Cultivating ecosystem gardens of health and hope share
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•817 views
Three different approaches are transforming humanity's relationship to the wider biosphere through innovative ecosystem stewardship, informed by our deepening understandings of ecology and complexity. Microbiome management promotes human health by cultivating the ecologies of microorganisms in, on and around our bodies, seeking to encourage beneficial symbionts and discourage invasive microbes that can trigger illness. Permaculture is a philosophy of gardening, food production and homestead management that fosters beneficial ecological interactions to cultivate healthy habitats for humans and other species. Rewilding is a strategy of landscape management that seeks to restore the balance and diversity of historic or prehistoric ecosystems by introducing species to fill trophic niches emptied by local extinctions. These approaches represent a radical shift of the post‐industrial human role in nature, from one of dominance, produce maximization and pest eradication to one of regenerative alliance and collaborative cultivation.
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Cultivating ecosystem gardens of health and hope share
Similar to Cultivating ecosystem gardens of health and hope share (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Cultivating ecosystem gardens of health and hope share
- 1. Permaculture, Microbiomes, and Rewilding to Mend Relationships with the Living World Michelle Y. Merrill Nanyang Technological University
- 2. “We can't control systems or figure them out. But we can dance with them!” ~Donella Meadows, (2002). Dancing with systems. Systems Thinker, 13, 2-6 Life adapts and evolves via Natural Selection https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Food_web_diagra m.svg
- 3. Antagonism • Cost to one, benefit to other • Prey – Predator • Host – Parasite • Costly to one or both • Competitors Facilitation • Beneficial to one, negligible to other • Commensalism • Beneficial to both • Mutualism • Symbiosis (interdependent)
- 5. • Antidote to “Totalitarian Agriculture” (D. Quinn, 1996, The Story of B) • Permaculture is a kind of biomimicry • Species diversity • Emphasize mutualistic relationships • “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” • Food forests
- 6. • Forest management with fire up to 50,000 years ago (Haberle, 1998, Hunt & Rabett 2014) • “Totalitarian Agriculture” first appears about 10,000 years ago Simon G Haberle Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 2007;362:219-228
- 7. Masanobu Fukuoka • “Do Nothing” Farming: • No Pesticides • No Fertilizers • No Tillage • No Wasteful Effort • How does the plant grow naturally? http://www.onestrawrevolution.net
- 8. Permaculture: a Designer’s Manual Bill Mollison, 1988 Set Limits to Population and Consumption Share the Surplus Care of the Earth Care of People
- 9. 1. Observe and interact 2. Catch and store energy 3. Obtain a yield 4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback 5. Use and value renewable resources and service 6. Produce no waste https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture#/media/ File:Claire_Gregorys_Permaculture_garden.jpg
- 10. 7. Design from patterns to details 8. Integrate rather than segregate 9. Use small and slow solutions 10. Use and value diversity 11. Use edges and value the marginal 12. Creatively use and respond to changehttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Enten_und _G%C3%A4nse_als_Gartenhelfer.jpg
- 12. http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/american- gut-project-will-investigate-gut-bacteria humanfoodproject.com Sender, R., Fuchs, S., Milo, R., 2016. Revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body. bioRxiv. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/036103
- 13. Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass,1891 Background image http://www.organiclifestylemagazine.com/ kill-candida-and-balance-the-gut-quickly
- 14. The archaeal, bacterial, and fungal components of the human gut microbiome. Hoffmann C, Dollive S, Grunberg S, Chen J, Li H, et al. (2013) Archaea and Fungi of the Human Gut Microbiome: Correlations with Diet and Bacterial Residents. PLoS ONE 8(6): e66019. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066019 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066019
- 15. Correlation of diet and gut microbial taxa Gary D. Wu et al. Science 2011;334:105-108 Published by AAAS
- 18. https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/ wolfrestorationinfo.htm https://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/10/09 /return-of-wolves-leads-to-aspen-resurgence- in-yellowstone/ How Wolves Change Rivers narrated by George Monbiot https://youtu.be /ysa5OBhXz-Q Michael E. Soulè Rewilding Institute rewild.org
- 19. Will the blight end the chestnut? The farmers rather guess not. It keeps smoldering at the roots And sending up new shoots Till another parasite Shall come to end the blight. ~Robert Frost, 1936 http://www.acf.org/Legacy_Tree.php Revive & Restore reviverestore.org
- 20. Louis Agassiz Fuertes - Birds of New York (New York State Museum) Memoir 12 Men still live who, in their youth, remember pigeons; trees still live who, in their youth, were shaken by a living wind. But a few decades hence only the oldest oaks will remember, and at long last only the hills will know. ~Aldo Leopold, 1947 Revive & Restore reviverestore.org
- 22. 1. Foster mutualisms: co-operators are standing by 2. Create good habitats 3. Promote and integrate diversity 4. Controlling everything is NOT possible 5. Respond to feedback: be a good dance partner!
