What Agriculture Can Do To Help Control Climate Change

Rappler has much of the bad news today – and none of what we can do to survive or surmount climate change. Because either Rappler loves bad news – or doesn’t much understand climate change.

Rappler’s Bad News:
Last Thursday, 12 August 2021, Pia Ranada came out with her “Devastating Floods, Heat, Droughts To Worsen In PH For Next 30 Years – UN Report.” Ms Pia emphasizes:

Hitting 1.5ºC warming will bring “extreme events unprecedented in the observational record” in different parts of the world, says the report. Humans have spewed so much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that catastrophic floods, rains, heatwaves, and drought will keep worsening in the Philippines for the next 30 years, no matter what steps we take today to slash emissions.
(upper image from Rappler)

TIT for TAT “Better” News:
This writer warrior says, “Know your enemies!” The US Natural Resources Defense Council says the 5 major greenhouse gases are: carbon dioxide (CO₂) contributing 76%; methane (CH₄) 16%; nitrous oxide (N₂O) 06%; and fluorinated gases (FGs) 02%
(pie-chart image[1] from Nrdc.org, 2021)

What do those numbers imply to cockeyed-optimist me? That climate change is controllable!

NASA says (“Global Climate Change[2]):

CO₂ is released through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels. This is the most important long-lived "forcing" of climate change.

Yet, NASA also says, “On a molecule-for-molecule basis, methane is a far more active greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.” And CH₄comes from “natural sources and human activities, including the decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure management associated with domestic livestock.”

Methane coming from “especially rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and manure management” – why, agriculture is guilty beyond reasonable doubt!

Since trees are known as the gas guzzlers, to reduce the CO₂ in the atmosphere, we must among other things plant more trees in the towns and cities.
(climate changing image[3] from TeePublic)

Now then – we must educate all farmers to help reduce drastically the greenhouse gases going up from those fields being cultivated.

To help reduce the CH₄ and N₂O gases adding to climate change, we must decrease the application of chemical fertilizers – and we must increase the use of organic materials.

And how do we teach our farmers to shift to non-chemical farming? Slowly at their own pace, fast at our own speed in creating a Knowledge Bank, the one I have called SMART JUAN, which is acronym for “Stored Matter Adapted To Rural Terrain Translated For Johns Utilizing Agricultural Notes, Notions, Novelties In Science,” of which I previously wrote (15 August 2021, “’Smart Juan’ – The Digital Renaissance Of ‘Juan Tamad’ Into An All-Knowing Farmer[4],” TIT for TAT).

Now then, as much as we can control Agriculture, we can control Climate Change!

Believing that, I insist: For the Philippines to control her own climate, SMART JUAN must be constructed, so lessons on greenhouse gases can be learned nationwide – Fast!@517

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[1]https://www.nrdc.org/stories/greenhouse-effect-101

[2]https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

[3]https://www.teepublic.com/poster-and-art/4003144-the-climate-is-changing-t-shirt-why-arent-we-earth

[4]https://titfortatteachingindependentthinking.blogspot.com/2021/08/smart-juan-digital-renaissance-of-juan.html