WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.939
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:04.939 --> 00:00:11.856


00:00:11.856 --> 00:00:16.820
[APPLAUSE]

00:00:16.820 --> 00:00:24.030
ALLAN SAVORY: The
most massive tsunami

00:00:24.030 --> 00:00:27.080
perfect storm is
bearing down upon us.

00:00:27.080 --> 00:00:29.910


00:00:29.910 --> 00:00:36.060
This perfect storm is mounting a
grim reality, increasingly grim

00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:37.690
reality.

00:00:37.690 --> 00:00:44.040
And we are facing that
reality with a full belief

00:00:44.040 --> 00:00:46.710
that we can solve our
problems with technology,

00:00:46.710 --> 00:00:49.050
and that's very understandable.

00:00:49.050 --> 00:00:53.560
Now this perfect storm
that we are facing

00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:56.960
is the result of our
rising population, rising

00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:01.940
towards 10 billion people,
land that is turning to desert,

00:01:01.940 --> 00:01:05.099
and of course, climate change.

00:01:05.099 --> 00:01:07.850
Now there's no question
about it at all.

00:01:07.850 --> 00:01:10.500
We will only solve the
problem of replacing

00:01:10.500 --> 00:01:13.370
fossil fuels with technology.

00:01:13.370 --> 00:01:17.830
But fossil fuels-- carbon,
coal, and gas-- are by no means

00:01:17.830 --> 00:01:22.830
the only thing that is
causing climate change.

00:01:22.830 --> 00:01:27.530
Desertification is a
fancy word for land

00:01:27.530 --> 00:01:32.040
that is turning to desert,
and this happens only when

00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:34.240
we create too much bare ground.

00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:36.290
There's no other cause.

00:01:36.290 --> 00:01:40.270
And I intend to focus on
most of the world's land

00:01:40.270 --> 00:01:41.895
that is turning to desert.

00:01:41.895 --> 00:01:44.510


00:01:44.510 --> 00:01:48.330
But I have for you a
very simple message

00:01:48.330 --> 00:01:52.790
that offers more hope
than you can imagine.

00:01:52.790 --> 00:01:55.800
We have environments
where humidity is

00:01:55.800 --> 00:01:57.770
guaranteed throughout the year.

00:01:57.770 --> 00:02:00.570
On those, it is
almost impossible

00:02:00.570 --> 00:02:04.620
to create vast areas of bare
ground, no matter what you do.

00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:06.670
Nature covers it up so quickly.

00:02:06.670 --> 00:02:08.830
And we have
environments where we

00:02:08.830 --> 00:02:12.860
have months of humidity
followed by months of dryness,

00:02:12.860 --> 00:02:16.490
and that is where
desertification is occurring.

00:02:16.490 --> 00:02:18.170
Fortunately, with
space technology

00:02:18.170 --> 00:02:20.210
now, we can look
at it from space.

00:02:20.210 --> 00:02:24.520
And when we do, you can see
the proportions fairly well.

00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:27.820
Generally, what you see in
green is not desertifying,

00:02:27.820 --> 00:02:30.400
and what you see in brown is.

00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:34.510
And these are by far the
greatest areas of the Earth.

00:02:34.510 --> 00:02:39.250
About 2/3, I would guess, of
the world is desertifying.

00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:42.200
I took this picture
in the Tihamah Desert

00:02:42.200 --> 00:02:45.960
while 25 millimeters-- that's
an inch of rain-- was falling.

00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:48.730
Think of it in terms
of drums of water,

00:02:48.730 --> 00:02:52.190
each containing 200 liters.

00:02:52.190 --> 00:02:56.040
Over 1,000 drums of water
fell on every hectare

00:02:56.040 --> 00:02:58.790
of that land that day.

00:02:58.790 --> 00:03:01.380
The next day, the
land looked like this.

00:03:01.380 --> 00:03:03.930
Where had that water gone?

00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:06.430
Some of it ran off as flooding.

00:03:06.430 --> 00:03:09.340
But most of the water
that soaked into the soil

00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:12.420
simply evaporated
out again, exactly

00:03:12.420 --> 00:03:17.190
as it does in your garden if
you leave the soil uncovered.

00:03:17.190 --> 00:03:20.910
Now because the fate
of water and carbon

00:03:20.910 --> 00:03:25.790
are tied to soil organic
matter, when we damage soils,

00:03:25.790 --> 00:03:27.820
you give off carbon.

