Jun 17, 2011
Urban mining: Recovering makes dollars and sense
Urban mining: recovering waste materials to save money, save resources and help the environment.
GMO, pesticides linked to new plant disease and farmed animal miscarriages
New plant diseases and farm animal miscarriages linked to genetically modified crops & pesticides used on them.
Jun 14, 2011
Jun 9, 2011
Are wild horses native to US? BLM view challenged
Are wild horses native to US? BLM view challenged Notice who wants the horses driven away and destroyed -- government insiders who profit from grazing their cattle on United States gov't property. They don't want to share public land with horses or public citizens. But their use of the lands as a free buffet has long moved from the reasonable to the exploitive, contributing to massive ecosystem damage.
Winning design cuts pollution while beautifying beach
The university completed a $4.9 million water-pollution-control construction project in 2011 that has become a model for the state, helping UC San Diego meet state mandates while also cultivating a more vibrant, pedestrian-friendly beach.....Popular San Diego Beach Sees Significant Reduction in Water Pollution from Land
In Indonesia, outrageous cruelty to cows sent from Aust. for slaughter
Jun 8, 2011
Fight Colon Cancer with Forks
New study results from the AICR http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/47616/
Jun 7, 2011
Ramblin' Wreck on the Pacific Crest: Hello from Hiker Heaven (The Saufleys in Agua Dulc...
Ramblin' Wreck on the Pacific Crest: Hello from Hiker Heaven (The Saufleys in Agua Dulc...: "Well it would appear that I have made it another 200 miles since Big Bear Lake and am still trekking strong. Of course it's hard not to fee..." My hard-trekking nephew's superbly written journal takes you there.
Dow greenwashes as it continues polluting water
What Dow Chemical Doesn’t Want You to Know About Your Water (VIDEO) by Anna Lappe
Jun 5, 2011
Va's polluted James River returning to health
Could it be? Swim without risking health? NYTimes story here.
Note to readers about travel content
To keep KNOW more focused on news and knowledge, I will no longer be posting my travel stories on KNOW. Instead, they'll be posted on The Bike Traveler and Travel Veg. Thanks for reading.
Jun 4, 2011
The Tillman Story: Watch it
We have to stop fighting more simultaneous wars than we can win. And that we can wage without "friendly fire" tragedies.
Jun 3, 2011
Hands off fracking?
Hydrofracture releases stores of natural gas, but in the process, sends toxins into soil and drinking water reservoirs. Should the fed govt leave the question of regulation (or lack of it) to state governments? http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-02/texas-urges-u-s-to-leave-gas-fracking-oversight-to-states.html
Jack London's park to close...Calif park shutdown
Jun 2, 2011
Book review: Technological Nature (could it replace real nature?)
Technological Nature: Adaptation and the Future of Human Life
by Peter H. Kahn, Jr., MIT Press, 2011
Spoiler art: Technological simulations of nature do not provide anywhere near the same physiological, emotional and therapeutic benefits as exposure to real nature, but are better than no nature-like experiences at all.
I have no remorse revealing the conclusion of "Technological Nature" (http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12446) because Kahn, who conducts nature/tech interaction research at the University of Washington. conveys plentiful grist for intellectual and practical purposes. At a time when humans are accelerating damage and depletion of nature in what geologists are now calling the Anthropocene age, reasonable people find they have to quantify the financial value, now and future, of aspects of the ecosystem -- oceans, rivers, soil, air, and so on.
Kahn adds supporting evidence that nature (rather, what he terms "actual nature") is essential for humans to not only survive, but flourish. And we humans need to flourish to be productive, creative members of society. After all, man can't live on microchips alone.
Innovations have led to more material goods, access to services, convenience and leisure time over the ages, but at costs ranging from loss of native intelligence to compromising physical and mental health. As people get increasingly disconnected from nature, researchers are looking at the potential value of digital-age artifacts such as:
* "Technological nature windows" to refresh and spur creative problem-solving among office workers
* Robotic dogs to help children with autism build communication skills
* Telegardens to give people surrounded by pavement and powerlines a way to experience the fulfillment of growing plants, sort of a distance learning/distance living concept. The telegardeners plant their remote plots using Internet-controlled robotic arms.
Citing an array of reports from such notables as Jared Diamond, author of 2005's "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed," Kahn recounts how "environmental generational amnesia" through history has led to damage, and loss, to ways of like. For example, native people who within just a few generations lost knowledge of self-sufficient skills and sustainable co-existence with their region's animals and plants -- and clear-cut forests that their ancestors relied on for shelter, food, medicine, storm protection, erosion control, canopy.
The book explores engaging theories, philosophies, and questions about surviving and thriving. Such as:
* Biophilia, our shared and biologically rooted love of nature (think of the awe that children and adults express when spotting animals from deer to dolphins to birds, waterfalls, oceans, mountains).
* How the worldview that humans were granted dominion continues to underpin continued destruction of natural resources. In frighteningly short periods, mankind wiped out whole species from the trees of Easter Island to America's buffalo herds and passenger pigeons.
* Adaptations: Ranging from changing diets based on changing land productivity, to zoos, to dams, to addictions, adaptations aren't always beneficial to individuals or society.
* Slippery slope debates: Trails to Yosemite's Half Dome enable people to behold inspirational beauty. But at what point does access begin diminishing nature?
Kahn ends with practical ways to encourage people to think about benefits of our connection with nature and support its preservation. If we don't, "technological nature" may be the only nature left for our children.
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