Powerpoint for Farming and Climate Change Class

1. Climate Change and
Farming
How bad is climate change?
What is the connection to Agriculture?
What can we do?

2. How Bad Is It?

3. It is pretty bad!
Look at the graphs at this website. They tell a story of
how atmospheric carbon is increasing and global
temperatures are going up too.
http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/spirals/

4. As Carbon Dioxide has Risen,
Temperatures Rise Too

5. Carbon is Entering the
Atmosphere at an Alarming Rate
As it builds in the atmosphere in the form of Carbon
Dioxide and Methane, more and more of the sun’s
heat is trapped, warming the Earth as a whole.
Human Caused Sources of Atmospheric Carbon:
Energy production
Heating and Cooling
Transportation
Forest Destruction and Fires
Poor Farming Practices

6. The effects are not the
same everywhere
Some places are experiencing severe droughts.
Other places are experiencing flooding. Storms are
increasing in intensity, especially tropical storms.
Wildfires are increasing.
Plant and animals’ ranges are changing.
Sea levels are rising.
Oceans are acidifying.

7. The “Albedo” Feedback loop
The “albedo” effect, is when white objects reflect
sunlight and stay cool, while dark objects absorb
sunlight and warm up.
As Polar Ice melts, the open ocean and land that is
exposed warms much faster, which causes more
warming, which melts more polar ice.

8. Albedo

9. Video of Arctic Sea Ice
Changes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZovcCxftAY

10. The Permafrost
Feedback Loop
As permafrost thaws, massive quantities of methane
are released that have been frozen for thousands of
years. It is unknown how much methane is stored in
permafrost.
Methane is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas
than carbon dioxide.
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-
greenhouse-gases

11. Arctic Temps Are
Warming Twice as Fast

12. Melting Polar Ice is
Causing Sea Level Rise

13. Impacts on Farming Could be
Even Worse Than Anything Else

14. Drought and Flooding is already
causing food shortages. It will
only get worse.

15. Famines and Failed Crops Cause
Refugee Crises and Can also
Cause Wars.

16. Yikes! Things are pretty bad, but
here is a photo of puppy:

17. Better now? Maybe one
more puppy photo:

18. Okay. Ready for more? Climate
Change is happening. And
Farming is one of the causes.

19. Tillage depletes Organic Matter:
“Bare Soil is Dying Soil”
Tillage speeds up the decomposition of soil organic
matter. Which off-gases carbon dioxide and methane
and leaves the soil with less humus (stable organic
matter).
Soil with less organic matter is less fertile.
Conventional farming often replaces fertility from
organic matter (cover crops, mulch, or animal
manure) with chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizer
is made by burning methane. Lots of methane.

20. Factory Farms (CAFOs) add
Carbon to the Atmosphere

21. Animal Agriculture’s
Carbon Footprint
A lot of Carbon is used (and taken from the soil) to produce the the
grain to feed the animals (see tillage depletes organic matter…).
Energy is also used to heat and cool animal housing, as well as
transport grain and animals.
Poorly managed grazing depletes soil carbon.
Animal manure and gases (cow farts) add a lot of methane (37% of
total) and nitrous oxide (65% of total), both very potent potent
greenhouse gases (Methane is 25 times and Nitrous Oxide is 300
times).
http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/farm/hsus-fact-sheet-
greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-animal-agriculture.pdf

22. When a Person Eats Meat they
have a much Bigger Carbon
Footprint than a Vegetarian.
Beef and Dairy production uses ten times the land than
grain or vegetable production to produce the same
amount of calories.
(http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/facts-
on-animal-farming-and-the-environment/)
Chicken production uses at least 2 to 3 times the amount
of land vs vegetables.
There is a movie that says Cows are causing climate
change. It is called “Cowspiracy.” It is vegan propaganda.
http://www.cowspiracy.com/

23. Large Scale Modern Farming
using Chemical Fertilizers is Also
Called Conventional Farming

24. Traditional vs Conventional
Farming Video
Skip to the middle to see Conventional rice
production.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nhz-hIMZng

25. Large Scale Conventional Farming
is Currently Producing Food More
Cheaply than Small Scale Organic.
There is an “economy of scale” to large tractors,
large fields, chemical fertilizers, and other chemicals.
This reduces the labor cost.
There are government subsidies for large scale
agriculture that make it even cheaper to produce.
Food produced on a large scale can be produced so
cheaply that it is cheaper to buy than small-scale local
organic food, even if it is shipped from halfway
across the world.

26. Depressed by Large Scale
Farming? Here is a photo of a
piglet on a small farm:

27. Large Scale Farms Are Not EVIL. It is just
that the system is set up to favor methods
that are impacting the climate.

28. What Can We Do?

29. We Need to Fight for a
Sustainable Future

30. Sustainable Ag
Propaganda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TRI7yeeYQQ

31. Permaculture
Use Natural Ecosystems as a model to design food-
producing sustainable systems

32. Grazing Can Actually
Add Carbon to the Soil
The Marin Carbon Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us3G-08LC68
Mob Grazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI
The Soil Solution
https://sustainableworldmedia.com/the-soil-solution/

33. How about a Puppy?

34. Compost, Mulch and
Cover Crops

35. Terra Preta (Biochar)

36. Buy From Local Farms

37. “Be the change you wish to see in
the world.” -paraphrased Ghandi
Change your buying habits to support sustainable
agriculture.
Grow your own garden. Store carbon in your soil.
Eat less meat that was raised in large scale farms.
Educate yourself about the issues.
Tell others about what you are doing and why.

38. Living the good life

39. But even if all the people of
Marin Montessori lowered
their own carbon footprint,
it is still not enough!

40. We Need Global
Change!
“Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world; indeed it is
the only thing that ever has.” –
Margaret Mead
How are we going to do it?