00:03:27.820 --> 00:03:31.420
Carbon goes back
to the atmosphere.

00:03:31.420 --> 00:03:35.150
Now you are told over
and over, repeatedly,

00:03:35.150 --> 00:03:37.910
that desertification
is only occurring

00:03:37.910 --> 00:03:42.310
in arid and semi-arid
areas of the world,

00:03:42.310 --> 00:03:47.330
and that tall grasslands like
this one, in high rainfall,

00:03:47.330 --> 00:03:49.290
are of no consequence.

00:03:49.290 --> 00:03:51.650
But if you do not
look at grasslands

00:03:51.650 --> 00:03:54.400
but look down into
them, you find

00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:57.890
that most of the soil in that
grassland that you've just seen

00:03:57.890 --> 00:04:00.890
is bare and covered
with a crust of algae,

00:04:00.890 --> 00:04:03.900
leading to increased
runoff and evaporation.

00:04:03.900 --> 00:04:07.860
That is the cancer
of desertification

00:04:07.860 --> 00:04:13.010
that we do not recognize
till its terminal form.

00:04:13.010 --> 00:04:18.519
Now we know that desertification
is caused by livestock, mostly

00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:23.270
cattle, sheep, and goats
over-grazing the plants,

00:04:23.270 --> 00:04:27.540
leaving the soil bare,
and giving off methane.

00:04:27.540 --> 00:04:31.350
Almost everybody knows
this from Nobel laureates

00:04:31.350 --> 00:04:35.260
to golf caddies, or was
taught it, as I was.

00:04:35.260 --> 00:04:39.420
Now the environments like you
see here, dusty environments

00:04:39.420 --> 00:04:44.300
in Africa where I grew
up-- and I loved wildlife.

00:04:44.300 --> 00:04:48.850
And so I grew up hating
livestock because of the damage

00:04:48.850 --> 00:04:49.890
they were doing.

00:04:49.890 --> 00:04:53.370
And then my university
education as an ecologist

00:04:53.370 --> 00:04:57.360
reinforced my beliefs.

00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:01.530
Well, I have news for you.

00:05:01.530 --> 00:05:06.910
We were once just as certain
that the world was flat.

00:05:06.910 --> 00:05:11.050
We were wrong then,
and we are wrong again.

00:05:11.050 --> 00:05:13.420
And I want to invite
you now to come along

00:05:13.420 --> 00:05:20.260
on my journey of
re-education and discovery.

00:05:20.260 --> 00:05:25.340
When I was a young man, a
young biologist in Africa,

00:05:25.340 --> 00:05:29.400
I was involved in setting
aside marvelous areas

00:05:29.400 --> 00:05:32.290
as future national parks.

00:05:32.290 --> 00:05:35.220
Now no sooner--
this was the 1950s--

00:05:35.220 --> 00:05:38.460
and no sooner did we
remove the hunting,

00:05:38.460 --> 00:05:42.890
drum beating people to protect
the animals than the land began

00:05:42.890 --> 00:05:47.930
to deteriorate, as you see
in this part that we formed.

00:05:47.930 --> 00:05:50.660
Now no livestock were involved.

00:05:50.660 --> 00:05:53.410
But suspecting that we
had too many elephants

00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:58.500
now, I did the research, and
I proved we had too many.

00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:01.830
And I recommended that we would
have to reduce their numbers

00:06:01.830 --> 00:06:05.900
and bring them down to a level
that the land could sustain.

00:06:05.900 --> 00:06:09.860
Now that was a terrible
decision for me to have to make,

00:06:09.860 --> 00:06:12.500
and it was political
dynamite, frankly.

00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:15.590
So our government
formed a team of experts

00:06:15.590 --> 00:06:18.250
to evaluate my research.

00:06:18.250 --> 00:06:19.010
They did.

00:06:19.010 --> 00:06:20.460
They agreed with me.

00:06:20.460 --> 00:06:26.140
And over the following years,
we shot 40,000 elephants

00:06:26.140 --> 00:06:28.780
to try to stop the damage.

00:06:28.780 --> 00:06:32.470
And it got worse, not better.

00:06:32.470 --> 00:06:37.010
Loving elephants as I do, that
was the saddest and greatest

00:06:37.010 --> 00:06:41.060
blunder of my life, and I
will carry that to my grave.

