The Untold Story Of Grasses | William Bond
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- Опубликовано: 12 июн 2024
- Learn more about grasslands and forests: openecosystems.co.za
The story of the underdogs that took out their forest adversaries with powerful allies - fire and the great herds. Grasses created an open sunlit world, rich in plants and animals, including those that nurture and feed us and sustain our cities. Now all are threatened by a trillion trees.
Most people don’t think about grass and dismiss ancient grasslands as mere empty space or degraded forests. The open sunlit habitats of half the world have been further neglected in the current tide of media promoting forests and tree planting as a quick fix for climate change.
But grassy biomes have been carving a space in forests for millions of years. They created an alternative sunlit world, the inverse of forests - fire-loving and friendly to herds of herbivores. Ancient old-growth grasslands still exist today. Many are extraordinarily rich in plants and animals, which are restricted to their open, sunlit, grassy habitat. Grasslands have provided the world’s major seed crops, staple food for billions of people. Grassland animals were key to the development of our civilizations, providing transport, food and fiber.
Global plans to plant billions of trees in vast areas could see the collapse of grasslands in the next decade. Our story was motivated by our concern for this impending disaster. This video gives voice to the sunlit, grassy world, calling for wisdom and understanding rather than policies driven by panic and ignorance.
#Grasslands #Forests #TrillionTrees
Credits:
Script by William Bond
Narration by William Bond
Special Thanks To:
Elizabeth and Quinton Martins
Carla Staver & Anabelle Cardoso
Chris Bond
Helen O'Hagan
Supported by:
Natural Curiosity Safari Group 2019
True Wild (truewildsafaris.com)
Music: Premium Beat
How many of us knew this, the importance of grasslands, when the public focus is always on forests?
Open grasslands and especially tree-dotted Savannahs were once far more widespread than they are today having been extensively replaced by what are mostly sterile closed-canopy forests, such as in the Southeastern US. These new forests are a direct product of the intentional removal of certain natural as well as cultural processes and are in fact extremely poor in terms of good quality habitat for most plants and animals. It's absolutely sickening just how little importance is given to the critical role of healthy disturbance in shaping landscapes that can actually support a great diversity of life. I highly recommend the book Tending The Wild by M. Kat Anderson as it goes into much detail regarding the land stewardship ethos of the California Indians including what they did and how they went about it. A must-read for those passionate about ecology.
What a strong message by Dr. William Bond? It is always a treat to watch his webinar on fire, grasslands, and unscientific/unplanned large-scale plantation drive and interact with him through Q&A. We should not always romanticize with tree dominated landscape. Light-loving plants have also equal right to grow, so we need to relook grasslands with much wider ecological lens and respect these unique, historical landscapes.
I really like this message; ever since I read up on what there being a mosaic of grasslands, shrublands, and woodlands truly means, that open environments are just as important as closed forests, I’ve become aware that simply planting trees isn’t enough. We’ve got to pay attention to the natural environments and how to best restore their processes.
A beautiful narrative and admiration of grasses and the ecological system. Well done Prof. WJ Bond and the team.
Kudos to the creators of this very well-made video. Love it.
Excellent short video, love our grasslands, including southeast North America!
Very interesting.
I never really looked at crass in this depth. But after the wonderfully put together video I now see how it has started, and preserved the survival of most living things.
Wounderfuly put together. Thanks for the intellectual share.
One of the most beautiful , educational and interesting documentary I’ve ever seen
Great job William Bond. You taught me so much about grasses and ecology in general and yes
I love grasses but the thought of "Plant a tree project" destroying grassland have never crossed my mind. The one time I have participated in plant a tree project it was actually in a grassland😢.
well narrated, Grasslands are significant from now on
It is grasslands, not forests, that create the richest topsoil.
Of course I'm aware of all this. Nature is something I pay a great deal of attention to in a close up and personal way.
Much enjoyed and an eye and mind opener.
Beautiful 😍as usual and inspiring
We need to restore ALL ecosystems: forests, grasslands, marshes and wetlands, coral reefs, etc. Even deserts (that so many people think of as "lifeless") are important. A lot of unique species of plants and animals live in deserts.
Most deserts are severely degraded former arid grasslands
What a wonderful and very well told story! The visual implementation is fantastic!
BELLISIMO
What a great lesson in this short, magnificent documentary video. Gracias, Profesor!
I have just listened to this story again .... just wish more people (especially those in authority but also many well-intended ordinary people and organizations) could have the chance of hearing it ... especially those who think that planting trees will solve our carbon issues
a very wonderful eye opener film this was. I appreciate the narration and the way youve presented it. It has all the potential to convey a very wonderful message to this world. Thankyou for making such videos. keep it up!
The message is eternal, it only takes people to pay attention.
This video makes a very strong point about grassland ecosystems which exist almost everywhere (except antartica). Their are dry arid grasslands, moist tropical grasslands, cold weather and seasonal grasslands such as the steppe and tundra, intermediate grasslands with some trees and some grasses. People get too hung up on a notion that "plant a tree or a million trees..." solves our problems. This is really illogical thinking.
I have a couple acres of farm land that I left alone and 2 years in the tough weeds are disappearing and soft grass is finally coming through
I just hope they are native as native grasslands are under threat, particularly in the US.
