Though I’ve published 14 posts so far on this Substack page, none have garnered near the enthusiasm as my profile of Millan Millan. People seem to respond to this man, his story, his elegant scientific work in the Mediterranean, his personal travails at being ignored by the climate orthodoxy and his unique and poetic way of explaining the science. As a poet, I am especially charmed by fact that as a boy wandering the Mediterranean hillsides with his father, his father pointed out cloud patterns that would eventually become the focus of his career, and from which he would gain breakthrough insights. Yes, his father literally pointed to his destiny.
My friend and I were talking about handsaws versus chainsaws the other day. I have a chainsaw that I bought when I first started on this land but it now sits in the garage unused (I pulled it out only once in the past 2 years and that was to cut up already felled logs in the middle of summer).
When I pick up the chainsaw a sort of madness hits me, I will cut down as much as I’m able to. Nearly all rationality and reasoning and awareness of my surroundings goes out the window.
A handsaw is completely different. Every cut is powered by my own energy so conserving that energy is key. I only cut what I deem necessary, nothing extra, and because of the time it takes you have more time to assess what you’ve done, the damage, etc.
It’s the same with the grass cutter or whipper snipper. That madness descends and a sort of mechanized efficiency arises in my mind. MUST cut as much as I can. MUST be efficient. So the grass cutter has too been shelved and has grown rusty and unused in my garage for years. The scythe, you can hear when mother birds are in distress if you’re cutting too close to a nesting site. You notice the warning buzz of a wasp or hornet if you get too close. You spot the frogs that jump out of the way. And I only do what I deem necessary. It’s my energy I’m wasting. And the smell of cut grass instead of exhaust.
My friend said it happens to him with power tools as well. These blinders come on and you MUST ...., a sort of madness.
Fascinating, Leon. And kind of terrifying. And also beautiful. It would make a lovely post if you ever feel like writing it. Are you familiar with Dark Mountain? This is just the sort of they would be interested in publishing. Or resilience.org Many thanks for this insight.
There is a similar set of blinkers in the way we modern humans are now accustomed to treating serious illness. Suppose the person with cancer has access to a treatment that will prolong their life; then they must have the treatment. Stephen Jenkinson devotes a chapter of his book, Die Wise, to this problem. We can learn about better ways of dying from people who carry wisdom from pre-modern cultures.
We are in a time between worlds. Modernity is the problem. Can we build a somehow-safe off-ramp from modernity?
Thank you, Leon, and thank you, Rob, for bringing clarity to such issues through this series of posts.
Thank you Rob, another articulate explanation that brings clarity to the debate. And yes we really do need to bring ecologists and botanists and biologists and microbiologists and mycologists to the table to discuss this, because if we are going to regenerate, we need to go beyond the simple analysis. And we need a different perspective and multiple interventions to reverse land-use change. For example, you mention California. The land has been changed drastically and had water problems long ago. Now, cities have grown, where water hits hard surfaces and is flushed out to sea, domestic water is poorly managed. In general, the coastal forests that would once have extended right up through Oregon have been logged and these were important for drawing humidity from the ocean and recycling it inland. These ancient forests covered in moss and other epiphytes would have been exceptionally efficient at holding that humidity. But there's more, the Central Valley has long been the citrus producer for the US, along with tomatoes and grapes. This produce is exported across the US and beyond. These fruits/vegetables contain water. A bottle of wine on a supermarket shelf in the UK is a bottle of Californian water. The maintain the small water cycles, we need to think beyond planting trees and giving up the plough. The rationalisation of agriculture for the markets has to go too and we need to produce for local consumption.
The other very important point I'd like to make pertains to deserts, because I am terrified by all of the talk about transforming deserts back into forests on the mistaken understanding that there were no deserts prior to human agriculture. Arid and semi-arid areas are a natural part of the Earth System. They are not wasteland or desert but habitat for a fascinating and diverse ecosystem. Plants, animals, lichen, microbial life that has adapted to (semi-)arid conditions are ancient. Genetically, they can be shown to have evolved long before humans took to the axe and the plough. Desertification, of course, is something very different. But the notion put about by a great number of engineers (not life scientists) that we should transform all deserts, is dangerous human arrogance. Arid areas take part in the earth systems and have done for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years. For example, winds from the Sahara blow over the the Amazon carrying phosphorous. Yes, the Sahara is part of the greater nutrient cycle and it fertilises the rainforests.
