Gunner wrote:
Billy wrote:
Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence by
Christian Parenti (Jun 28, 2011)


What a poorly written piece you present as evidence of organic best
practices. Do you really know about the hydrology or even the geology
of the area in this cherry picked book writers sociologist article?

do you?


Seems to me you know even less about the anthropology of the region.
So plastic coke bottles with holes in them are organic best
practices? Sure glad the Catholic relief groups helped in the
translation of this organic wonderment so as to better help us
understand what your trying to say, It sounds so, I don't know...like
so much gringo speak, further translated into something resembling
your organic rants.

How about telling us about the many droughts in that area, should man
keep trying to build in that environment just because " He was not
rich but had enough land to make the transition from main-stream
methods to green farming". What was his main stream methods prior ?
Slash and burn? I feel you need a better understand of the
sciences.

the obvious trouble in many drought stricken
areas is that the soil is being stripped bare
by animal over grazing and then the winds remove
the fertile topsoil and there goes their fertility.

my readings over the years see the same cycle
repeat in many areas (both historical and some
evidence available for prehistoric events too).

if you can keep the ground covered then it
retains water, stays cooler. if you have a
variety of covers then that increases diversity.

are you arguing against either of these
approaches being good things for any land?


You really think green farming and some dam idea is going to keep him
from starving in the next drought?

if he can make enough in the wetter years
then perhaps he can get through a drought.
if he keeps the land covered then the soil
will not be stripped by the winds in the
next drought, so that when the rains return
his land will be in much better shape than
those who farm their land down to bare soil
and leave it vacant (as they do here quite
often all winter).


Perhaps you really think that the
dam idea is somehow unique to your book writer's organo POV on that
area and that give them some special advantage?

the advantage was stated plainly. they
get more moisture retention and a higher
water table for the area upslope from the
dam. likely making for better crops and
thus more production. also it likely
keeps erosion in check a lot better than
letting the gullies run at full torrent.


Do you even know some
of the many other areas in the world that technique is used? The
author neglects to mention that it is the surface dams that allow the
many tribes to live in the region today. Bet ya didn't even know that
there is a vast river under the Amazon a little further south, just
as large at a depth of ~4000 ft? Also not a lot of nutrients going
into that poor soil, which is worse than the soils in the Colorado and
American River basins. The fate of these folks reads very similar to
the Anasazi and the Maya. Do you know how many died in the last big
drought there and when was it?

thousands to hundreds of thousands, but even
more likely many more were killed by diseases than
by drought (millions more).


Like your BS rants about C. Mann and his discovery of biochar that
never was. You know nothing about the area, the people, or the land,
much less the hydrology. Sure seem like your buying into this writer's
book marketing scheme in the same way. Cherry picked doom and gloom ,
being oppressed by the " Man", escaping a world of violence and
depression through the enlightenment of the world of Organic
Superiority. ( cue the harps! down the lights, main spot center
stage on coke bottles dripping water!).

This one is a pathetic leap to organo is best, even for you billy boy.
.

your rants miss the target quite often so
Gunner i'd wish you'd sharpen it up too.

talking about an underground river by the
Amazon does nothing for the drought stricken
parts of Africa.

oh well, better luck next time,


songbird