Antônio Abujamra lê o poema "Extinção", de Régis Bonvicino, no programa Provocações/TV Cultura. Lobo Guará ou bicho-homem, nas leis da sobrevivência a espécie não tem nome.
julho 30, 2007
julho 28, 2007
Sumiço de abelhas e caos no trânsito
GILBERTO DUPAS*
Aprendiz de feiticeiro, nossa civilização só desperta para os perigos de seus caminhos tecnológicos quando tragédias acontecem
OQUE tem a ver o recente sumiço das abelhas em várias partes do mundo com os imensos congestionamentos que infernizam a vida dos cidadãos das grandes cidades? Mais do que parece. O caos do trânsito, resultado da primazia do transporte individual, tem dramáticos efeitos sobre o tempo e a saúde das pessoas. Ao lado da emissão de gases e toxinas industriais, a poluição do ar por veículos é variável crítica tanto do aquecimento global e dos efeitos no clima como de doenças.
A British Air Foundation conduziu pesquisas provando que bastam seis horas pedalando no tráfego intenso para causar danos aos vasos sangüíneos, tornando-os menos flexíveis, reduzindo proteínas que previnem coágulos e favorecendo riscos cardíacos. O Laboratório de Poluição Atmosférica da USP estima que a poluição ambiental encurte em média dois anos da vida do paulistano.
O índice de abortos também aumenta, porque o fluxo arterial na placenta diminui; e há suspeitas de efeitos severos na fertilidade. Dados do banco de sêmen do hospital Albert Einstein confirmam que a concentração de espermatozóides no sêmen dos paulistanos caiu significativamente nos últimos dez anos. Entre as hipóteses estão poluição, excessivo consumo de produtos industrializados, estresse, medicamentos, produtos para queda de cabelo, exposição à radiação, substâncias tóxicas dos plásticos de embalagem, pesticidas e outros venenos da vida moderna.
"São coisas que as pessoas vão incorporando em sua dieta e fazem um estrago tremendo nas mitocôndrias e no DNA, causando não só a morte celular como também danos à motilidade e à morfologia", afirma Dirceu Mendes Pereira, da Sociedade Brasileira de Reprodução Humana. Porém, o século 21 ficará conhecido como a era do automóvel popular. Carros de US$ 6.000, produzidos no padrão chinês, abarrotarão o mundo e farão crescer a degradação ambiental gerada ao fabricá-los e usá-los. Logo agora, quando questões vitais relativas ao clima e à saúde humana exigiriam o abandono radical do transporte individual em benefício do coletivo.
Mas, como convencer o cidadão chinês, indiano ou brasileiro de que a festa vai acabar justo quando ela chega à sua porta? Ou as grandes corporações globais, que já fazem os cálculos dos lucros em grande escala propiciados por essa nova fronteira de acumulação no "mercado dos pobres"? Mas o que têm abelhas com isso? Muito. No último outono do hemisfério Norte, elas deram para desaparecer. O mesmo fenômeno foi notado em vários países, inclusive no Brasil, causando perplexidade entre cientistas, apicultores -que chegaram a perder 50% de suas colméias- e ecologistas, todos alarmados com os danos ao ambiente e à agricultura se uma crise permanente ocorrer.
Afinal, abelhas são os grandes polinizadores naturais que viabilizam a formação de frutos e sementes. Cientistas da Universidade Harvard fazem hipóteses que incluem intoxicação por inseticidas, infecções por vírus e até radiação de telefones celulares. Quanto aos pesticidas, há inúmeras tragédias humanas que alguns já causaram. Por que não atingiriam as abelhas? Nos anos 1970-80, utilizados nos bananeirais da América Central, esterilizaram 30 mil homens.
Na ilha de Kyushu, no Japão, milhares de pessoas que consumiram óleo de arroz contaminado por dibromo cloropropano ficaram doentes e 112 morreram de intoxicação aguda, câncer e outras afecções; seus filhos herdaram distúrbios imunológicos e do desenvolvimento. A OMS estimou em 3 milhões o número de casos de contaminação desse tipo no mundo. Resíduos tóxicos como metais pesados são encontrados em animais das regiões mais distantes do mundo, numa poluição sistêmica global que atinge vegetais e humanos.
Quanto às ondas magnéticas, o planeta se tornou um imenso emissor delas, produto das múltiplas transmissões de rádio, TV, celular e radar, cujas conseqüências exatas sobre o meio ambiente e a saúde humana estamos longe de conhecer. Basta imaginar a brutal quantidade de emissão de ondas que poluem o espaço para que funcionem os 2 bilhões de celulares que abarrotam nosso globo. É razoável supor que afetem as abelhas?
Aprendiz de feiticeiro, nossa civilização só desperta para os perigos de seus caminhos tecnológicos quando tragédias acontecem. O sumiço temporário das abelhas pode ser mais um grave sintoma para que fiquemos em estado de alerta.
----------------------------------------------------------
GILBERTO DUPAS*, 64, é presidente do Instituto de Estudos Econômicos e Internacionais (IEEI) e coordenador-geral do Grupo de Conjuntura Internacional da USP. É autor de "O Mito do Progresso", entre outras obras.
Aprendiz de feiticeiro, nossa civilização só desperta para os perigos de seus caminhos tecnológicos quando tragédias acontecem
OQUE tem a ver o recente sumiço das abelhas em várias partes do mundo com os imensos congestionamentos que infernizam a vida dos cidadãos das grandes cidades? Mais do que parece. O caos do trânsito, resultado da primazia do transporte individual, tem dramáticos efeitos sobre o tempo e a saúde das pessoas. Ao lado da emissão de gases e toxinas industriais, a poluição do ar por veículos é variável crítica tanto do aquecimento global e dos efeitos no clima como de doenças.
A British Air Foundation conduziu pesquisas provando que bastam seis horas pedalando no tráfego intenso para causar danos aos vasos sangüíneos, tornando-os menos flexíveis, reduzindo proteínas que previnem coágulos e favorecendo riscos cardíacos. O Laboratório de Poluição Atmosférica da USP estima que a poluição ambiental encurte em média dois anos da vida do paulistano.
O índice de abortos também aumenta, porque o fluxo arterial na placenta diminui; e há suspeitas de efeitos severos na fertilidade. Dados do banco de sêmen do hospital Albert Einstein confirmam que a concentração de espermatozóides no sêmen dos paulistanos caiu significativamente nos últimos dez anos. Entre as hipóteses estão poluição, excessivo consumo de produtos industrializados, estresse, medicamentos, produtos para queda de cabelo, exposição à radiação, substâncias tóxicas dos plásticos de embalagem, pesticidas e outros venenos da vida moderna.
