Ever heard of force majeure? I love that term. I do.
Being a language lover and an
avid writer who also lectures English/Literature aside my activism and
communications career, I have always derived an intense pleasure from tweedling
semantics and expressions. Hate me all you may, but I also studied French and
Spanish, read a bit of Latin (poor though), and I can speak, read, and write
them well, albeit not rapidly.
Force
majeure (French). Fuerza
mayor (Spanish). Casus fortuitous
(Latin). Act of God (Legalese/legal
language). These all refer to the same thing, which Wikipedia –bless their
heart – defines as “chance occurrence; unavoidable accident”. Now in that case,
why are human beings NOT ALSO a force
majeure? God knows we are an “act of God”, and what an act! Such an
accident – the humankind, and totally avoidable too. The Man Above should never
have created human beings. Sometimes, I think he did just to give himself the
challenge, and not have to spend eternity in boredom. We are that accident,
that flaw, that tiny stain on what should have been a peaceful world, and to
me, we are that unfortunate force majeure
that climate, wildlife, and the environment has to deal with – unavoidably.
In legal situations
(contract-making), the term has very deep connotations and relevance; is used
to fore-bargain for the right to be excused if one fails their part of the contract
due to certain “unavoidable occurrences/accidents” out of their control, and so
on; in military terms, the same term is used to give a vessel or aircraft
access to a normally restricted area without penalties. You really should read more
about this, people.
So why am I going on about
terms and languages, and plotting the total extermination of mankind à la
Pinky&Brain, and boasting about my skills?
It has to do with our
celebration of Earth Day (22nd April each year) here in Accra. Many
NGOs, organisations and environmentalists celebrated it their own way, but all
focused on the climate, environment, eco issues, and our attitude. The day
after, 23rd April, which was yesterday, the US Embassy in Ghana
(Accra) also hosted some of us at a small forum for the purpose, and once
again, we paid tribute to Mother Earth. There were several representations and
enthusiasts of environmental and climate efforts in Ghana there at the Embassy,
though the official presentations were made by:
- Deputy Chief of Mission (DCOM)
Mad. Patricia C. Alsup
- Allan Savory (via a TEDTalk video made in Feb 2013 in
California and showed to us)
- Mr. Kyekyeku Yaw Oppong-Boadi (EPA’s UN FCCC
Focal Point in Ghana)
- Mr. Robert Bamfo (CC/National REDD – Forestry Commission).
Mad. Patricia Alsup (Deputy
COM) opened the program graciously and briefly. She re-iterated the rising sea
level along the coastline, the rate of desertification, the inception of Earth
Day in 1970, which has now swelled from the little efforts to a worldwide
movement – from Iowa (USA) to Wa (Ghana), just to para-quote her. She shared
most of Obama’s large efforts to cut down on carbon emissions via strong
policies and executive directives, and pointed out that Ghana was at the
forefront of number of US-Africa efforts
to reduce carbon emissions and climate change, concluding with a quote from
Obama’s 2nd Inaugural Address : that the obligation was not just to
ourselves but also to posterity, and our responsibilities extend to our
children and the generations to come. And equally importantly, that the evidence
that nature is radically changing for the worse shows in recent natural disasters, in spite of our reluctance to
accept majority of the science-based assertions on climate change.
My favourite part of the event
was the TEDtalk video by Allan Savory on what he called “the one ultimate
solution to Climate Change, the world over”.
Oh, I was sold! I sat tight. For sure, we were still interested in
growing better and bigger Renewable Energy and Natural Energy platforms; still
interested in Sustainable and Progressive efforts for all businesses, building,
and bodies. But an ultimate solution for Climate Change, albeit a bit isolated,
veritably grabbed my interest too! Here is a rendition of the video in a mix of
paraphrases and my own terms, and to me it points to one question, “What is in
an act?, What is in your action, and my action?, What is in the act of Man?”:
We are facing a ‘perfect storm’, and it is
bearing down rapidly on us. We see it coming, yet amidst our mix of worry and
disbelief, we are also arrogant in our view towards it, believing that we can
meet it with the force of our amazing technologies. We must think again.
