The Way of Water

Stephen Miller, the webmaster of  Ecoversity.org (and the man behind biomagic) just posted a new Ecoversity Case Focus: this time on oceans. Like in so many other places --most of the news about our oceans is pretty dire: overfishing, acidification, coral and reef whitening, die-off.  How come we humans take our environment so for granted ? Part of the answer is of course that our attention has been elsewhere: in many cases a virtual world has replaced the direct contact and observation  of the natural world. We are not bonding in the same way with our environment as our species used to: We have become very self-absorbed in the things that reflect who we think we are as humans.... a car, a tv, computers, but also our food, etc. --all of them providing technologically mediated environments that mirror our human needs and incredible technological ability -- but obscure the source of it all: nature. Nature itself has become commodified and has become in many ways alien to vast segments of the population.

How to re-establish our common bonds and understand the unique human position and role in nature ? How to reconnect in such a way that will change our habits ?

One thing that occurred to me is how little we really know about our direct environment. We know about the earth's resources in quantitative terms, mainly numbers and statistics related to economics, or pending global catastrophy. 

But the knowledge I am talking about here comes from familiarity, even intimacy with nature, through clear observation and experimentation. Something even as seemingly familiar as water, never ceases to amaze -- releasing its endless  secrets generously to

the dedicated scientist and dillitant alike -- yet, only deepening its mystery every step of the way. Its unique crystalization, its woven structure, its regenerative ability, etc., etc.  In the excellent 'Home' movie it is pointed out that the quantity of water on the planet earth has been constant and all of the species in the world have drunk the same water. Perhaps most wondrously: when we look for life, here or elsewhere in the universe,  we first look for water --since we know that water is the giver of life.  

No wonder that the Hindus deified the water element as Bhava, an all powerful god. Bhava is the "nature of life of the worlds....water is the reservoir of the seed of the seven worlds....the element water is the one protector of life..." 

Watching the slow motion watersplashing in the 'Spirit of Water' movie , I realized that that the mycelial formations and mushrooms I documented earlier, actually are very similar to water forms.

Genetic material from the spore, conducts the water into some kind of preconceived mold, that in its turn expresses a much slowed down water flow form solidifying momentarily in space. It is interesting to consider all living beings as water-flow-forms of one kind or another...trees, or the body of a dolfin... leaves...mushrooms...  or even whole landscapes

 

Somehow there must be a vibrational memory between water and DNA --how else does DNA transmit its cellular messages ?? (something which to my knowledge has never been truly understood or explained). 

Look at the grain of a wood or a leaf: you can understand the flow of water. We ourselves are bags of water, carrying around seawater from the primordial oceans that gave birth to life -- significantly different from the oceans today (less salty).

Someone recently told me that "water is the currency of nature" --and I think that is a really good way to look at it. And in every interaction with water there is gain in form and complexity. Understanding the water currency economy, may lead us into examining an innovative new economic model: the economy of generosity. 

Soil: the Terrestrial Biosphere

In all the climate change awareness, the role of soil is perhaps least understood and most taken for granted in many discussions on climate. In an attempt to understand a great deal more about soil, Ecoversity has found different ways to highlight the work of Michael Martin Melendrez. Michael has developed an unique understanding of soil, its salinity, its ph, and its micro-organism web of life, its 'soil food net'. From that sensitivity to the balances within the soil Melendrez devised strategies to remediate poor soils into fertile ones.

Ecoversity's intern, Maribou Latour, interviews Michael Melendrez in his lushes arboretum, which he created himself from salt ridden heavy clay barrens. Over a period of twenty some years in remediating this mostly infertile dense 'brick-like' dirt Michael has discovered soil secrets that can be applied in many different circumstances.

This conversation in 5 parts on soil will give insight into the role and nature of humus, carbon absorbtion, salinity, compost,  mycorrhizal fungi, and their interplay. Michael then lays out a strategy for remediation through the production of glomalin, a glycoprotein produced abundantly on hyphae and spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soil and in roots. Glomalin is certainly a key to understanding carbon sequestration both in its protein and carbohydrate subunits. Michael explains how It permeates organic matter, binding it to silt, sand, and clay particles. Not only does glomalin contain 30 to 40 percent carbon, but it also forms clumps of soil granules called aggregates. (We will look at this in the video). These add structure to soil, and keep other stored soil carbon from escaping.

