What Will Happen When the Southwest Spreads East - US News
What Will Happen When the Southwest Spreads East - US News: "The New Southwest"
This is a great article, one which I have taken the time to store in my own documents. Dr. Jay Banner of UT Austin provides some excellent insights as well as graphics on the longer term cycle of what is happening to Texas, and in particular along the I-35 corridor. Take a closer look at the images showing Texas before, during and after the drought of 2011-2012. Recovery is much harder than the process which can destroy things.
Unfortunately, we have growth which can exacerbate the problem. Fortunately, we have growth, which can solve the problem. How can we finance a reduction in evaporation rates? Evaporation is like inflation or high interest rates. We can't control the amount of rainfall coming into our accounts, but we can control the amount of evaporation going out of our accounts. It is called Permaculture and we need to rebuild our landscapes around those concepts. Fortunately (again), the progress of Permaculture in terms of local food production, water production (through dramatically reduced evaporation rates of upto 50%) and carbon sequestration are all things we really, really need. Permaculture is a triple bottom line activity when done right. That is the concept behind our work, doing it right. Our progress in this respect can be amazing - just see this TED talk on how quickly both solar and wind beat our initial estimates for impact. We are now at multiples of the best earlier forecasts for those technologies.
I-35 represents the frontline preventing desertification and recovering rainfall from evaporation. What we do here will influence the world's deserting areas.
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Increasing Drought Now Threatens Nearly All U.S. Forests | Nicholas School
Increasing Drought Now Threatens Nearly All U.S. Forests | Nicholas School:
I find it hard to make new comments when I see articles like this. Drought. We have seen it and there are ways to act, but it is not something where we should be saying "Can you fix that for me?". If we are land owners, then we have a responsibility to the land we own, to make it work, and that means water. We are still averaging 30" of rainfall per year. The task is reducing evaporation rates through permaculture. Permaculture is a simple low cost strategy that any landowner can start implementing now. Otherwise, we just have our own inaction to thank.
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Why Food is the New Internet — Food is the New Internet — Medium
I really like watching this TED video: "Real food is the opportunity of your generation, the wave that is coming, will blow your mind. Get involved, do something, you will love it and you will change the world". Kimbal Musk
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Texas Civic Health Index | Moody College of Communication
Texas Civic Health Index | Moody College of Communication:
Check out the Civic Health indicators panel and report. Can a holistic community exist without a healthy level of civic involvement? Is the community structure a key to improved civic activity levels?
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The Bone Broth Secret by Louise Hay - HayHouse
The Bone Broth Secret by Louise Hay - HayHouse:
The Bone Broth Secret is another book in the seemingly universal discovery that broth is good for us. It is amazing how fast the publishing pipelines have identified broth as the new way forward. I enjoyed working through this book because they take broth recipes to new levels. They include it in deserts and cocktails! Bravo!
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Excellent article on Soil and Climate Change
AUSTRALIAN ECO-FARMING CONSULTANT GRAEME SAIT PROVIDES AN IN-DEPTH LOOK INTO THE TOP THREATS TO GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND EXPLAINS 10 REAL-WORLD SOLUTIONS
The UN has named 2015 the International Year of Soils, and we should embrace this initiative with open hearts and willing hands. It is an incredibly timely focus in light of a series of serious challenges impacting our future and perhaps our very existence. Soil health directly affects plant, animal and human health. It also impacts topsoil erosion, water management and ocean pollution. Most importantly, it is now recognized that climate change is directly related to soil mismanagement. I believe a global soil health initiative can help save our planet.
This article appeared in the June issue of Acres U.S.A. Please read online, with our compliments.
Scientists just found another key threat to global food security - The Washington Post
Scientists just found another key threat to global food security - The Washington Post:
The Central Intelligence Agency is rumored to have researched this issue several years ago, and I found the topic to be quite important. The CIA is interested because once the Florida mines are exhausted (which is supposedly starting to happen and why the CIA began their research), the only countries where we can get supplies of Phosphorous are not friendly/easy to deal with.
Aside from the price of Copper, the Peak Phosphorous issue is like to be the most economically important trend in soil minerals over the coming years. How will the price of phosphorous rise over the coming years, and it seems that phosphorous will have more Supply & Demand issues than the other minerals. What are the rewards to the first mover who invests in Phosphorous now? How important will it be to recover all of the phosphorous from our food chains? Further, it is not the point of which there is no more phosphorous, but the point at which demand is significantly greater than supply that prices start to really shift. I am keen to get ahead of this economic curve and secure what I need, sooner rather than later.
Here is a Youtube links: https://youtu.be/RXvSiY5FZqQ (1972 promo video on the role of P)
In this German paper (published), the authors make clear that they do not expect pricing issues within this century:
"Given the current reserve estimates for phosphate rock, neither an exhaustion of global researves nor a peak event is likely to occur within this century. However, these estimates are subject to a significant degree of uncertainty. Moreover, the global distribution of phosphate production and reserves is highly skewed and has the potential to pose a threat to food security in developing countries through factors such as the volatility of rock price or price setting by suppliers with significant market power."
It is that sentence that would keep my focus on this topic. The CIA was interested in this, because the closest and largest reserves to the USA are in Morocco, and more specifically in a part of Morocco that is politically very difficult to control.
A link to a report studying Peak Phosphorous published by Energy Bulletin, which contains the following graphic:
Sea Level Rise Will Be Permanent
Sea Level Rise Will Last Twice as Long as Human History
I've found this article on News Google Reader
Carbon Farming Video Resources
Here is an excellent web resource that I just came across. It features an excellent 1 hour video from Eric Toensmeier. See this link.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker Announces Awardees of $10 Million in Grants to Advance Innovation Across America
The following grant announcement concerns the US EDA's Regional Innovation Strategies Grant Program.
