Permaculture Blog

Well I just gave a tour of my constructed wetland water reclamation system. I am overjoyed to see the enthusiasm that the “next generation” has for water conservation and protecting our environment.

At one point in the tour I handed some watercress to the participants. And, now in thinking about it, I realized that I had handed the people nothing, _absolutely nothing_ but solar energy and my used water. I can’t even begin to describe my emotions following that realization.

I am all for technology. Most of our understanding of chemistry and biology have actually come because of War and other negative events. I have a little tractor. I am a huge fan of hydraulics. I believe that we need to use knowledge, and technology to be successful permaculturists. I understand that technology and home solar cells go hand in hand. At the same time I am overjoyed that I am using organic solar cells to generate food.

Bob

We bathe in a warm foamy bath of biological life. Our human cells are outnumbered 10 some say as much as 30 to 1 by the bacteria on us. We are walking colonies of bacteria yet our physical bodies are as comfortable with it as we are with a bright beautiful day at the beach.

I think this little guy is far far cuter than the baby bunnies. Its still got its tail. Its little tadpole mouth is still changing into a toad mouth. I don’t know that you can tell from the picture but the skin around its throat is still very loose and wrinkly because of the extra size of the tadpole in that area. I’m also very glad I found him because I really thought that the snakes had got all of them. Which from what I know about biology was actually very unlikely but I was still concerned about them. In reality a snake very well may get this one down the road. But its soooooooo cute.

This is 1 of the best years I’ve seen.

by voice recognition on bob’s droid. Sorry for the Weird capitalization. Website http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/

But Mrs. Josephine Rabbit, and his sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail are under my orange tree.

Do you know how hard it is to get a picture of 3 baby rabbits that all want to go in different directions and hide their faces?

Go ahead.

by voice recognition on bob’s droid. Sorry for the Weird capitalization. Website http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/

http://independentnewshub.com/?p=97715

Bad news, bees. Two new studies found that two separate pesticides adversely af the part of a bee’s brain that is responsibly for its ability to learn, and when used combination the effects are even worse. It turns out spraying things with poisonous chemicals might have side effects. Who knew? The pesticides in question are a type of chemical used on crops called neonicotinoids, another type used on beehives themselves to protect bees from the parasitic Varroa m called coumaphos. Besides showing the obvious disadvantage of a bunch of dumb bees flying around, th studies are also the first to show the direct affect of pesticides on pollinators like bees their brain physiology. The studies were done by exposing bees brains to the chemica way similar to how they are used in agricultural settings. As many as 30% of the expos bees showed a failure to learn, or under-performed at a memory test. The researchers behind the studies have expressed concern over the use of chemicals affect non-target species in a negative way. Besides failing memory tests, stupid bees forget things like where their hive is, or how to pollinate things, and that’s really the w point of bees in the first place. (via Phys.Org, image via @Doug88888)

Wonderful! And since we know so well that these insecticides just couldn’t affect the _human_ brain…

And since we also know so clearly how the chemicals break down in the environment and that a breakdown product of these chemicals couldn’t possibly have different bee vs human specificity we are all safe!

Don’t you feel good now.

Anybody read the story about how bees generate a positive electrostatic charge while they’re flying? The flowers have a negative charge! When the bee lands on the flower it neutralizes the 2 charges and the flower remains neutral to positive for 30 seconds or so. The Bees can see the charge and not revisit the same flower on their flight.

That is so cool! Bees can see an electrostatic charge!

And pesticides although they are neurotoxins don’t cause any harm to humans. That is if you believe the manufacturers of those items.

Of course we will not be able to show that Pesticides do not cause autism, or dementia, or Alzheimer’s, or ADHD because there are no people in America anymore who are not exposed to pesticides ie. “don’t smoke”. Think for a moment how much data there was to show that cigarettes cause cancer. There was virtually a mountain of data showing a link between cigarettes and cancer. And yet the lawyers and CEOs of the tobacco companies were successful for many many years in preventing any kind of legislation that would protect the rest of us from all the cigarette smoke. simply because they insisted that Cigarettes were harmless.

The mountain of data to the contrary came from comparing the medical conditions of people who did smoke with those who didn’t smoke. Please show me someone in or near a large American city who is not exposed to pesticides.

Or even outside America. We are exporting DDT to third world countries. it’s going to be really easy for the chemical companies to insist that the pesticides don’t harm us when there is no data comparing people in pesticide free zones with people in pesticides zones. We need to have pesticide free zones in America.

Breakdown products — we have no clue as to the effects of the break down products of many of these chemicals. Is it possible that companies could be required to spend it a portion of their sales on independent studies of breakdown products and possible consequences? As of today only one side of the equation is being funded. It’s impossible to have a fair discussion when that is the case.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/02/artificial-wetland-uses-bacteria-to-clean-pharmaceuticals-from-sewage/

Good article. But one of the advantageous things about a constructed wetland is it is not just the bacteria. It is about all the little microenvironments and ecosystems.