Hope you will enjoy this series on "Soil: the Terrestrial Biosphere" --
Please....brothers and sisters....watch all of them.... in particular created for those of you who have an interest in permaculture, farming and gardening, forestry, nurseries, etc. but also for planners, development agencies and large scale re-mediation projects......uh...I guess that is about all of you. Tx, Willem

The Spirit of Water

 Usually at this time it is exceedingly windy and dry and often hot in New Mexico, but not this year. Here in Santa Fe we have been blessed by what looks most like an early monsoon. The gardens at Ecoversity are coming alive, including a series of new fruit trees and a field of grains as a ground cover.

While visiting in an Eco-community in the mountains of South Brazil, it was raining daily --enough to power  5 major  waterfalls on let's say 600 acres or so. I took the opportunity to follow the flow of water there and try to capture the Spirit of it, film its abundant forms and almost joyous instantaneous creative formations.

With the edit I tried to illustrate water's unique crystal formation, existing even in liquid water. It comes from a complex and totally chaotic combo of air and wind conditions during rain and the subsequent crashing on mineral stones --constantly re-organizing both as individual particles and as interconnected sheets held together by surface tension. Anyhow, enjoy and take another look at water, edited to music of Dream Jungle by Dwight Loop. View it Large (HQ) --Play it Loud.

Bees Update

I am happy to mention that here at Ecoversity our top bar beehives are in full swing.  Over the winter we lost a few hives (in Mach and April), but likely not due to any illness or endemic CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder). More likely in our case it was a case of irratic wheather.  Whereas January and February were unusually warm, March and april turned cold with snow and temperatures in the low 20 ties at night. So the bees prematurely went looking for food without finding any, and then were exhausted and depleted before winter was fully done.  This is the most likely scenario of what transpired at Ecoversity's bee village. 

Be that as it may, since that time we have repopulated 4 hives with new colonies and their queens and they are buzzy ! Robert Sturm, one of Ecoversity's beekeepers did a wonderful demonstration on how to transfer the bees to a new hive:

Bees have also been in the news, as people gradually awaken to the serious threat of a lack of pollinators to the foodsupply. It is really still not clear if there is a singular cause to CCD, but here are some of the newly suggested culprits to CCD: 

-Spanish researchers found a parasitic fungus, Nosema ceranae, in two infected hives after eliminating other possible causes. More significantly, they were able to treat other hives with an antifungal, fumagillin, and cure the colonies. The fact that fumagillin is a very specialized anti-biotic, usually associated with a suppression of  in this case being used to treat a fungus, raises all kinds of questions about the nature of the desease Nosema ceranae is causing and the long term prognosis for the cure. For more study on this, please read: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/04/a-cure-for-colony-collapse.ars

-Pesticides in particular Bayer's Clothianidin: Dan Eden from Viewzone tells the story: One of the most important crops is corn. It's used as a feed for chickens and pigs and cattle. It's used in flour and in the production of high fructose corn syrup or to make ethanol to run our cars. But corn has an enemy called the root worm. This pesky bug, called diabrotica vergifera vergifera, burrows in the newly forming roots of the corn plant and causes the plant to wither and 

eventually die. Farmers have long sought some type of pesticide to kill the bug and, in 2003, Bayer Pharmaceutical introduced a new product called Clothianidin. Their own studies showed that this pesticide was highly toxic to bees but justified the widespread use because it could be applied to corn seed and would be buried in the soil where it would presumably be harmless to other creatures.

Bayer, who makes the pesticide, and Monsanto, who makes the adhesive, have patented the method of coating their proprietary seeds with clothianidin, which are now growing all over the globe.  Farmers have long sought some type of pesticide to kill the diabrotica bug and, in 2003, Bayer Pharmaceutical introduced a new product called Clothianidin. Their own studies showed that this pesticide was highly toxic to bees but justified the widespread use because it could be applied to corn seed and would be buried in the soil where it would presumably be harmless to other creatures.

Bayer, who make the pesticide, and Monsanto, who make the adhesive, have patented the method of coating their proprietary seeds with clothianidin, which are now growing all over the globe. In July of 2007, the German crop was infested with the rootworm. The German government ordered that every possible method should be used to eradicate this pest, including the use of clothianidin. Shortly after the seeds were planted, in May of 2008, some 330-million bees abruptly died! 

