James Ryan

Drawdown North Dakota

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
126 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

80

minutes

spent learning

James's actions

Electricity Generation

Advocate for Solar Installation

#10 Rooftop Solar

I will create a plan to and advocate for solar installation at my business, apartment building, or campus.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity Generation

Learn More About Geothermal Energy

#18 Geothermal

I will spend at least 20 minutes learning more about the energy generation potential of geothermal energy and consider investing in this technology.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Electricity Generation

Learn More about Wave and Tidal Energy

#29 Wave and Tidal

I will spend at least 20 minutes learning more about the energy generation potential of wave and tidal energy.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Food

Learn More about Regenerative Agriculture

#11 Regenerative Agriculture

I will spend at least 180 minutes learning about the need for more regenerative agriculture.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings and Cities

Explore Other Buildings and Cities Solutions

All Buildings and Cities Solutions

I will spend at least 60 minutes researching other Drawdown Buildings and Cities Solutions.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Buildings and Cities

Online Energy Audit

Multiple Solutions

I will complete an online energy audit of my home, office, or dorm room and identify my next steps for saving energy.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

James Ryan 4/20/2018 9:30 AM

Read NY Times Magazine story on Marin Carbon Project https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/magazine/dirt-save-earth-carbon-farming-climate-change.html one of the most detailed accounts of it, and placing it front and center in the efforts to reduce global warming w carbon sequestration. Most surprising new fact for me was learning that some environmentalists are hesitant to endorse carbon sequestration because poor land management can reverse it down the road. Seems short sighted, given the value of carbon in creating a sponge for water as well. Some of the problems w composting expense are already being addressed by no turn compost work of David C. Johnson

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James Ryan 4/19/2018 8:01 AM

Breakfast planned next Tuesday with Renewable advocates at Broadway Bean at 9am. One guest coming is setting up solar on his experimental farm at Turtle Lake and will be available for questions.

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James Ryan 4/19/2018 7:55 AM

Surprised at the cost associated with development of geothermal. Would like to check in with EERC at UND to see what work they might be doing on using spent Bakken wells to harvest geothermal temperatures.

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James Ryan 4/11/2018 12:41 PM

Read the text of the Future Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1535/all-info proposed by Heitkamp, as well as a push back from Clean Water Action.org and a number of stories on carbon sequestration/CO2 usage at Stanford https://news.stanford.edu/2017/10/05/future-energy-fossil-fuels/

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Food Learn More about Regenerative Agriculture

Clean air, clean water and healthy food are three reasons to care about regenerative agriculture. In what ways can you support your closest regenerative agriculture farm?

James Ryan 4/11/2018 9:55 AM

We have one. We will push the envelope on adding other diverse crops to our oat and wheat fields--clovers, peas, radish, flax and beans-lentils--small amounts of seed that hopefully can be swathed and combined together.

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James Ryan 4/11/2018 9:50 AM

Joining FB groups dedicated to regenerative themes has been very helpful. "Healthy Soils", "Cooling Our Climate", various microbe farming groups gives us lots of ideas and engagement. One outgrowth has been a no turn compost pile--see microbiologist David C. Johnson BEAM approach or BioReactor design on youtube--w the intention of applying compost tea from it to fields and/or seed.

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James Ryan 4/11/2018 9:46 AM

Have been following the Drawdown suggestions for a few years before the book was published. Like the concept of picking the low handing fruit for carbon drawdown. Our farm has been moving from 40 year certified "organic" to a more aggressive regenerative farm: For many years after quitting dairy in 2000, the fields were all in grass-alfalfa, and we returned to cropping by tilling the haylands. But the weed control and fertility that we had gained declined, so we went back to the drawing board, establishing a shorter alfalfa rotation.

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