- 23. How can we connect with, learn from and teach each other, so together we can co-create sustainable, resilient cultures? perplexedprimate@gmail.com Skype: michelle.y.merrill michelleyvonnemerrill.commmerrill@ntu.edu.sg
Editor's Notes
- [20 min] I’m the odd duck in this row. I’m going to provide another perspective on Cultivating Nature. In this talk, I’m going to tell you a little about Permaculture (meso-scale), then dive in and look at ideas about cultivating the human microbiome, then expand out to think about managing macro-scale landscapes and wildlife populations. I will argue that all three of these are examples of ways that we humans are beginning to see ourselves as collaborators with ecosystems. But first, I want to start with my “home disciplines” of evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology. Abstract: Three different approaches are transforming humanity's relationship to the wider biosphere through innovative ecosystem stewardship, informed by our deepening understandings of ecology and complexity. Microbiome management promotes human health by cultivating the ecologies of microorganisms in, on and around our bodies, seeking to encourage beneficial symbionts and discourage invasive microbes that can trigger illness. Permaculture is a philosophy of gardening, food production and homestead management that fosters beneficial ecological interactions to cultivate healthy habitats for humans and other species. Rewilding is a strategy of landscape management that seeks to restore the balance and diversity of historic or prehistoric ecosystems by introducing species to fill trophic niches emptied by local extinctions. These approaches represent a radical shift of the post-industrial human role in nature, from one of dominance, produce maximization and pest eradication to one of regenerative alliance and collaborative cultivation. Keywords: microbiome, permaculture, rewilding, ecosystem, biodiversity, complexity
- Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences tell us that living things form CASs Hard to predict, impossible to control – constant interactions and feedback loops among different parts of the whole system because everything is interconnected
- Reduce details, eco only One of the most vexing problems in the evolution of behavior is why we see so much that looks like altruism in social animals like honeybees and primates. We understand why Natural Selection would favor anything on this top row – behaviors that give some benefit in terms of reproductive success (access to resources, safety). Altruism and spitefulness don’t make sense under the basic logic of Natural Selection. But it turns out that most of the time when we see these, what we’re really seeing is a small time-slice of the larger picture that makes Altruism a kind of Mutualism (kin selection, reciprocal altruism), and Spite a kind of Competitive strategy. The organisms in question don’t need to consciously understand why that is, but if that is the average end result of the behavior, then genes that favor these behaviors will survive and spread in a population. From an ecological perspective… Commensalism + Mutualism = Ecological Facilitation now appears to be what makes most ecosystems work (more important than predation+ competition = ecological antagonism)?
- Permaculture is a philosophy that is all about Ecological Facilitation – truly radical in many senses of the word. a philosophy of gardening, food production and household management that seeks to encourage beneficial ecological interactions to produce healthy human habitats.