For more info on this  read the complete article by Dan Eden: http://www.viewzone.com/lostbees.bayer.html

-Finally there is more evidence that petrochemicals indeed interfere with the pheremone language of bees (something I suggested in Pheromones 1: the Chemical Language of Bees, an older post on this blog) and also in interspecies communication, in this case between flowers and bees. In order to pollinate flowers secrete a smell to attract bees. This too is a very subtle interspecies communication, done with volatile chemical packages which are called allomones and which give flowers their smell.

 In an article for National Geographic, Brian Handwerk writes:

" ....With more pollution in the air, the aromatic molecules don't remain potent as long and travel shorter distances on the wind.

The new study's model suggests that in the mid-19th century, when pollution levels were first recorded, scent molecules would have been able to travel some 3,300 to 3,900 feet (1,000 to 1,200 meters). Today, in the polluted air found downwind of large metropolises, scents may only make it some 650 to 980 feet (200 to 300 meters)......"  

for full article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080411-flowers-pollution.html

Obviously this affects the ability for bees to collect and for flowers to pollinate: a symbioses breakdown. I believe that longer term CCD in the beepopulation has to do with this breakdown in scent and interspecies communication systems, similar to the relationship between food-scarecity, hunger, stress and desease in the human population. That too is a breakdown in communication and symbiosis. 

This approach of looking at pheromones may also shed light on the ability of large solitary animals, or butterflies to survive in our time and how they have been affected by our human habits of 'burning it up' to motor our economy at any costs. It may even give some insights into changes in human sexuality, and  an increasing tendency towards violence. 

Maybe for one moment we all should try to smell this picture and realize the peace it brings:

We too need pheromones and allomones to find happiness....

Mycelium Running -Paul Stamets

Paul Stamets is a legendary observer of the fungi kingdom, and has been, ever since his first encounter with mushrooms as a forester some 30 years ago. They soon took over his imagination. Over the years Stamets wrote a series of beautiful books which generously informed an increasingly fungi-philic public on every step of his investigations into the life-form of  mushrooms: their growth and cultivation, their phenomenal reach and expansive properties, their potential in medicine and environmental re-mediation strategies, and their key role as decomposers.

In his latest book Mycelium Running Stamets draws our attention to the wondrous underground fungal network of Mycelium. You can sense his awe: 

"......Mycelium is the neurological network of nature....interlacing mosaics........ information-sharing membranes.....in constant molecular communication with its environment...." 

Stamets compares the mycelium networks and growth patterns to the internet, the brain, dark matter and archetypal spirals such as galaxies and hurricanes.

From his awe comes an interest in seeking the mycelium as a conscious human alley:

"....enlisting fungi as allies we can offset the environmental damage.....we can come into balance with nature using mycelium to regulate the flow of nutrients....the age of mycological medicine is upon us. Now is the time to ensure the future of our planet and our species by partnering, or running with mycelium." 

From this inspiring arc of insight Stamets proceeds to examine the expanding role and use of Mycelium and mushrooms in forestry, filtration, soil restauration, mico remediation, mycopesticides, cultivation, mycelium companion gardening.

Stamets  ends with "magnificent mushrooms: the cast of species" --kind of a  a who is who in mushroom land and how to cultivate and use them. 

This is a great book and I haven't even mentioned the wealth of photographs and illustrations. Paul Stamets has no doubt  grown into the foremost mushroom authority and  has inspired millions to open their eyes to a distant but close ancestor: the humble mushroom. 

Michelle's Garden and Cuba

Michelle Obama has been such an inspiration for so many, and  for mr. Obama himself --it's obvious. Her initiative of making an 'organic' garden and including the children, cooks and community is another ground-breaking example of being in tune with the reality of our time. Growing your own organic backyard garden may be the most effective way to bring the price of 'organics' down. What I expect to see, even this year, is that in cities all over America people will take community based initiative to start food gardens.

Let's face it --the only way to make organic truly organic is when it is produced in your own region, or better still...in your own backyard. What is 'organic' about an Argentinian grape sold on the shelves of let's say Whole Foods ? "Organic" and its marketting is often a deceptive ploy by now. So in case of Michelle's garden the 'organic part' should be almost taken for granted. Who would want to see pesticides ( that for instance kill bees) be sprayed around the White House? No-one ! Instead we want to see bees, mulch, compost, mushrooms, bats, all of that...