"São coisas que as pessoas vão incorporando em sua dieta e fazem um estrago tremendo nas mitocôndrias e no DNA, causando não só a morte celular como também danos à motilidade e à morfologia", afirma Dirceu Mendes Pereira, da Sociedade Brasileira de Reprodução Humana. Porém, o século 21 ficará conhecido como a era do automóvel popular. Carros de US$ 6.000, produzidos no padrão chinês, abarrotarão o mundo e farão crescer a degradação ambiental gerada ao fabricá-los e usá-los. Logo agora, quando questões vitais relativas ao clima e à saúde humana exigiriam o abandono radical do transporte individual em benefício do coletivo.
Mas, como convencer o cidadão chinês, indiano ou brasileiro de que a festa vai acabar justo quando ela chega à sua porta? Ou as grandes corporações globais, que já fazem os cálculos dos lucros em grande escala propiciados por essa nova fronteira de acumulação no "mercado dos pobres"? Mas o que têm abelhas com isso? Muito. No último outono do hemisfério Norte, elas deram para desaparecer. O mesmo fenômeno foi notado em vários países, inclusive no Brasil, causando perplexidade entre cientistas, apicultores -que chegaram a perder 50% de suas colméias- e ecologistas, todos alarmados com os danos ao ambiente e à agricultura se uma crise permanente ocorrer.
Afinal, abelhas são os grandes polinizadores naturais que viabilizam a formação de frutos e sementes. Cientistas da Universidade Harvard fazem hipóteses que incluem intoxicação por inseticidas, infecções por vírus e até radiação de telefones celulares. Quanto aos pesticidas, há inúmeras tragédias humanas que alguns já causaram. Por que não atingiriam as abelhas? Nos anos 1970-80, utilizados nos bananeirais da América Central, esterilizaram 30 mil homens.
Na ilha de Kyushu, no Japão, milhares de pessoas que consumiram óleo de arroz contaminado por dibromo cloropropano ficaram doentes e 112 morreram de intoxicação aguda, câncer e outras afecções; seus filhos herdaram distúrbios imunológicos e do desenvolvimento. A OMS estimou em 3 milhões o número de casos de contaminação desse tipo no mundo. Resíduos tóxicos como metais pesados são encontrados em animais das regiões mais distantes do mundo, numa poluição sistêmica global que atinge vegetais e humanos.
Quanto às ondas magnéticas, o planeta se tornou um imenso emissor delas, produto das múltiplas transmissões de rádio, TV, celular e radar, cujas conseqüências exatas sobre o meio ambiente e a saúde humana estamos longe de conhecer. Basta imaginar a brutal quantidade de emissão de ondas que poluem o espaço para que funcionem os 2 bilhões de celulares que abarrotam nosso globo. É razoável supor que afetem as abelhas?
Aprendiz de feiticeiro, nossa civilização só desperta para os perigos de seus caminhos tecnológicos quando tragédias acontecem. O sumiço temporário das abelhas pode ser mais um grave sintoma para que fiquemos em estado de alerta.
----------------------------------------------------------
GILBERTO DUPAS*, 64, é presidente do Instituto de Estudos Econômicos e Internacionais (IEEI) e coordenador-geral do Grupo de Conjuntura Internacional da USP. É autor de "O Mito do Progresso", entre outras obras.
Iniciativas individuais em um mundo globalizado
Um sujeito, escritor, pai de família, morador de Manhatan, decide fazer a sua parte: Tentar tornar-se um "no impact man" expondo ao mundo sua façanha cotidiana num blogue. Funciona? Não sei. Mas como iniciativa e auto promoção, sim. Clique no título e opine.
julho 19, 2007
Necrocombustibles
Frei Betto
ALAI AMLATINA, 19/07/2007, Sao Paulo.- "Vamos a alimentar vehículos y desnutrir personas. Hay 800 millones de vehículos automotores en el mundo. El mismo número de personas sobrevive en desnutrición crónica"
El prefijo griego bio significa vida; necro, muerte. ¿El combustible extraído de plantas trae vida? En mi tiempo de escuela primaria, la historia de Brasil se dividía en ciclos: madera-brasil, oro, caña, café etc. La clasificación no es del todo insensata. Ahora estamos en pleno ciclo de los agro-combustibles, incorrectamente llamados de biocombustibles.
Este nuevo ciclo provoca el aumento de los precios de los alimentos, ya denunciado por Fidel Castro. Un estudio de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) y de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO), divulgado el 4 de julio, indica que “los biocombustibles tendrán un fuerte impacto en la agricultura entre 2007 y 2016”.
Los precios agrícolas estarán por encima de la media de los últimos 10 años. Los granos deberán costar del 20% a un 50% más. En Brasil, la población pagó tres veces más por los alimentos en el primer semestre de este año, si comparado al mismo periodo de 2006. Vamos a alimentar vehículos y desnutrir personas. Hay 800 millones de vehículos automotores en el mundo. El mismo número de personas sobrevive en desnutrición crónica. Lo que inquieta es que ninguno de los gobiernos entusiasmados con los agro-combustibles cuestiona el modelo de transporte individual, como si las ganancias de la industria automovilística fueran intocables.
Los precios de los alimentos ya suben en ritmo acelerado en Europa, en China, en la India y en los EUA. La agroflación – la inflación de los productos agrícolas – debe llegar, este año, a un 4% en los EUA, comparada al aumento del 2,5% en 2006. Allá, como el maíz está casi todo destinado a la producción de etanol, el precio del pollo subió un 30% en los últimos 12 meses. Y la leche debe subir un 14% este año. En Europa, la mantequilla ya está un 40% más cara. En México, hubo movilización
popular contra el aumento del 60% en el precio de las tortillas, hechas de maíz.
El etanol made in USA, producido a partir del maíz, hizo duplicar el precio de este grano en un año. No es que los yanquis gusten tanto del maíz (excepto palomita). Sin embargo, el maíz es componente esencial en la alimentación de cerdos, bovinos y aves, lo que eleva el costo de cría de esos animales, encareciendo derivados como carne, leche, mantequilla y huevos.
Como hoy quien manda es el mercado, ocurre en los EUA lo que se reproduce en Brasil con la caña: los productores de soja, algodón y otros bienes agrícolas abandonan sus cultivos tradicionales por el nuevo “oro” agrícola: el maíz allá, la caña aquí. Eso repercute en los precios de la soja, del algodón y de toda la cadena alimentar, considerando que los EUA son responsables por mitad de la exportación mundial de granos.
En los EUA, existen hay lobbies de productores de bovinos, porcinos, caprinos y aves presionando el Congreso para que se reduzca el subsidio a los productores de etanol. Prefieren que se importe etanol de Brasil, a partir de caña, de modo de evitar aún más el alta del precio de la ración animal.
