Allan Savory: How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change
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0:00 - 0:05[MUSIC PLAYING]
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0:05 - 0:12
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0:12 - 0:17[APPLAUSE]
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0:17 - 0:24ALLAN SAVORY: The
most massive tsunami -
0:24 - 0:27perfect storm is
bearing down upon us. -
0:27 - 0:30
-
0:30 - 0:36This perfect storm is mounting a
grim reality, increasingly grim -
0:36 - 0:38reality.
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0:38 - 0:44And we are facing that
reality with a full belief -
0:44 - 0:47that we can solve our
problems with technology, -
0:47 - 0:49and that's very understandable.
-
0:49 - 0:54Now this perfect storm
that we are facing -
0:54 - 0:57is the result of our
rising population, rising -
0:57 - 1:02towards 10 billion people,
land that is turning to desert, -
1:02 - 1:05and of course, climate change.
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1:05 - 1:08Now there's no question
about it at all. -
1:08 - 1:10We will only solve the
problem of replacing -
1:10 - 1:13fossil fuels with technology.
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1:13 - 1:18But fossil fuels-- carbon,
coal, and gas-- are by no means -
1:18 - 1:23the only thing that is
causing climate change. -
1:23 - 1:28Desertification is a
fancy word for land -
1:28 - 1:32that is turning to desert,
and this happens only when -
1:32 - 1:34we create too much bare ground.
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1:34 - 1:36There's no other cause.
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1:36 - 1:40And I intend to focus on
most of the world's land -
1:40 - 1:42that is turning to desert.
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1:42 - 1:45
-
1:45 - 1:48But I have for you a
very simple message -
1:48 - 1:53that offers more hope
than you can imagine. -
1:53 - 1:56We have environments
where humidity is -
1:56 - 1:58guaranteed throughout the year.
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1:58 - 2:01On those, it is
almost impossible -
2:01 - 2:05to create vast areas of bare
ground, no matter what you do. -
2:05 - 2:07Nature covers it up so quickly.
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2:07 - 2:09And we have
environments where we -
2:09 - 2:13have months of humidity
followed by months of dryness, -
2:13 - 2:16and that is where
desertification is occurring. -
2:16 - 2:18Fortunately, with
space technology -
2:18 - 2:20now, we can look
at it from space. -
2:20 - 2:25And when we do, you can see
the proportions fairly well. -
2:25 - 2:28Generally, what you see in
green is not desertifying, -
2:28 - 2:30and what you see in brown is.
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2:30 - 2:35And these are by far the
greatest areas of the Earth. -
2:35 - 2:39About 2/3, I would guess, of
the world is desertifying. -
2:39 - 2:42I took this picture
in the Tihamah Desert -
2:42 - 2:46while 25 millimeters-- that's
an inch of rain-- was falling. -
2:46 - 2:49Think of it in terms
of drums of water, -
2:49 - 2:52each containing 200 liters.
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2:52 - 2:56Over 1,000 drums of water
fell on every hectare -
2:56 - 2:59of that land that day.
-
2:59 - 3:01The next day, the
land looked like this. -
3:01 - 3:04Where had that water gone?
-
3:04 - 3:06Some of it ran off as flooding.
-
3:06 - 3:09But most of the water
that soaked into the soil -
3:09 - 3:12simply evaporated
out again, exactly -
3:12 - 3:17as it does in your garden if
you leave the soil uncovered. -
3:17 - 3:21Now because the fate
of water and carbon -
3:21 - 3:26are tied to soil organic
matter, when we damage soils, -
3:26 - 3:28you give off carbon.
-
3:28 - 3:31Carbon goes back
to the atmosphere. -
3:31 - 3:35Now you are told over
and over, repeatedly, -
3:35 - 3:38that desertification
is only occurring -
3:38 - 3:42in arid and semi-arid
areas of the world, -
3:42 - 3:47and that tall grasslands like
this one, in high rainfall, -
3:47 - 3:49are of no consequence.
