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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 |
#2
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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/ |
#3
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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 |
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