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Cows Save the Planet
- And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth
- Narrated by: Judith D. Schwartz
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Categories: Politics & Social Sciences, Politics & Government
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Performance
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These modern dispatches from an ancient landscape tell the story of a deep-rooted attachment to place, describing a way of life that is little noticed and yet has profoundly shaped this landscape. In evocative and lucid prose, James Rebanks takes us through a shepherd's year, offering a unique account of rural life and a fundamental connection with the land that most of us have lost.
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"What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another, this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance.
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Addictive
- By ThatPersonOverThere on 23-07-19
Summary
In Cows Save the Planet, journalist Judith D. Schwartz looks at soil as a crucible for our many overlapping environmental, economic, and social crises. Schwartz reveals that for many of these problems - climate change, desertification, biodiversity loss, droughts, floods, wildfires, rural poverty, malnutrition, and obesity - there are positive, alternative scenarios to the degradation and devastation we face. In each case, our ability to turn these crises into opportunities depends on how we treat the soil.
Drawing on the work of thinkers and doers, renegade scientists and institutional whistleblowers from around the world, Schwartz challenges much of the conventional thinking about global warming and other problems. For example, land can suffer from undergrazing as well as overgrazing, since certain landscapes, such as grasslands, require the disturbance from livestock to thrive. Regarding climate, when we focus on carbon dioxide, we neglect the central role of water in soil - "green water" - in temperature regulation. And much of the carbon dioxide that burdens the atmosphere is not the result of fuel emissions, but from agriculture; returning carbon to the soil not only reduces carbon dioxide levels but also enhances soil fertility.
Cows Save the Planet is at once a primer on soil's pivotal role in our ecology and economy, a call to action, and an antidote to the despair that environmental news so often leaves us with.
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- Benjamin
- 26-09-18
Wow!
I blew through this book in record time because it's fantastic. As a soil nut I added to my knowledge in her connection to the water cycle & meteorology. I really appreciated the reference to even more fathers of healthy soil understanding from the early 20th century that I hadn't heard of. Great minds as well that understood connections to our own health. I was left wondering if bison grazing sovereignty is our only choice at this point in civilization's experiment. Loved it, highly recommend it, especially if you feel you've learned all there is to know about soil and her connections to all life.
3 people found this helpful
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- John
- 11-01-18
The story is incredible!
This story is worth sharing and inspired me to do what I can on my small property to manage soil better. I wish it included more info on currency and economic solutions, but the included discussion on Fiat currencies and alternative currencies was incredible. The reader changes cadence from very slow at the beginning, to faster at the beginning and then slow again toward the end.....a small annoyance.
2 people found this helpful
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- Debbie Tudor
- 14-11-19
Important, moreover instructive for survival
Soil is essential and too other ignored, abused and trashed. The absence of life cannot replenish the earth. What can literally eat carbon like a caterpillar eats a leaf, good soil literally scrubs the air clean of carbon and holds the rain like a sponge! With good soil we can ground our planet in a renewable garden of Eden. Grasslands potential for carbon storage can be achieved by using large herds of hooved animals. The writer reads her own book, an adequate choice, but this book is more than worthy of a professional reader. Worth the effort to listen to this choppy, slow paced, droning performance. Chooses the faster playback option.
1 person found this helpful