-
3:49 - 3:52But if you do not
look at grasslands -
3:52 - 3:54but look down into
them, you find -
3:54 - 3:58that most of the soil in that
grassland that you've just seen -
3:58 - 4:01is bare and covered
with a crust of algae, -
4:01 - 4:04leading to increased
runoff and evaporation. -
4:04 - 4:08That is the cancer
of desertification -
4:08 - 4:13that we do not recognize
till its terminal form. -
4:13 - 4:19Now we know that desertification
is caused by livestock, mostly -
4:19 - 4:23cattle, sheep, and goats
over-grazing the plants, -
4:23 - 4:28leaving the soil bare,
and giving off methane. -
4:28 - 4:31Almost everybody knows
this from Nobel laureates -
4:31 - 4:35to golf caddies, or was
taught it, as I was. -
4:35 - 4:39Now the environments like you
see here, dusty environments -
4:39 - 4:44in Africa where I grew
up-- and I loved wildlife. -
4:44 - 4:49And so I grew up hating
livestock because of the damage -
4:49 - 4:50they were doing.
-
4:50 - 4:53And then my university
education as an ecologist -
4:53 - 4:57reinforced my beliefs.
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4:57 - 5:02Well, I have news for you.
-
5:02 - 5:07We were once just as certain
that the world was flat. -
5:07 - 5:11We were wrong then,
and we are wrong again. -
5:11 - 5:13And I want to invite
you now to come along -
5:13 - 5:20on my journey of
re-education and discovery. -
5:20 - 5:25When I was a young man, a
young biologist in Africa, -
5:25 - 5:29I was involved in setting
aside marvelous areas -
5:29 - 5:32as future national parks.
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5:32 - 5:35Now no sooner--
this was the 1950s-- -
5:35 - 5:38and no sooner did we
remove the hunting, -
5:38 - 5:43drum beating people to protect
the animals than the land began -
5:43 - 5:48to deteriorate, as you see
in this part that we formed. -
5:48 - 5:51Now no livestock were involved.
-
5:51 - 5:53But suspecting that we
had too many elephants -
5:53 - 5:58now, I did the research, and
I proved we had too many. -
5:58 - 6:02And I recommended that we would
have to reduce their numbers -
6:02 - 6:06and bring them down to a level
that the land could sustain. -
6:06 - 6:10Now that was a terrible
decision for me to have to make, -
6:10 - 6:12and it was political
dynamite, frankly. -
6:12 - 6:16So our government
formed a team of experts -
6:16 - 6:18to evaluate my research.
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6:18 - 6:19They did.
-
6:19 - 6:20They agreed with me.
-
6:20 - 6:26And over the following years,
we shot 40,000 elephants -
6:26 - 6:29to try to stop the damage.
-
6:29 - 6:32And it got worse, not better.
-
6:32 - 6:37Loving elephants as I do, that
was the saddest and greatest -
6:37 - 6:41blunder of my life, and I
will carry that to my grave. -
6:41 - 6:43One good thing did
come out of it. -
6:43 - 6:48It made me absolutely
determined to devote -
6:48 - 6:50my life to finding solutions.
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6:50 - 6:53
-
6:53 - 6:55When I came to
the United States, -
6:55 - 6:59I got a shock to find
national parks like this one -
6:59 - 7:03desertifying as badly
as anything in Africa. -
7:03 - 7:08And there'd been no livestock
on this land for over 70 years. -
7:08 - 7:10And I found that
American scientists -
7:10 - 7:13had no explanation for
this except that it -
7:13 - 7:16is arid and natural.
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7:16 - 7:21So I then began looking
at all the research -
7:21 - 7:25plots I could over the whole
of the western United States -
7:25 - 7:28where cattle had been
removed to prove that it -
7:28 - 7:30would stop desertification.
-
7:30 - 7:32But I found the opposite.
-
7:32 - 7:35As we see on this
research station -
7:35 - 7:40where this grassland that
was green in 1961, by 2002 -
7:40 - 7:44had changed to that situation.
