Well I I know I haven’t written in a while –I’ve been busy :-). However I just did a brief interview with TallPaul and Sheri Menelli. Two wonderful representatives of our California Southern California permaculture community.
To listen to the show visit: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/asktallpaul/2013/09/09/permaculture-aquatic-systems–ponds-constructed-wetlands
Bob
Every single disease _will_ have a genetic “cause”.
Every… single… one… because we are all built on genes.
Any chemicals that affects us must work on us through our gene products. Chemicals can only work on us through the enzymes, proteins, and regulatory systems that make us up.
So there is some hypothetical enzyme that adds atoms to a colorless molecule ClearMol. (CM) to create a blue color BlueMol. (BM) and that blue color gives us blue eyes.
Hypothetical: There is a pesticide(P) that is acted upon by this same enzyme. Termed “false substrate” (Every single enzyme cross reacts with other chemicals. This is why there are enzyme inhibitors and medical side effects to drugs.)
Back to our hypothetical — When our human [blue-eye]enzyme acts on the pesticide it does the same thing it would normally do and adds the same group of atoms — but to the pesticide (Pesticide*). Now the changed pesticide Pesticide* has different biological properties. Different properties than the original pesticide that the companies tested. Now this modified pesticide (Pesticide*) causes disease. This is all hypothetical but …. After years of scientific investigation the enzyme for blue eyes would be identified as a cause of the disease for the reason stated at the start that it is modifying the pesticide. Some people with blue eyes get this disease and no one else does.
Also you could chemically (medically) block the function of the blue-eyed enzyme and prevent the disease.
Ergo The genetic cure for this “disease” then would be to “cure” us of the gene for blue eyes. Or chemically cure us by inhibiting the function of the enzyme. Wow a new drug you could sell :-). This, in my opinion, is the danger of designer babies and really most drugs.
In my opinion it would be the pesticide that we should cure ourselves of.
Learn about your world.
So I’ve been taking pictures and observing dragonflies at my pond. I think I have identified the majority of them
Large all blue — Blue-eyed Darner aeschna multicolor Large all green — Green Darner (Anax junius) or imperator Dark Dark blue with black patches on wings — Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata) Red — Flame Skimmer Libellula saturata Smaller red — Variegated Meadowhawk ( Sympetrum corruptum) Smaller all blue — Erythemis collacata (Western Pondhawk) Small fluorescent pink red — Roseate Skimmer (Orthemis ferruginea)
So I have seen at least seven different types and the population shifts periodically. When any of the darners are there there are no other dragonflies. And the green Garner was laying eggs. But when the Western pond Hawks are there there are usually ten or so.
Damselflies Pacific fork tail Bright blue tail red brown
There are often hordes of damselflies. I counted 20 on one little clump of sedge.
There are also some dragonflies that flit around my orchard But they are about 10 feet off the ground and very hard to see what colors they have other than a general shade of amber.
What the heck is wrong with the friends of the Madrona Marsh in Torrance California.
They are so proud that …
Quotes on The Friends of Madrona Marsh (FOMM) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and restoring the Madrona Marsh. The Friends have been the backbone of the Madrona Marsh Preserve for the last thirty years. They are involved in creating, sponsoring and conducting various activities to promote the preservation and restoration of the marsh and being of service to the Nature Center. Members of FOMM and volunteers also assist in tours and projects of the Torrance Parks and Recreation. Quotes off
…. And yet the only thing about plants that they are proud enough to put on their website is about planting their water wise garden with low water use landscaping plants.
And even though their plants are native to California —– they weren’t native to a marsh!
I truly want to smack them upside the head and say [yelling mode on] what about the marsh plants [yelling mode off].
We have lost 90 plus percent of our California freshwater marshes. We let builders fill in, drain, and build on remaining marshlands Because they promise to recreate it somewhere else. Which is the same thing as allowing them to bulldoze an old growth redwood forest and let them plant some seedlings somewhere else and call it the same thing.
