This is a collection of articles dealing with organic gardening, ecology, environmental restoration, news items of interest, travel and just about anything else I find of interest and willing to share with others around the globe. - ENJOY!
Most of the Experts behind those industries more often than not have no clue as to what they are really doing 😟
Image from May 2019 - Google Earth
Image from Sept 2005 Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery
Well, it's Springtime in SoCal when Google Earth updated this street photo in May 2019. The trees (California Sycamores, Canary Island & Torrey Pines) behind the roofline of this house I grew up in all started out as six inch high seedlings in late 2005 when I planted them in September of that same year. The rapid growth of the Sycamores was facilitated by using a practice called, biomimicry, which is nothing more than replicating how nature under the right conditions causes deep rooted trees and shrubs, especially on ancient Bajadas or Alluvial Fans to thrive. This just happens to also be where most of SoCal's housing development is located. Many housing tracts in SoCal are located on former orange groves which were originally planted on alluvial fans at the foot of mountains. Alluvial Fans like floodplains are some of the most efficient geological formations for storing and holding massive amounts of water. Those Sycamore trees at my mum's place are no longer irrigated except during the rainy season. During summer, these water loving trees are tapped into the subsurface aquifer.
Image from summer of 2007
California Sycamores are almost two years old.
Image mine from 2011
The photo above from 2007 shows less than two year old Sycamore trees on a former floodplain or alluvial fan (see Lessons Learned from the Bajadas (Alluvial Fans)) Look how tall they are. Pay attention San Diego River restorationists. Decades ago I was curious how single solitary Sycamore trees thrived on rocky sandy boulder strewn floodplains where summer temps were always well over 100+ Fahrenheit (40+ celsius) far from any water course, let alone getting established in the first place. I found that heavy rainfall El Niño weather events with wetter than normal summer monsoon seasons were the reason. This can easily be replicated in any urban landscape. Generously deep root irrigate and after two years, simply taper off the available moisture gradually and force the rootsystems to go straight down. During the whole entire process keep a generous layer of mulch all around the trees extending several feet from the main trunk. Understand that all Sycamores, Fremont Cottonwoods, etc will go down 20' looking for moisture. They have built in mechansims for sensing and sniffing out available water. The photo on the right from 2011 shows well established very tall Sycamores with deep full shade on the ground below and deep cover of Sycamore leaves. They have a tremendous cooling effect where the back screen door is now left open and the prevailing westerly winds blow underneath the cool tree canopy and into the house and out the front door screen. The industrial air conditioner as seen in the top Google Earth photograph is rarely needed and saves electricity bill when not in service.
Fast forward to the past couple of years and sleezy slick Solar Panel salesmen are trying to convince my 87 year old Mother she needs to plaster solar panels all over her home's roof to save money and be considered more eco-green. What's more, a tree trimming company usually also shows up almost exactly the same time (Coincidence ???) as the solar panel salesman claiming for safety reasons she needs to top all her trees to the roofline, which will also make the Solar Panels more efficient at generating electricity. They feed her a line about how Sycamores are unstable and the giant tree limbs could break at any moment. So let's take the problem of Solar panels on her roof first.
Illustration - Healthy Family Newspaper
Image from SolarQuotes.com
First off, my mum's place has only one south facing roof slope and that is over the garage. The other roof slopes are both west and east facing as you can see in the photo at the top with the towering trees behind the house and therefore would be worthless as far as the ability to maximize electricity generation. No problem says the sleezy solar salesman, we can sell you solar tilt frames which will angle the panels to a more southerly exposure. Of course once again you would have to top those trees. Of course it'll look like nothing more than an eye sore industrial mess and curb appeal will be almost non-existent, but she'll certainly be 100% certifiable eco-green. Every single time my mother calls and says one of these home casing scumbags have told her she needs solar and tree topping, I get on the horn and make sure my siblings keep an eye out on what she does as far as decision making.
Large Trees will put the brakes on Heat Islands
The journal, AZ Central, had a nice article on things to know before installing Solar Panels on the roof. They had those 10 key considerations before deciding to install solar panells on your house roof. Here's #1 below this picture of what a Heat Island does. Note even in cold frigid climate like Sweden where I presently live now, there are heat island. In this case small trees are heated by the Sun and cause a temperature rise which melts the snow. Now imagine for a moment how much more insanely intense the heat is on a Solar Farm in the deserts of Arizona where temperatures at 40+ Celsius could be raised to 50+ Celsius. Now for all you European Scandinavians, just ponder that for a moment. 😵
1. Trees reduce output, savings
Solar panels need direct sunlight, so homes heavily shaded by trees are not good candidates, officials from American Solar and Roofing and SunHarvest Solar say.
Although some homeowners opt to cut down trees to accommodate solar panels, homeowners should consider whether the cooling shade the trees provide outweighs the benefits of solar panels.
Then there is the Wildfire Hazard almost no eco-group will Discuss
Image - Australian Solar Care
All manner of debris ends up under these panels and as Eco-Groups demand solar on roofs, they rarely touch on this hazard after lecturing people about spark (embers) arresters on attic vents, keeping rain gutters clear, etc. And it's not just fallen leaves, it's also birds and little animal critters who find them attractive to move debris under to build nesting sites.