-
7:44 - 7:48And the authors of the
position paper on climate -
7:48 - 7:51change from which I obtained
these pictures attribute -
7:51 - 7:54this change to
unknown processes. -
7:54 - 7:57
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7:57 - 8:01Clearly, we have
never understood -
8:01 - 8:03what is causing
desertification, which -
8:03 - 8:09has destroyed many civilizations
and now threatens us globally. -
8:09 - 8:11We have never understood it.
-
8:11 - 8:14Take one square meter
of soil and make it bare -
8:14 - 8:17like this is down here,
and I promise you, -
8:17 - 8:23you will find it much colder at
dawn and much hotter at midday -
8:23 - 8:25than that same piece of
ground, if it's just covered -
8:25 - 8:27with litter, plant litter.
-
8:27 - 8:31You have changed
the microclimate. -
8:31 - 8:36Now by the time you are doing
that and increasing greatly -
8:36 - 8:42the percentage of bare ground
on more than half the world's -
8:42 - 8:45land, you are
changing macroclimate. -
8:45 - 8:48But we have just
simply not understood, -
8:48 - 8:52why was it beginning to
happen 10,000 years ago? -
8:52 - 8:55Why has it accelerated lately?
-
8:55 - 8:56We had no understanding of that.
-
8:56 - 9:00What we had failed
to understand was -
9:00 - 9:03that the seasonal
humidity environments -
9:03 - 9:07of the world, the soil
and the vegetation, -
9:07 - 9:13developed with very large
numbers of grazing animals, -
9:13 - 9:16and that these grazing
animals developed -
9:16 - 9:21with ferocious
pack-hunting predators. -
9:21 - 9:25Now their main defense
against pack-hunting predators -
9:25 - 9:27is to get into herds.
-
9:27 - 9:31And the larger the herd,
the safer the individuals. -
9:31 - 9:36Now large herds dung and
urinate all over their own food, -
9:36 - 9:39and they have to keep moving.
-
9:39 - 9:42And it was that movement that
prevented the overgrazing -
9:42 - 9:46of plants, while the
periodic trampling ensured -
9:46 - 9:53good cover of the soil, as we
see where a herd has passed. -
9:53 - 9:58This picture is a typical
seasonal grassland. -
9:58 - 10:01It has just come through
four months of rain, -
10:01 - 10:04and it's now going into
eight months of dry season. -
10:04 - 10:08And watch the change as it
goes into this long dry season. -
10:08 - 10:11Now all of that grass
you see above ground -
10:11 - 10:17has to decay biologically
before the next growing season. -
10:17 - 10:22And if it doesn't, the grassland
and the soil begin to die. -
10:22 - 10:26Now if it does not
decay biologically, -
10:26 - 10:31it shifts to oxidation,
which is a very slow process, -
10:31 - 10:35and this smothers and kills
grasses, leading to a shift -
10:35 - 10:41to woody vegetation and
bare soil releasing carbon. -
10:41 - 10:45To prevent that, we have
traditionally used fire. -
10:45 - 10:51But fire also leaves the
soil bare, releasing carbon. -
10:51 - 10:56And worse than that, burning
one hectare of grassland -
10:56 - 11:02gives off more and more damaging
pollutants than 6,000 cars. -
11:02 - 11:07And we are burning in
Africa, every single year, -
11:07 - 11:11more than one billion
hectares of grasslands, -
11:11 - 11:15and almost nobody
is talking about it. -
11:15 - 11:19We justify the
burning as scientists -
11:19 - 11:22because it does remove
the dead material, -
11:22 - 11:25and it allows the
plants to grow. -
11:25 - 11:28Now looking at this grassland
of ours that has gone dry, -
11:28 - 11:31what can we do to
keep that healthy? -
11:31 - 11:35And bear in mind, I'm talking
of most of the world's land now? -
11:35 - 11:40We cannot reduce animal numbers
to rest it more without causing -
11:40 - 11:43desertification
and climate change. -
11:43 - 11:47We cannot burn it without
causing desertification -
11:47 - 11:48and climate change.
