Eaarth
 

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben
http://www.amazon.com/Eaarth-Making-...805090568/ref=
sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289104639&sr=1-1
(available at libraries near you)
was a little disappointing, but only because I expected more, based on
his Scientific American, April 2010 interview. It's not a bad read, but
it's no page turner.

It is full of tales of thawing tundra, warm acidic oceans, lost glaciers
and snow packs, lost ag land, and declining harvests because of the
"global warming".

There is a fine exposition, though, on how how Vermonters are becoming
locavores and rediscovering the art of community.

Along the way we are told that polycultures produce more food per
hectare than monocultures,
a single calorie of energy used to produce 2 calories of food, but
today, 10 calories (of oil) are needed to produce 1 calorie of food,
a barrel of oil contains 11 years of man labor, and that each of us goes
through 60 barrels per year, YMMV,
that this isn't the same world that we grew up in, or that the world's
food crops developed in,
and that the food production per hectare hasn't increased over the last
25 years, in spite of Monsanto's best efforts.

The most important observation that I found was that over the next
century, many people will be returning to the land, either as farmers,
laborers, or gardeners. The problem is that these people have no
experience in growing crops. As I see it, that is where we come in. We
are already advising people, and each other, about how to grow food.
This is a service that will only become more needed.

So hang in there wrecked gardeners, your planet needs you.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/m...515308172.html

Eaarth
 

In article
,
Billy wrote:

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben
http://www.amazon.com/Eaarth-Making-...805090568/ref=
sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289104639&sr=1-1
(available at libraries near you)
was a little disappointing, but only because I expected more, based on
his Scientific American, April 2010 interview. It's not a bad read, but
it's no page turner.

It is full of tales of thawing tundra, warm acidic oceans, lost glaciers
and snow packs, lost ag land, and declining harvests because of the
"global warming".

There is a fine exposition, though, on how how Vermonters are becoming
locavores and rediscovering the art of community.

Along the way we are told that polycultures produce more food per
hectare than monocultures,
a single calorie of energy used to produce 2 calories of food, but
today, 10 calories (of oil) are needed to produce 1 calorie of food,
a barrel of oil contains 11 years of man labor, and that each of us goes
through 60 barrels per year, YMMV,
that this isn't the same world that we grew up in, or that the world's
food crops developed in,
and that the food production per hectare hasn't increased over the last
25 years, in spite of Monsanto's best efforts.

The most important observation that I found was that over the next
century, many people will be returning to the land, either as farmers,
laborers, or gardeners. The problem is that these people have no
experience in growing crops. As I see it, that is where we come in. We
are already advising people, and each other, about how to grow food.
This is a service that will only become more needed.

So hang in there wrecked gardeners, your planet needs you.

Here is a familiar author for you.

http://thurly.net/09oz

I've not read it yet.

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden
http://www.informationisbeautiful.ne...l-supplements/

Eaarth
 

In article ,
Bill who putters wrote:

Along the way we are told that polycultures produce more food per
hectare than monocultures,
a single calorie of energy used to produce 2 calories of food, but
today, 10 calories (of oil) are needed to produce 1 calorie of food,
a barrel of oil contains 11 years of man labor, and that each of us goes
through 60 barrels per year, YMMV,
that this isn't the same world that we grew up in, or that the world's
food crops developed in,
and that the food production per hectare hasn't increased over the last
25 years, in spite of Monsanto's best efforts.

The most important observation that I found was that over the next
century, many people will be returning to the land, either as farmers,
laborers, or gardeners. The problem is that these people have no
experience in growing crops. As I see it, that is where we come in. We
are already advising people, and each other, about how to grow food.
This is a service that will only become more needed.

So hang in there wrecked gardeners, your planet needs you.

Here is a familiar author for you.

http://thurly.net/09oz

I've not read it yet.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Socie...ed/dp/01430365
56/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289182449&sr=1-1
is a wonderful, wonderful book, a real page turner. Maybe the most
instructive chapter is Chapter 11 that discusses the island of
Hispanola, the two countries within it, Haiti, and the Dominican
Republic, and what their respective fates have been.

By and large, though, "Collapse" chronicles the bone head courses to
destruction, be it the Norse not adapting to the environment of
Greenland, as the Inuit did, because of cultural arrogance, or the
religious momentum that lead the inhabitants of Easter Island to destroy
their environment while awaiting their own "Rapture". What was the guy,
who cut down the last tree on Easter Island, thinking?

If you are looking for a very good book for over the winter, "Collapse",
or Diamond's other book "Guns, Germs, and Steel", would be good choices.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/m...515308172.html