And the FOMM restoration projects are ….
to plant water wise xeriscape landscape plants that you can buy at Home Depot.
People don’t Google a marsh location to read the “Friends Of [that marsh]” babble on about their one lonely restoration project of waterwise plantings representing [drum roll] Coastal Sage Scrub Chaparral Back Dune Scrub Channel Island Desert
These are
representatives of a …. [yelling mode on]Freshwater Marsh??????[yelling mode off]
And then finally a meager selection of Riparian/Woodland plants. I guess that’s as close to a marsh as the Friends of the marsh want to get.
Bob
So I’m wandering around in my garden looking at all the native plants that produce little seeds that the birds eat and I went from there to ruminating about how my neighbors all feed the birds, and buy bird seed at supermarkets, pet stores, and even online.
And then I thought about how it is probable that all that bird seed is grown with pesticides (because you certainly would want to maximize your bird seed productivity if you were selling it), and stored with pesticides (if you’re going to take the time to grow it you certainly would want to increase storage life). All so that we can feed the birds in our backyard after we have removed their native food sources. Wonderful!
Friends
Just like old growth forests, the original California wetlands had environments that were incredibly and unbelievably complex. It should not take a PhD microbiologist to understand that they had intricate associations that we have no clue about and simply do not understand. And yet here in California, home of the Sierra Club, home of us tree hugger leftists ☺, we have destroyed more than 90 percent of fresh and saltwater wetlands (99% percent of fresh water wetlands)
And the truly crazy thing is that we continue to destroy them simply and childishly on the assurance by developers that they will recreate it somewhere else.
This is absolutely mind boggling to me. This is analogous to giving a business permission to plow under acres and acres of old growth forest on the assurance that they will plant a few twigs in the ground someplace where they do not want to build — in order to “duplicate” it. I think people are nuts!
I understand that the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission and the California Coastal Commission has deeply passionate and dedicated individuals whose primary goal is to save as much wetland area as possible. But we need to protect our existing old growth wetlands far, far better then we are.
We need to understand that old growth wetlands truly are analogous to old growth forests. And that when we drain, fill, and build on them they are gone for thousands of years. And we cannot just replicate them in a year or two, or even 10 or 100 years in a different location.
We desperately need to support moratoriums on wetland construction. We desperately need to hold city planners responsible and accountable for protecting our wetlands. Maintaining existing wetlands would probably do more for climate change remediation then all the Priuses sold last year. Ever heard the term blue carbon?
But writing city leaders is much less gratifying than buying a Prius. And certainly less tangible.
Despite my gripes, I wish the absolute best to everyone who helps protects our wetlands. But I do not believe that our “premier” environmental businesses are doing even close to an adequate job with respect to the environment. I believe most are simply after money for their CEOs and board members. Here are 🌿🌲Three little _easy_ things! 🌄 You can do to start holding our environmental money machines accountable once again.
Bob
by voice recognition on bob’s droid. Sorry for the Weird capitalization. Website http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/
Cool!
A little bit of information about what bald eagles would eat in a grassland environment. http://www.rma.army.mil/refuge/wildrma.html : end
by voice recognition on bob’s droid. Sorry for the Weird capitalization. Website http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/
I must have thousands of ladybugs. They’re all over the stinging nettle down in the orchard. They are also all over one of my aquatic plants in constructed wetland. 1 picture is a mustard plant with 4 on it. 2 larva a pupa an adult beetle. Maybe next year I should sell some of the larva :-) they wouldn’t fly away like the ones you buy in the store do. Already acclimated to California Coastal conditions. Probably not a lot of profit margin in hand picking ladybug larvae though :-) The other picture is four adults on one of my bog plants.
by voice recognition on bob’s droid. Sorry for the Weird capitalization. Website http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/
I have found two more CA native plants that work in the first section of the wetland. The section with the highest amount of soap coming in. Creeping water Primrose and mares tail. Yes!
