Postive Climate News: Good People Doing Good Things

This is will be a quick hit, but I wanted to keep going on sharing good people working on climate solutions. There will be a couple more videos on regenerative farming practices from the Carbon Cowboys series and a few other videos on other topics.

I will branch out to other technology going forward, but I didn’t have time this week to do the serious dive into other topics. Batteries are my next idea for a post – some big steps this year already.

A reminder that all these post can be found here: Positive Climate News

Here are parts 3 and 4 of Carbon Cowboys (see all the videos here)

Husband and wife ranchers Emry Birdwell and Deborah Clark have been going against the grain of North Texas ranching for decades – hiding their ability to raise many, many more cattle per acre than any of their neighbors. They are a fiery couple, prone to snips as they get their field work done – they are in their 60s, and run the 14,000 acre place on their own, sometimes with one extra hand. Filmed in Henrietta, Texas

Don Jackson wanted to change his grazing methods, and he called Allen Williams, a top U.S. expert on regenerative agriculture for help. Allen helped Don transition from continuous grazing to AMP (Adaptive Multi-Paddock) grazing. This film captures Don’s first 6 months of the transition – in Don’s 1st growing season. Don (and his son Patrick) can see huge changes already, especially in the amount of forage they can produce, the improved health of their cattle, and the increase in beneficial insects. Filmed in Ware Shoals, South Carolina

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It was a toss-up between this great story and an amazing rancher/educator in Chihuahua Mexico, Alejandro Carrillo. The happy couple won today and next post will feature Alejandro. Tina and Orion Weldon have a great story. Let’s start with the video:

And here’s an excerpt of the rest of the story (h/t Sandia Blanca):

The Weldons, new parents who met at a climate change protest in 2014 in Manhattan and spent their first date watching TED Talks on the environment, started their business on 5 acres of Orion’s family land in 2015.

After two years, they co-founded the farmers market as an avenue to sell heritage pork and pastured chicken and eggs alongside more than a dozen other producers, from bakers and honey-makers to vegetable farmers and prepared food vendors.

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A fellow environmentalist, the Nelsons were interested in how these premodern and indigenous practices could be implemented on her family’s 500-acre ranch just a few miles away.

On this Sunday in May, (Annie) Nelson finally introduced herself to Tina and Orion and their 2-month-old baby boy. She asked if they might be interested in helping transform the Nelsons’ family garden, so she invited them to the Luck Ranch to check it out.

“After the market, the three of us trucked over to Luck Ranch,” Orion Weldon says. “We talked about the philosophy of land and soil, and then she said, ‘We’ve been watching you for about four years, and we wanted to make sure you (can do) what you claim you do. We’d like you to create a regenerative farm on Luck Ranch.’”

Read the full story here

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This guy and his passion for changing the world, one house at a time. And for finding a way to eliminate having to use the climate disaster that is concrete.

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And finally, I wanted to highlight some of reviews on the new Kia EV9. I stumbled on this last time I was at the dealership for service (I drive a KIA Niro PHEV) and was smitten. And turns out I am not alone. Most of you are probably like, why is such a big 7-seater SUV a good thing? Because it’s a 2000 lb EV that gets 300 miles to a charge, and charges to 80% in 20 minutes (which I’m learning is how you want to charge on a road trip).

And there are so many extra large ICE vehicles on the road right now, because people have reasons – kids, business, deliveries, etc – that replacing ICE vehicles with practical, large EVs is a big step. Meet them where they are. They are not going to give up their F-150s and Grand Cherokees for a Bolt.

Here are the reviews I enjoyed: Edmunds, Fully Charged (which besides videos does electric shows all over the world, highlighting the newest technologies), Auto Focus and MotorTrend

From the reviews I’ve watched, it seems this SUV surpasses any expectations.

And I’m posting this one, not just because he’s a riot and a Kiwi, but the company he works for, EcoTricity is something I think I’ll dive deeper into in another post. Also because his hobby is restoring classic ICE vehicles into EVs. That’s how I stumbled on him, his FB videos on those restorations.