00:06:41.060 --> 00:06:43.430
One good thing did
come out of it.

00:06:43.430 --> 00:06:47.530
It made me absolutely
determined to devote

00:06:47.530 --> 00:06:49.862
my life to finding solutions.

00:06:49.862 --> 00:06:52.580


00:06:52.580 --> 00:06:54.640
When I came to
the United States,

00:06:54.640 --> 00:06:59.220
I got a shock to find
national parks like this one

00:06:59.220 --> 00:07:03.070
desertifying as badly
as anything in Africa.

00:07:03.070 --> 00:07:07.760
And there'd been no livestock
on this land for over 70 years.

00:07:07.760 --> 00:07:09.740
And I found that
American scientists

00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:13.320
had no explanation for
this except that it

00:07:13.320 --> 00:07:16.330
is arid and natural.

00:07:16.330 --> 00:07:21.350
So I then began looking
at all the research

00:07:21.350 --> 00:07:25.210
plots I could over the whole
of the western United States

00:07:25.210 --> 00:07:28.140
where cattle had been
removed to prove that it

00:07:28.140 --> 00:07:29.990
would stop desertification.

00:07:29.990 --> 00:07:31.760
But I found the opposite.

00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:34.720
As we see on this
research station

00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:40.490
where this grassland that
was green in 1961, by 2002

00:07:40.490 --> 00:07:43.780
had changed to that situation.

00:07:43.780 --> 00:07:47.670
And the authors of the
position paper on climate

00:07:47.670 --> 00:07:51.270
change from which I obtained
these pictures attribute

00:07:51.270 --> 00:07:54.140
this change to
unknown processes.

00:07:54.140 --> 00:07:57.140


00:07:57.140 --> 00:08:00.570
Clearly, we have
never understood

00:08:00.570 --> 00:08:03.420
what is causing
desertification, which

00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:08.990
has destroyed many civilizations
and now threatens us globally.

00:08:08.990 --> 00:08:11.350
We have never understood it.

00:08:11.350 --> 00:08:14.330
Take one square meter
of soil and make it bare

00:08:14.330 --> 00:08:17.090
like this is down here,
and I promise you,

00:08:17.090 --> 00:08:22.620
you will find it much colder at
dawn and much hotter at midday

00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:25.250
than that same piece of
ground, if it's just covered

00:08:25.250 --> 00:08:27.390
with litter, plant litter.

00:08:27.390 --> 00:08:30.520
You have changed
the microclimate.

00:08:30.520 --> 00:08:35.580
Now by the time you are doing
that and increasing greatly

00:08:35.580 --> 00:08:41.500
the percentage of bare ground
on more than half the world's

00:08:41.500 --> 00:08:45.390
land, you are
changing macroclimate.

00:08:45.390 --> 00:08:48.140
But we have just
simply not understood,

00:08:48.140 --> 00:08:52.080
why was it beginning to
happen 10,000 years ago?

00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:54.730
Why has it accelerated lately?

00:08:54.730 --> 00:08:56.470
We had no understanding of that.

00:08:56.470 --> 00:09:00.470
What we had failed
to understand was

00:09:00.470 --> 00:09:03.170
that the seasonal
humidity environments

00:09:03.170 --> 00:09:06.960
of the world, the soil
and the vegetation,

00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:12.770
developed with very large
numbers of grazing animals,

00:09:12.770 --> 00:09:16.000
and that these grazing
animals developed

00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:20.810
with ferocious
pack-hunting predators.

00:09:20.810 --> 00:09:24.770
Now their main defense
against pack-hunting predators

00:09:24.770 --> 00:09:26.660
is to get into herds.

00:09:26.660 --> 00:09:30.840
And the larger the herd,
the safer the individuals.

00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:35.910
Now large herds dung and
urinate all over their own food,

00:09:35.910 --> 00:09:38.730
and they have to keep moving.

00:09:38.730 --> 00:09:42.200
And it was that movement that
prevented the overgrazing

00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:46.430
of plants, while the
periodic trampling ensured

00:09:46.430 --> 00:09:52.640
good cover of the soil, as we
see where a herd has passed.

00:09:52.640 --> 00:09:57.570
This picture is a typical
seasonal grassland.

00:09:57.570 --> 00:10:00.600
It has just come through
four months of rain,

00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:04.080
and it's now going into
eight months of dry season.

