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Aimé Bonpland Scientist of the Day Aimé Bonpland, a French...  

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): http://picturingtheamericas.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Weitsch-Alexander-von-Humboldt-and-Aim%C3%A9-Bonpland-near-the-Chimborazo-Volcano.jpg


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Aimé Bonpland Scientist of the Day

Aimé Bonpland, a French explorer and botanist, was born on either Aug. 22, Aug. 23, or Aug. 29, 1773; we opt here for the Aug. 29 birthday.  

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President Obama Continues to Build His Environmental Legacy  
As President Obama nears the end of his second term, he continues to use his executive authority to ensure that his sustainability priorities are translated into public policy. His use of the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions has been far from easy, but it is clear that a national policy to reduce global warming is slowly grinding into place. The president's action last week to expand the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii is the latest example of his effort to build a lasting environmental legacy. Last week, he created the world's largest marine reserve, and as New York Times reporter Julie Hirschfeld Davis reported last week, this is not an isolated policy initiative:

Using the 100-year-old Antiquities Act, which was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, Mr. Obama has protected hundreds of millions of acres in places of ecological, historical or cultural significance -- more than any other American president. In 2014, he also greatly expanded the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, south and west of Hawaii. But he has often drawn criticism from Republicans for acting unilaterally.

Teddy Roosevelt's designation of national monuments is why we still can visit the Grand Canyon, and Barack Obama's use of this authority will ensure that many lands we have left undeveloped will stay that way. This is particularly important as we become an increasingly urban society. Over the next half-century we can expect that a lower and lower proportion of our society will live in rural areas. This means that building the ethos--or value--of protecting the planet, so important to our survival, will take greater effort. Vacations and school trips will be most people's closest exposure to the natural world. From a very practical standpoint we need more of these spaces to ensure that the ones we have are not overrun by the growing demand to visit them.

The lands and marine sanctuaries are not meant to prohibit us from fishing, hunting, hiking and gazing in these spaces, but to regulate use to ensure that natural treasures are conserved. The politics involved can be complicated. Earlier last week, the president designated 87,500 acres of woods in Maine as the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. Richard Perez Pena of the NY Times reported on the political reaction to this move and observed that:

In a struggling region that has long relied on shrinking timber-related businesses, many residents fear that a national monument could eventually mean new air pollution controls on wood and paper mills in the surrounding areas. "It's sad that rich, out-of-state liberals can team up with President Obama to force a national monument on rural Mainers who do not want it," Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, said in a statement. Earlier this year, the state Legislature passed and Mr. LePage signed a bill opposing the federal takeover.

While the governor's reaction to conserving these lands could be seen as typical conservative reaction to any executive actions taken by President Obama, vocal opposition has long been typical of monument and park politics. People prefer local control of their own lands. Local economic interests are particularly active in the politics of land use. Teddy Roosevelt faced fierce and constant opposition to his monument designations. TR seemed to enjoy this form of political combat, because he was convinced that his view was correct. The importance and value of our national parks and monuments over time has proven that his vision of conservation was ahead of its time. His aggressive steps to preserve nature enhance Roosevelt's legacy as a great president.

This will be true of President Obama as well, because the need for conservation has grown. The national political clout of those seeking to exploit and extract finite resources from these lands and waters has diminished and will continue to decline. This is part of the transition from the old labor-intensive industrial economy to the post-industrial world of the brain-based economy. Automation will continue to replace labor doing routine tasks. Resource extraction, agriculture and other material parts of our economy generate a lower and lower portion of our GDP. It is not only regulation and globalization that is driving these businesses out of their traditional locations, but the fact that there is more profit in software than hardware. Google is more lucrative than HP. This means that the traditional notion that we must trade off economic growth to ensure environmental quality will have decreasing relevance. Politicians may willfully disagree with the idea that environmental protection enhances economic growth, but that concept is fundamental to the growing field of sustainability management. The political power of the new economy is growing while the political power of extraction industries and other parts of the old economy are shrinking.

I think we should look at conservation as an investment in the future, rather than as the ideological choice of rich, out-of-state liberals. Future presidents will continue to look for opportunities to designate more areas for preservation. Preserving these spaces is important physically, but it is also important to our civic culture and national sense of purpose. Imagine America without the Muir Woods, the Grand Canyon, and countless other protected areas.

In an increasingly urbanized world it will take leadership and political activism to reinforce the message that conservation is important, and the natural environment is a treasure to protect, rather than a resource to use up and toss away. We will need to protect our land, air and water to meet our needs for food, clothing, water and shelter. While the national parks and monuments contribute to the health of the biosphere, their impact on major population centers can be indirect and difficult for some to see.