La desnutrición amenaza, hoy, a 52,4 millones de latinoamericanos y caribeños, un 10% de la población del continente. Con la expansión de las áreas de cultivo destinadas a la producción de etanol, se corre el riesgo de transformarse, de hecho, en necrocombustible – predador de vidas humanas. En Brasil, el gobierno ya castigó, este año, a haciendas cuyos cañaverales dependían de trabajo esclavo. Y todo indica que la expansión de ese cultivo en el Sudeste empujará la producción de soja Amazonia adentro, provocando la deforestación de una región que ya perdió, en área forestal, el equivalente al territorio de 14 estados de Alagoas.
La producción de caña en Brasil es históricamente conocida por la superexplotación del trabajo, destrucción del medio ambiente y apropiación indebida de recursos públicos. Los centrales se caracterizan por la concentración de tierras para el monocultivo dedicado a la exportación. Utilizan en general mano de obra emigrante, los boyas-frías (trabajadores agrícolas que no poseen sus propias tierras), sin derechos laborales reglamentados. Los trabajadores son (apenas) remunerados por la cantidad de caña cortada, y no por el número de horas trabajadas. Y aun así no tienen control sobre la medición del peso de lo que producen.
Algunos llegan a cortar, obligados, 15 toneladas por día. Tamaño esfuerzo causa serios problemas de salud, como calambres y tendinitis, afectando la columna y los pies. La mayoría de las contrataciones se da por intermediarios o los llamados “gatos”, agentes de trabajo esclavo o semi-esclavo. Después de 1850, un esclavo solía trabajar en el corte de caña de 15 a 20 años. Hoy, el trabajo excesivo redujo este tiempo medio para 12 años.
El entusiasmo de Bush y Lula por el etanol hace con que centrales alagoanos y paulistas disputen, palmo a palmo, cada pedazo de tierra del Triángulo Minero. Según el reportero Amaury Ribeiro Jr., en menos de cuatro años, 300 mil hectáreas de caña fueron plantados en antiguas áreas de pastizales y de agricultura. La instalación de una decena de centrales nuevos, próximos a Uberaba, generó la creación de 10 mil
empleos e hizo la producción de alcohol en Minas saltar de 630 millones de litros en 2003 para 1,7 mil millones este año. La migración de mano de obra descalificada rumbo a los cañaverales – 20 mil boyas-frías por año – produce, además del aumento de favelas, asesinatos, tráfico de drogas, comercio de niños y de adolescentes destinados a la prostitución.
El gobierno brasileño necesita librarse de su síndrome de Coloso (la famosa tela de Goya). Antes de transformar el país en un inmenso cañaveral y soñar con la energía atómica, debería priorizar fuentes de energía alternativa abundantes en Brasil, como hidráulica, solar y eólica. Y cuidar de alimentar a los sufridos hambrientos, antes de enriquecer los “heroicos” dueños de centrales.
- Frei Betto es escritor, autor de Calendario del poder (Rocco), entre otros libros.
Más información: http://alainet.org
ALAI - 30 AÑOS
ALAI AMLATINA, 19/07/2007, Sao Paulo.- "Vamos a alimentar vehículos y desnutrir personas. Hay 800 millones de vehículos automotores en el mundo. El mismo número de personas sobrevive en desnutrición crónica"
El prefijo griego bio significa vida; necro, muerte. ¿El combustible extraído de plantas trae vida? En mi tiempo de escuela primaria, la historia de Brasil se dividía en ciclos: madera-brasil, oro, caña, café etc. La clasificación no es del todo insensata. Ahora estamos en pleno ciclo de los agro-combustibles, incorrectamente llamados de biocombustibles.
Este nuevo ciclo provoca el aumento de los precios de los alimentos, ya denunciado por Fidel Castro. Un estudio de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) y de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO), divulgado el 4 de julio, indica que “los biocombustibles tendrán un fuerte impacto en la agricultura entre 2007 y 2016”.
Los precios agrícolas estarán por encima de la media de los últimos 10 años. Los granos deberán costar del 20% a un 50% más. En Brasil, la población pagó tres veces más por los alimentos en el primer semestre de este año, si comparado al mismo periodo de 2006. Vamos a alimentar vehículos y desnutrir personas. Hay 800 millones de vehículos automotores en el mundo. El mismo número de personas sobrevive en desnutrición crónica. Lo que inquieta es que ninguno de los gobiernos entusiasmados con los agro-combustibles cuestiona el modelo de transporte individual, como si las ganancias de la industria automovilística fueran intocables.
Los precios de los alimentos ya suben en ritmo acelerado en Europa, en China, en la India y en los EUA. La agroflación – la inflación de los productos agrícolas – debe llegar, este año, a un 4% en los EUA, comparada al aumento del 2,5% en 2006. Allá, como el maíz está casi todo destinado a la producción de etanol, el precio del pollo subió un 30% en los últimos 12 meses. Y la leche debe subir un 14% este año. En Europa, la mantequilla ya está un 40% más cara. En México, hubo movilización
popular contra el aumento del 60% en el precio de las tortillas, hechas de maíz.
El etanol made in USA, producido a partir del maíz, hizo duplicar el precio de este grano en un año. No es que los yanquis gusten tanto del maíz (excepto palomita). Sin embargo, el maíz es componente esencial en la alimentación de cerdos, bovinos y aves, lo que eleva el costo de cría de esos animales, encareciendo derivados como carne, leche, mantequilla y huevos.
Como hoy quien manda es el mercado, ocurre en los EUA lo que se reproduce en Brasil con la caña: los productores de soja, algodón y otros bienes agrícolas abandonan sus cultivos tradicionales por el nuevo “oro” agrícola: el maíz allá, la caña aquí. Eso repercute en los precios de la soja, del algodón y de toda la cadena alimentar, considerando que los EUA son responsables por mitad de la exportación mundial de granos.
En los EUA, existen hay lobbies de productores de bovinos, porcinos, caprinos y aves presionando el Congreso para que se reduzca el subsidio a los productores de etanol. Prefieren que se importe etanol de Brasil, a partir de caña, de modo de evitar aún más el alta del precio de la ración animal.
La desnutrición amenaza, hoy, a 52,4 millones de latinoamericanos y caribeños, un 10% de la población del continente. Con la expansión de las áreas de cultivo destinadas a la producción de etanol, se corre el riesgo de transformarse, de hecho, en necrocombustible – predador de vidas humanas. En Brasil, el gobierno ya castigó, este año, a haciendas cuyos cañaverales dependían de trabajo esclavo. Y todo indica que la expansión de ese cultivo en el Sudeste empujará la producción de soja Amazonia adentro, provocando la deforestación de una región que ya perdió, en área forestal, el equivalente al territorio de 14 estados de Alagoas.
La producción de caña en Brasil es históricamente conocida por la superexplotación del trabajo, destrucción del medio ambiente y apropiación indebida de recursos públicos. Los centrales se caracterizan por la concentración de tierras para el monocultivo dedicado a la exportación. Utilizan en general mano de obra emigrante, los boyas-frías (trabajadores agrícolas que no poseen sus propias tierras), sin derechos laborales reglamentados. Los trabajadores son (apenas) remunerados por la cantidad de caña cortada, y no por el número de horas trabajadas. Y aun así no tienen control sobre la medición del peso de lo que producen.
