How to Solve Climate Change

Today you will learn from expert guest Rattan Lal about agroforestry, why it may or may not help solve climate change, how it works and what needs to still be done for it to be an effective solution to climate change.

Summary

Guest: Rattan Lal

Rattan Lal is professor of soil science and founder and director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at The Ohio State University.

His work focuses on the potential of soils to help solve critical global challenges, including climate change, food security and water quality. In 2019, Lal was awarded the Japan Prize, one of the most prestigious honors in science and technology, in recognition of his research on sustainable soil management and its role in improving global food security and mitigating climate change. He was the first soil scientist to ever receive this prize.

Lal also has received the Glinka World Soil Prize from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Agriculture Prize from the Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Follow Rattan:

Explain succinctly what agroforestry is from first principles.

Why does agroforestry help to solve climate change?

Steel man the other side. Why would agroforestryNOT work to solve climate change?

Who benefits most by implementing agroforestry as a solution?

Who is harmed most by implementing agroforestry as a solution?

How does soil health in agroforestry work as a solution to climate change?

For agroforestry as a solution to work, what innovation or policy needs to be created?

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Additional Resources

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

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Top Skills To Learn

Our guest recommends learning the following skills:

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Activity

Activity: Carbon Sequestration Calculation

Description: Estimate the potential carbon sequestration benefits of implementing an agroforestry system on a hypothetical piece of land. Use available data and online calculators.

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Skill Lesson Mastered

Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.

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