grassland

War over iron or diamond I could get, but grassland? Share and enjoy!

A large portion of North America used to be grassland fed upon by Bison. Range cattle have a very similar ecological footprint to Bison.

I always get this vaguely racist feeling from these medieval fantasy worlds -- in this case form the way the grassland people are depicted as backward with gifts of snakes at weddings. I will say one thing it has going for it -- that theme music really stuck in my head.

The book 1491 has good pointers in its bibliography to reputable sources about pre-Columbian grassland burns.

We've essentially turned all of the available arable land into farmland, and all of the available grassland into pasture. There is nothing left but forest, and we are quickly replacing that to our great detriment.

What would be impressive would be building a skyscraper in downtown SF. Being environmentally friendly isn't building a massive campus on a plot of suburban grassland. Apple likes to say they think differently, but this isn't different.

Due to the ready availability in per-industrialized Europe of grassland having a cow or goat always means, thanks to the lactose tolerance gene, that humans prosper.

The deforestation graph only seems to account for the difference in emissivity between forest and grassland. Surely the CO2 absorption and the effects of forestation on cloud cover would have a non-negligible effect.

During their lives the hooved animals serve a vital role in grassland ecology. The 1930s American dustbowl desertification happened in substantial part because of the preceding elimination of bison and steer.

Out in the grassland, 50 miles from any existing center, a farmland is indeed a more productive use of the hectare than paving it over and building an uninhabited-but-dense urban center there.

I can't cite an authoritative source but I think the idea is the amount of unforested, undeveloped grassland on the planet is nowhere near enough to support the current meat intake of the world population. There are actually similar issues with organic vegetables too.

From your link: > We are particularly concerned about ensuring the protection of what is probably the worlds oldest classical grassland experiment. We are appalled that you are jeopardizing the integrity of this scientific inheritance by planting GM wheat metres away from it.

In this area, if you just let some land go that started as grassland, in the first couple of years it will be mostly weeds, then for the next several years it will become overrun by shrubs, such as [1]. At the height of this phase, the land is essentially uncrossable on foot, covered with 10-15 foot tall sharp, spiky plants that are not very hard compared to most wood, but certainly much harder than your skin.

Some issues are simply not solveable, it's true - isolated water tables that have been changed by taprooted invasives are probably never going to revert to grassland, and need total cessation of irrigation activities to avoid desertification. These cases are relatively rare though.

Exchanging 100+million acres of grassland for 100+ million acres of dessert might seem ok if just as much tundra becomes grassland, however rebuilding existing cities in new locations quickly become trillion dollar projects. IMO, preventing climate change is less about protecting the ecosystem as it is protecting existing investments in roads, bridges, dams, houses and factorys.