Realistically, we must recognize that there are threats to the short- and long-term success of our solution and many of these are unavoidable. We are entering an Age of Limits, and the profligacy with which we used non-renewable resources and turned them to toxic effect will come back to haunt us, very soon.

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Stressed by scarcity and decay, people will revert to panic behavior, much of it antithetical to survival, either personally or as civilized societies.

 

Our solution team has given thoughtful consideration to whether our solution might trigger a response from policymakers, public officials or powerful non-state actors that would pose risks to the endeavor.

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We have decided our best defense is a good offense.

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The principal obstacle at present is cultural inertia. Irreversible tipping points in Earth’s carbon cycle compel rapid responses, and yet compacency is endemic. While our solution applies state-of-the-art consensus building, public education and incentive systems, the pace of change cannot be slow. Adoption must be viral and sustained. Only a holistic model can provide that, but complexity is itself a challenge, requiring broad, interdisciplinary competence.

 

Cross-cutting obstacles will be encountered — conflict zones, unprovisioned populations, religious intolerance, natural disasters and more. We must build antifragility as we go, with training centers that prepare our adopters for everything. Failures are fast learning opportunities.

 

The science underpinning the proposed solution is uncontroversial. According to the FAO, “Agricultural soils are among the planet's largest reservoirs of carbon and hold potential for expanded carbon sequestration and thus provide a prospective way of mitigating the increasing atmospheric concentration of CO2.”

 

Active listening, integration of the sustainable development goals, cultural preservation and visible improvements to the lives of the adopters sustain the pace of change. Still, local cooperatives of tree-planters and soilbuilders, no matter how financially sound, will not by themselves reverse climate change. To achieve annual net sequestration globally, there must also be rapid reductions in GHG emissions across all sectors.