- Permaculture is revolting against “Totalitarian Ag” - complete conversion of land to produce human food, usually “mono-cropping” with a single species to maximize yield and minimize labor, killing anything that is not the food plant desired. Permaculture is a kind of biomimicry – the practice of deriving design ideas by emulating the genius of Nature and the results of her 3.8 Billion years of evolutionary experimentation. From http://forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/totalitarian-agriculture-16088.html The general idea of totalitarian agriculture is that the world was made for man and man was meant to rule it, and as such turn all forms of food (animal and plant alike) into human food… The first problem that developes out of this totalitarian agriculture becomes clear through common ecology. For if all food is food for humans then all other species begin to die off and without the diversity of many species the basic community of life begins to fall apart. Natural selection neccessitates the need for diversity. Another problem that developes out of totalitarian agriculture is evident everywhere you look and that problem is the overpopulation of humanity. Thus it is made evident that totalitarian agriculture is actually the greatest supporter of all humanities ills. Crime, mental illness, disease, famine, and war are all prevented from being treated by the natural order due to totalitarian agriculture's effect of overpopulation. The most important issue out of all this is the law that Daniel Quinn devised within his novels. That law is the Law of Limited Competition. The Law of Limited Competition states: "You may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down your competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food." This is the law that totalitarian agriculture disobeys. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_B "totalitarian agriculture," the style of agriculture whereby its practitioners destroy all competition and assume all resources are made only for their own use. … Under proliferation of totalitarian agriculture, the world population began to double, first taking 2000 years; then taking 1600 years; and eventually only taking 200 years between 1700 and 1900 AD; then again between 1900 and 1960 AD; and yet again between 1960 and 1996 AD. Over the last 10,000 years, this single society has expanded to include 99.8% of the world’s population. From http://www.resilience.org/stories/2010-07-20/permaculture-ethics-why-permaculture-different The ethical basis of permaculture as stated in Bill Mollison’s book Permaculture: a Designer’s Manual: 1. Care of the Earth—Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. 2. Care of People—Provision for people to access those resources necessary to their existence. 3. Setting Limits to Population and Consumption—By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above principles. Some also describe the third ethic as share the surplus.
- Humans have been horticulturalists for a very long time. Archaeological evidence of fire to manage forest gardens dating back to about 50,000 years ago. This image from Egypt, over 3000 years old, is actually long after “totalitarian agriculture” became widespread.
- Saw there was something wrong with the totalitarian agriculture being promoted in Japan in the 1960s & 70s If you stop fighting natural growth patterns and start working with them, you don’t need as much labor – your net energy (Energy Return on Investment) is good enough to feed the laborers, with some surplus. Not maximizing yields, optimizing yield per person/hour.
- Reduce detail From http://www.resilience.org/stories/2010-07-20/permaculture-ethics-why-permaculture-different The ethical basis of permaculture as stated in Bill Mollison’s book Permaculture: a Designer’s Manual: 1. Care of the Earth—Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. 2. Care of People—Provision for people to access those resources necessary to their existence. 3. Setting Limits to Population and Consumption—By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above principles. Some also describe the third ethic as share the surplus.
- Reduce detail From http://www.resilience.org/stories/2010-07-20/permaculture-ethics-why-permaculture-different The ethical basis of permaculture as stated in Bill Mollison’s book Permaculture: a Designer’s Manual: 1. Care of the Earth—Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. 2. Care of People—Provision for people to access those resources necessary to their existence. 3. Setting Limits to Population and Consumption—By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above principles. Some also describe the third ethic as share the surplus.
- Reduce detail, only list a few key points Observe and interact: [Take time and engage with nature, understand your location] By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation. Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need. Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing. Apply self-regulation and accept [pay attention to] feedback [in the system]: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well. Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources. Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste. Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go. Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other. Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes. Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides. Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system. Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.
- Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go. Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other. Use small and slow solutions:[big interventions tend to create their own problems] Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes. Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides. Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system. Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time. Permaculture is a way of dancing with an ecosystem, not “managing” it in the command-and-control sense, but fostering and nudging it in directions that are most conducive to healthy human lives.
