Transcriber: Bhavdeep Singh Reviewer: Emma Gon
I have good news, unexpected,
but the Earth has incredibly powerful regenerative systems
that we have barely begun to understand and support.
This is partially because we are only now broadly coming to understand that,
partially because of ingrained existing practices
and largely from perverse political and economic incentives.
Be it what it may, there are many regenerative systems like this,
and most of them are dwarfed
by any current technological innovation on the horizon.
They inherently meet the scale of our problem,
because they are the scale of our problem
when embraced holistically,
they are quite literally the size of the Earth.
The good news is there are untapped systems that align with our goals
for decarbonization, planet cooling, food security, and so much more.
There is one specifically that covers all of these.
It alone, when supported in a healthy way,
can take as much carbon out of the air annually
as we emit annually as a species,
it can be our net zero - it is soil.
It is alive and it changed my life. More on that later.
It is something that everyone on Earth can work on today.
It is also something that can greatly benefit from things
like artificial intelligence, machine learning and so much more.
It is the best solution that I have found
that can make change holistically and measurably.
It sequesters gigatons of carbon whille optimizing nutritional yield
and delivers equity and provides prosperity.
And about 15 other impact categories that I don’t have time to cover here today.
This is why I love teaching people the value of soil versus dirt.
When transitioning into climate court some time ago,
I became fascinated with regenerative processes
where the Earth can replenish, regrow and heal itself.
I also became fascinated with the concept of biomimicry at its core,
embracing natural systems to guide our design and innovation,
but specifically how biomimicry can be leveraged to use ecological processes
to design systems and facilitate systems change.
But usually before you arrive at biomimicry,
you ask yourself one simple question,
does the Earth have a solution to the thing you perceive to be a problem?
Now, let’s be clear.
The Earth may not perceive it as a problem,
but there may be a solution within nature’s technology
that solves your problem.
If yes, then before rushing to innovation or concrete or ego,
look to biomimicry. How would nature solve this?
And can we or are we supporting those system to the best of our ability?
Some are not. And yes, I did say nature’s technology.
Natural systems are inherently technology.
And again, I have good news.
I know you didn’t expect good news for the theme of this talk today,
but spoiler alert, it gets better.
When many people think of technology in the hallowed ground of our institutions
or in the innovation hub of Silicon Valley,
they often think of human driven tech development.
In these cases, the time to develop the technology and the QA
the follows are often the most expensive elements,
not to mention coming up with the IP and the ideas in the first place.
Well, when looking to nature's technology and biomimicry,
the QA has been completed over millennia.
Fine tuned for thousands of years of engineering effort.
The data sets, the proof, it’s already there ready to be processed.
It always has been. So back to soil. What do we know?
Soil is the second largest carbon sink on the planet behind the ocean,
ready to reclaim its role in bio-sequestration at scale.
And it bears note that healthy soil practices also support ocean health.
Now, the soil the ocean relationship deserves a talk dedicated on its own.
So more on that on another time.
When focusing on agriculture, if we convert monoculture tilled land
to low till no till regenerative practices, that land alone,
can take as much carbon out of the air annually
as we emit annually, as I said previously.
However, let's not lean on that detail to get to net zero. Why?
Because soil is in a unique position to be the greatest partner
that we have to achieve draw down.
You know, that legacy load of carbon that we’ve had in the atmosphere thus far.
It’s still up there needs to come down, we need a partner in that.
But what else is happening alongside this carbon sequestration
or rather, bio-sequestration, to be more specific?
Well, healthy carbon rich soil means healthy microbes,
which we now know directly related to enhanced nutrition.
Here’s a fun fact.
There’s now a handheld spectrometer being tested,
usually a big, expensive machine that only exists in a lab or university.
This spectrometer can fit in your pocket and measure nutrient density.
You can take it to a supermarket, hold up to one carrot versus the next.
Both may be organic and one may have 90 times more nutrients than the other.
This directly ties back to the microbial environment in which it grew - the soil.
So along the way to carbon sequestration is scale,
you get food security and resilience and equity and so much more.
These four general practices also expand the soil so it can hold more water,
fending off both droughts and floods. Yes, there’s more.
When you’re not tending the land you’re protecting with cover crops,
this cools the ground, it’s forced transpiration
and additional ecosystems and pollinators and more.
If we make these things a priority,
this all can happen relatively quickly, but of course it will take effort.
But at the context of what is at risk, that effort is minimal.
Now it bears no, these practices that I’m talking about here today
are not new for humanity,
indigenous people globally have been practising them for thousands of years.
For generations, these communities have been asking
for other people to pay attention,
to listen to the lessons the Earth has for us.
Alas, this is a whole other conversation that needs to be had more broadly
on its own in the context of reconciliation and system change.
And yet this brings me to the most powerful part of soil
as a primary climate solution. It’s intersectionality.
As discussed, soil related opportunities touch upon so many communities
and interests, it may be our greatest unifier available.
We can embrace multidisciplinary approach needed to achieve climate change at scale.
With soil independently or together
we can work to the intersectionality of social, racial, environmental justice.
We can clearly see the confluence of art, science, technology and policy.
We can remove the myth of externalities by embracing traditional capital
and natural capital holistically,
especially when considering that nature based markets are $7 trillion a year
With soil and other solutions, we can achieve drawdown.
For this, there is actual plan.
Given the scale of the challenge and the democratized
and distributed nature of the solution,
we need to actively educate and engage at scale.
We need regional centres to support municipalities and populations
as uniquely needed for their bioregion and watershed, to train people,
to support communities, to provide resilience.
We are in a climate crisis, and pragmatically,
all crises require first responders, distributed information resources,
not technology, led by local populations in alignment with their ecosystems.
And again, I have good news.
This is not rocket science, but a little rocket science could probably help.
Soil is indeed a big tent with benefits for all climate and ecological mindsets.
From increasing the health and prosperity of rural communities
to waste stream capturing closed loop systems,
from workforce development to early childhood brain development.
So, what to do? You can sport legislation that centers on natural systems.
You can help transition harmful practices.
You can steer your municipality to build soil and improve water systems.
You can start an urban farm, a food forest or a soil science center.
You can build AI that enhances soil, biodiversity and so much more.
Or maybe a sustainable finance seeking
globally scalable net new ESG projects with measurable carbon,
biodiversity and nutrition impacts.
Remember how I said soil can change my life?
Well, when I learned these things,
I pivoted my entire life to help co-found the Reef Climate Center.
And we’ve already touched the lives of thousands of people.
We're working towards all of these things that I spoke about here today.
And whenever possible, we live with curiosity and playfulness.
We’re focused on soil science for gender systems
with an overarching goal to onboard people into climate engagements.
Our half mile long campus on an island
in the middle of the San Francisco Bay hopes to be a template
for many more cells to come globally to deploy these solutions.
Our plan to scale meets the scale of the challenges at hand.
And speaking of hands, we could certainly use a few,
because we have to get this right before replicating the model
and the clock is ticking.
So please join our growing list of partners,
volunteers and members wherever you are or start a center in your area.
There's no real reason we cannot accelerate these solutions today,
starting with soil, all soil everywhere.
Thank you. (Applause)