What is so great about Michelle's Garden is that it is an example of urban gardening -- an idea that may well feed millions of people in a time of crisis.

Here at Ecoversity our gardening and beekeeping classes have never been as well attended as this year. One can feel a kind of excitement in many beginners of all ages who want nothing more than to plant a seed and re-establish their relationship with the earth and become more self reliant in the process. People seem tired to work for money now, but they seem eager to volunteer and work for values, and learn whole new sets of skills in the process. 

In this respect we may count ourselves lucky that the tide is turning and relationships with Cuba are defrosting at last. Just a thought: a Michelle Obama  goodwill visit to Cuba (with the children) would be sensational and would create a whole new beginning with all of  Latin America. It turns out that there are a few good things about Cuba after all: though the Cubans may still all be very poor, they have experience (under duress of an embargo -- mind you) with organic urban farming (there are hundreds of food gardens in Havanna) and with how to have public healthcare at the same time. The wikipedia informs us that the "Cuban government operates a national health system and assumes fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of all its citizens". Isn't that more or less what we want here....? (but we are so far from that). It is funny how history has a way with us --there may be a few things to learn here....

Brazil: Agro-ecologia de Montanha

I just came back from a subtropical Mata Atlantica mountainous rainforest in Brazil, and witnessed an ecocommunity at work. On a bio-regional basis common Brazilians are developing a method of local foodsecurity and land management which they call "Agro-ecologia de Montanha". The principle is this: people are gaining foothold higher into the mountains by building their habitats and family homes in the forest, while at the same time the tree'd areas are expanding into the human areas ....along roads and into what used to be endless cow pastures. 

The forest itself is also transformed, though not one tree is

 being killed. What happens is that groups of mostly men, saddle up with some horses and mules loaded with a bunch of tree starts and

 other transplants that usually have some medicinal, fiber or food value. In open areas some underbrush is being removed and according to sound assessments  on water availability, erosion potential and organic matter, elders instruct groups of younger men and women how to plant trees in the forest. From that perspective --high up in the mountains-- it is easy to understand the relationship between healthy mountains and healthy waters in the valleys below .

What happened  

one day some 26 years ago, when our Brazilian friend G.F. walked into those mountains, he realized that from the materials right around him he could make a very comfortable house -- the trees, the rocks, the adobe --supplemented by some second hand carwindows and baked orange roof panes. He never left.  His architectural integration into the landscape was so seamless and comfortable -- and of course very cheap (in money --not in labor), that now some 150 people have adapted his 'style', or rather...his vision . He did the same to furniture and  all over the mountains one can find his one of a kind, sometimes bizarre and old, but always comfortable and sturdy chairs, stools and benches to sit on.

The mountain and valley are somewhat isolated. The first small village with some stores, lies at the end of a winding dirt road which often takes at least 60 minutes to travel. But hardly anybody goes.....why would they ? The people produce their own simple foods of manioc, corn (more than 25 varieties --all gm free), some bananas, basils, often combined with homemade yogurt or an array of delicious cheeses. Rarely fish from the fishpond, and never meat. They all wear very durable and comfortable clothes made in the valley. I felt kind of jealous of the sophisticated quality of the 'duds' of the Brazilian dudes. 

The community decided not to have dogs, since they keep most of the wild animals at bay and generally make too much noise . Chickens and goats attracted too many mountain Pumas, so now they are left with some cows (in the lower parts) and (too many) well trained but 'free' horses and some donkeys.

Most everyone in the valley is one way or another involved in the community school which is expanding. The children are thriving and engaged. There is internet access for everyone, but no tv. The whole place is kind of permeated with kind of a 'beat' feeling in the air.... why go anywhere or need anything when you can just open your eyes and take in La Naturaleza ?

At one point in its history the community tried to make transactions with a localized money system. However it got so complicated that it collapsed. Now they thrive on an 'economy of generosity' together. Nobody starves, education is available, everybody has shelter, there is very little capital, but there are tons of community (work) and ceremonial events that keep everyone on track and  fulfilled. 

But best is of course not to do anything at all: listen to the Daimond Sutra sung by the water streams and falls, echoing through the valley and harmonizing all beating hearts, until phenomena dissolve and churn into golden fiction.