wolfyvegan

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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20970653

archived (Wayback Machine)

 

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20970653

archived (Wayback Machine)

 

archived (Wayback Machine)

 

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As climate change pushes montane species upslope in a bid to escape warming temperatures, species, including birds, occupying the highest altitudes could be left with nowhere to go, making them the most prone to extinction.

Source

 

When it comes to reforestation, planting a diversity of tree species could have a plethora of positive effects on forest health and resilience, climate mitigation and biodiversity. That’s based on research from the world’s largest tree-planting experiment, in China, and the world’s longest-running tropical forest planting experiment, in Panama.

Florian Schnabel, lecturer and chair of silviculture at Freiburg University in Germany, and his team recently published two papers illustrating how planting diverse forests can buffer them against climate extremes and enhance carbon storage.

“The results of our research in Panama and in China really call for preserving and also planting diverse forests as a strategy under climate change,” he says.

Researchers with the BEF-China project planted multiple forests, ranging from just one tree species up to 24, then measured microclimate temperatures over six years.

They found that the more diverse the forest, the greater the “temperature buffering” effect during hot and cold peaks. The most diverse plantings, those with 24 species, reduced temperatures during peak midday summer heat by 4.4° Celsius (7.92° Fahrenheit) when compared to the project’s monoculture. That finding could have important consequences for biodiversity and forest functions, such as soil respiration, says Schnabel. “What was quite striking to me was how strong this [temperature buffering] effect actually was.”

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[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 days ago

Not surprising. I remember reading that (some of) the ancestors of Home sapiens sapiens in East Africa first started regularly using fire about 400,000 years ago... to cook starchy tubers. Apparently that population didn't start eating animals for another ~300,000 years, and others didn't even leave the forest and start using fire until ~250,000 years ago or later. History is not an ethical guide in any case...

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 days ago

The whole book is available here for those interested.

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah, I hate when the temperature falls below 18 degrees Celsius! There have been times when I've gotten so uncomfortable that I've had to put some pants on. It's possible to survive it, for sure, but it sucks.

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 days ago

If Iceland can grow bananas, then oil palms don't seem like much of a stretch. But whether they are grown outdoors in the lowland tropics or in a greenhouse somewhere else, that's land that cannot be native forest. At least in the tropics, it's possible to implement an agroforestry system that includes both oil palms and native trees, but in a greenhouse somewhere cold... nope. Even if the yield would be greater than that of more cold-tolerant oil crops, more energy would be needed for heating in the winter, so intuitively, it doesn't seem practical except where there would be large amounts of "waste" heat anyway, like near geothermal vents or power plants.

Fortunately, palm oil is not essential for nutrition, and many industrial applications could use (e.g.) hemp oil if palm oil is not available, so it's not necessary to increase production of palm oil. About half of world production goes to "livestock" feed anyway.

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 days ago

a berry pie without any sugar but what’s already in the berries shouldn’t be too bad.

Wolves have been observed to subsist on almost exclusively blueberries during the height of the season in Yellowstone, so I'd say the glyphosate residue in the flour is much more of a risk than whatever fruit is in the middle.

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 days ago

THIS is the actual definition of Veganism, directly from the people who coined the term:

That definition is from 1988, so it's questionable whether it came "directly from the people who coined the term" in 1944. Here is a re-publication of the 1951 Leslie Cross definition:

“The object of the Society shall be to end the exploitation of animals by man” and “The word veganism shall mean the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals.”

Allegedly someone read The World Peace Diet (by Will Tuttle) to Donald Watson on his deathbed, and Donald Watson said that the book encompassed everything that he intended when he founded the Vegan Society. Make of that what you will.

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 days ago

Probably 'Silk', AKA Latundan, from the Philippines.

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

While it's important to recognise the gravity of the problem, it's also important to recognise concrete steps that can be taken to address it, and this article doesn't really go into that. For example, to stop the Amazon deforestation and burning, it is necessary to both stop the "global appetite for burgers" and shift to reforestation and sustainable decentralised food production. This is one example of people trying to do that, but such projects need to scale up massively in order to have an impact on such large problems as climate change.

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 days ago

Not all, but yes, some components are inevitably lost in the drying process. There's a reason that dried fruit is often treated with sulphur dioxide as a preservative. Of course, preserving the colour doesn't prevent the loss of large amounts of essential nutrients like vitamin C. Fresh is best whenever possible.

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 2 points 5 days ago

I haven't run the numbers, but your assessment seems about right. The lower the humidity, the greater the potential for evaporative cooling, and the higher the max tolerable temperature. No reason to avoid moving to the tropics anytime soon.

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 1 points 6 days ago

Let us not forget that this is primarily due to deforestation, whether directly (due to loss of tree cover for moisture retention) or indirectly (due to climate change).

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