There's nothing in the world quite like cashmere. The fabric is incredibly soft and warm, all while being surprisingly lightweight. So it's not a surprise that cashmere is amongst the world's most desirable and expensive options for sweaters and other clothing.

But this material that's at home on the runway is produced in some of the harshest and most remote regions on Earth. These places also happen to be experiencing some of the worst effects of climate change, which is devastating the grazing land used by the goats that produce cashmere fibers. That's bad news for the folks who live there, but thankfully, a partnership that's as unusual as cashmere itself may offer a solution.

Mongolian goat herders are working hand-in-hand with NASA researchers to re-imagine ancient herding techniques, and the methods they're developing may point the way for climate responses throughout the world.

Cashmere fibers come from a special breed of goat - in particular, the inner layer of that goat's coat. These light, fluffy strands trap and hold air around the goat, creating a warm, insulating guard against the winter cold.

Cashmere-producing goats can live in many environments, but the best cashmere is produced in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, where it's both really cold and really dry. Together, China and Mongolia produce about 90% of the world's cashmere, but it's an especially large part of Mongolia's economy. The over 9,000 tons it produces each year adds up to 40% of its non-mineral exports.

The goats are raised by more than a million nomadic pastoral herders, and, for decades, the government controlled the sizes of the herds. But, when the government stopped regulating herd size, herders started to dramatically increase the number of goats they farmed. On an individual basis, that just makes sense. After all, the more goats you have, the more cashmere you can produce, and the more money you can earn.

But if too many herders are following the same logic, the combined effects on the environment can be significant. Basically, there needs to be a system that works for everyone without exhausting the grazing land. That's where the NASA research team came in.

Their goal was to use environmental data to improve the ways in which Mongolian herders managed their livestock, but it wasn't as straightforward as sending some scientists out to make observations in the field. At 1.3 million square kilometers, the Gobi is one of the world's largest deserts, home to an incredible diversity of landscapes. So the team turned to one of the world's least known, yet most important, satellite programs, Landsat.

Since 1972, a series of nine Landsat satellites have continuously observed the Earth's surface, creating a continuous record of land use and environmental change across the entire planet. Today, any given spot on Earth is observed by a Landsat satellite every eight days, making it perfect for tracking real-time effects of migrating goat herds. Researchers combined these observations with climate data to create a holistic picture of the changes that the Gobi Desert is experiencing, and what they found surprised them.

While it's true that growing goat herds are affecting the Gobi's grasslands, the much bigger culprit was a familiar foe: the climate crisis. By comparing a very wet year, 2018, with the unusually dry 2019 that followed, the team was able to observe huge shifts in viable grazing land. But, over that period, herd practices didn't change.

In other words, the changes were due, in large part, to the enormous climate shifts Mongolia is experiencing. On average, the world has warmed about 1.2 degrees Celsius since the middle of the 20th century. In that time, Mongolia has experienced 2.1 degrees of warming.

That intense warming, combined with the growth in herd sizes, has resulted in damage to 77% of Mongolian land available for grazing. Armed with this knowledge, the research team changed their strategy. If it wasn't possible to substantially improve the environment by changing herding practices, maybe they could at least protect the livelihoods of Mongolia's million plus herders.

Now, their approach embraces the highly variable climate the region is experiencing. Using weather modeling and Landsat data, as well as the local knowledge of the herders themselves, the team is creating plans for different scenarios. The result is a series of maps that show where shepherds should move their herds in wet or dry years to maximize their productivity and minimize the environmental impact. It's been so successful that a similar project is now underway in the Patagonia region of South America.

And these efforts show what it looks like to respond to climate change. While we need to do everything we can to minimize warming, it's also important to recognize that some of its effects are already here and will be for generations. Finding ways to adapt will be vital.

So, next time you pull on an amazingly warm, incredibly soft sweater, think about the partnership it took to get it to you. From satellite-wielding scientists to nomadic herders, it was truly a global effort.