00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:07.880
And watch the change as it
goes into this long dry season.

00:10:07.880 --> 00:10:11.220
Now all of that grass
you see above ground

00:10:11.220 --> 00:10:16.990
has to decay biologically
before the next growing season.

00:10:16.990 --> 00:10:22.440
And if it doesn't, the grassland
and the soil begin to die.

00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:25.670
Now if it does not
decay biologically,

00:10:25.670 --> 00:10:30.630
it shifts to oxidation,
which is a very slow process,

00:10:30.630 --> 00:10:35.020
and this smothers and kills
grasses, leading to a shift

00:10:35.020 --> 00:10:40.660
to woody vegetation and
bare soil releasing carbon.

00:10:40.660 --> 00:10:45.280
To prevent that, we have
traditionally used fire.

00:10:45.280 --> 00:10:50.970
But fire also leaves the
soil bare, releasing carbon.

00:10:50.970 --> 00:10:55.890
And worse than that, burning
one hectare of grassland

00:10:55.890 --> 00:11:02.300
gives off more and more damaging
pollutants than 6,000 cars.

00:11:02.300 --> 00:11:07.120
And we are burning in
Africa, every single year,

00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:11.170
more than one billion
hectares of grasslands,

00:11:11.170 --> 00:11:15.170
and almost nobody
is talking about it.

00:11:15.170 --> 00:11:19.180
We justify the
burning as scientists

00:11:19.180 --> 00:11:22.040
because it does remove
the dead material,

00:11:22.040 --> 00:11:25.130
and it allows the
plants to grow.

00:11:25.130 --> 00:11:28.380
Now looking at this grassland
of ours that has gone dry,

00:11:28.380 --> 00:11:30.910
what can we do to
keep that healthy?

00:11:30.910 --> 00:11:35.040
And bear in mind, I'm talking
of most of the world's land now?

00:11:35.040 --> 00:11:40.110
We cannot reduce animal numbers
to rest it more without causing

00:11:40.110 --> 00:11:42.580
desertification
and climate change.

00:11:42.580 --> 00:11:46.660
We cannot burn it without
causing desertification

00:11:46.660 --> 00:11:47.980
and climate change.

00:11:47.980 --> 00:11:49.300
What are we going to do?

00:11:49.300 --> 00:11:54.260


00:11:54.260 --> 00:11:56.340
There is only one option.

00:11:56.340 --> 00:12:00.750
I repeat to you, only one
option left to climatologists

00:12:00.750 --> 00:12:05.220
and scientists, and that
is to do the unthinkable,

00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:10.350
and to use livestock,
bunched and moving,

00:12:10.350 --> 00:12:15.680
as a proxy for former herds
and predators and mimic nature.

00:12:15.680 --> 00:12:20.370
There is no other
alternative left to mankind.

00:12:20.370 --> 00:12:22.520
So let's do that.

00:12:22.520 --> 00:12:24.070
So on this bit of
grassland, we'll

00:12:24.070 --> 00:12:25.720
do it, but just
in the foreground.

00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:29.470
We'll impact it very heavily
with cattle to mimic nature,

00:12:29.470 --> 00:12:32.080
and we've done so,
and look at that.

00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:35.610
All of that grass is
now covering the soil

00:12:35.610 --> 00:12:39.370
as dung, urine, and
litter or mulch,

00:12:39.370 --> 00:12:42.780
as every one of the gardeners
amongst you would understand,

00:12:42.780 --> 00:12:47.190
and that soil is ready to
absorb and hold the rain,

00:12:47.190 --> 00:12:52.190
to store carbon, and
to break down methane.

00:12:52.190 --> 00:12:56.870
And we did that without using
fire to damage the soil,

00:12:56.870 --> 00:12:59.950
and the plants are free to grow.

00:12:59.950 --> 00:13:04.750
When I first realized that we
had no option as scientists

00:13:04.750 --> 00:13:10.090
but to use much vilified
livestock to address climate

00:13:10.090 --> 00:13:15.030
change and desertification, I
was faced with a real dilemma.

00:13:15.030 --> 00:13:17.070
How were we to do it?

00:13:17.070 --> 00:13:20.600
We'd had 10,000 years of
extremely knowledgeable

00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:23.360
pastoralists, bunching
and moving their animals.

00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:27.060
But they had created the great
man-made deserts of the world.

