Back to the Future: Terra Preta – Ancient Carbon Farming System for Earth Healing in the 21st Century
Courses/Workshops, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Erosion & Contamination — by Planet People Passion May 25, 2010
Terra Preta, meaning "Black Earth" in Portuguese, is a soil building technique developed by ancient Amazonian civilizations at least 7000 years ago as a solution to permanently solve the problems of poor tropical soil fertility. Large deposits of this black earth are still found today with depths of up to 2 meters. The first deposits where discovered in 1870, but it has only been in the last 10 years that significant interest and study have been initiated.
This soil is attributed to the complex civilizations that reportedly once thrived in the Amazon. Prior to the onset of diseases brought on by the western settlers, this expansive web of communities is estimated to have totaled over 100 million people. It is speculated that Terra Preta soils are what sustained them in harmony with their ecosystems.
Comments (0)The Right Place at the Right Time
Demonstration Sites, Irrigation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Storm Water, Swales, Waste Water, Water Harvesting — by eric seider May 15, 2010
The generally accepted maintenance schedule for cleaning out fire hydrant lines is once a year. At Kawela Plantation in Molokai, Hawaii this usually translates to thousands of gallons of water running down the street being wasted, creating even more erosion. What makes this even more disheartening is that this happened at the beginning of the dry season where they only saw about 5 inches of rain. Well thankfully for John and Roshani Nash they had installed 4 swales on their property at the start of the rainy season. They also had a fire hydrant at the top of the property. Fortunately Roshani was out planting trees when she noticed a rush of water coming down the street bypassing her property (thanks to improperly grated roads) and continuing down the street being wasted.
She approached the workers and discussing the sad waste of water asked if they can direct the flow of water. They replied that they can direct it anywhere they like. So Roshani asked why they don’t send it onto people’s property. They replied that most people would actually be quite upset because it would make a mess. Well we have swales, and that is exactly what they are made for. 3000 gallons and 7 minutes later the top swale completely filled and trickled over the level sill onto the next swale. This was a really cool thing to witness, as it would be quite unlikely for a rain event to match the speed at which the swale filled, well not without help from road runoff. Heres to being at the right place at the right time, turing a problem into a solution.
Comments (4)Our Environmental Status and Future Events
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Peak Oil, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Matt Whittley April 8, 2010
Editor’s Note: Geoff Lawton spoke at Geelong, Victoria last year. Matt Whittley shares some snippets from his talks.
If we are being honest with ourselves, most people would admit that the next 50 years is going to be a lot different than the past 50 years. Future generations are going to need to cope with overwhelming conditions that they had nothing to do with creating.
I believe that we need regular reminders and need fresh perspectives to assess what is going to happen tomorrow and how our actions today have an affect.
We are entering into critical times as we reach tipping points on economy, climate, energy, food, water, soil, and social elements. This video is a great call to action; Permaculture Design is the action!
Comments (0)No More Dirty Gold
Consumerism, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Craig Mackintosh January 7, 2010
Gold. For as long as history records, people have driven themselves to deprivation and even death – and, not uncommonly, murder – to find and secure this rare yellow metal. The ancient Egyptians prized it, as have many of the major and minor civilisations that have come and gone ever since. It is even said that the discovery and exploration of the Americas by Christopher Columbus was spurred by a search for it.
Gold is beautiful, of that there is no doubt. Fantastically, it has somehow come to simultaneously symbolise both matrimonial bliss, fidelity and purity as well as greed, excess and despotism. These things we all know. But, there’s another side to gold of which you may not be aware. Gold is now, with an accentuated consumer awareness, also beginning to symbolise polluted land and water (with a permanence comparable to nuclear contamination), the abuse of workers and the harassment and eviction of indigenous peoples.
Comments (0)The Looming Food Crisis and the ‘Food 2030′ Report
Biodiversity, Consumerism, Deforestation, Economics, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Peak Oil, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Craig Mackintosh January 6, 2010
It can’t go on like this….
Not long ago I was standing in a bookshop, minding my own business, when a book title leapt out in front of me. The book was "History’s Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them". It documents the sorry tales of dozens of people throughout history who, with the best of intentions, made some fascinatingly terrible choices.