President Obama has also used his executive authority aggressively to update our aging structure of environmental law and regulation. America's environmental regulations are complex and their development and implementation has taken decades to put in place. But once environmental rules are hard-wired into our legal structure they become influential incentives to sustainable corporate, governmental and private behavior.

Finally, the president has used the purchasing power of the federal government itself to build the green economy and encourage changes in how our massive federal organizations operate. The military has been aggressive in pushing energy efficiency and renewable energy. It has also spent massive amounts of money to clean up its own toxic waste sites.

While early in his first term the president failed to secure climate change legislation, he has managed to begin the process of greenhouse gas regulation through executive action. There are limits to how much a president can do without a congress willing to legislate. Barack Obama produced his environmental legacy through the creative and determined use of his executive authority. Let's hope his successor is able to build on that legacy with new law that reflects the 21st century's technologies, and the global economy that is now a fact of life.

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Meatless Monday: Farm to Table, From the Ground Up  
Beyond Meat's bleeding beetburger could not exist without beets.  Were it not for the butternut squash, Purple Carrot's butternut squash tacos would be bare, bereft tortillas. Dazzled as we are by tech-savvy food innovation, as New Orleans' recent Farm to Table Experience reminds us, what we eat doesn't start in the lab, it starts from the ground up. 



F2Te, a weekend of presentations (including, ahem, mine), growing and kitchen demos, social events, chefs challenges and hands-on workshops brought people who care about the source of their food, whether they're growers, chefs, vendors, public servants, authors, artisans, educators, nutritionists or just people who care about what they eat. We got to connect with each other and reconnect with the source of our food. 

In an increasingly app- and meal kit-driven market, a lot can get lost between farm and table, including authenticity. The thing is, we like pretty. Whether you're a celeb chef on Chopped or just take pics of your dinner on your i-phone, you know we eat with our eyes. But our drive for pretty food is at odds with feeding the world and feeding ourselves. Globally, we waste a third -- up to half --of what we grow because we feel it's lacking in the looks department.

When you throw out a bruised tomato or an ugly eggplant, you're throwing out all the resources it took to produce it, from the grower's labor to the water that irrigated the crop. Then consider that one in seven of us is hungry. There's no way that's sustainable in any sense of the term.

Food waste was a big topic at F2Te. A panel led by Food Tank president Danielle Nierenberg addressed both its challenges and its progress, including apps that reduce food waste by feeding more people.

Technology can bring farm and table closer in innovative ways, but often, the real difference happens in person and hands-on, as with Modena chef Massimo Bottura, who stepped away from Osteria Francescana, his best-in-the-world Michelin-starred restaurant, to run a Rio soup kitchen during the Olympics. The menu? Food fashioned from Olympic village discards and donated products. It's the most brilliant use of leftovers ever, and all part of Bottura's brand of activism. He's founder of Food for Soul, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing food waste, reducing hunger and growing community.



That kind of farm to table may not be venture capital bait and or techno-chic. It's fueled by passion and hard work, as Richard McCarthy, another of F2Te's presenters knows. McCarthy is Executive director of Slow Food USA, , but I first met him right 11 years ago, when he was getting New Orleans' Crescent City Farmers Market back up and running after Hurricane Katrina. For a traumatized community, like New Orleans was back then, like Baton Rouge, still walloped by recent flooding is now, having access to fresh, nourishing food means way more than a meal. In means comfort, connection, hope.

Farm to table is not always pretty and it's not always easy. But as F2Te reminds us, it's always essential. It always will be.

Ratatouille


This classic French dish makes the most of end-of-summer farm-to-table produce, including the less-than-lovely bits. As they simmer, they come together, becoming greater than the sum of their parts, as do we when we gather.

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium eggplant, chopped
1 sweet pepper -- red, yellow or orange, chopped
1 large zucchini (or two small), chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped (or 1 15-ounce can chopped tomatoes)
1/2 cup red wine
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 dash red pepper flakes
sea salt to taste

In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chopped garlic, giving it a stir. Add chopped onion and cook till they soften and release their fragrance, about 5 minutes. In order, add chopped eggplant, pepper, zucchini and mushrooms. Stir to combine.

Stir in chopped tomatoes, wine, cumin, pepper flakes and fennel seeds. Reduce heat to medium and cover, letting the mixture simmer for 20 minutes.

Stir again and season with sea salt to taste.

Serves 4, doubles like a dream, keeps covered and refrigerated for several days.

More at soulfulvegan.com.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Steven Cohen: President Obama Continues to Build His Environmental Legacy  
As President Obama nears the end of his second term, he continues to use his executive authority to ensure that his sustainability priorities are tran...

