Plant specific climate change rules

 If you're not into growing plants, skip this post.

 

I. even if it's little, we still have time (Do we?). Not to reverse this, sadly enough, but to use dynamics such as epigenetics to amplify extremity responses of plants (see V. below).  

II. there are dynamics already present in the world, that can help: eg dry farming. In dry farming literature, there is enough techniques to deal with the first wave of problems, be it drought or downpours, be it dry dry seasons and wet wet seasons, etc.

Dry farming is but one nature-mimicking dynamic.

 

IV. we can plant trees and design pools of water, both mitigating temperatures. (more on pools later).

V. I read an article, I don't even know where anymore, that in diverse gene pools, one can have specific combinations of genes, that underperform in regular setups, yet stand out under extremes. This is in part how dry farming genetics came about. We can keep doing this. 

VI. for those of us that grow animals, we can search for animals withstanding extreme climate more, feeding on food from the land that is incapable of growing humanly palatable stuff, performing functions when can abolish machines over, etc.

 

VII. we can become less dependent on technology that requires vast amounts of energy, be it in construction of the tech, be it in operation, be it in recycling and disposal. Even if energy somehow stays cheap, less dependence on it is always a target. Think disruptions. Think waste from energy. Think usage of emergy (which is short for embedded energy).

VIII. We can focus on cycling the stuff we already have, creating our own nutrients, through nitrogen fixers that perform on higher temps - think varieties that grow more south (north in the southern hemisphere) or lower on the hill. Think using more parts, and optimize parts usage, eg turn carbonaceous stems into biochar, the process of making the char giving heat, heating the soup made from the edible parts.

 

We can incorporate carbon into the soil, to capture water, capture run-off, microbial life and nutrients leaching, making the CO2 in decomposition available for the plant in situ, the same for leachable/soluble nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. 

 

We can use KOPPEN maps to find varieties across the world in environments like ours in the future. (Maybe I get to grow coffee in Ghent at some point, because my garden is shaded most of the day?)

 

We can dive into watering systems such as drip irrigation, optimizing water usage. This drip-spots can nutrient hotspots, feeding from local stuff, be it rubble from demolition of buildings in cities or avocados containing whatever, of basalt to etch that out by means of H2CO3, thus forming the starting point, base layer of mircobial life.

 

We can study stuff such as electromagneto-culture, claiming to render water more available, helping plants outperform non-electrified ones. Remember everything in plants is ions, charged particles.

 

We can study tech from dry countries. 

 

We can plant more fire-retardant trees. Build shelter, from wind, storms, too much sunlight... 

X. We can look to nature to find energy efficient solutions, as nature turns out energy dense, time and time again. Either by creating large outcomes with low inputs, or creating large surplusses with respect to similar processes, or whichever way. Spots and layers, such as animal deposits as faeces or carcasses ànd layers such as from floods by exalted rivers or even the sea, seem to me far less energy dense as mixing and blending a complete soil. (Diffusion from even distributed soil, or from concentrate availability...). 

 

Two typical modes of soil creation are forests, where soil is created through exudates/root tip particles and falling leaves, to end with the entire tree toppling through wind, disease or just depletion of available nutrients. Ánd grassland where soil is created from "wetter", less woody material.

Could we create mangroves on the north sea shores?

XI. Biochar can take a significant part in this, a. use the heat b. inoculate the charred material c. use it as a sponge that absorbs and releases nutrients, microbes, water d. this way locking up a large amounts of carbon, for hundreds if not thousands of years. Due to oxygen poor combustion, the carbon in the material stays carbon, and doesn't turn into CO2.

XII. chinampas can be turned inside out, thus making the borders of the pool you design, the sides of chinampa-like structures, in stead of the regular sloping system, with reeds and what not. 

 

Chinampas are meso-american systems where a lake (artificially created or natural) is filled with beds, that suck water and thus are extremely fertile, that profit from the sludge at the bottom of the channels between the beds, in which fish can be grown. The sides of these beds are thus that they wick in water optimally. 

 

In doing so - creating a chinampa-pool - one creates a pool, thus changing the local environment, buffering temperature, increasing humidity. And the sides of the pool are in fact the sides of mimic raised beds, allowing an optimal transport of the water from the pool into the beds, around it. 

XIII. we can create refuges, create systems that mitigate change in environment, thus allowing crops to stay within their optimal ranges. 

XIV. we can optimize what we already have.