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  • From: Ray Cirino <cobanation@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Permaculture.TV - pilot project
  • Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:59:00 -0800 (PST)

Very cool. This is a great way to teach,and spread the word. I hope to be a
part of what you have going on from our work here in LA. Here's a little of
what I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE9slGqRSsc

http://people.tribe.net/raycirino/photos

We are also creating a festival based in permaculture and sustainable art,
which permaculture needs as an attractor.

www.waterwomanfestival.com

Keep spreading the word.

Regards,
Ray Cirino

--- On Tue, 11/25/08, Nicholas Roberts <nicholas@themediasociety.org> wrote:
From: Nicholas Roberts <nicholas@themediasociety.org>
Subject: [permaculture] Permaculture.TV - pilot project
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 5:02 AM

hi

these last 2 weeks I have been working on a proof-of-concept/pilot media
cooperative project called www.Permaculture.TV

apologies to content authors that find their work on the site, I haven't
had
a chance to contact any folks yet

English http://permaculture.tv/?page_id=4
Latino http://permaculture.tv/?page_id=5

About http://permaculture.tv/?page_id=2
Participate http://permaculture.tv/?page_id=9

I am really interested in doing interviews over the web - and perhaps even
doing live tv using the Mogulus platform on which the site is hosted

FEEDBACK WELCOME

nicholas@themediasociety.org

--
--
Nicholas Roberts
[im] skype:niccolor

http://www.Permaculture.TV
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Subject: [permaculture] The Importance of Biodiversity to Medicine
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] The Importance of Biodiversity to Medicine
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:10:31 -0500
From: jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

"health care is the second most energy-intensive industry in the
United States, generating an exceedingly high rate of greenhouse gas"
The article below gives green health care views on the importance of
soil ecology to medicine and points out that health care contributes
to global warming.

The Importance of Biodiversity to Mediciner
Aaon S. Bernstein, MD; David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD
JAMA. 2008;300(19):2297-2299.

In the past 12 months alone, more than 1000 new species were
identified.1 Some were found in Earth's most remote locations, such as
the Weddell Sea off Antarctica or central Australia's Simpson Desert,
where 3 species of carnivorous sponges and a new microbat species were
found, respectively. In addition, nearly 100 previously unknown
species of bacteria were found to be inhabiting human epidermis. When
it comes to biodiversity—a term that describes the variety of life on
the planet—the more scientists look, the more they find. But these
discoveries represent far more than just novelty. In them can be found
a major engine of advancement for medicine and biomedical research and
a new lens with which to look on human health and disease.

A Canadian scientific expedition to Easter Island in 1964 provides an
example of how biodiversity can benefit medicine. In a remarkable
stroke of luck, the scientists brought home a scoop of soil containing
Streptomyces hygroscopicus, the bacterial source of sirolimus, a drug
that has revolutionized the treatment of solid organ transplant
rejection.2 Sirolimus and its derivatives have also shown promise in
the treatment of brain, lung, endometrial, and kidney tumors and as a
coating for arterial stents to prevent restenosis. Serendipity of this
sort has arisen not only in exotic places but also in familiar ones.
For example, Chromobacterium violaceum was cultured from the Pine
Barrens of New Jersey, leading to the discovery of aztreonam, a
principal antibiotic used in the treatment of gram-negative infections.

Science has routinely appropriated microbial compounds for human use,
ranging from old stalwarts such as penicillin, aminoglycosides, and
tetracyclines to the new lipopeptides (eg, daptomycin) and antifungals
(eg, caspofungin). But the reliance on natural products in drug
development extends far beyond antimicrobial applications. Studies
involving snakes, sea squirts, sponges, and snails have led to the
discovery of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, trabectedin (a
new treatment for soft tissue sarcomas), the antivirals azidothymidine
and acyclovir, and ziconotide, respectively. Despite enormous
investment into synthetic drug development, about half of the 100 most
prescribed medications in the United States and about half of the new
drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the past 25
years derive directly or indirectly from
Natural products compose a superb resource for drug discovery because
they have evolved, in some cases during millions of years, to exploit
fundamental biological pathways often shared by humans. In addition,
the random aspect of the evolutionary process gives rise to products
with unforeseen, and perhaps unforeseeable, biological actions,
allowing for the development of pharmaceuticals with novel mechanisms
of action. For example, paclitaxel (discovered in the bark of the
Pacific yew tree), a mainstay of chemotherapy for a variety of
cancers, was the first drug shown to inhibit microtubule breakdown
during mitosis.4

The ability of nature to devise novel approaches to biological
challenges has proven especially valuable to biomedical research. To
survive in the extremely hot water of Yellowstone Park's Mushroom
Spring, the bacterium Thermus aquaticus has enzymes that remain
functional at high temperature. One of its heat-stable enzymes, DNA
polymerase, was instrumental in the development of the polymerase
chain reaction, for which the Nobel Prize was awarded in 1993. Another
Nobel Prize was awarded in 2006 for a discovery involving a common
flower. Intending to produce more intensely colored petals,
researchers introduced extra copies of a pigment gene into petunias.
The resulting flowers were, against expectation, partially or totally
white. The molecular basis for this effect was found to be RNA
interference, a fundamental biological mechanism for inhibiting gene
expression that has great potential to treat neurodegenerative
disease, cancer, infection, and other medical conditions.5