- Maybe we can apply permaculture principles to managing what’s going on in our own bodies…
- All humans harbor a copious, diverse ecosystem of microrganisms on their skin, in their mouths, and especially in their lower digestive system. about 40 trillion bacteria and 30 trillion human cells in healthy 70kg man (only about 3T nucleated, rest are small, non-nucleated RBCs and platelets) – even more bacteria and fewer human cells in women EST weight, est. 1-3% of total body mass (0.7 – 2.1kg) EST size (softball, half gallon ~1.8L) All the bacteria living inside you would fill a half-gallon jug; there are 10 times more bacterial cells in your body than human cells, according to Carolyn Bohach, a microbiologist at the University of Idaho (U.I.), along with other estimates from scientific studies. (2007) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-humans-carry-more-bacterial-cells-than-human-ones/ “You are more bacteria than you are you, according to the latest body census” By Melinda Wenner on November 30, 2007 Sci American --- This average guy would be composed of about 40 trillion bacteria and 30 trillion human cells https://www.sciencenews.org/article/body%E2%80%99s-bacteria-don%E2%80%99t-outnumber-human-cells-so-much-after-all Revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body Ron Sender, Shai Fuchs, Ron Milo doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/036103 This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed [what does this mean?]. Abstract We critically revisit the ″common knowledge″ that bacteria outnumber human cells by a ratio of at least 10:1 in the human body. We found the total number of bacteria in the ″reference man″ to be 3.9·1013, with an uncertainty (SEM) of 25%, and a variation over the population (CV) of 52%. For human cells we identify the dominant role of the hematopoietic lineage to the total count of body cells (≈90%), and revise past estimates to reach a total of 3.0·1013 human cells in the 70 kg ″reference man″ with 2% uncertainty and 14% CV. Our analysis updates the widely-cited 10:1 ratio, showing that the number of bacteria in our bodies is actually of the same order as the number of human cells. Indeed, the numbers are similar enough that each defecation event may flip the ratio to favor human cells over bacteria. -are 10X as many bacteria as nucleated human cells (non-nucleated RBCs and platelets are 90% of human cell count, but very low mass)
- 125 years ago, Walt Whitman had something very different in mind, and yet these memorable words seem quite prescient.
- We are gaining a much better understanding of the diversity of these multitudes now that we can use genomic sequencing to detect and identify microbial species. This heat map shows the presence of different groups of Archea, Bacteria, and Fungi from the guts of 98 healthy volunteers (ages 2-50, Minnesota), and you can see that each individual has their own unique microbial “fingerprint” Some microbial species seem to be engaged in mutualisms, facilitating one anothers’ flourishing. Other species tend to exclude one another, either due to competition for access to resources, or due to the toxicity of the waste products of one on the other. There is a growing awareness among clinicians that this [the human gut microbiome] is a complex adaptive system, a garden within us to be tended. Some doctors now recommend probiotic supplements for certain conditions like chronic or recurring digestive complaints, and there are even doctors who perform ‘fecal transplants’ to restore healthy microbiota for patients who have lost or disrupted gut biodiversity. “Microbial communities in diverse settings have been shown to form syntrophic communities, in which metabolic waste products from one microbe provide nutrients for another.”
- Different microbial species respond differently to environmental changes - in your gut, that’s largely about what you’re eating – this figure shows the positive and negative responses of different bacterial species (columns) to the relative abundance of different nutrients in the diets of those same 98 volunteers. Antibiotics also an issue, they are like Extinction Level Events in the gut. Like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, they don’t kill everything, but what’s left can be very different from what used to be there. We still have a lot to learn about our relationships to our internal microbial companions. But there is a growing awareness among clinicians that this is a complex adaptive system, a garden within us to be tended. Some doctors now recommend probiotic supplements for certain conditions like chronic or recurring digestive complaints… Correlation of diet and gut microbial taxa identified in the cross-sectional COMBO analysis. Columns correspond to bacterial taxa quantified using 16S rDNA tags; rows correspond to nutrients measured by dietary questionnaire. Red and blue denote positive and negative association, respectively. The intensity of the colors represents the degree of association between the taxa abundances and nutrients as measured by the Spearman’s correlations. Bacterial phyla are summarized by the color code on the bottom; lower-level taxonomic assignments specified are in fig. S1. The dots indicate the associations that are significant at an FDR of 25%. The FFQ data were used for this comparison (both FFQ and Recall dietary data are shown together in fig. S1). Columns and rows are clustered by Euclidean distance, with rows separated by the predominant nutrient category.