U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE PENNY PRITZKER ANNOUNCES AWARDEES OF $10 MILLION IN GRANTS TO ADVANCE INNOVATION ACROSS AMERICA
A heat map of war over water.
I would like to copy the picture, but you need to follow the link to the Popular Science issue of May 2014 on water. It includes an opening article from Michael Webber of the Water-Energy Nexus at UT Austin. The heat map is the following link Popular Science Link, while the table of contents for issue is here
Climate Reality Project
From the Climate Reality Project:
In 2000, analysts projected the world would have 30 gigawatts of wind energy capacity installed by 2010. In 2015, the world passed this mark by 14.5 times!
Experts also projected in 2002 that the world would install 1 gigawatt of solar power per year by 2010. Last year, we beat that figure by 58 times over. And this year, we are on track to exceed that prediction by 68 times over!
The cost of solar energy has decreased about 10 percent each year for the past 30 years, and we’re getting closer to grid parity in more and more markets around the world, which means solar power will soon cost less than electricity from fossil fuels in more and more places around the world!
How to Win Millennials: Equality, Climate Change, and Gay Marriage - The Atlantic
How to Win Millennials: Equality, Climate Change, and Gay Marriage - The Atlantic:
What should we expect from the next demographic cohort? The Pew Research Center reports that they are decidedly progressive, and nervous about money. They are pro renewable energy, and seek equal rights and pay for women. The largest segment based on attitudes are the struggling passive progressives, which are likely to be less partisan, female, working class, and worried about climbing up.
What the world eats.
You may have seen those cool pictures of what families from around the world eat (PDF link to pictures here). Here is another visualization from the National Geographic. Look at the bottom to see a time line and how the diets have changed over the years.
Weather Radials
I came across this cool visualization of weather patterns. I wish that the site would be updated for the various years or trends. I would like to see how things change in 5 year increments from 1950 to today. Click here to see more in detail. They have pictographs for 35 cities around the globe!
Link to a review of: The Community Scale Permaculture Farm
I saw this book at the local library and was fortunate to get it as soon as the library made it available. I am keen about the title, but ultimately realized that this book is about a scale that I find to burdensome for most homeowners. It is a model that I believe will ultimately not scale up well.
Here is a review by Gregory Zimmerman who is a professor of Biology at Lake Superior State University, where he teaches in the area of ecology, bio-stats and epidemiology. His research includes sustainable local communities, food systems, and environmental conservation. He and his family have a small, diverse farm on which they grow produce for the local farmer's market, CSA customers, and local restaurants.
Link to review. Scroll to the bottom to review the pdf.
High Heat Forces Firefighters to Change Tactics | News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KEYE
High Heat Forces Firefighters to Change Tactics
One of the leading causes of death for firefighters is heat stress. The higher the temperature, the greater the risk for fire fighters. In addition, they can't work as long in the heat and thus as the temperature's get higher due to climate change, the same forest fire will require more fire fighters and more equipment to support them. Yes, Taxes.
Netflix - A vision for a farm.
If you have a chance to watch something this summer that is related to food and farming, you would do well to watch the Netflix online video: Chef's Table - Episode 2 with Dan Barber.
Brain Maker by David Perlmutter
You may know this book by its better known sibling - Grain Brain. The subtitle of the book pretty much says it: "The power of gut microbes to heal and protect your brain - for life".
While the book is a good tour of all the benefits of fermented foods and why we need them, it also touches on the sensitive topic of FMT - fecal matter transplants. The author brings us quickly up to speed on the state of the art in this science, as well as how far behind we are in the USA as compared to Europe and Australia. The FDA is working on it, he assures us, and there are new methodologies coming quickly such as pills that can have similar effects as the more manual transfusions. The book is definitely worth reading if you are having chronic illnesses. I leave it to the book to explain which illnesses.
Some of my favorite parts/quotes from the book:
- The Germ Theory of Disease. That our diseases are the result of being infected with a specific species of germ, which should then be eliminated. This approach was soundly criticized back in 1923 for its lack of awareness about the system. A repeat of the linear/reductionist thinking (simpler) versus holistic or systems thinking (harder).
- Dr. David Topping (CSIRO - Australia): "The Interaction between microflora, particularly their products and their substrate, holds immense potential for the management and prevention of serious diseases, colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, perhaps even conditions like Alzheimers, autism, and Parkinson's.
- Belgian Nobel laureate Maurice Maeterlinck: "At every crossway on the road that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men assigned to guard the past.
Ellen Dunham-Jones: Retrofitting Suburbia
This is not just another advocate for change, but someone that can talk about the blueprint for what to do with the problems of suburbia. Ms. Dunham-Jones brings up an interesting point. Can municipal government finance the reconstruction of our soils? It really depends on what what you define as reconstruction. Austin is 270 square miles, excluding the ETJ. Travis County is 1,047 square miles. Depending on the scope of 'reconstruction' for environmental function, this could between $8,000 and $30,000 per acre. $8,000 per acre would represent just mineral additions to the soil in accordance with Exchange Capacity Testing, which is very similar to what the soil biology needs for balanced growth. At 640 acres/square mile, that can quickly get into the billions of dollars range. This is a very simplistic calculation and lacks tremendous sophistication. What is really hard however, is to get the more natural water flows over the surface right. Roads are fairly permanent and are rarely disrupted. The same with property lot lines. How can we orchestrate swales and berms over a watershed area if not all property owners and decision makers are on board? If we don't take that step, the investment in minerals could easily be washed downstream. Wicked problems.