@kellogh
Part 1: #ClimateChange

Wow.

Solution to the #ClimateCrisis using #SolarPanels for #farming: #Agrivoltaics

"Properly designed solar installations can increase food #harvests, reduce the need for #irrigation, revive dying lakes, rescue #pollinators, restore #soils + cool overheated humans—all while producing more power than conventional solar arrays."

"In 1982, researchers @ the #FraunhoferInstitute for Solar Energy (ISE) in Germany proposed a... solution..."

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301355120

@KLB @HistoPol @kellogh

We are woefully behind in all areas of solar. What sell here? House panels that are marked up substantially. Just make money, and while they help, they aren't solving the bigger issue.

Part 2: #SolutionsForClimateChange: #Agrivoltaics

(1/8)
IMO, combining the new solar-panel-above fields method* with ancient raised-field #WaruWaru #farming #technology could facilitate #WaterConservation and management, raise yields, reduce #fertilizer concentration, and reduce #erosion.

The solution to our current #drought problems in many areas might have been with us for 2,300 years at least, probably first developed by the #Tiahuanaco culture of the #Andean...

*See previous toot (Part 1)

(2/8)

...highlands of #Bolivia + #Peru.
Raised-field agriculture has also been used in countries like #China, #Mexico + #Morocco.

#WaruWaru also stems #desertification + creates a cooling (+warming during the night) #microclimate when combined w/ the #SolarPanels, similar to the #irrigated #gardens created by the Muslims, e.g. in the #Alhambra in #Andalucia. In combination with the solar panels. Jointly with the building of #Roman type #cisterns, #agriculture might even be extended to years..

(3/8)
...without rainfall for some time.

I am not an engineer, but it seems quite logic that the reflective capabilities of the
#SolarPanels will also protect the organic #soil from #erosion by rain, sun, and to some degree, wind.

After some interest in the 1960’s through 1980s and early 2000’s, a 2019 master thesis from #Italy with the chief aim of #WaterConservation and management takes aim to solve South American cities’ recurring #flood problems using #WaruWaru:

https://www.politesi.polimi.it/handle/10589/148696.

(4/8)

Whereas #WaruWaru (also called #camellones in #Peru) was developed for mountain #agriculture, the author #BeatriceSalinetti, like me, seems to see an application for many arid regions on all continents.

[TO BE CONTINUED in (5/8):
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/110003784757750634]

Other Sources:

https://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread913772/pg1 (nice intro into #WaruWaru)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/farming-like-the-incas-70263217/ (she incorrectly attributes the technology to the conquering #Incas, who were but a small pastoral tribe until the 12th century)...

Part 3: #ClimateChange and #AtmosphericRivers

(1/15)

I did not want to provide another installment today, but I just came across this older boost of mine about special weather conditions on the #US #WestCoast, that leads to recurrent #FloodingEvents called Atmospheric Rivers (AR).

https://mastodon.social/@UncensoredNews/109610717322432046

Now, I am not a #meterologist, but we know from Part 2 that the ancient Andean people had recurring over-abundant rainfall issues, too (El Niño events).

(2/15)

...Furthermore, e.g. Italy has been the target of similar events in recent decades.

And the #monsoon season in Asia has been a phenomenon for thousands of years.

Fun fact: did you know that there was a monsoon in the #US, too?

So, we can safely assume that building #Roman-Type cisterns or other huge water basins and the like will be an issue for many countries around the globe in the decades to come.

I read an article about about repurposing dried-out fields in #California for this..

(3/15)

...draining rain water into #aquifers, but I can't find it anymore for the time being.

However, I found an up-to-date-article here, which focuses more on the #WaterManagement than on the construction aspects:

"Over the past decade, #Dahlke’s experiments with submerging small plots have suggested 👉intentional #flooding can replenish aquifers without damaging either #groundwater quality or crops"👈

It is based on a law enacted in 2014:

"#California adopted a landmark law,...

(4/15)

...the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (#SGMA), that promotes the practice. It requires farmers to treat aquifers like bank accounts, clamping down on overdrafts but also allowing those who deposit water into them to make bigger withdrawals later."

It is a very interesting proposition and in combination with new (solar panels, where feasible) and re-discovered ( #WaruWaru) farming technologies, more arable land should remain for this century...

https://www.science.org/content/article/can-california-s-floods-help-recharge-depleted-groundwater-supplies

(5/15)

As I have learned from this #Oxfam video about "Culturas hidráulicas de #Moxos"* and the "#camellones", the latest research dates the raised-field technology in #SouthAmerica even earlier, to 850 to 1,000 BCE.

Furthermore, this technology was in use in many more regions of #SouthAmerica.

*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnMUnTYhuzo

In the language of the conquering tribe, #Quechua, the term is #WaruWaru. However, using the term in...