Restoring Iberian rainfall study and maybe implementation

From restoring-iberian-rain

"In the 1990s the European Commission approached Millan Millan to look into why Spain was losing its rain.
Millan was the head of the Center of Environmental Studies of the Mediterranean, an organization with 90 scientists and staff. He was a meteorologist who took pride in his observational skills, and his ability to read the clouds to discern an atmosphere’s history and future.
In his detective work to solve the Riddle of the disappearing Spain rain, he walked around the local geographical areas, in the mountains with their maqui (shrubbery), and the marshes of the local area, to get a sense of what was causing the loss of the summer storms. He talked to a lot of locals who too had noticed the loss of the rain over the decades.

Millan put together a program to gather meteorological data from towers, tethered balloons, and aircraft.
Then he ran various computer simulation models. Using this three pronged approach of observation, measurement, and simulation, Millan figured out the mystery that was causing the rains to disappear.
The culprit was the draining of the marshes and the chopping down of the vegetation and the forests.
This nature loss had led to reduced evapotranspiration and increased air temperature, which made it harder for clouds to form.

Having figured out the problem, Millan worked over the years to try convince the government to regenerate the land, so that the rain may return.

I connected with Millan and recorded this interview with him. Rob Lewis, author of the newsletter The Climate According to Life, also had a chance to correspond with Millan.
He writes Millan “had to watch those summer storms he used to track as a boy with his father gradually disappear altogether.” Millan said to him “Those summer storms…are now totally gone.. The landscapes I loved, as they were, I now recognize as very downgraded ones. I can not stop thinking on how they must have been. My eyes can’t stop searching for the clues, all around, of Toba Rocks in the slopes. Rock created when limestone-enriched water flowed over mosses and other herbs in waterfalls and water oozing off the slopes. Now just rocky slopes.  It is all over the place here and there, where water flowed just a few years ago.”
Millan passed away earlier this year.

Now in Iberia, I wanted to restore the rain, to honor Millan’s legacy.
Restoring the rain will entail restoring marshes, shrubbery, forests, rivers, and aquifers, utilizing the local dehesas (the agroforestry lands), shifting to regenerative agriculture practices, rewilding, and using a variety of water earthworks practices.
I met up with water cycle restorationist Nick Steiner (who I had recently recorded a podcast with) and some other amazing folk in Spain. "

I wish I knew how to help people realize how critical marshland is. People see "standing water" as a waste of land, when as Milan determined, it's absolutely critical to the water cycle and for supporting our trees, creeks, and wildlife.

People seem to be better able to get behind "saving the Panda's" than saving the "frogs". But our frogs need us as much or more to support them with permaculture!

This seems to be a problem in Texas, too.

Andy, can you explain more?
Can you pass this information to interested persons?

This must tie in with an article i read awhile back on how forested areas not also release vapor above them but also bacteria and fungal spores get carried up which act as a "seed" starter for rain drops to form onto and recycle back down to earth

John C Daley wrote:Andy, can you explain more?
Can you pass this information to interested persons?

I'll keep my ears open for ways to insert the idea in casual conversation.

If you Google "Are Texas summers getting hotter and drier", there's plenty of evidence. There are all also tons of new suburbs being built, some of the fastest-growing in the nation. For example, these suburbs near me: Kyle, Manor.

People are calling it a "heat dome" over Austin. I haven't noticed anybody put 2 and 2 together yet that the construction is related to increasing heat and decreasing rain.

Here's a link about the heat dome term. https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2024/06/a-heat-dome-is-back-over-texas-heres-what-that-means-and-why-its-the-worst/

Andy Ze wrote: I'll keep my ears open for ways to insert the idea in casual conversation.

From the article you linked to:

The high pressure above is met with the rising heat below, which makes the system especially stubborn and slow-moving.

Ways to cool "below":
1. Plant trees - particularly deciduous trees that will spread wide to shade heat absorbing concrete infrastructure like roads.
2. Build trellis tunnels that cover more concrete infrastructure like your driveway with climbing plants like grape vines with climbing roses. https://www.simplifiedbuilding.com/projects/trellis-ideas
3. Encourage buildings to have green roofs wherever possible.

Ways to get that message out:
1. Do it to land you *can* influence - if you own a house, plant trees (if they work, plant ones with edible fruit for a double win). Help a friend do it.
2. Start a mini tree nursery with upcycled pots and homemade compost so you can give them away or sell them cheaply.
3. Help beginners plant their first tree and have links available with simple instructions on how to plant and care for the baby tree. (Ideally here on permies because we help newbies and are *really* nice about it!)
4. Write a short "letter to the editor" in the local paper with something catchy like, "3 great trees to plant that will help cool you in a heat dome".
5. Watch for places that can be "gorilla gardened" (OK I know that's the wrong gorilla, but the other types are associated with guns which won't stop the heat dome) Make up seed balls with heat and drought tolerant seeds, particularly ones that will grow fairly tall, quickly.

What not to do:
Plan to just sit it out in a house with the air conditioning on. Air conditioning is moving heat from "inside" to "outside", which makes "outside" even hotter. It uses huge amounts of electricity which can fail when you need it most. It perpetuates the viscous circle.