Algunos llegan a cortar, obligados, 15 toneladas por día. Tamaño esfuerzo causa serios problemas de salud, como calambres y tendinitis, afectando la columna y los pies. La mayoría de las contrataciones se da por intermediarios o los llamados “gatos”, agentes de trabajo esclavo o semi-esclavo. Después de 1850, un esclavo solía trabajar en el corte de caña de 15 a 20 años. Hoy, el trabajo excesivo redujo este tiempo medio para 12 años.
El entusiasmo de Bush y Lula por el etanol hace con que centrales alagoanos y paulistas disputen, palmo a palmo, cada pedazo de tierra del Triángulo Minero. Según el reportero Amaury Ribeiro Jr., en menos de cuatro años, 300 mil hectáreas de caña fueron plantados en antiguas áreas de pastizales y de agricultura. La instalación de una decena de centrales nuevos, próximos a Uberaba, generó la creación de 10 mil
empleos e hizo la producción de alcohol en Minas saltar de 630 millones de litros en 2003 para 1,7 mil millones este año. La migración de mano de obra descalificada rumbo a los cañaverales – 20 mil boyas-frías por año – produce, además del aumento de favelas, asesinatos, tráfico de drogas, comercio de niños y de adolescentes destinados a la prostitución.
El gobierno brasileño necesita librarse de su síndrome de Coloso (la famosa tela de Goya). Antes de transformar el país en un inmenso cañaveral y soñar con la energía atómica, debería priorizar fuentes de energía alternativa abundantes en Brasil, como hidráulica, solar y eólica. Y cuidar de alimentar a los sufridos hambrientos, antes de enriquecer los “heroicos” dueños de centrales.
- Frei Betto es escritor, autor de Calendario del poder (Rocco), entre otros libros.
Más información: http://alainet.org
ALAI - 30 AÑOS
julho 18, 2007
CO2 pode não ser o grande causador das mudanças climáticas?
http://bioneconomy.blogspot.com/
Finalmente uma reportagem sobre mudanças climáticas feita pelo Chanel 4 mostra que o CO2, parte de todos os seres vivos do planeta, não é o grande vilão das mudanças climáticas que enfrentamos. E apresenta o Sol, e suas explosões, como o grande controlador das temperaturas de nosso sistema.
Bem, nada que as plantas já não saibam... mas voltando: O CO2 está relacionado à industrialização e desenvolvimento econômico, conter a produção dele é conter a forma como o capitalismo está direcionado, pela concentração de riquesas. Como mostra o video, depois da queda do muro de Berlim, o movimento ambientalista contou com o apoio dos neo-marxistas e o Aquecimento Global hoje é colocado como a mais nova, melhor e única maneira de controlar a imensa opinião pública.
Que o clima está mudando, não temos dúvidas. Que as geleiras estão sumindo, também não. Seu reflexo é visível, disso não duvidamos. Mas até que ponto isso faz parte de nossas vidas individuais e até que ponto faz e fez parte da história da Terra?
A comoção e envolvimento que presenciamos atualmente, é a busca pelo verdadeiro preenchimento que procuramos. Conquistamos o mundo exterior e, agora que continuar conquistando está sendo cada dia mais concorrido, e de certo modo, cada dia menos prometido, estamos procurando no interior de nós mesmos as verdadeiras respostas. Encarar as mudanças climáticas como uma oportunidade de nos apaziguarmos (e não desesperarmos) talvez seja o maior desafio.
Não deixem de assistir a esse programa, com legendas em português e, não deixe de questionar as perguntas básicas de todo ser humano: quem sou, por que estou e para onde vou?
Clique aqui: http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=1JCVjg7H94s
Finalmente uma reportagem sobre mudanças climáticas feita pelo Chanel 4 mostra que o CO2, parte de todos os seres vivos do planeta, não é o grande vilão das mudanças climáticas que enfrentamos. E apresenta o Sol, e suas explosões, como o grande controlador das temperaturas de nosso sistema.
Bem, nada que as plantas já não saibam... mas voltando: O CO2 está relacionado à industrialização e desenvolvimento econômico, conter a produção dele é conter a forma como o capitalismo está direcionado, pela concentração de riquesas. Como mostra o video, depois da queda do muro de Berlim, o movimento ambientalista contou com o apoio dos neo-marxistas e o Aquecimento Global hoje é colocado como a mais nova, melhor e única maneira de controlar a imensa opinião pública.
Que o clima está mudando, não temos dúvidas. Que as geleiras estão sumindo, também não. Seu reflexo é visível, disso não duvidamos. Mas até que ponto isso faz parte de nossas vidas individuais e até que ponto faz e fez parte da história da Terra?
A comoção e envolvimento que presenciamos atualmente, é a busca pelo verdadeiro preenchimento que procuramos. Conquistamos o mundo exterior e, agora que continuar conquistando está sendo cada dia mais concorrido, e de certo modo, cada dia menos prometido, estamos procurando no interior de nós mesmos as verdadeiras respostas. Encarar as mudanças climáticas como uma oportunidade de nos apaziguarmos (e não desesperarmos) talvez seja o maior desafio.
Não deixem de assistir a esse programa, com legendas em português e, não deixe de questionar as perguntas básicas de todo ser humano: quem sou, por que estou e para onde vou?
Clique aqui: http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=1JCVjg7H94s
julho 17, 2007
Glaciers in Retreat
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: July 17, 2007
ON CHORABARI GLACIER, India — This is how a glacier retreats.
See the video here.
At nearly 13,000 feet above sea level, in the shadow of a sharp Himalayan peak, a wall of black ice oozes in the sunshine. A tumbling stone breaks the silence of the mountains, or water gurgles under the ground, a sign that the glacier is melting from inside. Where it empties out — scientists call it the snout — a noisy, frothy stream rushes down to meet the river Ganges.
D.P. Dobhal, a glaciologist who has spent the last three years climbing and poking the Chorabari glacier, stands at the edge of the snout and points ahead. Three years ago, the snout was roughly 90 feet farther away. On a map drawn in 1962, it was plotted 860 feet from here. Mr. Dobhal marked the spot with a Stonehenge-like pile of rocks.
Mr. Dobhal’s steep and solitary quest — to measure the changes in the glacier’s size and volume — points to a looming worldwide concern, with particularly serious repercussions for India and its neighbors. The thousands of glaciers studded across 1,500 miles of the Himalayas make up the savings account of South Asia’s water supply, feeding more than a dozen major rivers and sustaining a billion people downstream. Their apparent retreat threatens to bear heavily on everything from the region’s drinking water supply to agricultural production to disease and floods.
