[EcoDharma] Living Earth

[Doshin]

As I have mentioned elsewhere...reversing the decline in biodiversity (considering we have lost half of the world’s wildlife..see an earlier post above) can seem daunting at the local level. Indeed it must take governments and international approaches. However we can do something. In the companion thread EcoLiving , those actions also have positive impacts on biodiversity. Pollinators, which are critical to our survival and many other species are also in decline in both species and numbers. Those of us with yards can create landscapes that provide habitat for pollinators (and many other species!). As I compose this I am listening to the hum of hundreds, if not thousands, of bees and wasps of many species visiting the plants which are now blooming. Of course the plants I chose are only suited for my ecoregion in the Southwest United States (and even more specific for a specific region at a certain elevation). Plant choices will depend on where you live.

Attached are some guidelines provided by the US Forest Service that may provide ideas to ignite your creative imagination for landscaping.

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/gardening.shtml

Gassho
Doshin
St

[Tai Do]

As I have mentioned elsewhere...reversing the decline in biodiversity (considering we have lost half of the world’s wildlife..see an earlier post above) can seem daunting at the local level. Indeed it must take governments and international approaches. However we can do something. In the companion thread EcoLiving , those actions also have positive impacts on biodiversity. Pollinators, which are critical to our survival and many other species are also in decline in both species and numbers. Those of us with yards can create landscapes that provide habitat for pollinators (and many other species!). As I compose this I am listening to the hum of hundreds, if not thousands, of bees and wasps of many species visiting the plants which are now blooming. Of course the plants I chose are only suited for my ecoregion in the Southwest United States (and even more specific for a specific region at a certain elevation). Plant choices will depend on where you live.

Attached are some guidelines provided by the US Forest Service that may provide ideas to ignite your creative imagination for landscaping.

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/gardening.shtml

Gassho
Doshin
St

Thank you, Doshin for this suggestion.
I’m willing to create a garden here but then it and dry weather makes it almost impossible for traditional garden plants without an irrigation system or available time to water the plants. Perhaps native plants can be a better alternative for my garden and a good help for native pollinators.
Gassho,
Mateus
Sat today/LAH

[Doshin]

Mateus,
Yes, natives are best choice! They are adapted to the area and local hydrology. And native pollinators evolved with them . Some water is necessary to get started. As you know I live in the desert. I used a rock mulch to help retain moisture but organic mulches do the job.

Doshin
St

[Tai Do]

Mateus,
Yes, natives are best choice! They are adapted to the area and local hydrology. And native pollinators evolved with them . Some water is necessary to get started. As you know I live in the desert. I used a rock mulch to help retain moisture but organic mulches do the job.

Doshin
St

Thank you again for the tip.
Gassho,
Mateus
Sat/LAH

[Heiso]

Thank you, Doshin for this suggestion.
I’m willing to create a garden here but then it and dry weather makes it almost impossible for traditional garden plants without an irrigation system or available time to water the plants. Perhaps native plants can be a better alternative for my garden and a good help for native pollinators.
Gassho,
Mateus
Sat today/LAH

Have you looked at drip feed irrigation systems on a timer or is that not an option? There are also cunning ways to slow release water with clay pots, although I've not tried it yet: https://www.permaculture.co.uk/reade...ient-technique.

We're lucky in that we can plant lots of pollinators. My favourite being Comfrey which not only attracts every bee in town but can then be used to make a great liquid fertiliser and it's often considered a weed! Being in the UK a lack of water isn't really an issue though so we don't have to get that creative!

Gassho,

Neil

StLaH

[Tai Do]

Have you looked at drip feed irrigation systems on a timer or is that not an option? There are also cunning ways to slow release water with clay pots, although I've not tried it yet: https://www.permaculture.co.uk/reade...ient-technique.

We're lucky in that we can plant lots of pollinators. My favourite being Comfrey which not only attracts every bee in town but can then be used to make a great liquid fertiliser and it's often considered a weed! Being in the UK a lack of water isn't really an issue though so we don't have to get that creative!