Comments (1)The Case of Syngenta: Human Rights Violations in Brazil – 2008
Deforestation, Economics, GMOs, Health & Disease, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Craig Mackintosh December 7, 2009
 The Case of Syngenta: Human Rights Violations in Brazil – 2008 2mb PDF |
Switzerland is often portrayed as a clean, green, intelligent, peace-loving nation. Dramatic landscapes apparently have beautiful, golden, braided-haired women prancing about innocently picking flowers from hillsides dripping in milk, honey and chocolate.
But, the beauty of globalisation and the international food swap model is that the darker side of modern industry can be hidden away on the other side of the world. Embarrassing, incriminating activities can be kept separate from oompa loompaville, away from prying eyes and swept into the remotest places – where there are virgin soils still to be found and gorged upon, where environmental regulations are weak or nonexistent and where legal protection for indigenous people are disincentivised in the quest for profit and ‘development’.
The Swiss company Syngenta – one of the world’s largest transnational agribusiness corporations, one well-known for its production of agrochemicals and GM seeds – however, has still managed to attract attention to itself even in far away Brazil. Like with other agribusiness companies we could mention, competitiveness is key to success, and externalising costs – at any cost – is one of the best ways to achieve this.
I won’t give you a long treatise on the document embedded here, but leave you to peruse yourself. In it you will find details about illegal GMO and chemical polluting and the persecution and murder of the local people who were inconveniently protesting against the same. Syngenta stands accused of violating Brazil’s Federal Constitution, their environmental laws, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other national and international laws.
Further Reading:
Comments (0)A Hotter Planet Means Less on Our Plates
Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Earth Policy Institute December 4, 2009
In the Sunday November 22, 2009 issue of Outlook in the Washington Post, Lester Brown discusses the significant implications of food security in the upcoming Copenhagen Conference.
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
 China walks a tightrope between feast and famine. |
As the U.N. climate-change conference in Copenhagen approaches, we are in a race between political tipping points and natural ones. Can we cut carbon emissions fast enough to keep the melting of the Greenland ice sheet from becoming irreversible? Can we close coal-fired power plants in time to save at least the larger glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau? Can we head off ever more intense crop-withering heat waves before they create chaos in world grain markets?
These are all climate-change issues, but they have something else in common: food. Copenhagen will be about climate, of course, but in a fundamental sense, it must also be about whether we will have enough to eat in the decades to come.
Comments (0)The Full Belly Project
Aid Projects, Food Plants - Annual, Food Shortages, Rehabilitation, Soil Erosion & Contamination — by Craig Mackintosh November 2, 2009
George Washington Carver (1864-1943) was a man worthy of respect. Born into slavery (his mother was purchased), he lived and died as a black man in an age of racial segregation. He was lucky enough, however, that his owners were a decent couple, who helped him to read and write, and ultimately ended up raising George as their own son (George, his sister and mother were all stolen and resold at one point — the original owner was only ever able to retrieve George).
George was encouraged to study and learn, and that he did — until he became one of the greatest agricultural researchers of his age.
Comments (0)Throwing Out the Throwaway Economy
Consumerism, Health & Disease, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Earth Policy Institute September 5, 2009
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
Piles of rubbish, and an incredible stench, border a main market street in
Leh, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, northern India. Photo © Craig Mackintosh
The stresses in our early twenty-first century civilization take many forms – social, economic, environmental, and political. One distinctly unhealthy and visible illustration of all four is the swelling flow of garbage associated with a throwaway economy. Throwaway products were first conceived following World War II as a convenience and as a way of creating jobs and sustaining economic growth. The more goods produced and discarded, the reasoning went, the more jobs there would be.
Comments (0)A Civilizational Tipping Point
Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Earth Policy Institute August 12, 2009
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
In recent years there has been a growing concern over thresholds or tipping points in nature. For example, scientists worry about when the shrinking population of an endangered species will fall to a point from which it cannot recover. Marine biologists are concerned about the point where overfishing will trigger the collapse of a fishery.
We know there were social tipping points in earlier civilizations, points at which they were overwhelmed by the forces threatening them. For instance, at some point the irrigation-related salt buildup in their soil overwhelmed the capacity of the Sumerians to deal with it. With the Mayans, there came a time when the effects of cutting too many trees and the associated loss of topsoil were simply more than they could manage.