Indian glaciers are among the least studied in the world, lacking the decades of data that scientists need to deduce trends. Nevertheless, the nascent research offers a snapshot of the consequences of global warming for this country and raises vital questions about how India will respond to them.
According to Mr. Dobhal’s measurements, the Chorabari’s snout has retreated 29.5 feet every year for the last three years, and while that is too short a time to draw scientific conclusions about the glacier’s health, it conforms to a disquieting pattern of glacial retreat across the Himalayas.
A recent study by the Indian Space Research Organization, using satellite imaging to gauge the changes to 466 glaciers, has found more than a 20 percent reduction in size from 1962 to 2001, with bigger glaciers breaking into smaller pieces, each one retreating faster than its parent. A separate study found the Parbati glacier, one of the largest in the area, to be retreating by 170 feet a year during the 1990s. Another glacier that Mr. Dobhal has tracked, known as Dokriani, lost 20 percent of its size in three decades. Between 1991 and 1995, its snout inched back 55 feet each year.
Similar losses are being seen around the world. Lonnie G. Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University, found a 22 percent loss of ice on the Qori Kalis glacier in Peru between 1963 and 2002. He called it “a repeating theme whether you are in tropical Andes, the Himalayas or Kilimanjaro in Africa.”
The Chorabari, sweeping down from Kedarnath peak across 2.3 square miles, is relatively lucky. It is blessed with a thick cover of rocks and boulders, which acts as a sort of insulation and slows the melting. Since Mr. Dobhal began collecting data here in 2003, the Chorabari has been shedding its weight — that is to say, melting faster than the rate at which snow and ice accumulates, and as a result, thinning out by roughly five feet each year. The snow line, in addition, is gradually moving higher.
A vast and ancient sheet of ice, a glacier is in effect the planet’s most sensitive organ, like an aging knee that feels the onset of winter. Its upper reaches accumulate snow and ice when it is cold; its lower reaches melt when it is warm. Its long-term survival depends on the balance between the buildup and the melting. Glaciers worldwide serve as a barometer for global warming, which has, according to a report this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, been spurred in recent decades by rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Even the Himalayas have grown measurably warmer. A recent study found that mean air temperature in the northwestern Himalayan range had risen by 2.2 degrees Celsius in the last two decades, a rate considerably higher than the rate of increase over the last 100 years.
In its report, the international panel predicted that as these glaciers melt, they would increase the likelihood of flooding over the next three decades and then, as they recede, dry up the rivers that they feed. “In the course of the century,” it warned darkly, “water supply stored in glaciers and snow cover are projected to decline, reducing water availability in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges, where more than one-sixth of the world population currently lives.”
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Published: July 17, 2007
ON CHORABARI GLACIER, India — This is how a glacier retreats.
See the video here.
At nearly 13,000 feet above sea level, in the shadow of a sharp Himalayan peak, a wall of black ice oozes in the sunshine. A tumbling stone breaks the silence of the mountains, or water gurgles under the ground, a sign that the glacier is melting from inside. Where it empties out — scientists call it the snout — a noisy, frothy stream rushes down to meet the river Ganges.
D.P. Dobhal, a glaciologist who has spent the last three years climbing and poking the Chorabari glacier, stands at the edge of the snout and points ahead. Three years ago, the snout was roughly 90 feet farther away. On a map drawn in 1962, it was plotted 860 feet from here. Mr. Dobhal marked the spot with a Stonehenge-like pile of rocks.
Mr. Dobhal’s steep and solitary quest — to measure the changes in the glacier’s size and volume — points to a looming worldwide concern, with particularly serious repercussions for India and its neighbors. The thousands of glaciers studded across 1,500 miles of the Himalayas make up the savings account of South Asia’s water supply, feeding more than a dozen major rivers and sustaining a billion people downstream. Their apparent retreat threatens to bear heavily on everything from the region’s drinking water supply to agricultural production to disease and floods.
Indian glaciers are among the least studied in the world, lacking the decades of data that scientists need to deduce trends. Nevertheless, the nascent research offers a snapshot of the consequences of global warming for this country and raises vital questions about how India will respond to them.
According to Mr. Dobhal’s measurements, the Chorabari’s snout has retreated 29.5 feet every year for the last three years, and while that is too short a time to draw scientific conclusions about the glacier’s health, it conforms to a disquieting pattern of glacial retreat across the Himalayas.
A recent study by the Indian Space Research Organization, using satellite imaging to gauge the changes to 466 glaciers, has found more than a 20 percent reduction in size from 1962 to 2001, with bigger glaciers breaking into smaller pieces, each one retreating faster than its parent. A separate study found the Parbati glacier, one of the largest in the area, to be retreating by 170 feet a year during the 1990s. Another glacier that Mr. Dobhal has tracked, known as Dokriani, lost 20 percent of its size in three decades. Between 1991 and 1995, its snout inched back 55 feet each year.
Similar losses are being seen around the world. Lonnie G. Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University, found a 22 percent loss of ice on the Qori Kalis glacier in Peru between 1963 and 2002. He called it “a repeating theme whether you are in tropical Andes, the Himalayas or Kilimanjaro in Africa.”
The Chorabari, sweeping down from Kedarnath peak across 2.3 square miles, is relatively lucky. It is blessed with a thick cover of rocks and boulders, which acts as a sort of insulation and slows the melting. Since Mr. Dobhal began collecting data here in 2003, the Chorabari has been shedding its weight — that is to say, melting faster than the rate at which snow and ice accumulates, and as a result, thinning out by roughly five feet each year. The snow line, in addition, is gradually moving higher.
A vast and ancient sheet of ice, a glacier is in effect the planet’s most sensitive organ, like an aging knee that feels the onset of winter. Its upper reaches accumulate snow and ice when it is cold; its lower reaches melt when it is warm. Its long-term survival depends on the balance between the buildup and the melting. Glaciers worldwide serve as a barometer for global warming, which has, according to a report this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, been spurred in recent decades by rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Even the Himalayas have grown measurably warmer. A recent study found that mean air temperature in the northwestern Himalayan range had risen by 2.2 degrees Celsius in the last two decades, a rate considerably higher than the rate of increase over the last 100 years.
In its report, the international panel predicted that as these glaciers melt, they would increase the likelihood of flooding over the next three decades and then, as they recede, dry up the rivers that they feed. “In the course of the century,” it warned darkly, “water supply stored in glaciers and snow cover are projected to decline, reducing water availability in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges, where more than one-sixth of the world population currently lives.”
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julho 16, 2007
The Cruel Winds of Change
International Medical Veritas Association
A lot of people think climate change and the ecological repercussions are 50 years away," said Thomas Swetnam, head of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "But it's happening now in the West. The data is telling us that we are in the middle of one of the first big indicators of climate change impacts in the continental United States.” We don't need Al Gore to tell us something is up with the weather. Not if you have been driven from your home in recent days by cyclones in Pakistan, by raging floods in Texas or Yorkshire, by forest fires in California or have sweltered in intense heat in southern Europe.
