Agriculture

Illustration: Great Green Wall Map. Sevgart, Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0.

Maybe There’s Hope For A Hopeless Time

People sometimes think that I go out intentionally looking for good news. I don’t, really. But sometimes I happen across it. And sometimes, it is just a matter of seeing things that can be hopeful when they are viewed together. I was thinking recently about the Great Green Wall of … [continued]

ChatGPT generated this image of fossil fuel infrastructure emitting visible pollution to illustrate the enduring and dominant role of fossil fuels in driving climate change

No, Agriculture & Meat Aren’t A Bigger Driver Of Climate Change Than Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels are the dominant cause of global climate change. Decades of rigorous scientific research, repeated validation, and global scientific consensus confirm this unequivocally. This core truth needs reinforcement because a provocative paper recently published in Environmental Research attempts to upend this established understanding by claiming that agriculture, particularly livestock farming, … [continued]

ChatGPT generated split-screen image featuring a Ukrainian military drone (e.g., PD-2) over war-torn landscapes transitioning into a thriving farm landscape with drones spraying fields

Drone Swords Into Ploughshares: How Ukraine’s Wartime Expertise Can Reshape Farming

Ukraine has rapidly emerged as one of the world’s unexpected drone innovation hubs, driven by the brutal necessities of wartime. Thousands of sophisticated drones now soar above Ukrainian battlefields, ranging from compact FPV (first-person-view) attack drones to advanced reconnaissance platforms capable of extended missions deep into contested areas. Remarkably, this … [continued]

ChatGPT generated panoramic aerial image of drone swarm spraying crops

Third Of China’s Farms Sprayed By Drones, Marking Agricultural Revolution

A couple of years ago, while exploring the potential of agricultural drone technology through the lens of Hylio’s innovative spraying systems, I found myself wondering if these small machines could shift the massive inertia of global agriculture. At the time, Hylio was doing intriguing work, showcasing promising results with farmers … [continued]

ChatGPT & DALLE generated panoramic, cutaway image that illustrates a stalk of corn acting as a natural conveyor belt for carbon

CCS Redux: Soil Carbon Capture — Great Loamy Hope Or Bandaid?

Carbon capture and sequestration in all of its various ineffective, inefficient and expensive forms is having another run up the hype cycle. Nothing has really changed. The problems still exist. The alternatives are still better. The potential for use is still minuscule. And so, the CCS Redux series, republishing old … [continued]