-
11:48 - 11:49What are we going to do?
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11:49 - 11:54
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11:54 - 11:56There is only one option.
-
11:56 - 12:01I repeat to you, only one
option left to climatologists -
12:01 - 12:05and scientists, and that
is to do the unthinkable, -
12:05 - 12:10and to use livestock,
bunched and moving, -
12:10 - 12:16as a proxy for former herds
and predators and mimic nature. -
12:16 - 12:20There is no other
alternative left to mankind. -
12:20 - 12:23So let's do that.
-
12:23 - 12:24So on this bit of
grassland, we'll -
12:24 - 12:26do it, but just
in the foreground. -
12:26 - 12:29We'll impact it very heavily
with cattle to mimic nature, -
12:29 - 12:32and we've done so,
and look at that. -
12:32 - 12:36All of that grass is
now covering the soil -
12:36 - 12:39as dung, urine, and
litter or mulch, -
12:39 - 12:43as every one of the gardeners
amongst you would understand, -
12:43 - 12:47and that soil is ready to
absorb and hold the rain, -
12:47 - 12:52to store carbon, and
to break down methane. -
12:52 - 12:57And we did that without using
fire to damage the soil, -
12:57 - 13:00and the plants are free to grow.
-
13:00 - 13:05When I first realized that we
had no option as scientists -
13:05 - 13:10but to use much vilified
livestock to address climate -
13:10 - 13:15change and desertification, I
was faced with a real dilemma. -
13:15 - 13:17How were we to do it?
-
13:17 - 13:21We'd had 10,000 years of
extremely knowledgeable -
13:21 - 13:23pastoralists, bunching
and moving their animals. -
13:23 - 13:27But they had created the great
man-made deserts of the world. -
13:27 - 13:31Then we'd had 100 years
of modern range science, -
13:31 - 13:34and that had accelerated
desertification -
13:34 - 13:37as we first discovered in
Africa and then confirmed -
13:37 - 13:40in the United States,
and as you see -
13:40 - 13:45in this picture of land managed
by the federal government. -
13:45 - 13:47Clearly, more was needed
than bunching and moving -
13:47 - 13:49the animals.
-
13:49 - 13:52And humans, over
thousands of years, -
13:52 - 13:56had never been able to deal
with nature's complexity. -
13:56 - 13:59But we biologists and
ecologists had never -
13:59 - 14:02tackled anything
as complex as this. -
14:02 - 14:04So rather than
reinvent the wheel, -
14:04 - 14:06I began studying
other professions -
14:06 - 14:09to see if anybody had.
-
14:09 - 14:11And I found they we're
planning techniques -
14:11 - 14:15that I could take and adapt
to our biological need. -
14:15 - 14:17And from those, I
developed what we -
14:17 - 14:22call holistic management and
planned grazing, a planning -
14:22 - 14:23process.
-
14:23 - 14:26And that does address all
of nature's complexity -
14:26 - 14:31and our social, environmental,
economic complexity. -
14:31 - 14:36Today, we have a young woman
like this one teaching villages -
14:36 - 14:38in Africa how to put
their animals together -
14:38 - 14:42into larger herds, plan their
grazing, to mimic nature. -
14:42 - 14:46And where we have them hold
their animals overnight-- -
14:46 - 14:48we run them in a
predator-friendly manner, -
14:48 - 14:51because we have a lot
of lands, and so on-- -
14:51 - 14:53and where they do this
and hold them overnight -
14:53 - 14:55to prepare the
crop fields, we're -
14:55 - 14:59getting very great increases
in crop yield as well. -
14:59 - 15:01Let's look at some results.
-
15:01 - 15:05This is land close to land
that we manage in Zimbabwe. -
15:05 - 15:07It has just come
through four months -
15:07 - 15:09of very good rains
it got that year, -
15:09 - 15:12and it's going into
the long dry season. -
15:12 - 15:15But as you can see, all of
that rain, almost all of it, -
15:15 - 15:18has evaporated from
the soil surface. -
15:18 - 15:22The river is dry, despite
the rain just having ended, -
15:22 - 15:29and we have 150,000 people
on almost permanent food aid. -
15:29 - 15:34Now let's go to our land
nearby on the same day -
15:34 - 15:37with the s rainfall
and look at that. -
15:37 - 15:39Our river is flowing
and healthy and clean. -
15:39 - 15:41It's fine.