A lot of people think climate change and the ecological repercussions are 50 years away," said Thomas Swetnam, head of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "But it's happening now in the West. The data is telling us that we are in the middle of one of the first big indicators of climate change impacts in the continental United States.” We don't need Al Gore to tell us something is up with the weather. Not if you have been driven from your home in recent days by cyclones in Pakistan, by raging floods in Texas or Yorkshire, by forest fires in California or have sweltered in intense heat in southern Europe.
AP Summer temperatures across Utah are running 10 to 15 degrees F. above normal. Brandon Smith Meteorologist
Temperatures in parts of the West have been climbing so high recently that authorities warned residents of southern Nevada, southeastern California and northwestern Arizona that outdoor activities could be dangerous except during the cooler early morning hours. The intense heat wave that has baked much of Europe for weeks, fueling deadly forest fires, causing drought and damaging crops is threatening lives and livelihoods in many parts of Europe. The hot weather is taking its toll on agriculture, with forecasts for cereal production in Germany and the EU being cut. Provinces in western and northern China are facing food shortages due to a prolonged drought that has left hundreds of reservoirs dry and tens of thousands of wells either dry or nearly empty.
Each new scientific paper seems to carry a message grimmer than the last.
Barring a surprise arrival of the kind of gully washers Texas is getting these days, Los Angeles' driest year in 130 years of record-keeping will go into the books in July of 2007. The nation's second-largest city is missing nearly a foot of rain for the year counted from July 1 to June 30. Just 3.21 inches have fallen downtown in those 12 months, closer to Death Valley's numbers than the normal average of 15.14 inches. And it's much the same all over the West, from the measly snow pack and fire-scarred Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada to Arizona's shrinking Lake Powell and the withering Colorado River watershed.
Global grain harvest has not met demand for most of the past eight years.
Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times Our future looks as bleak as farmers’ fields.
On Monday July 2, 2007 the entire state of Alabama was declared a drought disaster area by the federal Department of Agriculture. “Nobody alive has ever seen it like this,” said Perry Mobley, and the National Weather Service says conditions are unlikely to change until fall. The true reckoning will come later this year as food stocks fall and prices rise. The drought is wilting much of the Southeast, causing watering restrictions and curtailed crops in Georgia, premature cattle sales in Mississippi and Tennessee, and rivers so low that power companies in the region are scrambling and barges are unable to navigate.[i]
A team led by Dr. James Hansen at NASA suggests that the grim reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change could be absurdly optimistic.[ii] The IPCC predicts that sea levels could rise by as much as 59cm this century. Hansen’s paper argues that the slow melting of ice sheets the panel expects doesn’t fit the data. The geological record suggests that ice at the poles does not melt in a gradual and linear fashion, but flips suddenly from one state to another. When temperatures increased to 2-3 degrees above today’s level 3.5 million years ago, sea levels rose not by 59 centimeters but by 25 meters. The ice responded immediately to changes in temperature.
As well as drowning most of the world’s centers of population, a sudden disintegration could lead to much higher rises in global temperature, because less ice means less heat reflected back into space.
Throughout the early 1960s, world grain reserves were equal to at least 1 year's global demand for these commodities. By this year, that excess had fallen to just 20 percent of what's now consumed annually. Most people have not realized it yet but cheap food is about to become a thing of the past. Agflation is an increase in the price of food that occurs as a result of increased demand from human consumption, falling production and the diversion of crops into usage as an alternative energy resource. Yes this diversion works quite well for a country like Brazil but the recent American lust for it will affect the entire world and kill many through starvation.
Agriculture is central to human survival, and is the human enterprise most vulnerable to changes in climate. Understanding the current and future effects of changes in climate on world food supplies is crucial for our lives depend on it. A warming world means much more than hotter temperatures and rising seas, it means disease, hunger, starvation and death and even more work for overworked doctors. Agriculture is highly sensitive to climate variability and weather extremes, such as droughts, floods and severe storms. The forces that shape our climate are also critical to farm productivity.
The enduring changes in climate, water supply and soil moisture could make it less feasible to continue crop production in certain regions. US EPA
The World Health Organization estimates climate change has already directly or indirectly killed more than 1 million people globally since 2000. More than half of those deaths have occurred in the Asia-Pacific area, the world's most populous region. Those figures do not include deaths linked to urban air pollution, which kills about 800,000 worldwide each year, according to WHO.
An ever-rising tide of sand has claimed grasslands, ponds, lakes and forests, swallowed whole villages and forced tens of thousands of people to flee as it surges south and threatens to leave this ancient Silk Road greenbelt uninhabitable. Farmers dig wells down hundreds of feet. If they find water, it is often brackish, poisonous. R oughly the size of Rhode Island, is buried each year. Nearly all of north central China, including Beijing, is at risk.
Severe events are going to be more frequent.
Last week, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: "In Britain, there is bad flooding and destruction on a scale rarely seen before, and more bad weather is on the way. For some people in Europe it will be a case of adapt or die." If you get the idea that very soon we will have a massive refugee problem in the world and that people with money will be desperate to escape to safer more environmentally friendly environments you could not be more correct.
Mark Sircus Ac., OMDDirector International Medical Veritas Association http://www.imva.info/http://www.magnesiumforlife.com/
Special Note: Though I am now building Sanctuary in the interior of Brazil into a cancer clinic and retreat center for radical cure I have not given up my vision of creating an underground railroad (via jet plane) for people to escape from the north to one of the most beautiful pristine environments left. With one of the lowest population densities in the world and plenty of water it’s an ideal place to ride out The Cruel Winds of Change. During my last trip to the interior I created a construction company with my builder and made contacts with several old friends who have quite a bit of land for sale. Though the region is vast in terms of space I would guess that the maximum amount of new families the local area could support in terms of immigration is only about 200 and even that would be pushing it. I can imagine that many people buying land but it would take a few years for the local people to be able to build for so many people.
Authorities in the world are already predicting massive refugee problems but in reality there are few places to go and if one waits till everyone wakes up to the obvious it will be too late and most options will be cut off. Part three of The Cruel Winds of Change has to do with the deadly risks of air pollution and the gas like chamber effect of living in large urban centers. In my book HeartHealth is the following prose:
To listen is to suffer because we do not want to listen to anything that might require a change. To listen is to change.We cannot change without listening. Listening implies a change.We need to change just to listen.
Actually I am an uncomfortable person to be around too much because I am always suggesting change. It is just the natural position of my being and it emanates from me with ease. Everything is always changing, everything is in a state of flux but our ego centered minds resist change and this is where we are all going to be tested in the years ahead.
