Microbial economies trade greenhouse gasses for food and energy. By tapping into this system, we can increase agricultural profits. This is because microbially driven agricultural systems require fewer costly chemicals to support.
As carbon credit systems become more universal, it is reasonable to assume that farmers who operate to maintain healthy soil microbial communities will also be eligible for payments in the form of carbon offsets.
Time Stamps
0:10 What is a microbial economy and how does it mitigate greenhouse gasses?
1:09 Environmental homeostasis has gone wonkers, giving rise to climate anxiety.
1:45 Actions that promote healthy microbial communities can restore environmental homeostasis.
2:00 Primitive microbes diversified over half a million years to produce the first photosynthetic cyanobacteria. Plants came about 2 billion years later.
4:45 Three points about microbial life on earth.
6:10 Why aren’t microbes today doing more to mitigate climate change?
6:58 Our antibiotic mindset is anti-life.
8:02 Managing agricultural systems without regard to effects on microbial life comes with hidden costs.
9:12 Carbon economies may soon pay growers to manage land in “climate-smart” ways that promote microbial growth.
References and Articles for Further Reading
Environmental Problems that Affect Homeostasis offers a simple and basic introduction to homeostasis, and suggest how homeostasis might be influenced by environmental factors.
The Emergence of Environmental Homeostasis in Complex Ecosystems Authors of this study find that “…the stability of this system will typically increase then remain constant with an increase in biological diversity…
Climate Anxiety among young people is documented in this Nature article.
Using microbial community interactions within plant microbiomes to advance an evergreen agricultural revolution. This book chapter details the importance of microbes in climate change mitigation and food system restoration.