Rattan Lal, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Carlos Nobre, Brazilian climatologist, were highlights at the 78th Official Week of Engineering and Agronomy (SOEA) between August 8th and 11th in Gramado (RS).
Carlos Nobre, noting that July was the hottest month ever recorded, critically warned that “in the case of the oceans, the temperature broke a record. The very warm oceans evaporate much more water and this water vapor is the vehicle of climatic extremes”.
By the way, today we had news that the altitude of the “freezing point” in the Alps was at 5,300 meters. As a reference it was 3750 meters (1990-2019). In other words, the high temperatures also advance more and more upwards, in the atmosphere.
According to Prof. Nobre, “climate change will increase even if we succeed in meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement … We are far behind … adapting to climate change … 2 million Brazilians live in areas at very high risk of disasters due to climate extremes. Adaptation requires them to move into residences in places without such risk”.
Click here to find out why he received a standing ovation. According to him, if Brazil manages to expand regenerative agriculture, it could be the first large country to achieve “net zero” emissions.
Rattan Lal, on the other hand, indicated that the focus of R&D in engineering should be on carbon management in the soil, on carbon sequestration, with soil health being fundamental. By the way, in the next few days we will publish about the problem of saturation of Dutch soil with nitrogen.
Regarding Brazil, Lal cited the high rate of carbon sequestration in the states of Rondônia, Mato Grosso and the mangroves, with potential for sequestration 20 times faster than forests.
“Agriculture in Brazil can be a World model for carbon sequestration, a system that can be reproduced, for example, in Africa, like the cerrado miracle system”.
Click on the image below to read more. And here for his comments already at COP27 in Egypt.
We thank Eng. Luis Eduardo Pereira for sharing his perceptions of the event with us.
Comments