Read more: National Parks, Barack Obama, Conservation, Sustainability, Environment, Green News

 
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Landed in Puglia  

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Bioluminescent plant Arabidopsis thaliana  

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Steve A. Kay, a National Science Foundation-supported researcher from the Scripps Research Institute, studied the circadian biology of a wide range of organisms -- from humans to fruit flies to plants. Pictured here is the bioluminescent plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Bioluminescent organisms ranging from plants to flies (Drosophila) are powerful tools for studying circadian rhythms -- the daily rhythmic activity cycle, based on 24-hour intervals, that is exhibited by many organisms.

Image credit: Steve A. Kay, The Scripps Research Institute

 
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Dream on, they will claim the last of everthing endangered, the values keep increasing as species disappear forever! https://t.co/XzlgbCG6jT 
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The fish that have bellies full of mice but we don't know how  
Lesser salmon catfish from rivers of north Australia gobble down mice and possibly other small mammals. How they get to their land prey remains a mystery  
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Our message to Japan: Africa's elephants need your support  

Paula Kahumbu: Elephant diplomacy is helping to get Japan on board in efforts towards a global ban on ivory trade

The global coalition for a total ban on the trade in ivory is taking shape. In Africa calls for the ban are led by the 29 nation African Elephant Coalition (AEC). In the consumer countries, both the US President Obama and China's President Xi have made commitments to close the domestic markets which will have a huge impact on demand.

To be sure, progress towards building the coalition is uneven. Key African nations such as Zimbabwe and Namibia are opposed to the ban, and have even petitioned CITES for a relaxation of current restrictions. In Europe, while the French Environment Minister Ségolène Royal has signed a decree banning the trade, in the UK the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it is still “working” on its pledge to implement a total ban on ivory sales.

Japan is one of Africa's most important development partners. They have made major contributions and commitments to support conservation. Now the conservation community call for 5 actions to be agreed at TICAD:

1. Japan to permanently close legal domestic markets of ivory, and aggressively close down online trading sites that deal in ivory, all to crush demand.

It is important that the international community does not underestimate Japan's role as an ivory consumer and the effect of legal ivory trade. With Kenya having hosted TICAD6, I hope that Kenya will use their friendship with Japan, to win their support on elephant conservation.

I was invited by First Lady Mrs Kenyatta, who is also doing a lot of conservation work, to visit the Sheldrick's animal orphanage. Baby elephants who lost their mothers to poaching… They may have been traumatised by seeing their mother killed right in front of them, yet they come and so innocently play with us.

Feeding them milk, stroking them… I felt a kind of connection with these babies. And before I realized I was in tears. It almost felt like touching God…

Continue reading...  
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You Think You Know Me, Facebook, But You Don't Know Anything  

A new feature on Facebook shows what interests the website thinks users have and the types of advertisements it would generate to target them. But people quickly found that not every pick is a gem.

 
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A Hero For The Arts And Sciences: Upcoming Marvel Covers Promote STEAM Fields  

The five covers feature the company's heroes — including Spiderman, Iron Man, and the Hulk — all engaging in activities educators have been trying to promote.

 
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Washington State Is Killing A Pack Of Endangered Wolves To Keep Ranchers Happy  
A pack of gray wolves, which are endangered in Washington, is about to be killed by the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife, the agency confirmed last week .  
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Audits Of Some Medicare Advantage Plans Reveal Pervasive Overcharging  

Federal audits of 37 Medicare Advantage health plans cited 35 for overbilling the government. Many plans, for example, claimed patients with depression or diabetes were sicker than they actually were.

 
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A Chocolate Pill? Scientists To Test Whether Cocoa Extract Boosts Health  

Chocolate lovers may agree cocoa is the food of the gods, but how strong is the evidence that it boosts heart health? Researchers are recruiting for a new study aimed at answering this question.

 
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spanish jungle  

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in editing, the photo got this close to being BW. pretty glad I didn't end up going that route.

 
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Waiting For Breakfast  

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Paige // Portra 400 by Joe Greer  

Paige // Portra 400 by Joe Greer

Processed with VSCO with j5 preset

Joe Greer: Photos

 
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Daria by Andrey Rodin  

Daria by Andrey Rodin

Andrey Rodin: Photos

 
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ALMA finds unexpected trove of gas around larger stars  

Full Text:

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) surveyed dozens of young stars -- some sun-like and others approximately double that size -- and discovered that the larger variety have surprisingly rich reservoirs of carbon monoxide gas in their debris disks. In contrast, the lower-mass, sun-like stars have debris disks that are virtually gas-free. This finding runs counter to astronomers' expectations, which hold that stronger radiation from larger stars should strip away gas from their debris disks faster than the comparatively mild radiation from smaller stars. It may also offer new insights into the timeline for giant planet formation around young stars.

Image credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF; D. Berry / SkyWorks

 
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