I believe we also need to start learning about the earth systems, and especially add the nutrient cycle to our understanding of the water and carbon cycles. We need ecological knowledge. What Lovelock and Margulis showed us is that the biosphere is a self-organising, self-regulating and dynamic. The latter point is also important. It is dynamic because it is continually changing in the regulation of homeostasis and there is no fixed steady state.
Thank you for your blog that has inspired me to create my own, in an attempt to add the ecological knowledge to the physics and hydrology. I hope they will be complementary. You can find it at Wordpress. There are too posts, the second first, and I'm lousy at technology! I hope you will find time to read it. https://the-earth-is-singing.org
Hi Jacqueline - I don't know if you will ever see this, coming several months later as it is, but I wanted to let you know I visited your blog and have been enjoying it very much. I hope a wide range of people are able to find it and read it, because its message is invaluable (not to mention beautiful). I wonder if you also share your work here on Substack, or if not, if you might consider migrating it over here so this group of good folks has a better chance of coming across it? At any rate, thanks for what you do. I'm reading through your archives now!
Thanks, Jacqueline! I will definitely read your blog post, and agree with you about the ancient importance of desert-like ecosystems. This is an area for nuance and distinction, and I appreciate your considerable knowledge and insights. More people should hear from you.
I know what you mean about technology. One of the things I like about Substack, is even a tech-idiot like me could figure out.
Dear Rob, do you think there might be a third prong - geoengineering? Have you seen this? https://youtu.be/bqSkbHKSnjI I think it's the bit most people don't want to talk about or even contemplate, though an increasing number are starting to wonder - especially if RFK Jnr is showing an interest...
Congrats Rob on the reflection on Millan Millan. I've heard a very similar story from Walter Jehne about how the Charney report paved the CO2 emissions rut. I appreciate Millan's and your emphasis on how convenient this was (and is) for capitalist extraction.
Excellent Rob. How much quicker it is to destroy an ecosystem than to restore it.
My friend and I were talking about handsaws versus chainsaws the other day. I have a chainsaw that I bought when I first started on this land but it now sits in the garage unused (I pulled it out only once in the past 2 years and that was to cut up already felled logs in the middle of summer).
When I pick up the chainsaw a sort of madness hits me, I will cut down as much as I’m able to. Nearly all rationality and reasoning and awareness of my surroundings goes out the window.
A handsaw is completely different. Every cut is powered by my own energy so conserving that energy is key. I only cut what I deem necessary, nothing extra, and because of the time it takes you have more time to assess what you’ve done, the damage, etc.
It’s the same with the grass cutter or whipper snipper. That madness descends and a sort of mechanized efficiency arises in my mind. MUST cut as much as I can. MUST be efficient. So the grass cutter has too been shelved and has grown rusty and unused in my garage for years. The scythe, you can hear when mother birds are in distress if you’re cutting too close to a nesting site. You notice the warning buzz of a wasp or hornet if you get too close. You spot the frogs that jump out of the way. And I only do what I deem necessary. It’s my energy I’m wasting. And the smell of cut grass instead of exhaust.
My friend said it happens to him with power tools as well. These blinders come on and you MUST ...., a sort of madness.
Fascinating, Leon. And kind of terrifying. And also beautiful. It would make a lovely post if you ever feel like writing it. Are you familiar with Dark Mountain? This is just the sort of they would be interested in publishing. Or resilience.org Many thanks for this insight.
There is a similar set of blinkers in the way we modern humans are now accustomed to treating serious illness. Suppose the person with cancer has access to a treatment that will prolong their life; then they must have the treatment. Stephen Jenkinson devotes a chapter of his book, Die Wise, to this problem. We can learn about better ways of dying from people who carry wisdom from pre-modern cultures.
We are in a time between worlds. Modernity is the problem. Can we build a somehow-safe off-ramp from modernity?
Thank you, Leon, and thank you, Rob, for bringing clarity to such issues through this series of posts.
Thanks, Kathryn. Have you read At Work in the Ruins by Dougald Hine. I think you would like it.
