Provocations

Rats - A Closer Look

It's easy for us to extend our concern and compassion to whales, dolphins, koalas, pandas . . . but rats!?  Yet rats are more similar to us humans than we might care to acknowledge. So, once again, I invite you to think and feel again:

A couple of years ago, writer Robert Sullivan chose an alley near Wall Street in New York City, and for an entire year, night after night, he watched the rats that lived there. Out of those observations came a remarkable book.

Listen to National Public Radio's interview with Robert Sullivan.

FARWELL CANYON LANDSLIDE/MUDSLIDE

This morning CBC Radio reported that a landslide had dammed Farwell Canyon on British Columbia's Chilcotin River. Apparently, at about 10:30 am yesterday a large mudslide completely blocked the Chilcotin River. Water rose about 22 metres under the bridge. The river remained blocked until around 9 pm last night. A friend sent me these photos which show the extent of the increase in water level during that time.

 

 

BEFORE

 

The mud falls and dams the river

 

which rises

 

close to the level of the bridge  

Both entrances to the Farwell Canyon dam bridge were closed and you can see why. The natural dam was about 15 kilometres from the junction of the Chilcotin and the Fraser rivers.

Next?

There's always something else.

Ethnomedica - Remembered Remedies

Arnica.   Photo © JN Web Design

When social health care was introduced in the UK, the benefits of natural medicines were sidelined in favour of pharmaceuticals.

The Ethnomedica Project, based at Kew Gardens,  where they have extensive information on traditional plant uses, involves 20 scientists "examining British plants where there is a history of documented evidence that they were used to treat ailments."

Read on

Foreign Earthworms Threaten Forest Health

Living up to my byline, here's something that might inspire you to think again:

First of all, did you know that earthworms are not indigenous to North America, i.e. they are not a natural part of the North American ecosystem? Want a truly indigenous backyard? - then get rid of those earthworms.

More seriously - though not surprisingly - these "newcomers" to North America apparently are doing a fair bit of harm to the forests. According to a year-old article I "dug up" today, earthworms are guilty of "altering soil conditions, enabling the spread of invasive plant species and changing the food chain for forest animals."

Take a look at the article and add your comments below, as I suspect there's more to this than the Associated Press report.

The Other Olympics

I've been watching on tv and enjoying some of the Olympic contests. Events like this do generate excitement and bring out some fine qualiites in people. Although these games seem to have avoided crass commercialism, it is no secret that you cannot enter the stadium wearing a Nike symbol on your t-shirt (you have to turn it inside out); and to bring in any drink that is not made by Coca-Cola, you have to remove the label.

For a truly non-commercial games, take a look at these, held on the edge of the Brazilian rain forest by a diverse group of local tribes:

"The First Traditional Indian Games of Pará (I Jogos Tradicionais Indigenas do Pará). From 15–20 June 2004, 470 indian men, women and children played ancient and modern games, such as soccer, archery, spear throwing, tug–of–war, canoeing, swimming and running. Some gave stunning demonstrations of traditional sports played only by their own tribes, like the tree–log relay race of the Gavião indians, where men carry 200–pound (90 kilogram) logs on their back, or the hockey sport of the Kayapo indians called Ronkrã."

The full story, beautifully illustrated.

Lonesome Lake Fire Pictures

LONESOME LAKE FIRE - AUGUST 2004

You can order this and other books at
http://wildernessdweller.ca/all-book/

The 2009 fire and evacuation of Nuk Tessli

Powerdown

"I am in the cabin of an MD80 jetliner en route from San Francisco to Dallas. It is night, and as I look out the airplane window I see a dense web of lights spread upon the darkened landscape. It is a beautiful sight, and yet a profoundly disturbing one. Aside from streetlamps, nearly every one of those tiny lights emanates from a house, or from a car crawling across the landscape. Each tells an individual human story of struggle for survival and prosperity. And each is in some way connected back to a fossil-fuel energy source."

The image is from NASA, the text from the introduction to Richard Heinberg's just-published Powerdown - Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World

BC Grasslands Weblog

I'd like to introduce you to this blog, not so much because I designed it, but because of the content.  It is about the making of a book on the grasslands region of Briitish Columbia and features the photography of Chris Harris.

"For me, the creative process of photographing and publishing a book on British Columbia’s grasslands is a dream come true. Previously, this was always done in isolation. With this weblog, however, I look forward to sharing it with you and the rest of the world. I’ll be working in conjunction with grassland biologists and conservationists, and together we welcome you to join us in this great new and exciting project."  -  Chris Harris

Chris' most recent post is a tribute to the Edwards family and the loss of their homestead.

Life without numbers in a unique Amazon tribe

Here's a stretch: what would it be like to function without concepts for words or colours? In our culture that would be considered "retarded" (to use a non-PC word). Well, here's an opportunity to "think again".

The Globe & Mail reports on an article published in Friday's issue of the journal Nature: there is this Amazon (amazin'?) tribe that, according to a linguistic anthropologist who speaks their language and has been living with them for 27 years, can't learn to count or understand the concept of numbers. Also, the Piraha are the only people known to have no distinct words for colours.

Lots to reconsider here - even for the linguistic theorists.

Back to the old theory that you cannot conceive/think of something you have no name for? Interestingly, one reason the 300-strong Piraha have retained their culture, despite ongoing contact with other cultures, is their inherent belief that their culture is superior. In case you're wondering, their fishing, hunting and even joking skills are equal to neighbouring tribes.

View the original Science article abstract.  The full study requires a subscription.

BBC: Brazil tribe prove words count