms for the moment (such as biosequestration, water cycle, and biodiversity), because I will teach you more about what those mean in later blogs. For now, all that you have to understand about regenerative agriculture is that it’s a practice that will reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil. How will it accomplish this, you may ask?
Breaking down climate change:
Climate change is defined as the change in global or regional climate patterns. These shifts in climate patterns are occurring because of the human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. The top greenhouse gases emitted by humans are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. These gases are accumulating in our atmosphere and creating a “greenhouse effect” that is warming Earth. Therefore, the only way we can actually stop climate change is by doing something about our greenhouse gas emissions. However, solely reducing these emissions is not enough because the gases that are there at the moment will continue to warm up the Earth. In order to completely eliminate climate change, we have to get rid of those gases. And this is where regenerative agriculture comes to the rescue.
Regenerative agriculture harnesses the relationships between plants and soil microbes to pull excess carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it in plants and soils where it is a useful nutrient for farmers. This process is called carbon sequestration. (Hey! You now understand one of those weird terms from the first definition). Therefore, regenerative agriculture really does not only reduce future emissions, but actually eliminates the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
I think we should stop there for today because that was a lot to digest for the first blog, and I don’t want to overwhelm you. However, I do really want you to feel like you came out of this first blog more informed and more optimistic about our ability to solve climate change than before. I hope your main takeaway is that there actually are solutions to climate change! Now, all we have to do is actually act upon these solutions, which is much easier said than done. Thank you so much for listening!
