Co-existence, - We live together on this planet.
Co-operate - to solve the the climate puzzle we need to cooperate across the world
Co-alition - it takes a coalition of non-profit, governments, business and citizens to unite.
Contribution- everyone has something to contribute to a better world
Collectivism - we are the product. of the joined efforts of all
Comprehensible - it is a concept that is easy to understand, for we are all connected.
Conceivability - we have the power to conceive a new world
Communication- our clear communication contributes to our success
The climate affects us all, and we can use this moment to transform our world into a world of Health, Harmony, and Happiness.
A recent article in Science states that the most effective way to fight global warming is to plant lots of trees, a study says. A trillion of them, maybe more.
And there’s enough room, Swiss scientists say. Even with existing cities and farmland, there’s enough space for new trees to cover 3.5 million square miles (9 million square kilometers), they reported in Thursday’s journal Science . That area is roughly the size of the United States.
This report has led Republican lawmakers to claim additional oil and gas drilling can go forward with a trillion trees planted. First of all, the report says emissions must be lowered at the same time. Secondly, the forests mentioned must be planted and that is a big task. Yet not mentioned are places ready for trees right in cities and countless other ways to restore a healthy climate.
The Earth Harmony Foundation has been greening one corner of Los Angeles, and it is a blueprint for what could be a worldwide campaign to keep the planet cool by letting trees and plants do their thing.
While car makers are responding with giong electric, gas cars are going to be around for a while, so every tree that can be planted is needed.
here are the groups to look at...and the potential trees that could start to be tallied towards a trillion.
1. Street Trees and plants- Where there are empty tree wells in every city in US - trees and plants. - businesses can be given energy saving coupons to cover the cost of watering.
2. Lot Trees -Abandoned lots, parking lots, shopping malls..
3. Parks, river ways, highway greenery.
4. Schools - There is room in schools for adding trees where there are empty tree wells, for cutting into concrete and asphalt and adding trees.. imagine every school becomes a green area...millions of trees..
Peace Forest and Nation Border Wildlife Sanctuary Border
As a solution to ongoing conflicts between bordering Nations, such as Ukraine and Russia, Palestine and Israel, North and South Korea, etc, the Earth Harmony Foundation is proposing a Paradigm shift, that of planting a ‘Peace Forest’ to be planted along the border between such nations in historical conflicts as well as between nations at peace as well.
Responding to Existing Conflicts and wars purely with military means has only had the effect of expanding aggression, creating civilian casualties , spending import country wealth on items destruction, which then need to be replaced, and cementing local differences into generational opposition.
Today president Biden pledged support to Ukraine to defend itself from the invasion by Russia, and at the same time calling for the end to Climate degradation. The advancement of building shipping using weapons of war adds climate degradation. And yet NATO is formed to protect the western world from a Russian advance, which could also alienate China another countries to support Russia.
This is not what the world needs, endless military support at the places of contention in the world, in fact the world needs the opposite, the advance of peace in these fragile regions.
The plan for the Earth Harmony Peace Forests and Wildlife and Climate Protection areas is to allow the trees and natural world to support our intentions and prayers for peace.
Trees will be planted by children in towns and villages, and cities and farms closest to the Borders. As the trees grow, they will reach towards the borders with their arms of unity, and supply branches for birds, mammals and insects to nest, and find homes.
When this happens on both sides of the borders the forest will have started.
It is obvious that people have more in common than what separates them. From Sports to music, opera, art, architecture, all people share concerns for a sustainable and increasingly healthy world
The earth harmony foundation is supporting a series of concerts for Peace, where music unites where war fails.
Even as the world is tormented by the war, it is still in love with the music of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, etc. let the cultural icons stand above the destruction. The Rimsky Korskov piece The Great Gate of Kiev being the initial theme of this program, the great place of unity.
Same for Israel and Palestine, let the towns each side of the borders plant the trees. Let the North Koreans and South Koreans unite via a forest that consumes the borders.
Let us see the world we wish, all borders as a sanctuary, filled with native wildlife flourishing and the oxygen emitted by the planted trees correcting the present day-off balance climate.
Let the children who plant the trees feel empowered that they are creating a future world that they want to be part of and are creating.
Let this start immediately, let the United Nations set this in motion now.
Let there be a joint venture but the Climate and Peace and Nature Departments of the United Nations to utilize their potential and instill such a vision wherever possible.
Let there be an installment to designate the Forest, and a website to amplify it. Even amphitheaters to perform concerts and programs, musicals and dramas of unification.
Research & Innovation | March 03, 2021
Tiffany Kozsan
Among three cactus varieties researched by the University as drought-tolerant crops for biofuel, Opuntia ficus-indica produced the most fruit while using up to 80% less water than some traditional crops. Photo by John Cushman.
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Could cactus pear become a major crop like soybeans and corn in the near future, and help provide a biofuel source, as well as a sustainable food and forage crop? According to a recently published study, researchers from the University believe the plant, with its high heat tolerance and low water use, may be able to provide fuel and food in places that previously haven’t been able to grow much in the way of sustainable crops.