- Rewild book subtitle: You’re 99% Microbe – It’s time you started eating like it Different microbial species respond differently to environmental changes - in your gut, that’s largely about what you’re eating – this figure shows the positive and negative responses of different bacterial species (columns) to the relative abundance of different nutrients in the diets of those same 98 volunteers. Leach did research on the Hadza, a group in Africa that mostly continue to eat foraged food, and are considered to be one of the groups of humans whose lifestyle is most similar to the lifestyle of all humans for 95% of the time that humans have been Homo sapiens, (99.9% of the time since the ancestors of humans separated from the ancestors of chimpanzees). They eat about 7X as much fiber as the average American today, live in a much more microbe-rich environment, and have a much more diverse microbiota (how much of the microbiota difference is diet and how much is exposure remains a question for study). [De Vrieze, Jop. "Gut instinct." Science 343.6168 (2014): 241-243. http://humanfoodproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Science_NewsFocus_Leach.pdf] In our urbanized world, sanitation practices and antibiotic use has not just reduced the dangerous bacteria – it’s drastically reduced populations of good, symbiotic bacteria around and in us. Antibiotics are like Extinction Level Events in the gut. Like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, they don’t kill everything, but what’s left can be very different from what used to be there. Frequent antibiotics use is a real problem, not only in people who don’t necessarily need them (e.g. anyone with a flu or other virus, or even a mild bacterial infection and a healthy immune system that could clear it up on its own), but also in livestock animals (often just as a preventative measure to maximize growth). This creates an environment that favors antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains – making the antibiotics less effective for those individuals who really do have a threatening bacterial infection. Hospitals are now constantly struggling with resistant “superbugs” that endanger patients. We still have a lot to learn about our relationships to our internal microbial companions. But there is a growing awareness among clinicians that this is a complex adaptive system, a garden within us to be tended. Some doctors now recommend probiotic supplements for certain conditions like chronic or recurring digestive complaints. and there are even doctors who perform ‘fecal transplants’ to restore healthy microbiota for patients who have lost or disrupted gut biodiversity. Correlation of diet and gut microbial taxa identified in the cross-sectional COMBO analysis. Columns correspond to bacterial taxa quantified using 16S rDNA tags; rows correspond to nutrients measured by dietary questionnaire. Red and blue denote positive and negative association, respectively. The intensity of the colors represents the degree of association between the taxa abundances and nutrients as measured by the Spearman’s correlations. Bacterial phyla are summarized by the color code on the bottom; lower-level taxonomic assignments specified are in fig. S1. The dots indicate the associations that are significant at an FDR of 25%. The FFQ data were used for this comparison (both FFQ and Recall dietary data are shown together in fig. S1). Columns and rows are clustered by Euclidean distance, with rows separated by the predominant nutrient category.
- …and there are even doctors who perform ‘fecal transplants’ to restore healthy microbiota for patients who have lost or disrupted gut biodiversity. [This was just in Friday’s issue of Science, where governments are trying to decide how to regulate “stool banks” where healthy donors provide samples for fecal transplantation.]
- But there is a growing awareness among clinicians that this [the human gut microbiome] is a complex adaptive system, a garden within us to be tended. Some doctors now recommend probiotic supplements for certain conditions like chronic or recurring digestive complaints, and there are even doctors who perform ‘fecal transplants’ to restore healthy microbiota for patients who have lost or disrupted gut biodiversity. It’s good to see this kind of ecological thinking filtering into medical practice… Macrobiomes are another story… and wolves are a really important part of getting balanced and healthy macrobiomes.
- How Wolves Change Rivers – narrated by George Monbiot By direct predation, and by the effect of predation fear in the behavior of grazers and browsers like elk, they change the vegetation around rivers, changing river flow and improving fish habitat
- Large carnivores are keystone species – shapers of ecosystems Large core habitat areas must be protected to maintain viable, ecologically effective carnivore populations Corridors must connect the cores so migration can maintain genetic diversity
- (David Burney, TEDxDe-Extinction) No known exceptions to pattern of human arrival followed by megafauna extinction Rewilding in Sci American Not a distraction from conservation – helps ecological community, builds in human interest: HOPE Thylacines (Tazmanian marsupial ‘wolf’) Would they be extinct now if it had been legal to keep them as pets? ~Michael Archer Who will mother them? Teach them how to be a real thylacine?
