@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..

@DoomsdaysCW

Yes, this is what this thread is about.

Apart from water 💦 management, harnessing the wind for. cooling purposes has already been invented a long time ago, the #Windcatcher|s  in the #IrNuan oasis City of #Yazd with its #Badgirs (#wind towers):

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/112339727207158953

Needless to say, Roman and Pharaonic technologies, too.

@DoomsdaysCW

*Adapting to #Desertification*
#ClimateChange

(1/n)

Me, too. 😉

Let me tell you, too, that I think I remember watching a video of.. the only modern-day further delopment of this ancient #ClimateTechnology that I'm aware of 1)--is a video clip or TV documentary that showcased a trial of a #Madrid university.

As huge parts of #Spain and...

2)
elpais.com/clima-y-medio-ambiente/2025-11-27/primer-atlas-de-la-desertificacion-en-espana-mas-del-40-del-territorio-esta-amenazado.html

@DoomsdaysCW

...@DoomsdaysCW

*Adapting to #Desertification*
#ClimateChange

(2/n)

...probably the whole #Iberian peninsula, including most of the #CanaryIslands, are @ risk of #Desertification 2), (passive) #CoolingTechnology has become a survival-critical instrument for the inevitable adaptation.
Needless to say, far too little is being done about it.

2)
Here is a translation of the title and abstract of the renowned daily, #ElPaís,...

...about the publication of this benchmark study:

👉"*First Atlas of #Desertification in #Spain [#ADE]: More Than 40% of the Country Is at Risk*👈

#Murcia, #Albacete, #Almería, #LasPalmas, #Valladolid, and #Alicante are the provinces most affected by this phenomenon, which leads to the complete loss of land suitable for ecological and agricultural use...

[...]

"The...(#ADE), The ADE study, coordinated by specialists from the #UniversityOfAlicante (#UA) and the...

@DoomsdaysCW

... #SpanishNationalResearchCouncil (#CSIC), and presented this Thursday in #Alicante, indicates that 👉206,217 square kilometers of the country suffer from this type of degradation, which leads to the total loss of land suitable for ecology and agriculture, accounting for *60.9%* of arid areas and *40.9%* of #Spain’s total territory..." 👈

In short, including the data of the first map:

👉 *61%* of arable or ecologically usable land and *41%* of the total #Spanish territory has at..

@DoomsdaysCW

@DoomsdaysCW

...least a *50%* (marked yellow) chance, of becoming a desert👈, while for more than half of these territories, the risk is already at *70%* (orange), and for some (5-10%?), the risk is already a near certainty, if endeavors stay at last year's level (above *90%* (red)!)

Final thoughts (for now:)

Needless to say, that we have not seen similar studies for the other #SouthernEuropean countries, like #Greece, the many #Balkan countries...

...bordering the #Mediterranean, as well as two of the 4 other biggest #EU member states with populations above 60 million, does not mean, that they don't exist. I simply haven't (or don't remember) having seen them.
(I do seem to remember a similar one for #Sicilly.)

Also, and I haven't read the report in detail, it seems obvious that the #ClimateChange induced "#Monsoon- type seasons with #AtmosphericRiver-type torrential rainfalls, will be an annual phenomenon from now...

@DoomsdaysCW

...on (exceptions possible, OFC.)

Needless to say, as we have seen from disaster reports from #Greece and #Italy, for instance, in recent years, the rate of top-soil #Erosion in the areas hit by such extreme-weather events, is bound to increase exponentially initially. This, in turn--and this is my understanding not being a #Climatologist either--will feed into the #Desertification feedback loop.

In short:
These catastrophic events may not be decades away anymore, but...

@DoomsdaysCW

@DoomsdaysCW

Re (1/2)

Of course not, that was half a century ago and they could hardly have known back then what #BigOilKnew:

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/110680669265721701

However, all I've said above, just scratches important parts of the surface.

I haven't even mentioned the biggest threat to our current #Biosphere and the "#Humanophile" present climate, the at least 5 major climate #TippingPoints:

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/111541294917227129

Also, and this might be something for a future blend of #QuantumComputing and...