“ There are still hundreds of millions of small farmers who don ’ t have enough water , don ’ t have enough land , and these systems can work really well for people in those situations .”
— DAVID BAINBRIDGE , REVELLE ' 70
BEST LAID PLANS David Bainbridge , Revelle ’ 70 , intended to study oceanography at Scripps , but seasickness redirected him to land .
IT ’ S NO SECRET that historic droughts have plagued all corners of the world in recent years . The fight for conservation has quickly moved from the arena of conceptual politics into our everyday lives as we all search for ways to curb our water usage . A leader in these efforts is David Bainbridge , Revelle ’ 70 , a seasoned veteran of sustainability solutions . While the mainstream has just recently jumped on the bandwagon of environmental consciousness , Bainbridge has been driving the effort for decades . Within his career in sustainability , Bainbridge has seen his latest water conservation efforts shift to the smaller scale in the hope that they will make a universal impact . His new book , Gardening with Less Water , provides a set of methods and tricks to irrigate conservatively and efficiently . From cheap and efficient wick irrigation to the simple , lesser-known olla pot technique , Bainbridge ’ s new book offers advice gleaned from nearly 25 years of discoveries and experimentation .
“ It grew out of our work in restoration in the Mojave , the Colorado and the Sonoran deserts ,” says Bainbridge . “ We were working in places where there wasn ’ t any available water , so we ’ d often have to haul water from the nearest town or the nearest hydrant or even from San Diego . There ’ s a limit to how much water you can carry in the truck , so every drop of water became very precious .”
In search of more efficient ways to irrigate , Bainbridge spent the next two decades finding and testing unique watering methods he learned from international experts , seasoned locals and even ancient script , as was the case with a 2,000-year old Chinese agricultural textbook that revealed the olla pot technique .
Using an olla pot , an onion-shaped ceramic vessel , gardeners can save upwards of a staggering 90 percent of water used on plants . The process is simple : an olla is filled with water and buried in the plants ’ surrounding soil , where liquid slowly seeps through the pot and irrigates the roots . While the archaic system seems to have been buried within history , Bainbridge hopes to revive it as a profound means of conserving our resources .
Fueled by what he would modestly deem a “ moral responsibility ,” Bainbridge has spent years making discoveries like these in every corner of environmentalism . This passion was fostered early on at UC San Diego by various professors and exposure to Aldo Leopold ’ s seminal work , The Land Ethic . But a career on land was not part of David ’ s original plan . “ When I went to UCSD , I was originally intending to be an oceanographer , thinking it would be handy being an undergraduate next to Scripps ,” says Bainbridge . But just one trip out relegated him to dry land . “ It turns out I got seasick when I went out to sea , and I never got un-seasick ,” Bainbridge recalls with a chuckle .
Fortunately , a shift to earth sciences steered him to a path where he ’ s been a trailblazer ever since , bettering our world with both small and large contributions . Gardening with Less Water is an attempt to do both . While the book offers smallscale solutions , the hope is for these techniques to yield results on a big-picture level .
“ One of my goals has always been international impact , not just local ,” says Bainbridge . “ There are still hundreds of millions of small farmers who don ’ t have enough water , don ’ t have enough land , and these systems can work really well for people in those situations . It ’ s been encouraging getting information back from Pakistan , South Africa , places where drought is a real problem , and knowing that people are taking a look at these [ methods ] and starting to use some of them . It ’ s very rewarding .”
Seeing the positive impact of years of work naturally allows some personal gratification . But for Bainbridge , the latest book , like all his other work , allows for little complacency . Even while he claims to be practically retired , the 68-year-old is already far into the projects ahead . With his varied body of work , there ’ s no telling what is left for Bainbridge to tackle , but as our environment becomes ever more fragile , we can trust he will be among those leading the charge .
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