00:13:27.060 --> 00:13:31.250
Then we'd had 100 years
of modern range science,

00:13:31.250 --> 00:13:34.220
and that had accelerated
desertification

00:13:34.220 --> 00:13:37.300
as we first discovered in
Africa and then confirmed

00:13:37.300 --> 00:13:39.630
in the United States,
and as you see

00:13:39.630 --> 00:13:44.690
in this picture of land managed
by the federal government.

00:13:44.690 --> 00:13:47.440
Clearly, more was needed
than bunching and moving

00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:48.560
the animals.

00:13:48.560 --> 00:13:52.310
And humans, over
thousands of years,

00:13:52.310 --> 00:13:56.340
had never been able to deal
with nature's complexity.

00:13:56.340 --> 00:13:59.110
But we biologists and
ecologists had never

00:13:59.110 --> 00:14:01.820
tackled anything
as complex as this.

00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:04.370
So rather than
reinvent the wheel,

00:14:04.370 --> 00:14:06.440
I began studying
other professions

00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:08.730
to see if anybody had.

00:14:08.730 --> 00:14:11.210
And I found they we're
planning techniques

00:14:11.210 --> 00:14:14.860
that I could take and adapt
to our biological need.

00:14:14.860 --> 00:14:17.160
And from those, I
developed what we

00:14:17.160 --> 00:14:21.830
call holistic management and
planned grazing, a planning

00:14:21.830 --> 00:14:22.710
process.

00:14:22.710 --> 00:14:26.470
And that does address all
of nature's complexity

00:14:26.470 --> 00:14:31.490
and our social, environmental,
economic complexity.

00:14:31.490 --> 00:14:35.600
Today, we have a young woman
like this one teaching villages

00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:37.920
in Africa how to put
their animals together

00:14:37.920 --> 00:14:42.300
into larger herds, plan their
grazing, to mimic nature.

00:14:42.300 --> 00:14:46.320
And where we have them hold
their animals overnight--

00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:48.275
we run them in a
predator-friendly manner,

00:14:48.275 --> 00:14:50.660
because we have a lot
of lands, and so on--

00:14:50.660 --> 00:14:53.020
and where they do this
and hold them overnight

00:14:53.020 --> 00:14:55.110
to prepare the
crop fields, we're

00:14:55.110 --> 00:14:59.120
getting very great increases
in crop yield as well.

00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:00.610
Let's look at some results.

00:15:00.610 --> 00:15:04.880
This is land close to land
that we manage in Zimbabwe.

00:15:04.880 --> 00:15:06.890
It has just come
through four months

00:15:06.890 --> 00:15:09.290
of very good rains
it got that year,

00:15:09.290 --> 00:15:11.760
and it's going into
the long dry season.

00:15:11.760 --> 00:15:14.700
But as you can see, all of
that rain, almost all of it,

00:15:14.700 --> 00:15:18.070
has evaporated from
the soil surface.

00:15:18.070 --> 00:15:22.430
The river is dry, despite
the rain just having ended,

00:15:22.430 --> 00:15:28.950
and we have 150,000 people
on almost permanent food aid.

00:15:28.950 --> 00:15:33.610
Now let's go to our land
nearby on the same day

00:15:33.610 --> 00:15:36.530
with the s rainfall
and look at that.

00:15:36.530 --> 00:15:38.880
Our river is flowing
and healthy and clean.

00:15:38.880 --> 00:15:41.490
It's fine.

00:15:41.490 --> 00:15:48.020
The production of grass, shrubs,
trees, wildlife, everything

00:15:48.020 --> 00:15:49.730
is now more productive.

00:15:49.730 --> 00:15:54.280
And we have virtually
no fear of dry years.

00:15:54.280 --> 00:16:01.210
And we did that by increasing
the cattle and goats 400%,

00:16:01.210 --> 00:16:05.240
planning the grazing to mimic
nature and integrate them

00:16:05.240 --> 00:16:08.740
with all the elephants, buffalo,
giraffe, and other animals

00:16:08.740 --> 00:16:10.400
that we have.

00:16:10.400 --> 00:16:12.990
But before we began, our
land looked like that.

00:16:12.990 --> 00:16:16.140


00:16:16.140 --> 00:16:22.450
This site was bare and eroding
for over 30 years, regardless

00:16:22.450 --> 00:16:24.770
of what rain we got.

