Climate Group Announces October Conference: Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming

MEDFORD, Mass. - Sept. 14, 2015 - PRLog -- This international conference broadens the climate narrative to include the power of biology, which can naturally restore small and large-scale water cycles to reduce temperatures and atmospheric carbon levels quickly and safely. While the urgency of reducing CO2 emissions from fossil fuels is a widely recognized tool in the fight against climate change, drought reversal and carbon sequestration through eco-restoration have been largely overlooked. Speakers will explain how these highly effective and inexpensive approaches can begin the actual restoration of water cycles and reversal of global warming, and conference participants will have many opportunities for exchange of ideas and planning for action. The event is hosted by the Tufts Institute of the Environment (TIE) whose director, Antje Danielson, says that “harnessing biology represents a new paradigm for climate mitigation that gives us hope.”

Emphasizing linkages between water and soil carbon, water cycle restoration hinges largely on enhanced soil health, an issue being increasingly recognized for its importance as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. Adam Sacks, Executive Director of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, states that soil-based approaches offer tremendous promise because “the world’s soils hold more carbon than the atmosphere and all above-ground plants combined.” Targeting the concerned general public, this precedent-setting gathering joins water scientists and climate activists with land managers, farmers and ranchers who are restoring water to landscapes using small and large-scale approaches such as green infrastructure, rainwater harvesting, earthen dams, natural water purification systems, recreating wetlands with beaver, holistic management, biochar and other soil rebuilding strategies to increase water infiltration and retention, along with biodiversity and soil-carbon capture.

The roster of international speakers and panelists include Rajendra Singh, the “Water Man of India”, who was recently awarded the 2015 Stockholm Water Prize for his innovative water restoration efforts, improving water security in rural India. Singh has dedicated himself for several decades to defeating drought and empowering communities in Rajasthan, the driest state in one of the world’s most populous nations, to successfully restore several rivers and return water, and life, to a thousand villages. Precious Phiri, from Zimbabwe, will share her experience as Founding Director of EarthWisdom Consulting Company and former Senior Facilitator at the Africa Center for Holistic Management. In attendance will also be Michal Kravčík, an internationally recognized Slovak water scientist and winner of the 1999 Goldman Environmental Prize, whose book, A New Water Paradigm: Water for the Recovery of the Climate, serves as the central framework for Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming.

Scientific expertise will be offered by environmental geochemist Foster Brown, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Research Center and recipient of the Chico Mendes Forest Citizenry prize whose research interests focus on global environmental change and sustainable development in the southwestern Amazon Basin; Walter Jehne, leading Australian soil and climate scientist and Director of Healthy Soils Australia; and Tom Goreau, biogeophysicist, climate scientist and leading coral reef restoration expert and president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance. Addressing the business implications of eco-restoration will be Charlotte O’Brien, CEO of Carbon Drawdown Solutions, a Hawaii-based company manufacturing pyrolysis equipment for soil-enriching biochar, who has helped build community economies around sustainable biomass such as bamboo, and Steve Apfelbaum, principal of Applied Ecological Services who has been a leader in consulting on eco-restoration projects since 1978.

The practitioner’s perspective will be highlighted by land managers including Carol Evans, a fisheries and wildlife biologist whose work has been featured in the film The Beaver Whisperers, highlighting her deep involvement in monitoring the impact that holistic grazing practices have had on returning beaver and restoring watersheds in Nevada; Jon Griggs, ranch manager for Maggie Creek Ranch, a beef-cattle operation running on both public and private lands in the high desert of Northeastern Nevada; Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, who has been working with water – and biodiversity – for decades; Allison Houghton, permaculture and gardening instructor who manages the Greater Boston CSA for The Food Project, orchard manager and assistant grower for Lincoln Farm and former horticultural director for Green City Growers; and Scott Horsley, an expert in watershed planning and water resources management who has served as a consultant to federal, state, and local jurisdictions around the world.

Other speakers include Maude Barlow, best-selling Canadian author, human rights activist, and chair of the board of Food & Water Watch. The importance of communicating water restoration to the public will be addressed by journalist Jan Lambert, editor of the Valley Green Journal; freelance writer Judith Schwartz, author of the landmark book Cows Save the Planet  and a new book on water due out later this year; and Adam Sacks, Executive Director of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate who has been a long-time climate activist and advocate of Holistic Management to regenerate biodiversity for a livable planet.

For more details about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate and the October conference, please visit http://bio4climate.org/conferences/conferences-2015/tufts-2015-restoring-water-cycles/


Contact

Adam Sacks

adam.sacks@bio4climate.org

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