-
15:41 - 15:48The production of grass, shrubs,
trees, wildlife, everything -
15:48 - 15:50is now more productive.
-
15:50 - 15:54And we have virtually
no fear of dry years. -
15:54 - 16:01And we did that by increasing
the cattle and goats 400%, -
16:01 - 16:05planning the grazing to mimic
nature and integrate them -
16:05 - 16:09with all the elephants, buffalo,
giraffe, and other animals -
16:09 - 16:10that we have.
-
16:10 - 16:13But before we began, our
land looked like that. -
16:13 - 16:16
-
16:16 - 16:22This site was bare and eroding
for over 30 years, regardless -
16:22 - 16:25of what rain we got.
-
16:25 - 16:29Watch the marked tree and see
the change as we used livestock -
16:29 - 16:31to mimic nature.
-
16:31 - 16:35This was another site where
it had been bare and eroding, -
16:35 - 16:38and at the base of
the marked small tree, -
16:38 - 16:42we had lost over 30
centimeters of soil. -
16:42 - 16:46And again, watch the
change just using livestock -
16:46 - 16:47to mimic nature.
-
16:47 - 16:49And there are
fallen trees in that -
16:49 - 16:52now, because the better
land is now attracting -
16:52 - 16:54elephants, et cetera.
-
16:54 - 16:57This land in Mexico was
in terrible condition. -
16:57 - 17:00And I've had to mark the
hill because the change -
17:00 - 17:03is so profound.
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17:03 - 17:08[APPLAUSE]
-
17:08 - 17:12
-
17:12 - 17:16I began helping a family in
the Karoo desert in the 1970s -
17:16 - 17:19turn the desert that
you see on the right -
17:19 - 17:21there back to grassland.
-
17:21 - 17:23And thankfully, now
their grandchildren -
17:23 - 17:27are on the land with
hope for the future. -
17:27 - 17:29And look at the amazing
change in this one -
17:29 - 17:34where that gully has
completely healed using nothing -
17:34 - 17:37but livestock mimicking nature.
-
17:37 - 17:40And once more, we have
the third generation -
17:40 - 17:44of that family on that land
with their flag still flying. -
17:44 - 17:47The vast grasslands of
Patagonia are turning to desert, -
17:47 - 17:48as you see here.
-
17:48 - 17:52The man in the middle is
an Argentinean researcher, -
17:52 - 17:55and he has documented
the steady decline -
17:55 - 17:57of that land over the
years as they kept -
17:57 - 18:00reducing the sheep numbers.
-
18:00 - 18:04They put 25,000
sheep in one flock, -
18:04 - 18:08really mimicking nature
now with planned grazing. -
18:08 - 18:12And they have documented
a 50% increase -
18:12 - 18:15in the production of the
land in the first year. -
18:15 - 18:20We now have in the violent
Horn of Africa pastoralists -
18:20 - 18:22planning their grazing
to mimic nature, -
18:22 - 18:25and openly saying it
is the only hope they -
18:25 - 18:29have of saving their families
and saving their culture. -
18:29 - 18:3495% of that land can only
feed people from animals. -
18:34 - 18:38I remind you that I am talking
about most of the world's land -
18:38 - 18:41here that controls
our fate, including -
18:41 - 18:46the most violent region of the
world where only animals can -
18:46 - 18:51feed people from
about 95% of the land. -
18:51 - 18:56What we are doing globally
is causing climate change -
18:56 - 18:59as much as, I believe,
fossil fuels, and maybe -
18:59 - 19:02more than fossil fuels.