Gassho,

Neil

StLaH

Thank you, Neil.
I never really thought about irrigation systems with timers. Although my garden is really, really small, so I don't know about it. Besides, I don't have much money to spent in the garden right now. But I'll look at it. Thank you.
I'm realy worried about the pollinators in my region, as the great agricultural business is dominating the region and our President is making easy for it to use huge amounts of pesticides. I really don't trust Brazilian agricuture anymore. We are already seen the effects of these policies. IN my home State, some traditional apicultural regions are in decline, as the bees have all died. Small producers are now facing a hard year, and the prospect is not very good.
Gassho,
Mateus
Sat today/LAH

[Tairin]

This blog by Domyo Burk will appeal to the followers of this and the Eco-Life thread

https://zenstudiespodcast.com/buddhists-address-the-climate-emergency/

This is the first time I’ve heard of Extinction Rebellion. I see they have a chapter here in my city so I’ll investigate them a bit more


gassho
Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Tairin]

One trillion trees

The article is perhaps overly optimistic but I like the simplicity of this approach and it would certainly be viable in conjunction with other measures. Help the earth heal itself.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/tree-planting-climate-change-1.5201102

Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Meitou]

Tairin, let us know how you get on with the Extinction Rebellion group, I've joined them online and today have signed a pledge with them not to buy any clothes for a year.

The idea of planting trees is simple and effective - and from what I've seen in the UK it's much needed. Property developers are destroying swathes of trees to make way for new housing, without replanting in any way. In order to get around protests about habitat for birds, they are starting to net trees in areas that they are earmarking for development, so that birds are forced to go elsewhere and therefore there are no birds for people to protest about when the time comes.

Thanks for both of those posts.
Gassho
Meitou
sattoday

[Tairin]

Elephants to the rescue?

Similar to the article on trees I pointed to above. Here is one about how elephants can help fight climate change.

https://theconversation.com/forest-elephants-are-our-allies-in-the-fight-against-climate-change-finds-research-120440

I like articles like this because it shows that the Earth is able to heal itself if humans will let it. Yes it needs a little bit of our help but given how much we’ve taken it seems like the least we could do. Plus we are of this Earth, not separate from it.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Rob H]

As Gus Speth has said, and resonates with my career...

“I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.”

This, in my opinion, is the crux of many issues facing the world today. I completely agree with the above quote and it concerns me greatly. Not just for my children but for all people now and the future generations.

Gassho.
Rob.

ST

[Jundo]

As Gus Speth has said, and resonates with my career...

“I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.”

My new book, Zen of the Future!, will say what needs to be done.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

Climate change is killing the world's coral reefs. But it's not the only factor turning them into white, dead husks. According to a new study, all the chemicals humans are dumping into the ocean are making it easier for the hotter weather to do its deadly work.

The research paper, published online Monday (July 15) in the journal Marine Biology, is based on data collected over three decades from the Looe Key Sanctuary Preservation Area in the Florida Keys. Coral coverage declined from 33% in 1984 to just 6% in 2008 in that sanctuary. Even as temperatures have trended upward globally, average local temperatures didn't change much during the study period. This allowed researchers to disentangle a number of different problems sickening (or "bleaching") the reef.

...

A great deal of the effect of these added nutrients could be mitigated by improved water-treatment plants, the researchers noted. Most of the nitrogen in runoff doesn't pour right off the land into the sea during rainstorms, but instead passes through water-treatment plants that fail to remove the chemical.

In Dutch-controlled regions of the Caribbean, the researchers noted in a statement, improved sewage-treatment plants do pull nitrogen out of the water. And in those places, coral reefs are faring better than they are off the coast of Florida, the scientists pointed out.

https://www.livescience.com/65958-florida-coral-reefs-nitrogen.html

Gassho, J

STLah

[Seibu]

The idea of planting trees is simple and effective - and from what I've seen in the UK it's much needed. Property developers are destroying swathes of trees to make way for new housing, without replanting in any way. In order to get around protests about habitat for birds, they are starting to net trees in areas that they are earmarking for development, so that birds are forced to go elsewhere and therefore there are no birds for people to protest about when the time comes.

Gassho
Meitou
sattoday

Recently I relocated and the backyard had a huge patio for about a decade. My wife and I removed all the tiles and after adding compost to the soil that hadn't seen daylight and rain for ages we planted five young trees and some flowers. Bees and other small insects are returning. It feels so good to be able to help the local ecosystem a little bit.

Gassho,
Jack
Sattoday/lah

[Jundo]

I must say that things must be getting serious if they post this at FOXNews!

Today's climate change is worse than anything Earth has experienced in the past 2,000 years

...

That's the conclusion of a trio of papers published July 24 in the journals Nature and Nature Geoscience that examined the global climate over the past two millennia. The researchers showed that none of the past fluctuations — that is, not the Little Ice Age, the warm period known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly or any other famous shift — had the global reach that modern climate change is having. Past fluctuations tended to be localized, affecting primarily one region at a time. Modern climate change, by contrast, is messing with the entire world.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/todays-climate-change-is-worse-than-anything-earth-has-experienced-in-the-past-2000-years

Gassho, J

STLah