Archive for December, 2007
Let’s make it a Happy New Year
The wonderful image above, depicting the Wheel of the Year, was sent to me by my friend Ruby. Thanks Ruby! And to everyone I’d like to say you have my very best wishes for 2008. I hope it is a good year for the world, the year when we finally wake up as a species to the challenges we face and start taking action.
tags: bees, chickens, environment, fossil fuels, fruit, gardening, health, new year, new year resolutions, recycling, vegetables, waste, Wheel of the YearScientists confirm the obvious: deforestation is bad
The benefits of cutting down tropical forests in order to convert the nutrient-rich soil into farmland are short-lived, say scientists. US researchers studied deforested land in Mexico and discovered soil levels of phosphorus, a vital plant nutrient, fell by 44% after just three growing cycles. In the long-term the land risks becoming so degraded that it becomes uneconomic to farm.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
What a surprise finding, though—who’d have thought it?–deforestation is not good news for plants. Of course I’m joking. In a darkly pessimistic kind of way. Is experience no longer acceptable evidence until sanctioned by scientific investigation? Is nothing true in the 21st century until a scientist sticks a needle in it, bungs a sample in a test-tube and heats it up, then writes a report for a periodical?
tags: common sense, deforestation, environment, soil
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