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Fighting Climate Change with Photosynthesis - Mark Hertsgaard

2,605 views · Published 4 August 2009 · 3:46 · Indexed 31 October 2026

Channel: FORA.tv · 2009 · News & Politics

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/22/Food_Security_and_Climate_Change

Mark Hertsgaard argues that the best solution to mitigating climate change quickly and cheaply lies in better agricultural practices that increase the natural process of photosynthesis. "We have the capacity to sequester virtually all the annual emissions that go up every year from this planet," he says.

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Scientists calculate that temperatures will keep rising for the next 50 years, no matter how drastically we cut greenhouse gas emissions. Open Society Fellow Mark Hertsgaard and Sara Scherr, founder of Ecoagriculture Partners, discuss the implications of this somber reality for food production and global hunger.

The panelists assess the severity of the problem, which is worsened by widespread soil erosion and dwindling rainfall in crop-growing regions. They also identify cause for hope. New farming techniques can boost crop yields while enabling plants to store carbon.

The event is moderated by Ross Gelbspan, author of two acclaimed books on climate change: Boiling Point and The Heat is On.  - Open Society Institute

Mark Hertsgaard, an independent journalist based in San Francisco, is the author of five books that have been translated into sixteen languages. He covers climate change for Vanity Fair, The Nation, Time and Die Zeit and has written for many of the world's leading newspapers and magazines. Mark Hertsgaard is the author of five books that have been translated into sixteen languages, including Earth Odyssey: Around the World In Search of Our Environmental Future and On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency. A correspondent for Link TV and The Nation and L'espresso magazines, he has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Time, The Guardian, Die Zeit and other leading publications around the world. His next book is called, Living Through the Storm: Surviving the Next 50 Years of Global Warming.

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