-
19:02 - 19:06But worse than that, it is
causing hunger, poverty, -
19:06 - 19:09violence, social
breakdown, and war. -
19:09 - 19:13And as I am talking
to you, millions -
19:13 - 19:17of men, women, and children
are suffering and dying. -
19:17 - 19:21And if this continues,
we are unlikely to be -
19:21 - 19:24able to stop the
climate changing, -
19:24 - 19:29even after we have eliminated
the use of fossil fuels. -
19:29 - 19:34I believe I've shown you how
we can work with nature at very -
19:34 - 19:38low cost to reverse all this.
-
19:38 - 19:44We are already doing so on
about 15 million hectares -
19:44 - 19:46on five continents.
-
19:46 - 19:50And people who understand far
more about carbon than I do -
19:50 - 19:53calculate that for
illustrative purposes, -
19:53 - 19:57if we do what I'm
showing you here, -
19:57 - 20:00we can take enough carbon
out of the atmosphere -
20:00 - 20:05and safely store it in the
grassland soils for thousands -
20:05 - 20:05of years.
-
20:05 - 20:10And if we just do that on about
half the world's grasslands -
20:10 - 20:13that I've shown
you, we can take us -
20:13 - 20:17back to pre-industrial
levels while feeding people. -
20:17 - 20:20I can think of
almost nothing that -
20:20 - 20:26offers more hope for our
planet, for your children -
20:26 - 20:28and their children,
and all of humanity. -
20:28 - 20:29Thank you.
-
20:29 - 20:33[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
-
20:33 - 20:53
-
20:53 - 20:55Thank you, Chris.
-
20:55 - 20:56Thank you.
-
20:56 - 20:57CHRIS: Thank you.
-
20:57 - 21:02I have-- and I'm sure everyone
here has, A, 100 questions, B, -
21:02 - 21:03wants to hug you.
-
21:03 - 21:04[LAUGHTER]
-
21:04 - 21:06I'm just going to ask
you one quick question. -
21:06 - 21:10When you first start this, you
bring in a flock of animals. -
21:10 - 21:11It's desert.
-
21:11 - 21:12What do they eat?
-
21:12 - 21:13How does that part work?
-
21:13 - 21:13How do you start?
-
21:13 - 21:16ALLAN SAVORY: Well, we've
done this for a long time, -
21:16 - 21:19and the only time we have
ever had to provide any food -
21:19 - 21:23is doing mine reclamation
where it's 100% bare. -
21:23 - 21:28But many years ago, we took
the worst land in Zimbabwe -
21:28 - 21:33where I offered a five-pound
note in a 100-mile drive -
21:33 - 21:37if somebody could find one
grass in a 100-mile drive. -
21:37 - 21:40And on that, we'd trebled
the stocking rate, the number -
21:40 - 21:43of animals, in the first
year with no feeding, -
21:43 - 21:46just by the movement
mimicking nature and using -
21:46 - 21:51a sigmoid curve, that principle.
-
21:51 - 21:53It's a little bit
technical to explain here. -
21:53 - 21:54CHRIS: Well, I would
love t-- I mean, -
21:54 - 21:57this is such an interesting
and important idea. -
21:57 - 21:59The best people s our blog are
going to come and talk to you, -
21:59 - 22:03and I want to get more on
this that we can share, along -
22:03 - 22:04with the talk.
-
22:04 - 22:06That is an astonishing talk.
-
22:06 - 22:08Truly an astonishing talk.
-
22:08 - 22:09And I think you
heard that we all -
22:09 - 22:11are cheering you on your way.
-
22:11 - 22:11Thank you so much.
-
22:11 - 22:12ALLAN SAVORY: Well, thank you.
-
22:12 - 22:13Thank you.
-
22:13 - 22:14Thank you, Chris.
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22:14 - 22:15[APPLAUSE]
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22:15 - 22:19[MUSIC PLAYING]
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22:19 - 22:20
- Title:
- Allan Savory: How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change
- Description:
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"Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert," begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And terrifyingly, it's happening to about two-thirds of the world's grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes -- and his work so far shows -- that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert.
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- Video Language:
- English, British
- Duration:
- 22:20