What we KNOW…. that isn’t true

Mark Twain said: It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” I’ve seen a lot of examples of this in my life, and heard of more. I’m sure you have too. In fact, in installment 002 of “The Stars Came Back” Helton points out that a lot of time the so-called experts have really BAD plans, and that you can’t tell what the outcome of a lot of projects will be based on the credentials of the people starting it.(He is specifically talking about climate science, in fact)

The Climate debate is no different. There is a LOT of garbage out there (and I say this a a teacher with a cert that includes “Earth Science;” I’m in the “CO2 is plant food” camp) Then, along comes something from out of the dry fields that takes on directly one of those “common knowledge, common sense” things directly, and says, “We were wrong. The solution we have been pushing for decades is CAUSING the problem!” It takes some good sized balls, and a dose of humility the size of a Hollywood celeb’s coke habit, to make an admission like that. More so to take that fact, and a much better DEMONSTRATED solution, on the road.

We all know over-grazing causes land to turn into deserts, right?

Maybe not. Maybe the solution to desertification is to put MORE beef in the fields, and on the grill. It’s a win-win-win-win, meaning the lefties will HATE it, and fight it tooth and nail. But the guy makes a good case.

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8 thoughts on “What we KNOW…. that isn’t true

  1. If that worked, Nevada would be damn near as green as western Oregon. I’m afraid the only thing that makes a desert green is water.

    • There are longer versions of his lecture and printed versions of the research available elsewhere, but even in this one he’s clearly NOT saying “this will make any desert bloom”. He’ saying “in those areas that have sufficient moisture, and once WERE green, but are now having problems and turning into desert due to changes in land-use, this method of grazing seems to work spectacularly well, and we are pretty sure we now understand how and why it works.”

    • The only thing that makes deserts green IS water. Ever seen Death Valley in a year when it rains a lot? It becomes the most beautiful place in the world, just loaded with flowers everywhere. That’s because of the rain. Once the rains go away, the plant life dies again.

      • You know, the more I think about it…. I’ll bet it’s all those cows pissing on the ground that causes plant growth. Water in, water out. Has nothing to do with the cows themselves.

        • You are not REALLY that ignorant of biology, are you? There are a variety of good things about a herd of cows peeing off in a field. They are transporting water UPHILL so it can water things farther from the spring/river/water source, it has urea, uric acid, minerals, ammonia, nitrogen, etc. It’s a natural fertilizer. Same with cow pies. Cows drink a LOT of water. They create a LOT of urine, but it’s fairly dilute – too strong a urine can chemically burn grass, etc. A large herd grazing by gives you water, fertilizer, and some tilling to break up the soil so it can absorb rainfall effectively. Dung beetles then come by to bury and use the cow-pies (a small bit at a time) deep in the soil, spreading and burying the nutrients and further aerating the soil. I’ve been a gardener for a long time, and this ISN’T really that new – having an environmentalist like this guy pushing this sort of solution IS.

  2. I watched this as well, needs further investigation. Key point seems to be the number, compactness of the herd ” bunching” and movement. He mentions the sigmoid curve and I haven’t found his paper yet on how he is using that. Cautionary point No. 2 is that he is seemingly drawing his holistic management theory from business and economics, my first suspect is loop analysis, how’s that working out for us? Not discounting the idea that our mess economically might be deliberate.

  3. That’s really interesting, makes me wonder how green the southwest used to be if that’s true. It was very interesting that he pointed out the “Alge” that I seem to recall is called “Crypto-Biotic soil here in the national parks. They say you need to stay away from because it takes so long to form and you shouldn’t hurt it. He makes it sound like if you run across it you should break it up with your hiking poles and take a dump on it.

    It is really nice to see a bunch of liberals applauding a guy who is basically calling for raising and eating a LOT of red meat.

  4. Hey that’s really good, and of course it will be resisted by the left. Scarcity and disaster are their leverage points for power. You actually solve a problem and they’re left out in the cold, looking for more disaster (real, imagined, or purposely created) to use as justification for more power. It’s a simple, utterly predictable, and very transparent M.O.

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