According to The Guardian, “Tiny, dense forests are springing up around Europe as part of a movement aimed at restoring biodiversity and fighting the climate crisis.”

Known as Miyawaki forests, they grow 10 times faster and become 30 times denser and 100 times more biodiverse than those planted by conventional methods. In other words, they’re a faster fix for climate change and providing habitat than plonking a single tree in your yard.

Shubhendu Sharma has studied the method, and after volunteering with Miyawaki and doing his own plot, he quit the car industry and started a company to do Miyawaki forests around the world. You can watch his TED talk here.

Miyawaki forests succeed by planting saplings close together, using native varieties, and using a wide variety of species to recreate the layers of an organically grown forest.

Sharma’s personal plot was 93 square metres in size. You could convert your lawn to a Miyawaki forest, and you could also organize your community to convert properties into these super forests. Not sure where to begin? Your local library might have something on afforestation and this organization has a free online training module.

Photo by Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash

One of the reasons why we started this site is to provide reasons for you to hope. A lack of hope makes us want to give up, and then our apathy leads to a self fulfilling prophecy. When we are feeling hopeful, we’re more likely to take ecoaction.

So on that note, let’s have a look at two very interesting signs of change.

First, there’s a proof of concept project for regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture goes beyond sustainability and into, well, regeneration. It’s a great way for farmers to improve yields with fewer inputs, and it can improve carbon sequestration, and water management.

Where better to test out this idea than in the harshest of decimated environments: the Saudi Arabian desert?

In this video on Al Baydha, you’ll see how modifications to the landscape, which apparently take their inspiration from indigenous land management practices, have transformed a patch of the desert. The twenty minute piece is fascinating and well worth your time. Link to YouTube presentation: The Story of Al Baydha: A Regenerative Agriculture in the Saudi Desert. If we can do this in the desert, where else might we reclaim land? Is there anything you could do to support these efforts? Is there land in your community that is brown field or derelict that could be turned into something better? How’s your backyard looking?

Our second story today is from The Guardian. It suggests that the coronavirus crisis may speed up the collapse of the fossil fuel industry.

That’s because the value of fuel reserves has dropped significantly. The worldwide shut downs made the demand for oil and gas sink like a stone, and producers quickly ran out of storage space. This in turn means we have a huge supply glut. When this is combined with permanent work at home announcements by companies like Shopify and Google, and movements by some cities to push for aggressive clear sky policies, it seems like the oil industry is unlikely to recover any time soon. (And we may find that, after weeks of not having to commute, people are not keen to start that grind again).

This will, of course, cause short term economic pain, as we retool our economy and shift workers from these industries into others. Remember to be kind to people experiencing this sort of shock, and to push your local governments to help facilitate that transition, rather than sinking money into bailouts or propping up the industry. As this year’s temperatures indicate, we don’t have any more time.

Guardian story link (free to read with registration; consider subscribing to support the publication):

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/04/coronavirus-crisis-collapse-fossil-fuels-demand