00:16:24.770 --> 00:16:29.490
Watch the marked tree and see
the change as we used livestock

00:16:29.490 --> 00:16:31.330
to mimic nature.

00:16:31.330 --> 00:16:35.230
This was another site where
it had been bare and eroding,

00:16:35.230 --> 00:16:38.020
and at the base of
the marked small tree,

00:16:38.020 --> 00:16:42.330
we had lost over 30
centimeters of soil.

00:16:42.330 --> 00:16:45.890
And again, watch the
change just using livestock

00:16:45.890 --> 00:16:46.990
to mimic nature.

00:16:46.990 --> 00:16:48.800
And there are
fallen trees in that

00:16:48.800 --> 00:16:52.090
now, because the better
land is now attracting

00:16:52.090 --> 00:16:53.930
elephants, et cetera.

00:16:53.930 --> 00:16:57.450
This land in Mexico was
in terrible condition.

00:16:57.450 --> 00:17:00.480
And I've had to mark the
hill because the change

00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:03.180
is so profound.

00:17:03.180 --> 00:17:08.079
[APPLAUSE]

00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:11.520


00:17:11.520 --> 00:17:16.339
I began helping a family in
the Karoo desert in the 1970s

00:17:16.339 --> 00:17:18.589
turn the desert that
you see on the right

00:17:18.589 --> 00:17:21.130
there back to grassland.

00:17:21.130 --> 00:17:23.450
And thankfully, now
their grandchildren

00:17:23.450 --> 00:17:26.618
are on the land with
hope for the future.

00:17:26.618 --> 00:17:29.000
And look at the amazing
change in this one

00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:34.070
where that gully has
completely healed using nothing

00:17:34.070 --> 00:17:36.610
but livestock mimicking nature.

00:17:36.610 --> 00:17:39.590
And once more, we have
the third generation

00:17:39.590 --> 00:17:44.210
of that family on that land
with their flag still flying.

00:17:44.210 --> 00:17:47.390
The vast grasslands of
Patagonia are turning to desert,

00:17:47.390 --> 00:17:48.340
as you see here.

00:17:48.340 --> 00:17:51.860
The man in the middle is
an Argentinean researcher,

00:17:51.860 --> 00:17:54.520
and he has documented
the steady decline

00:17:54.520 --> 00:17:57.100
of that land over the
years as they kept

00:17:57.100 --> 00:17:59.780
reducing the sheep numbers.

00:17:59.780 --> 00:18:03.910
They put 25,000
sheep in one flock,

00:18:03.910 --> 00:18:08.480
really mimicking nature
now with planned grazing.

00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:11.920
And they have documented
a 50% increase

00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:15.290
in the production of the
land in the first year.

00:18:15.290 --> 00:18:19.700
We now have in the violent
Horn of Africa pastoralists

00:18:19.700 --> 00:18:22.070
planning their grazing
to mimic nature,

00:18:22.070 --> 00:18:24.910
and openly saying it
is the only hope they

00:18:24.910 --> 00:18:28.530
have of saving their families
and saving their culture.

00:18:28.530 --> 00:18:34.240
95% of that land can only
feed people from animals.

00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:38.410
I remind you that I am talking
about most of the world's land

00:18:38.410 --> 00:18:41.390
here that controls
our fate, including

00:18:41.390 --> 00:18:46.150
the most violent region of the
world where only animals can

00:18:46.150 --> 00:18:50.670
feed people from
about 95% of the land.

00:18:50.670 --> 00:18:55.630
What we are doing globally
is causing climate change

00:18:55.630 --> 00:18:59.290
as much as, I believe,
fossil fuels, and maybe

00:18:59.290 --> 00:19:02.050
more than fossil fuels.

00:19:02.050 --> 00:19:06.090
But worse than that, it is
causing hunger, poverty,

00:19:06.090 --> 00:19:08.990
violence, social
breakdown, and war.

00:19:08.990 --> 00:19:12.530
And as I am talking
to you, millions

00:19:12.530 --> 00:19:16.680
of men, women, and children
are suffering and dying.

00:19:16.680 --> 00:19:21.450
And if this continues,
we are unlikely to be

00:19:21.450 --> 00:19:23.580
able to stop the
climate changing,

00:19:23.580 --> 00:19:28.670
even after we have eliminated
the use of fossil fuels.