The social tipping points that lead to decline and collapse when societies are overwhelmed by a single threat or by simultaneous multiple threats are not always easily anticipated. As a general matter, more economically advanced countries can deal with new threats more effectively than developing countries can. For example, while governments of industrial countries have been able to hold HIV infection rates among adults under 1 percent, many developing-country governments have failed to do so and are now struggling with much higher infection rates. This is most evident in some southern African countries, where up to 20 percent or more of adults are infected.
Comments (1)Six Ways to Save the Planet with Mushrooms
Fungi, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Erosion & Contamination — by Craig Mackintosh July 28, 2009
No, we’re not talking about your average portobello mushroom here, found on pizzas the world over. The topic of this discussion is:
mycelium noun the white threadlike mass of filaments forming the vegetative part of a fungus
Whilst sounding tiny in both size and significance, it is not:
Is this the largest organism in the world? This 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) site in eastern Oregon had a contiguous growth of mycelium before logging roads cut through it. Estimated at 1,665 football fields in size and 2,200 years old, this one fungus has killed the forest above it several times over, and in so doing has built deeper soil layers that allow the growth of ever-larger stands of trees. Mushroom-forming forest fungi are unique in that their mycelial mats can achieve such massive proportions. – Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running
Watch the clip to learn more about these fascinating fungi – organisms totally ignored by industrial agriculture, but which are incredible allies as we seek to decontaminate and restore soils and other habitat.
Duration: 00:18:18
Comments (0)The Oil Intensity of Food
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Peak Oil, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Earth Policy Institute June 25, 2009
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted has exceeded new discoveries by an ever-widening margin. In 2008, the world pumped 31 billion barrels of oil but discovered fewer than 9 billion barrels of new oil. World reserves of conventional oil are in a free fall, dropping every year.
Discoveries of conventional oil total roughly 2 trillion barrels, of which 1 trillion have been extracted so far, with another trillion barrels to go. By themselves, however, these numbers miss a central point. As security analyst Michael Klare notes, the first trillion barrels was easy oil, “oil that’s found on shore or near to shore; oil close to the surface and concentrated in large reservoirs; oil produced in friendly, safe, and welcoming places.” The other half, Klare notes, is tough oil, “oil that’s buried far offshore or deep underground; oil scattered in small, hard-to-find reservoirs; oil that must be obtained from unfriendly, politically dangerous, or hazardous places.”
Comments (0)Home
Consumerism, Deforestation, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Peak Oil, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Craig Mackintosh June 20, 2009
The following documentary, ‘Home‘, is almost perfect.
As a photographer, I was totally engrossed in the imagery – mostly shot from above, and almost entirely in the magic hours of morning and evening light – as this production gives us a vision of this world we call home that is hard to forget. It also leaves one feeling like part of the human fabric – part of the larger human family that, when you come right down to it, all depends on our planet and its immense (albeit dwindling) diversity to supply our universal, basic needs.
As a writer, that has covered the many converging issues we’re now facing – water, soil, biodiversity, deforestation, peak oil, climate change, etc. – the facts shared are also on target and up-to-date. And, again, beautifully and graphically presented.
Why I say ‘almost perfect’ is because it is only the last ten or fifteen minutes where the documentary turns about in a bid to leave the viewer feeling optimistic before it’s all over. Here it truly fails. Ultimately, it graphically and beautifully tells the tale of humankind’s misguided and unsustainable attempts at finding satisfaction – but delivers only a warm, fuzzy, nebulous feeling of how we’re to retreat from the cliff edge we’re teetering over. Despite its shortcomings, however, I give kudos to all who put it together and for their willingness to freely distribute it to as many people as possible. It’s definitely a must-watch.
‘Home’ trailer
Watch the full documentary here
Also available in Arabic, French, German, Russian and Spanish.
Comments (0)Update on Shell Lawsuit
News, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Craig Mackintosh June 16, 2009
I know many of you will be wondering what happened in the Wiwa vs. Shell case I wrote about recently, as they were scheduled for a June 3 pre-trial conference, and that date has now long passed.
Well, Shell kept delaying and there were no reasons given. Now, however, we see what was going on behind the scenes – Shell was deliberating over an out of court settlement of 15.5 million dollars, which the plaintiffs ultimately accepted.
Comments (0)What You Need to Know
Biodiversity, Consumerism, Deforestation, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Craig Mackintosh June 8, 2009
Duration: 1:27:31
