permaculture

[trevor william johnson <john2116@msu.edu>]

as the perennial optimist...

i believe that yield is more a factor of the human mind then the  
environment.  paul stamets transformed a pile of soil contaminated  
wit diesel fuel to a large amount of sale-able shaggy mane  
mushrooms.   i also herd on npr today that some soil micro organisms  
can live off of antibiotics. so even in an environment that humans  
think (through our scientific knowledge hahaha) is unsuitable for  
life and abundance nature finds a way and we can to by observing  
those patterns....and also a greatly decreased reproduction rate.    
so it seems nature is always finding ways and humans struggle to keep  
even relatively close to the new methods and patterns nature uses.

trevor

On Apr 4, 2008, at 10:49 AM, Marimike6@cs.com wrote:

> Harmon writes "...once again -- without cheap oil, there is no  
> possible way
> to feed the current population of humans, probably not even half."
>
> Maybe. But we're doing things now that were undreamed of only a  
> hundred years
> ago. Who knows what secrets lurk in the minds of men? Women, too?
>
> Let's look at the energy problem afresh. What has happened over the  
> past
> century is that complex, combustible hydrocarbons like coal, peat,  
> gas and
> petroleum have accumulated over the immensity of time due to there  
> being no
> consumers.
>
> Then a sudden abundance of consumers have converted that mass of  
> carbon into
> airborne CO2. The problem is how to reconvert this highly dispersed  
> mass of
> spent energy back into complex hydrocarbons as swiftly as can be  
> engineered.
>
> I think what we're talking about is a speeded up version of  
> photosynthesis.
> We have the sun for an engine and the sky for fuel.
>
> I wouldn't write off the human race just yet. If we've been able to  
> figure
> out the spiral of life already, and made ourselves capable of  
> jiggering up
> designer organisms, we should be able to master this relatively  
> simple sounding
> techno-fix.
>
> Particularly if our lives depend on it.
>
> Michael
>
> PS-- With an abundance of energy re-supplied, we've also solved the  
> problem
> of agricultural-grade water. Thus the only serious limit that would  
> remain
> would be the home planet's land area. And by then we'll be putting  
> birth control
> in the Hostess Twinkies.
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