00:19:28.670 --> 00:19:33.860
I believe I've shown you how
we can work with nature at very

00:19:33.860 --> 00:19:37.860
low cost to reverse all this.

00:19:37.860 --> 00:19:44.090
We are already doing so on
about 15 million hectares

00:19:44.090 --> 00:19:46.460
on five continents.

00:19:46.460 --> 00:19:50.440
And people who understand far
more about carbon than I do

00:19:50.440 --> 00:19:53.480
calculate that for
illustrative purposes,

00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:56.550
if we do what I'm
showing you here,

00:19:56.550 --> 00:20:00.430
we can take enough carbon
out of the atmosphere

00:20:00.430 --> 00:20:04.690
and safely store it in the
grassland soils for thousands

00:20:04.690 --> 00:20:05.470
of years.

00:20:05.470 --> 00:20:10.460
And if we just do that on about
half the world's grasslands

00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:12.870
that I've shown
you, we can take us

00:20:12.870 --> 00:20:17.200
back to pre-industrial
levels while feeding people.

00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:20.180
I can think of
almost nothing that

00:20:20.180 --> 00:20:25.510
offers more hope for our
planet, for your children

00:20:25.510 --> 00:20:28.160
and their children,
and all of humanity.

00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:29.100
Thank you.

00:20:29.100 --> 00:20:33.244
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]

00:20:33.244 --> 00:20:53.004


00:20:53.004 --> 00:20:54.845
Thank you, Chris.

00:20:54.845 --> 00:20:55.755
Thank you.

00:20:55.755 --> 00:20:57.360
CHRIS: Thank you.

00:20:57.360 --> 00:21:01.630
I have-- and I'm sure everyone
here has, A, 100 questions, B,

00:21:01.630 --> 00:21:02.650
wants to hug you.

00:21:02.650 --> 00:21:03.635
[LAUGHTER]

00:21:03.635 --> 00:21:05.510
I'm just going to ask
you one quick question.

00:21:05.510 --> 00:21:09.680
When you first start this, you
bring in a flock of animals.

00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:10.930
It's desert.

00:21:10.930 --> 00:21:11.710
What do they eat?

00:21:11.710 --> 00:21:12.740
How does that part work?

00:21:12.740 --> 00:21:13.470
How do you start?

00:21:13.470 --> 00:21:15.636
ALLAN SAVORY: Well, we've
done this for a long time,

00:21:15.636 --> 00:21:19.040
and the only time we have
ever had to provide any food

00:21:19.040 --> 00:21:22.960
is doing mine reclamation
where it's 100% bare.

00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:27.820
But many years ago, we took
the worst land in Zimbabwe

00:21:27.820 --> 00:21:32.620
where I offered a five-pound
note in a 100-mile drive

00:21:32.620 --> 00:21:36.690
if somebody could find one
grass in a 100-mile drive.

00:21:36.690 --> 00:21:39.870
And on that, we'd trebled
the stocking rate, the number

00:21:39.870 --> 00:21:43.150
of animals, in the first
year with no feeding,

00:21:43.150 --> 00:21:46.350
just by the movement
mimicking nature and using

00:21:46.350 --> 00:21:50.610
a sigmoid curve, that principle.

00:21:50.610 --> 00:21:52.839
It's a little bit
technical to explain here.

00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:54.380
CHRIS: Well, I would
love t-- I mean,

00:21:54.380 --> 00:21:56.780
this is such an interesting
and important idea.

00:21:56.780 --> 00:21:59.321
The best people s our blog are
going to come and talk to you,

00:21:59.321 --> 00:22:02.880
and I want to get more on
this that we can share, along

00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:04.485
with the talk.

00:22:04.485 --> 00:22:06.480
That is an astonishing talk.

00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:07.890
Truly an astonishing talk.

00:22:07.890 --> 00:22:09.412
And I think you
heard that we all

00:22:09.412 --> 00:22:10.620
are cheering you on your way.

00:22:10.620 --> 00:22:11.330
Thank you so much.

00:22:11.330 --> 00:22:12.490
ALLAN SAVORY: Well, thank you.

00:22:12.490 --> 00:22:12.989
Thank you.

00:22:12.989 --> 00:22:13.894
Thank you, Chris.

00:22:13.894 --> 00:22:14.830
[APPLAUSE]

00:22:14.830 --> 00:22:19.313
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:22:19.313 --> 00:22:19.813