Solutions - stub notes

Peer-edited studies of the most impactful climate change reversal strategies, in ranked order: Project Drawdown

Learning curves and innovation

Idea that the design/idea/science/knowledge of assembly for a thing/technology is far more valuable than its component parts– and infinitely shareable immediately and as a component, as opposed to material goods which are finite. "Infinite resource" of human knowledge Naam, 99

Overgrazing is the most serious and common problem for drylands globally Bainbridge, 2
Natural restoration can take hundreds of years on noncompacted lands in drylands, longer for compacted due to irregular and infrequent favorable conditions for plant establishment. Thus, active restoration is necessary to restore dryland within a generation Bainbridge, 6
"Ecological restoration tries to restore ecosystem function (how things work) and ecosystem structure (how things look) to match undisturbed reference sites." Bainbridge, 8
Society for Ecological Restoration
"Traditionally, structure has often been favored (how many plants, what kinds) over function (water flow and retention, nutrient cycling), but repairing function usually is more important." Bainbridge, 12
Restoration costs: $100's to 20,000/acre or more Bainbridge, 12

Capturing carbon at its source is a good idea, but companies are not incentivized to capture and sequester their emissions. “CCS” (carbon capture and sequestration) involves sorting CO2 out of exhaust at its source, transporting the CO2 (typically, in compressed form through pipelines) and injecting it into underground structures Smil, 89

In a 1995 survey published in the MIT Press, a substantial majority justified environmental protection by explicitly invoking God's name as creator. From the article, "It seems that divine creation is the closest concept American culture provides to express the sacredness of nature. Regardless of whether one actually believes in biblical Creation, it is the best vehicle we have to express this value." Louv, 248

Recycling reduces resource extraction, minimizes pollutants, and can decrease energy use. For example, recycled aluminum (one of the most efficient to recycle) uses 95% less energy than from virgin materials Hawken, 159
Recycled materials have two sources of values: as commodity (raw materials) and as sinks (value of not incurring the economic, social, and ecological costs of otherwise disposing of the waste) Hawken, 159
Recycling is measured as recycling rate, which varies widely by location Hawken, 159
Where recycling is not government-supported, microenterprises can commoditize the waste and provide by-household service, e.g. WeCycle (using cargo bikes to pick up) in Nigeria Hawken, 159
In high-income cities, factors for successful recycling policies include public awareness while making collection easy and using incentives such as pay-as-you-throw (San Francisco) Hawken, 159
U. S. Materials Marketplace is a matchmaking market for secondary-use materials Hawken, 161

EPR, policy to improve thoughtful lifecycle design of products, includes charges to a company for the cost of recovery and recycling (pure financial approach) or can include company recovery and reprocessing of the product Hawken, 160

CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) were evidence that humans were massively impacting the environment and creating a hole in the ozone layer. Political action banning specific chemical products was fairly decisive in reducing this issue.
China's Grain to Green program (started 2000) gives subsidies to farmers who convert farmland to forest or grassland Diamond, 377

[aggarwal]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040619013001917 "Aggarwal, Sonia and Harvey, Hal. 'Rethinking Energy Policy to Deliver a Clean Energy Future.' Energy Innovation, 2013."