After I publish part three tomorrow I will change directions, as far as my publications to the IMVA are concerned, and publish materials that have to do with solutions, medical solutions that will help us survive despite all the pressures that are accumulating around us and perhaps in about ten days I will finish the first edition of Survival Medicine for the 21st Century. These past few days as I have written extensively about late stage fungus infections, cancer and sodium bicarbonate I have been stimulated with medical creativity.
In discovering that Dr. Tullio Simoncini's bicarbonate protocol demands simultaneous high carbohydrate consumption I have envisioned combining the bicarbonate protocol with an intensive regime of high level anti-oxidant fruits that have known anti tumor effects. So threatened was the FDA by cherry farmers speaking out about the medical effects of purple colored fruits that they had to give gag orders to make sure they would not threaten orthodox oncologists and their work. Purple (Concord) grapes (with their skin and seeds), and to a slightly lesser degree red and black grapes, contain several nutrients that are known to kill cancer cells. These kinds of grapes also contain nutrients to stop the spread of cancer. They also help detoxify the body. Down here in Brazil it's fruit heaven and in the local area of the clinic are two fruits, Graviola and Jabuticaba and from more distant regions Açaí and acerola. My building crew brought a two liter bottle of Graviola juice freshly made and I never tasted anything so delicious in my life. Açaì is sold everywhere as an ice-cream type of treat and who would have ever thought it would be excellent in a cancer protocol.
The key is to be eating these berries in their raw, whole fruit form rather than trying to eat processed berries. In order to get the healing phytonutrients, you must get the berries in the freshest form possible -- that means no processed berries, just raw berries, right off the bush or straight from the grocery store. It is very disturbing to examine how much of the nutritional value is lost in commercially available fruits and in food in general, whose nutritional values have been dropping steadily for the last fifty years.
On the internet one will find references to using such fruits as a primary cancer treatment thus they will be excellent supportive therapies to the bicarbonate. Because the central substances in our cancer protocol are concentrated nutritional items (stolen from emergency rooms and intensive care wards) we are free to shape treatments in a more complex and dynamic way. What is life threatening with pharmaceutical drugs (dangerous to mix them) is life saving with nutritional substances like sodium bicarbonate, magesium chloride, iodine and ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid).
Also of special note: Dr. Tullio Sumoncini has traveled to the United States and has spoken to about 40 doctors some of which might be coming online to give sodium bicarbonate treatments but in the US this will be touchy with the FDA hound dogs ready to bite just about anyone who does not do things THEIR WAY. Since their way is the wrong way we have to do everything opposite to what they indicate to be sure that we are going the right way. I imagine people in the States who cannot afford to go to Mexico or here to Brazil or to Italy and Switerland, where this treatment is also going to be available. It will be possible that individuals will be able to do at home many of the sodium bicarbonate treatments with some simple medical supervision and proper equipment. We will assist people where we can and make either the appropriate referals when possible or take people into our own online clinic to give suppport from a distance.
For many reasons, including the difficulty of receiving bicarbonate via a necessary catheter for certain forms of cancer, the IMVA protocol does not depend too much on any one medicinal agent to effect a cure for cancer. We will have our cocktails but they will not be chemical or toxic. We will be supporting physicians and clinics that choose to take multi-dimensional approaches that catch cancer/late stage fungus infections in a lethal cross fire of concentrated nutritional agents.
Claudia French RN, LPHA, the assistant director to the IMVA, traveled to meet Dr. Simoncini and it was thrilling to hear her reports and the fact that when the organizer of the lecture started the days events he shouted out to the audience, "Is there anyone in the house from the IMVA?" We brought Transdermal Magnesium Therapy books, magnesium oil and a wonderful iodine to give out to everyone.
[i] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/us/04drought.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
[ii] We now have a pretty good idea of why ice sheets collapse. The buttresses that prevent them from sliding into the sea break up; meltwater trickles down to their base, causing them suddenly to slip; and pools of water form on the surface, making the ice darker so that it absorbs more heat. These processes are already taking place in Greenland and West Antarctica. Rather than taking thousands of years to melt, as the IPCC predicts, Hansen and his team find it “implausible” that the expected warming before 2100 “would permit a West Antarctic ice sheet of present size to survive even for a century.” The new paper suggests that the temperature could therefore be twice as sensitive to rising greenhouse gases than the IPCC assumes. “Civilization developed,” Hansen writes, “during a period of unusual climate stability, the Holocene, now almost 12,000 years in duration. That period is about to end.”
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/07/03/a-sudden-change-of-state/#more-1072
International Medical Veritas Association Copyright 2007 All rights reserved.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The communication in this email is intended for informational purposes only. Nothing in this email is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.
julho 14, 2007
USDA Buzzing With New Plan to Fight Collapse of Bee Colonies
Saturday 14 July 2007
Washington - Agriculture Department scientists are mobilizing to fight the puzzling and potentially catastrophic collapse of the nation's honey bee colonies.
Citing a "perfect storm for beekeepers," alarmed officials admitted Friday they still don't know why bees are dying in large numbers in more than 22 states. But prodded by Congress and farmers alike, the scientists will be devoting new resources to protecting the diligent pollinators some call six-legged livestock.
"There were enough honey bees to provide pollination for U.S. agriculture this year, but beekeepers could face a serious problem next year and beyond," Agriculture Undersecretary Gale Buchanan warned Friday.
Nationwide, honey bees pollinate more than 130 crops. They are particularly dutiful in some areas, such as California's nearly $3 billion-a-year almond industry. Of the nation's 2.4 million commercial bee colonies, 1.3 million pollinate almond orchards.
"The bee industry is facing difficulty meeting the demand for pollination in almonds because of bee production shortages in California," the Agricultural Research Service noted.
Prepared with the help of scientists at North Carolina State University and Pennsylvania State University, among others, the 28-page action plan issued Friday proposes:
* Spending more money. The Agricultural Research Service has a bee research budget of $7.4 million this year. Officials will redirect new funds to the cause, including an additional $1 million annually for work on honey bee health.
* Conducting new surveys. Officials cautioned Friday that current colony surveys have been either "limited in scope (or) fundamentally flawed." Agriculture Department agencies will collaborate with university researchers to obtain "an accurate picture of bee numbers," as well as a better understanding of the pesticides, pests and environmental stresses plaguing the bees.
* Finding fixes. This is particularly hard, since no one really knows why the bee colonies are collapsing. But officials say they will focus on "developing general best management practices" and distributing information through the Internet.
The new work will focus on so-called "colony collapse disorder." This is when the colony's adult bee population abruptly dies, leaving only the queen and a few attendants alive. Typically, there is no sign of mite or beetle damage. Some think toxic exposure or nutritional deficits might be undermining the bees' immune systems.
Gene Brandi, a beekeeper in California's San Joaquin Valley, told lawmakers that 800 of his 2,000 bee colonies collapsed inexplicably last winter. Brandi lost an estimated $60,000 in pollination income from his Los Banos-based operation, and he's spent an additional $48,000 to restock his lost colonies.
