A letter to Seth Godin and The Carbon Almanac Network

My dear fellow climate activists,

There is no doubt that climate change is happening right now. You are spearheading a campaign to make a better future for all of us. You’ve done a great job of collecting real solutions to fight this global problem. Powerful as it is, your list might be incomplete. Your arsenal would benefit by one more potential solution with a big impact.

It might be possible that the climate change consequences, such as droughts and flash floods, in reality could have at least two contributors. The main contributor is the increase of GHG in the atmosphere, and the second one might be a broken natural mechanism. It seems that this mechanism might have evolved to deal with climate change in the past to regulate necessary conditions, like temperature and humidity for life to thrive on Earth. It could be a direct manifestation of the Gaia theory developed by James Lovelock.

The hypothesis is based on historical observations of natural and forced ungulate migrations in large scales and subsequent anomalous precipitations. It explains why:

• Plutarch and other historians said they observed rainfall after major battles.
• Eroded soil of the Yellowstone National Park was revived after reintroduction of natural ungulate chasers — wolves.
• Flash floods and super bloom phenomena in deserts happen after ungulate removal campaigns.
• Interior of the continents was dry and red like on the surface of Mars before the arrival of animals in these places.
• Monsoon patterns everywhere change according to natural migration of ungulates in these places.
• We observe irregular weather phenomena, like cold winters in unexpected places etc.

It looks like that it takes three weeks from the onset of ungulate migration to subsequent precipitation. It is not clear what the exact mechanism is. But it looks like it has something to do with fungi and bacteria in manure and hooves of the animals. Certain fungi inoculation takes three weeks as well. The hypothesis is that in three week, a giant mycelium network might be developed in soil which might mess with some parameters like pH, electricity etc. to prepare for an imminent thunderstorm, to take advantage of lightning to convert atmospheric nitrogen to fertilisers. When textbooks explain thunderstorms their capacitor model doesn’t take into account electric processes taking place on the ground assuming it is controlled by electric processes in the clouds. Maybe a giant mycelium network is the controlling entity.

Necessary measurements have to be carried out to find out what is going on exactly. Of course, for the moment it is considered as an unproven solution. Rigorous statistical analysis of high quality data has to be done to accept the method as a scientifically sound method. But, meanwhile we can make history together by using the method for the first time officially to bring fresh water where it is needed.

Care must be taken, however, to avoid flash floods. The optimal quantity of ungulates seems to be around 1000. Heavy precipitation is observed when ungulates’ number exceeds 2000. It is difficult to control such a high number of ungulates, which is why riders with horses could be an ideal solution. It looks like the method is more efficient when the microbiome cultures in hooves are thoroughly exchanged beforehand, for that to happen the animals have to be swirled in one place for a while. The trampled area should be big enough to make a giant capacitor, the width of the capacitor being in the range of x10 to x100 than the distance from the ground to clouds.

It might be that Nature wants to make cold weather to get rid of the worst GHG — methane. The only method to efficiently remove methane from the atmosphere is to have two necessary conditions: freezing temperatures and high pressure provided by seebeds. That could be the reason why ungulate movements in winter might bring colder than usual weather. Therefore, one needs to decide when and where it is better to use or not use the method to avoid cold weather, so the animals shouldn’t be moved there in large scales.

The solution I am proposing is a rather daunting task. It is a mission which should be accomplished globally. It would involve many people on a permanent basis, so it would be necessary to build a whole system around it.

I was thinking of a solution like a hierarchical system similar to the mandatory military service, where young people come to learn to serve for the ecology of their respective countries. They would learn discipline and the necessary skills which they would need to carry out the mission. They would experience brotherhoods and sisterhoods there, which is the rare thing in our world for the young (not only) people nowadays.

A possible system of 1000 men/women as an eco cavalry with the following hierarchy:

• Chiliarch — a leader, responsible for all the units, commands 999 cavaliers.
• Centurion — responsible for 9 units commands 99 cavaliers.
• Foreman — responsible for a unit of 9 cavaliers. Foreman should be a mentor for the cavaliers.
• Cavalier — a main person who does the actual work. He/she can work on himself/herself to become whoever he/she wants to be.

People may ask why we need hierarchy? It turns out we are wired to sense statuses and to act accordingly. It is at least 350 mln years old. It would be silly to ignore it. Whether we want or don’t want it influences our lives. There would be chaos and anarchy without hierarchy. That is why the hierarchical system is necessary to make a well functioning mobile group of cavaliers.

This system would help people to level up. Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. I am not an expert in making systems. But it would be good to have a system which would do the main work, and at the same time allow people to thrive personally and professionally.

Initially the plan was to find the right leader in each country and work together to make this happen. But it is not going to work. Instead, we need one strong leader whom we could trust to accomplish the mission. He should be an expert in building systems, a climate change activist, a teacher and a mentor.

I think there is no right person other than Seth Godin to organise this mission, to build a system, to lead us. He is the best leader I know, who could carry out this mission successfully on a global scale.

Sincerely,

Almaz Aliev

Disclaimer. I am an independent researcher, therefore I’m not paid for anything I research or write about. I do my research during my nighttime after my daytime job in IT. I do it to increase the probability of having a better future for all of us. If you would like to thank me for what I do, please consider supporting my research, you can find out how to support me here https://almaz-aliev.medium.com/about