When we speak of desertification, we define
it in long sentences, but it is really only this: ‘too much bare ground’. There
is no other cause for desertification than allowing or creating too much bare
ground, and it is this simple. Months of humidity followed by months of dryness
escalates the situation, by allowing algae to grow on the bare crust, which
permits any rain water to run off immediately, and also causes rapid evaporation
of whatever little rain soaks the soil; evaporation with a lot of carbon
dioxide.
Mankind has gone through this 'force majeure' before. We were once just as certain that the world was flat. We were wrong
then, and we are wrong now. Moving around the USA after Africa, I saw national
parks desertifying just as badly as places in Africa, where the issue was
attributed to huge herds of wildlife passing/living there; yet these US parks
had had no wildlife for over 70 years. I was learning, and prior mistakes I had
committed in Africa (in attempting to restore the plant-life, Mr. Savory had at
a point insisted 40,000 elephants be killed to help succeed; he was wrong, the
desertification worsened, and he has lived with this tragedy all his life) made
me even more determined to correct this situation of desertification and
climate change.
Basically, when one allows/makes the spaces
around them to be bare/made/left bare, they have created a microclimate. Multiply
this by the number of people doing the same thing, or caring just as little,
and you have the picture in your mind. Now, my solution is in our return to
mimicking nature – with LARGE MOVING HERDS of animals. What large, moving herds of wildlife or
animals does is this: they urinate and drop dung as they move along (grazing or
not grazing), which is trampled over INTO THE GROUND by the herd themselves as
they move along. Any grass in their path is also flattened, and since they are
grazing as they move along, bits of unchewed grass is dropped all over –
forming NATURAL MULCH. Combine this with the trampled-into-earth urine and
dung, and you have NATURE’S OWN COMPOST AND MULCH process. With a little bit of
dew and/or rain, you have exponential increase in grass and plantcover in a
month or two.
In creating his solution to climate change,
Savory picked this natural ‘antidote’ to desertification, studied it, applied a
plan to it, and formed what he called the HOLISTIC MANAGING & PLANNED
GRAZING approach to desertification and climate change.
Hence, he has taught communities in Africa and
other parts of the world how to ‘pool’ their animals and move them as in a herd
for a carefully planned and controlled (holistic) grazing across
bare/desertifying swathes of land for a length of time, with the aim of
regrowing their plantlife back. Where the land is seriously desertified, the
moving large herds of animals are made to pass over it in a planned schedule
WITHOUT GRAZING, until the trampled-over urine and dung and a bit of
humidity/rain causes grass and plantlife to begin growing. This is also
monitored. As they grow, the herds are permitted to begin grazing still under a
plan, and on and on it goes. And this, Savory said, was at absolutely
low cost to both the communities and bodies (international and local) involved
in such efforts, and PROVEN to work in several countries and communities,
safeguarding both animal life and plantlife.
What does this Holistic Grazing
concept have to do with Climate Change? Savory said, burning 1 hectare of
grassland releases more carbon dioxide than 6000 cars burning fossil fuels; and
bare land releases much more carbon dioxide than one with plant cover. Carbon
dioxide is drastically affecting the climate. Yet we have more forests rapidly
being cut down, less efforts to plant AND maintain trees, and many people
burning grassland to clear it off weeds and also for planting. MORE CARBON
EMISSIONS. Holistic Grazing counters the effect of such acts, even whilst it
returns the space to its natural balance, sustains wildlife and animalife, and
is at a VERY low cost to all involved.
My one main question was this:
where are those cattle-nomads? They should come to school and learn a new
business initiative: Roaming Ambassadors of Green Life. Of course, that means
we have to school ourselves, school those around us, have our chiefs and
community leaders begin planning land use much better, and having nomads and
ranchers learn how to co-exist peacefully in communities in a more … well,
holistic way.
As one of the panelists at the
forum said yesterday, “Let’s go BACK to the FUTURE.” Our indigenous people and
our grandparents knew the way, and reserved things for us. Today, our arrogance
and stupidity makes us the most destructive force ever on earth. Force majeure? Act of Man? Maybe an act of God should strike us down, and our
contract with the universe revoked for thoughtless acts. At this rate, the
earth could do without us. But wait, perhaps that is it – climate change is an act of God to wipe us out by force majeure. Do we wait for it, or
change our ways and renew our contract with the universe? Hmmmm?
24th April, 2013.
Accra.