Vidéo intéressante qui fait réfléchir.
Always enjoyed sustainable man's videos. 👍🙏
Excellent
That was very beautiful. I sure learned a lot. I love the narration.
Sure wanna see this, Grasses are basically plants that are OP, they can survive almost everywhere.. EVEN ANTARTICA!
What a fabulous video.
Really good video. Liked and subscribed
Awesome video
Fantastic 👏🏽👏🏽 great work leader
Beautiful
Ótimo vídeo. Grande reflexão para aqueles que tem como missão trabalhar com restauração ecológica. Infelizmente muitos pensam que restaurar é plantar qualquer espécie de árvore em qualquer lugar... Mas, e aí, como ficam os ecossistemas campestres e savânicos (e toda a sua biodiversidade)?
Interesting perspective!
Actually, it is a Vital perspective, one too often overlooked. In a lot of places that were historically grassland, too many trees are literally choking out the land. Plants that need sun cannot grow in such an environment. It's not a battle of trees vs. grass, that is just the flavor the narrator has adopted.
Awesome video.
Fantastic
Amazing video
I love how this is narrated as the prospective of the grass😅
Este video habría que ponerlo en todos lo colegios, atención docentes: Esto es educación ambiental, lo demás es marear a la juventud
Could you share source texts so we can use them to cite.
I dont understand why this channel is having so less subscribers.
We wonder that ourselves. If anyone can figure out what we can do better, we'd love the help!
I think it is not the channel but us, the subscribers that have the task to spread the message when you recognize the value.
Let us hope that governments and organizations will consider this option as well.
Indeed grass may be the only practical solution to fight the deserts.
To rise trees in a harsh environment is a very difficult mission, while
spreading grass seems more effective. There are stuborn grass types
that can stand heavy climate times better than any young tree.
Later the grass will bring animals and trees too.
Well said! Balance is key!
Joel Salatin and Alan Savory also have much to say on this
I think you two should come and visit me in South Africa. Show you those animals in real life.
I need to take the black stallion out to eat grass. Just dedicate a day to his enjoyment. I haven't been well enough for a few weeks to do that. It will be a good enjoyable way for me to spend time while recovering without having to expend a lot of energy so we will both be happy. He won't even have to go back to work for about another month.
Plant grasses and forbs. Restore our grasslands.
Dosent grass create darkness tho
I did not know.......
I thought this video was about the untold story from piggy and about William
Piggy fans?? 👀👀
Even at Academia there's a loathing against grasslands as if forests are the panacea to solve all global problems.
Most of the worldwide "Academia" for too long has been on a sellout spree for the bureaucracy. It is crippled by money and globalism just as any other part of our lives.
yup. well said
Nice job guys - and well done William. The carbon sinks of savannas, grasslands, peatlands, regenerative agricultural lands (and soils) and other open ecosystems are not well understood by most people. And especially not by Donald Trump, who also (ironically) supported Trillion Trees as a throwaway remark. We scientists need to work harder to get that message out there to the public.
maybe the solution is respect nature's original landscape whether it is different kinds of grass, forest, lakes, rivers, rock lands, desert, to restore instead of plant with blindness, maybe scientists can reach out to teachers, principles and host a talk for public school students?
@@xiaoxiaobaibobo Very few deserts are natural. Almost all of them are former arid grasslands
Gaps in forests open up grasses and grasslands eventually.
I’m just here because of college ngl😕
I really enjoyed watching it, reminding us that carbon sequestration is not the only thing we want. We want ecosystem integrity.
I'm all for protecting grasslands... but didnt we remove around a trillion trees? Perhaps more?... Shouldnt we put back what we have taken?
yes! in the place they were meant to be, but grasslands aren't the correct space to reforest, cause there weren't trees there in the first place!
and also done properly. Planting a huge amount of trees one on top of the other is a recipe for a dead forest in 10-20 years. I have had to remove too many ill thought out man done tree plantings. These trees were planted with good intentions but ended up as dead forest with no life and severe fire hazards.
I respect you approach, and yes, all large scale ecosystem altering activities need to be done from a science based approach.
However the key thing that needs addressing is population control - that is the cause of the loss of habitat, along with other agrivators.
We can also not rely upon century old traditions of using fire as a primary tool for grassland management. If we agree that we are in an era of global warming. If we agree that CO2 emissions are causing an acceleration of that process, leading to droughts and wildfires, then we need to move away from sending thousands of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere through grassland fires. We need to think out of the box and look for alternatives to this ancient way of managing grasslands.
As we have more and more islands of grasslands due to fragmentation it is not possible for certain types of wildlife to replenish their numbers which are destroyed by fires. If we continue to set fires as we used to we run the risk of pushing these creatures closer to extinction.
One should not forget how many forests humans removed from this earth. Monoculture tree plantations won't help us much but reforestation, proforestation and some targeted afforestation will. I also think climate change will be much worse for the environment and biodiversity compared to supporting a tree planting project if it's done right.
The message that this video is supported by safari groups does not help, it seems biased, sadly not very in-depth and not weighing both sides of the coin equally.
Many of your other videos are better.
You didn't get the point at all.