"This is the greatest winter colony mortality I have ever experienced in 30 years of beekeeping," Brandi testified earlier this year.
A draft farm bill scheduled for House Agriculture Committee approval next week includes new funding to study colony collapse disorder. Separately, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced legislation to authorize an additional $7.25 million annually for related research.
"Colony collapse disorder is a looming disaster on the horizon," Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., said Friday. "We must continue to devote significant resources to understanding and treating the disorder."
Earlier this year, as chair of the House horticulture and organic agriculture subcommittee, Cardoza convened the first congressional hearing into the colony collapses. Spokesman Jamie McInerney said Friday that Cardoza and other lawmakers might seek additional honey bee funding as part of the fiscal 2008 Agriculture Department appropriations package.
The Agriculture Department plan sets out goals for both the short and long term. Immediately, for instance, scientists will "refine" symptoms to define what colony collapse disorder "is and what it is not." Longer term, the National Agricultural Statistics Service will develop a more reliable annual survey on honey bee colony production and health.
At the same time, officials are ruling out some theories.
"Based on misleading news reports, the public has become concerned that cell-phone use may be causing bee die-offs," the Agricultural Research Service noted Friday. "However, scientists have largely dismissed this theory, because exposure of bees to high levels of electromagnetic fields is unlikely."
Washington - Agriculture Department scientists are mobilizing to fight the puzzling and potentially catastrophic collapse of the nation's honey bee colonies.
Citing a "perfect storm for beekeepers," alarmed officials admitted Friday they still don't know why bees are dying in large numbers in more than 22 states. But prodded by Congress and farmers alike, the scientists will be devoting new resources to protecting the diligent pollinators some call six-legged livestock.
"There were enough honey bees to provide pollination for U.S. agriculture this year, but beekeepers could face a serious problem next year and beyond," Agriculture Undersecretary Gale Buchanan warned Friday.
Nationwide, honey bees pollinate more than 130 crops. They are particularly dutiful in some areas, such as California's nearly $3 billion-a-year almond industry. Of the nation's 2.4 million commercial bee colonies, 1.3 million pollinate almond orchards.
"The bee industry is facing difficulty meeting the demand for pollination in almonds because of bee production shortages in California," the Agricultural Research Service noted.
Prepared with the help of scientists at North Carolina State University and Pennsylvania State University, among others, the 28-page action plan issued Friday proposes:
* Spending more money. The Agricultural Research Service has a bee research budget of $7.4 million this year. Officials will redirect new funds to the cause, including an additional $1 million annually for work on honey bee health.
* Conducting new surveys. Officials cautioned Friday that current colony surveys have been either "limited in scope (or) fundamentally flawed." Agriculture Department agencies will collaborate with university researchers to obtain "an accurate picture of bee numbers," as well as a better understanding of the pesticides, pests and environmental stresses plaguing the bees.
* Finding fixes. This is particularly hard, since no one really knows why the bee colonies are collapsing. But officials say they will focus on "developing general best management practices" and distributing information through the Internet.
The new work will focus on so-called "colony collapse disorder." This is when the colony's adult bee population abruptly dies, leaving only the queen and a few attendants alive. Typically, there is no sign of mite or beetle damage. Some think toxic exposure or nutritional deficits might be undermining the bees' immune systems.
Gene Brandi, a beekeeper in California's San Joaquin Valley, told lawmakers that 800 of his 2,000 bee colonies collapsed inexplicably last winter. Brandi lost an estimated $60,000 in pollination income from his Los Banos-based operation, and he's spent an additional $48,000 to restock his lost colonies.
"This is the greatest winter colony mortality I have ever experienced in 30 years of beekeeping," Brandi testified earlier this year.
A draft farm bill scheduled for House Agriculture Committee approval next week includes new funding to study colony collapse disorder. Separately, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced legislation to authorize an additional $7.25 million annually for related research.
"Colony collapse disorder is a looming disaster on the horizon," Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., said Friday. "We must continue to devote significant resources to understanding and treating the disorder."
Earlier this year, as chair of the House horticulture and organic agriculture subcommittee, Cardoza convened the first congressional hearing into the colony collapses. Spokesman Jamie McInerney said Friday that Cardoza and other lawmakers might seek additional honey bee funding as part of the fiscal 2008 Agriculture Department appropriations package.
The Agriculture Department plan sets out goals for both the short and long term. Immediately, for instance, scientists will "refine" symptoms to define what colony collapse disorder "is and what it is not." Longer term, the National Agricultural Statistics Service will develop a more reliable annual survey on honey bee colony production and health.
At the same time, officials are ruling out some theories.
"Based on misleading news reports, the public has become concerned that cell-phone use may be causing bee die-offs," the Agricultural Research Service noted Friday. "However, scientists have largely dismissed this theory, because exposure of bees to high levels of electromagnetic fields is unlikely."
julho 06, 2007
NÓS nos recusamos!
Pois NÓS nos recusamos a permanecer num mundo onde isso acontece, pois NÓS descobrimos que juntos certas coisas não acontecem. Pois NÓS queremos ter orgulho de sermos quem somos e deixar para os que virão a alegria de saber QUEM realmente somos.Somos TODOS criadores desse planeta.
(não deixe de ver o vídeo até o fim)
julho 03, 2007
Aquecimento Global: Uni- vos!
O Aquecimento Global parece estar mobilizando todas as áreas da manifestação humana para uma reavaliação de seus processos. Aqui um vídeo sobre solo, colocado como mais outra ótima solução ao Aquecimento Global.
Pena que está em inglês...
http://www.quantumshift.tv/v/1181028043/
Pena que está em inglês...
http://www.quantumshift.tv/v/1181028043/
The Mouth Revolution
Por FreeRangeStudios
We are fed up with the garbage we eat! The mouths are angry. The mouths are demanding real food-orgainc food- NOW! The Mouth revolution Begins! Viva la mouthalucion!
We are fed up with the garbage we eat! The mouths are angry. The mouths are demanding real food-orgainc food- NOW! The Mouth revolution Begins! Viva la mouthalucion!
SOIL IS ONE SECRET SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING
Can organic farming fight climate change? Yes. And we're not just talking about food miles. Research from the Rodale Institute shows that sustainably-farmed soil absorbs 30% more carbon than conventional agriculture, and switching our farmland to organic would cut greenhouse emissions by 10% in the US (20% in Canada and most of the rest of the world). For a concise explanation of how organic farming could be a major tool in the fight against climate change check out the 10 minute online video "SOIL: The Secret Solution to Global Warming," featuring Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser. The website includes an online petition calling on world leaders to switch subsidies from conventional to sustainable farming practices.
Learn more and watch: http://www.quantumshift.tv/v/1181028043/
Washington Novaes: O Brasil não coloca o meio ambiente no centro de sua estratégia nacional
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