Global climate change models predict that long-term drought events will increase in duration and intensity, resulting in both higher temperatures and lower levels of available water. Many crops, such as rice, corn and soybeans, have an upper temperature limit, and other traditional crops, such as alfalfa, require more water than what might be available in the future.
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“Dry areas are going to get dryer because of climate change,” Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Professor John Cushman, with the University’s College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources, said. “Ultimately, we’re going to see more and more of these drought issues affecting crops such as corn and soybeans in the future.”
As part of the College’s Experiment Station unit, Cushman and his team recently published the results of a five-year study on the use of spineless cactus pear as a high-temperature, low-water commercial crop. The study, funded by the Experiment Station and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, was the first long-term field trial of Opuntia species in the U.S. as a scalable bioenergy feedstock to replace fossil fuel.
Results of the study, which took place at the Experiment Station’s Southern Nevada Field Lab in Logandale, Nevada, showed that Opuntia ficus-indica had the highest fruit production while using up to 80% less water than some traditional crops. Co-authors included Carol Bishop, with the College’s Extension unit, postdoctoral research scholar Dhurba Neupane, and graduate students Nicholas Alexander Niechayev and Jesse Mayer.
Project staff member Stephen James records information while graduate student Nicholas Niechayev measures how big the prickly pear cactus has grown. Photo by John Cushman, taken prior to March 2020.
“Maize and sugar cane are the major bioenergy crops right now, but use three to six times more water than cactus pear,” Cushman said. “This study showed that cactus pear productivity is on par with these important bioenergy crops, but use a fraction of the water and have a higher heat tolerance, which makes them a much more climate-resilient crop.”
Cactus pear works well as a bioenergy crop because it is a versatile perennial crop. When it’s not being harvested for biofuel, then it works as a land-based carbon sink, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in a sustainable manner.
“Approximately 42% of land area around the world is classified as semi-arid or arid,” Cushman said. “There is enormous potential for planting cactus trees for carbon sequestration. We can start growing cactus pear crops in abandoned areas that are marginal and may not be suitable for other crops, thereby expanding the area being used for bioenergy production.”
The crop can also be used for human consumption and livestock feed. Cactus pear is already used in many semi-arid areas around the world for food and forage due to its low-water needs compared with more traditional crops. The fruit can be used for jams and jellies due to its high sugar content, and the pads are eaten both fresh and as a canned vegetable. Because the plant’s pads are made of 90% water, the crop works great for livestock feed as well.
“That’s the benefit of this perennial crop,” Cushman explained. “You’ve harvested the fruit and the pads for food, then you have this large amount of biomass sitting on the land that is sequestering carbon and can be used for biofuel production.”
Cushman also hopes to use cactus pear genes to improve the water-use efficiency of other crops. One of the ways cactus pear retains water is by closing its pores during the heat of day to prevent evaporation and opening them at night to breathe. Cushman wants to take the cactus pear genes that allow it to do this, and add them to the genetic makeup of other plants to increase their drought tolerance.
Bishop, Extension educator for Northeast Clark County, and her team, which includes Moapa Valley High School students, continue to help maintain and harvest the more than 250 cactus pear plants still grown at the field lab in Logandale. In addition, during the study, the students gained valuable experience helping to spread awareness about the project, its goals, and the plant’s potential benefits and uses. They produced videos, papers, brochures and recipes; gave tours of the field lab; and held classes, including harvesting and cooking classes.
Students from Moapa Valley High School take part in the cactus pear harvest in Logandale in 2018. Photo by Dianna Walker.
In 2019, Cushman began a new research project with cactus pear at the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service’ National Arid Land Plant Genetic Resources Unit in Parlier, California. In addition to continuing to take measurements of how much the cactus crop will produce, Cushman’s team, in collaboration with Claire Heinitz, curator at the unit, is looking at which accessions, or unique samples of plant tissue or seeds with different genetic traits, provide the greatest production and optimize the crop’s growing conditions.
“We want a spineless cactus pear that will grow fast and produce a lot of biomass.” – Cushman
One of the other goals of the project is to learn more about Opuntia stunting disease, which causes cactuses to grow smaller pads and fruit. The team is taking samples from the infected plants to look at the DNA and RNA to find what causes the disease and how it is transferred to other cactuses in the field. The hope is to use the information to create a diagnostic tool and treatment to detect and prevent the disease’s spread and to salvage usable parts from diseased plants.
In addition, the team is investigating different pesticides that can be used on the plants that won’t harm humans, or the bees that pollinate the plants.
For more information on the five-year study’s results, see: “Five‐year field trial of the biomass productivity and water input response of cactus pear (Opuntia spp.) as a bioenergy feedstock for arid lands.” More information on Cushman’s ongoing cactus research can be found on the cactus pear project’s website.
Hemp Hemp is one of the fastest-growing plants in the world and can grow 4 metres high in 100 days. Research suggests hemp is twice as effective as trees at absorbing and locking up carbon, with 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of hemp reckoned to absorb 8 to 22 tonnes of CO2 a year, more than any woodland. The CO2 is also permanently fixed in the hemp fibres, which can go on to be used for many commodities including textiles, medicines, insulation for buildings and concrete; BMW is even using it to replace plastics in various car parts. = 100 million trees.