Yes, I've read Dougald Hine's book and I admire it greatly. I also joined The Long Table, a forum arising from the work of Dougald and his wife, Anna.
It is through Dougald's writing that I became aware of your work. Serendipity!
Such a fantastic series, thank you so much for writing this, and teaching us about Millan Millan's important work.
Thanks, Elizabeth!
Thank you Rob, another articulate explanation that brings clarity to the debate. And yes we really do need to bring ecologists and botanists and biologists and microbiologists and mycologists to the table to discuss this, because if we are going to regenerate, we need to go beyond the simple analysis. And we need a different perspective and multiple interventions to reverse land-use change. For example, you mention California. The land has been changed drastically and had water problems long ago. Now, cities have grown, where water hits hard surfaces and is flushed out to sea, domestic water is poorly managed. In general, the coastal forests that would once have extended right up through Oregon have been logged and these were important for drawing humidity from the ocean and recycling it inland. These ancient forests covered in moss and other epiphytes would have been exceptionally efficient at holding that humidity. But there's more, the Central Valley has long been the citrus producer for the US, along with tomatoes and grapes. This produce is exported across the US and beyond. These fruits/vegetables contain water. A bottle of wine on a supermarket shelf in the UK is a bottle of Californian water. The maintain the small water cycles, we need to think beyond planting trees and giving up the plough. The rationalisation of agriculture for the markets has to go too and we need to produce for local consumption.
The other very important point I'd like to make pertains to deserts, because I am terrified by all of the talk about transforming deserts back into forests on the mistaken understanding that there were no deserts prior to human agriculture. Arid and semi-arid areas are a natural part of the Earth System. They are not wasteland or desert but habitat for a fascinating and diverse ecosystem. Plants, animals, lichen, microbial life that has adapted to (semi-)arid conditions are ancient. Genetically, they can be shown to have evolved long before humans took to the axe and the plough. Desertification, of course, is something very different. But the notion put about by a great number of engineers (not life scientists) that we should transform all deserts, is dangerous human arrogance. Arid areas take part in the earth systems and have done for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years. For example, winds from the Sahara blow over the the Amazon carrying phosphorous. Yes, the Sahara is part of the greater nutrient cycle and it fertilises the rainforests.
I believe we also need to start learning about the earth systems, and especially add the nutrient cycle to our understanding of the water and carbon cycles. We need ecological knowledge. What Lovelock and Margulis showed us is that the biosphere is a self-organising, self-regulating and dynamic. The latter point is also important. It is dynamic because it is continually changing in the regulation of homeostasis and there is no fixed steady state.
Thank you for your blog that has inspired me to create my own, in an attempt to add the ecological knowledge to the physics and hydrology. I hope they will be complementary. You can find it at Wordpress. There are too posts, the second first, and I'm lousy at technology! I hope you will find time to read it. https://the-earth-is-singing.org
Hi Jacqueline - I don't know if you will ever see this, coming several months later as it is, but I wanted to let you know I visited your blog and have been enjoying it very much. I hope a wide range of people are able to find it and read it, because its message is invaluable (not to mention beautiful). I wonder if you also share your work here on Substack, or if not, if you might consider migrating it over here so this group of good folks has a better chance of coming across it? At any rate, thanks for what you do. I'm reading through your archives now!
Thanks, Jacqueline! I will definitely read your blog post, and agree with you about the ancient importance of desert-like ecosystems. This is an area for nuance and distinction, and I appreciate your considerable knowledge and insights. More people should hear from you.
I know what you mean about technology. One of the things I like about Substack, is even a tech-idiot like me could figure out.
Thanks again.!
Dear Rob, do you think there might be a third prong - geoengineering? Have you seen this? https://youtu.be/bqSkbHKSnjI I think it's the bit most people don't want to talk about or even contemplate, though an increasing number are starting to wonder - especially if RFK Jnr is showing an interest...
Congrats Rob on the reflection on Millan Millan. I've heard a very similar story from Walter Jehne about how the Charney report paved the CO2 emissions rut. I appreciate Millan's and your emphasis on how convenient this was (and is) for capitalist extraction.
Peter Donovan
soilcarboncoalition.org