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Wildscaping The Air

© Mel. White

Pollution levels are up and global warming is no longer a theory, but a fact. Urban sprawl is changing the weather around our large cities. You might think that scientists would have a coherent set of recommendations about how o deal with this, but this week scientists weighed in on two very different sides of the issue.

First, there was the report that the best way to deal with polluted areas is to simply let Mother Natue take care of the problem and not interfere with natural cleanup processes. As you can imagine, this controversial idea created a lot of uproar and a suggestion that the research hadn't been as thorough as it needed to be. Wildscapers are familiar with this problem -- in letting a landscape "go", you may end up with invaders that come in and crowd out the natural vegetation. One of my correspondants made the (valid) argument that vegetation growing on polluted land was hardly going to be "native" vegetation. I couldn't come up with counterexamples, but wasn't quite convinced. I still feel that a planned restoration is better -- including planting and managing vegetation such as poplars that help clean loal resources.

The other idea that seemed more promising was the concept of "farming the air". This idea was promoted in a recent AP News story that talked about South Dakota's efforts to become one of the leading providers of pollution credits -- farming the air for carbon that will be used to fertilize the soil.

Some of the legislators in South Dakota seem excited about the concept. Farmland can be converted into tree farms, providing environment for wildlife and scrubbing some of the excess carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere. This is then deposited into the soils, giving the states pollution credits to sell.

It could be quite a lucrative business. Preliminary information by the South Dakota Senate Agriculture Committee suggests that the state's landowners could get $103 million a year for growing pollution-removing vegetation; a boon for farmers, who are finding it harder to make a living on small family farms.

Imagine the changes that would be possible if small farmers began to sell pollution credits here in the United States. There are places in the world where this is done; where the land is simply tended and encouraged back to the wild in exchange for what it does best, naturally -- clean up our environment. These credits are bought by heavy industries, who use them to "excuse" their pollution levels as they retool to less polluting systems. In some cases they're used as "insurance". Large companies will stockpile them to use use them if they are unable to meet pollution-reduction targets