- Blight from Asian chestnut trees killed most American chestnuts, beginning about a century ago – they’re not extinct, but they no longer have an ecologically effective population. It has been suggested that their vulnerability to this invasive fungus was not merely bad luck or bad genes. They may have been exceptionally vulnerable because a few years before the blight arrived they had lost an important ecological partner: the Passenger Pigeon…
- Blight from Asian chestnut trees killed most American chestnuts, beginning about a century ago – they’re not extinct, but they no longer have an ecologically effective population. It has been suggested that their vulnerability to this invasive fungus was not merely bad luck or bad genes. They may have been exceptionally vulnerable because a few years before the blight arrived they had lost an important ecological partner: the Passenger Pigeon. Passenger pigeons were heavily hunted in North America, (extinct in the wild by 1900) and the last one died in captivity 102 years ago, but they were once among the most numerous bird populations on the planet, traveling in vast flocks. And, being pigeons, you can be sure that they made a mark on the landscape, particularly when flocks roosted in huge trees like the American Chestnut (one of their preferred trees), and left their droppings as fertilizer. We know organisms like humans are much more susceptible to infection when they are malnourished – it’s been speculated that was true of the American Chestnut trees. Revive & Restore teams are now working on both species. They’ve had some success with genetic modification of some surviving Amercian Chestnut trees. They’re trying to get intact DNA from passenger pigeon specimens, with the intention to transfer it into the eggs of a closely related pigeon species.
- Humans are already radically reshaping global habitats through our influence on climate by way of greenhouse gas emissions, especially through burning fossil fuels. About 30 years ago, Bill McKibben referred to our role in ACD as “The End of Nature.” Since then, others have pointed out that humans have actually been shaping larger landscapes for tens of thousands of years, from our early role as super-predators, contributing to extinctions of the largest animals in every new place our ancestors migrated, to the active use of fire by those earliest humans in places like North America to promote the game they most liked to hunt and the plants they most liked to gather. Some have begun to ask, why don’t we embrace our role as landscape-shapers, and just try to do it smarter, not only undoing some of those extinctions, but also actively trying to reverse our more recent threats from ACD. Gaviotas pine plantations (supplemented with mycorrhizal root fungus) fostered rainforest takeover of former llanos grasslands
- While it is essential to continue actions to halt further destruction and injury to ecosystems, the exciting thing about rewilding is that it is actively healing the wounds in the biosphere. Prevention is better than cure, you still want a doctor to help after traumatic injury. We have the opportunity, with what scientists know now, to go beyond resisting disease and loss, and move towards actively healing our food production systems, our internal ecologies, and even the larger landscape disruptions we have caused.
- We can probably never go back to harmless – we are so many, and the biosphere is already so different from what it was without us. Can we make things right again? Science fiction writers have speculated that groups of people might turn to this as a foundation for new religions, as the environmental situation gets dire. Earth 1990, David Brin MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood: Oryx and Crake 2003, Yr of the Flood 2009, MaddAddam 2013
- It may not have to go as far as that. Frances Moore Lappé (author of 1971’s best-selling Diet for a Small Planet), proposed in her recent book that we can actively work to change our mindsets in order to build a better world for all. Development and Growth are not synonyms
- We have the opportunity, with what scientists know now, to go beyond resisting disease and loss, and move towards actively healing our food production systems, our internal ecologies, and even the larger landscape disruptions that have characterized the Anthropocene. The challenge is to share that knowledge, and use it wisely and carefully to restore our relationships in the CAS of our biosphere. We can choose to be partners in this amazing dance of life on Earth. Will we make this choice, before these large and small ecosystems stumble and fall, and pull us down with them?
- We know some of the right steps to take. 1-5. The challenge is to share that knowledge, and use it wisely and carefully to restore our relationships in the CAS of our biosphere. We can choose to be partners in this amazing dance of life on Earth. Will we make this choice, before these large and small ecosystems stumble and fall, and pull us down with them?
- I think these kinds of projects are essential to maintaining the future viability of human civilizations within the biosphere. for the next few months at NTU, after that I’m not sure (depends on grant funding)