A number of scientific breakthroughs have come from studies involving
some of the 100 000 or more venomous peptides produced by sea snails
of the genus Conus.6 These slow-moving predators, which live on or
near coral reefs (among the most endangered habitats on earth), subdue
fish with a precise chemical assault directed at their prey's nervous
system, leading to rapid paralysis. Peptides isolated from Conus
species bind many molecular targets, including ion channels (sodium,
potassium, and calcium) and cell membrane receptors
(N-methyl-D-aspartate, adrenergic, and cholinergic). Because of their
diversity and specificity, these peptides have significantly advanced
research into biological pathways, particularly in neuroscience. For
instance, the analgesic ziconotide, based on a peptide derived from
the sea snail Conus magus, is used to treat neuropathic pain through a
novel mechanism: calcium-channel blockade in the dorsal horn of the
spinal cord. Although this drug is 1000-fold more potent than
morphine, ziconotide does not appear to elicit tolerance.7

Many new species are yet to be found in the earth's soil, deep oceans,
polar regions, and other habitats. For this reason, ecosystem
disruption can be expected to impede progress in medicine and
biomedical research through the loss of countless unidentified
species. But disruption of ecosystems can affect human health in other
ways, as exemplified by Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne
illness in the United States. Many vertebrate species serve as
reservoirs for Lyme, although not all transmit disease-causing
spirochetes to the black-legged tick, the principal vector, with equal
competence. In North America, the most competent reservoir is the
white-footed mouse, and this rodent tends to outcompete other
reservoir species in fragmented, new-growth forests. Consequently, the
black-legged tick, an indiscriminant parasite, is more likely to
become infected when it feeds in disrupted forests such as those of
New England, where Lyme is endemic, than in undisturbed areas.8 This
particular phenomenon, in which vertebrate reservoir diversity buffers
against disease transmission (termed the "dilution effect"), may also
occur with West Nile virus and hantavirus. Of the 1415 infectious
agents known to cause disease in humans, more than 60% have life
cycles that involve other species,9 and disruption of their habitats
may affect public health in various, unexpected, and potentially
devastating ways.

Another mechanism by which habitat disruption may cause disease is
through changes in human behavior. A 2004 report10 indicated that
depletion of fish stocks off the coast of western equatorial Africa,
because of industrial fishing practices driven by the increasing
worldwide demand for seafood, had forced many in the affected areas to
abandon traditional subsistence fishing practices and instead resort
to eating bush meat. The following year, 2 new retroviruses, human
T-lymphotropic virus 3 and 4, were detected in the blood of local
inhabitants who, in a manner reminiscent of the initial transmission
of human immunodeficiency virus into humans, likely acquired the
infections by consuming nonhuman primates infected with nearly
identical viruses.11 In view of the vast effect human civilization has
had on the earth's land surface, freshwater bodies, and oceans, it may
come as no surprise that 60% of emerging infectious diseases during
the past 60 years are zoonotic.12

The diversity of life in and on the human body also has considerable
relevance to health. Current estimates suggest that the number of
microbial species is about 180 on the skin, 700 in the mouth, and 1000
or more in the gastrointestinal tract.13 Alterations in the ecology of
the gastrointestinal tract, in particular, may be related to incidence
and severity of food allergy, asthma, eczema, inflammatory bowel
disease, and obesity. For this reason, interest in probiotics has
increased, and data suggest that the use of gut bacteria (eg,
Lactobacillus acidophilus) is safe and in some situations may be
helpful. But just as the reintroduction of one or a few species into a
severely disrupted terrestrial habitat will not likely restore
ecological balance, so also may probiotic treatment have limited
effectiveness without comprehensive changes in diet.

The current rate of species extinctions is estimated to be 100- to
1000-fold faster than would occur in the absence of humans on the
planet.14 The main reason for present-day extinctions is habitat loss
caused by myriad human activities. By midcentury, climate change is
predicted to surpass habitat loss as the leading cause of species
extinctions.

Physicians have a unique responsibility for, and ability to help
prevent, loss of biodiversity. According to the Department of Energy,
health care is the second most energy-intensive industry in the United
States, generating an exceedingly high rate of greenhouse gas
emissions per square foot. Hospitals and health care offices also
produce enormous amounts of waste, estimated at 6600 tons a day,15
much of which is toxic or nonbiodegradable owing to a heavy reliance
on single-use, plastic-based products. Thus, energy conservation and
improved waste management in the health care industry have great
potential to reduce 2 leading causes of biodiversity loss. In
addition, health care professionals aware of the importance of
biodiversity to the practice of medicine can be especially powerful
advocates to patients and the government for comprehensive action
throughout society to protect the environment on which all species,
including humans, depend.





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