Re: A Good Read

 Derald wrote:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576486421307171028.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_Life%26Culture#articleTabs%3Darticle

Interesting stuff, I might have to get the book.

I think he makes the point well that transport of plants to grow in new
areas can be a great blessing and a curse.  These unplanned experiments in
tweaking ecologies are still in progress in some cases and their
consequences are hard to predict.  We cannot ever put that genie back in the
bottle.


On the unintended transport of living things in sailing ship ballast there
is an interesting local story.  The port of Newcastle (on Hunter not Tyne)
has been exporting coal for well over a century.  On one bank of the river
there are retaining walls built of ballast.  Nearby are a number of rare (in
Australia) trees that came from South America in that ballast, the locals
are quite proud of these exotics, they appear on tourist maps etc.  As for
how many invasive weeds and bugs came here the same way they are not saying.

This leads me to a line of speculation.  Assuming it is 1820, you are the
Governor of the Colony, your word is law and you are blessed with
extraordinary prescience.  You realise that not all the new plants being
brought in are going to be beneficial in the long run.  You also realise
that banning all plant imports will be extremely difficult or impossible and
that it may not be a good idea even if was possible.  What would you do?

David

 David Hare-Scott wrote:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903454504576486421307171028.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_Life%26Culture#articleTabs%3Darticle

  someone please post the title/author.  i keep
going offline before getting to this post and
then forget later to look up the article.  :)



  if you catch it early enough you can
prevent accidentally imported species
from spreading.  you do need a very
good monitoring program and a bunch of
people who are willing to do the work.



  i don't think anyone can really know for sure.
here in the Great Lakes region of the USoA there
are plenty of similar cases.  some of the imports
are benign, but a few are very damaging (zebra
mussels being the primary example).  oftentimes
it forces the importing of predator species and
sometimes the testing for what those predators
prey upon apart from the target species doesn't
get noticed as detrimental to other natives.
so it can cascade...

  right now the Asian Carp is a worrisome
creature that is on the verge of the Great
Lakes.



  make it illegal to bring plants in without
studies, quarantines, inspections and have
standby eradication plans and people who
keep an eye out for strange plants.  yes it
is difficult, but better than letting
something like Kudzu or purple loosestrife
through.

  i think the toughest thing is the actual
garden plants like legumes (beans, peas,
clovers, alfalfa, etc).  which can change the
water quality and increase nitrogen loads in
the streams and runoff making the surrounding
reefs of an island more likely to have algae
problems...  would you ban these to prevent
that type of damage or institute gardening
practices and runoff water treatments to
soak up the extra nitrogen?  me, being an
avid water projects tinkerer i'd like to
build in seeps that catch and process the
runoff so it doesn't contain nitrogen that
would feed the algaes.  in the USoA we
could do a lot more of this to reduce the
dead zone in the Gulf, but as of yet there
isn't the will to implement this sort of
thing on the larger scale.  only the little
people who care seem to be doing much of
it directly.  bigger projects are sorely
needed all along the rivers.  they could be
incorporated into flood water overflow type
projects which are also sorely needed.


  songbird

 

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
by Charles C. Mann

--
Bill  S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

http://honest-food.net/

 

Mr Mann seems to have 1492 surrounded. He also wrote
"1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus"
by Charles C. Mann

<(Amazon.com product link shortened)
32059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid96839060&sr=1-1>

Also a very good read, and the main source of my information on bio-char.
--
- Billy
Both the House and Senate budget plan would cut Social Security and Medicare,
while cutting taxes on the wealthy.

Kucinich noted that none of the government programs targeted for
elimination or severe cutback in House Republican spending plans
"appeared on the GAO's list of government programs at high risk of
waste, fraud and abuse."
<http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/mar/28/dennis-kucinich/re
p-dennis-kucinich-says-gop-budget-cuts-dont-targ/>

[W]e have the situation with the deficit and the debt and spending and jobs. And
it¹s not that difficult to get out of it. The first thing you do is you get rid
of corporate welfare. That¹s hundreds of billions of dollars a year. The second
is you tax corporations so that they don¹t get away with no taxation.
 - Ralph Nader
<http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/19/ralph_naders_solution_to_debt_crisis>

 

That would certainly explain your general lack of understanding of bio-
char and shed light on your use of pseudo science. You do know  C.
Mann does not mention bio-char anywhere in his book.

Mann’s  comments on Terra Preta de Indio were  from promising
preliminary findings that are to date  still to be proved.   Even you
and your other bill's  oft quoted Dr. Mae-Wan Ho,  of the infamous I-
SIS says Terra Preta de Indio is not bio-char.... nor charcoal  As for
more credible sources you will have to sort Hype from fact hopefully
better than you did with Mann.  If you recall that "anemic little"
blog you and the bird tried to diminish to bolster your organo
positions:  http://www.re-char.com/2011/07/19/setting-the-record-straight-o=
n-biochar-again/
in which Jason pretty much summed up the situation to date:  “We
believe that biochar represents a growing industry with gigaton-scale
potential. By maintaining a strict code of ethics, and abiding by
scientific principles, we can sustainably grow the industry and all
benefit. We urge other members of the biochar community to follow-suit
and promote transparency.”

The state of the Bio-Char Initiative is pretty much following the
Organic movement track; loosely defined hype redefined as “facts”
perpetuated by zealots and  encouraged by Nuevo-Awareness
Entrepreneurs to buy into their product ideas ( act now and we will
send you two for the price of one… S&H not included, void where
prohibited by law) .

To date, Terra Preta de Indio has not proven very effective outside of
the tropical soils where it was discovered in the late 1800s.  Sadly,
neither Terra Preta de Indio nor Bio-char are the remedial panacea for
either soil or air,  yet they still hold promise, just far from the
Eco Holy Grail.

Again if you want to know the subject better than what is not in the
book,  do join one of the local Bio-Char organizations around the
country, there are many Google groups for ya billy.