Okay here it is again folks. Above photo is May 2019 of this year and photograph on right is house stucco renovation in the Fall of 2018. Note the height of the trees. The California Sycamores are on the left, Canary Island Pines in the middle and on the right is the Torrey Pine which finally matured enough to reach subsoil moisture and over the last couple of years has amazingly grown three or four foot a year. Both the tree trimming companies and Solar Panel installers want my mother to top all those trees (Sycamores & Pines) at roof level and install Solar Panels so she'll be eco-green and *cough-cough* save money. Problem is, since the trees have grown bigger, the backyard patio area has never been more pleasant, shady & cooler. It's like an Oasis. Cutting them down to size would completely elevate the backyard temperatures, plus added temp increase on the roof would rise by several degrees more because black solar panels create heat islands. In otherwords they create what they are meant to reverse, global warming. That giant industrial airconditioning unit with the trees is rarely used, but the sales pitch to my mother was that once the trees were removed, the *cough-cough* free energy from the Sun would be able to run the unit and the house would always be pleasant.
Image - Harvey Windows
The house was built in 1956, no insulation inside the outer walls and old technology crank windows. Fortunately the windows have all be replaced with dual pane windows which have also made a huge difference in cooling in summer and heating in winter. They also had insuation blown into the attic crawl space when none ever existed previously. The only things left with no insulation are the walls and underneath the floors. Below is an Astronaut Helmet coated with gold which is perfect in blocking out damaging radiation and the heat it creates. Common window glass allows sunlight to enter a room and heat up all objects creating more heat, hence the need to airconditioning. Low-E Windows with a thinner coating than the Astronaut visor embedded within the window allow light, but block the UV rays. There are a number of more aesthetically pleasing and energy efficient things people can do instead of putting bulky industrial infrastructure on your roof to run an airconditioner. Trees cool things off considerably and I appreciate this will chap the Solar Industry's attitude against those who chooose no Solar, but that's tough. There are a couple of important links below the Helmet.
Visor image by Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA
An old high school friend of mine has a dad who own's this JB Mills Insurance Agency building and all the other office rentals within. This is on Broadway in El Cajon, California, just east of Ballantyne street. The photo on the right is from the Dentist office Advert of my high school buddy Randolph P. Mills and the building is where his office resides in. In the photo on the right you can clearly see the California Sycamore has been topped off which is the way tree companies like dealing with many large trees. It's fast and more convenient for them, just to chop, hack, packup and go on their merry way to the next job. For me, tree trimming was more of an art form when I did it. It was actually one of my favourite assignments. Lawn care was my nightmare. When you are done, the tree or shrub should not look like it's just been trimmed, but naturally sculpted to picturesque shape and form. This is the way nature works with trees, especially strong healthy Sycamores. But this irresponsible tree topping technique was started back in the late 1960s & early 1970s and has been practiced ever since. In the top photo you can see where water sprout branches have shot up like a rocket given the massive trunk and root infrastructure which will trigger an explosion of new growth in response to the attack. The USA in many cities and towns have above ground utility poles which must have their corridor right-of-ways maintained for clearance. Doesn't take much talent to chop-shop trees to keep corridors cleared, but the problem is this terrible practice has bled over into the maintaining all landscape trees in urban landscapes where utilities are nonexistent.
Cartoon Animations Below Illustrate the Problems with Tree Professionals
Sunset Terrace Apartments - Bradley Ave, El Cajon, California
Image - apartments.com
Image - rent.com
Nothings changed for the better in property management. The place above is a commercial apartment building next to the complex I worked at. In the beginning (2002) I remember the Sycamore trees were so huge and majestic looking, almost completely shaded the front of the entire apartment complex and the various carports in the back. Every other year since, they have hired the same tree company to cut back hard and top all these trees into an unnatural form. In the photo on the right here, you can see the untouched Sycamore on the left and a previous months topping and regrowth that same year. Tree companies have no care as to time of year they ravage your trees. Let's face it, they need work year round. This same company hacked the trees along the propertyline of both our properties because the SDG&E telephone-power poles ran along a storm drainage ditch in between both commercial residential complexes. One memorable tree grossly hacked and chopped to a 20' tall stump was a beautiful large spreading and tall Shamel Ash. The biggest problem with tree trimming in Summer heat is that trees naturally respond to injury with extremely rapid growth to replace what was lost. Because of such rapid tender growth, much of growth is succulent sweet and ripe for predation by pest insects, pathogens, powdery mildews, etc. The usual tannins and alkaloids which make most foliage bitter and distasteful to such pest have not yet been produced by the tree. So it's like a massive thanksgiving feast for the pests. This happened to the Shamel Ash which never ever recovered and had to be completely taken out. Some fault of course lies with the Homeowner or landscaper who makes a bad choice in nursery tree selection with no foresight taken into consideration of what future consequences may eventually exist, especially near and around power poles.
As usual, lessons are rarely learned in our times. You think things would improve with newer understanding but they don't. Both the chopping of trees and installation of massive solar infrastructure continue as mankind's only hope for reversing climate and weather degradation. But the same ignorance and lack of forethought is employed in using a technology which is still less than efficient for the amount of area footprint it requires which is still a major problem. Hardly any single environmental activist group will raise a whisper when forests are eliminated and trees chopped down because a massive solar farm will take the forest's place. But cut those same trees down for an industrial mining operation, oil exploration or natural gas fracking venture and as the saying goes, "There's usually all Hell to Pay."
Update April 21, 2020 - Earth Day Youtube
UPDATE ABOUT YOUTUBE
Youtube has deleted the documentary in a sleezy censorship ploy along with other groups. Fortunately Vimeo has a copy.
SORRY - ANOTHER UPDATE - This time it's VIMEO
Well once again the Though Police have made their prresence felt again and deleted the Planet of the Humans video just like Youtube for the same inconvenient truth reasons. Apparently you'll just have to pay and order the video from Michael Moore's group.
That documentary has thus far been a huge inconvenient truth for almost all environmental organizations and other green groups who refuse to actually discuss the findings. Here below is an after documentary discussion with Michael Moore, Jeff Gibbs & Ozzie Zehner.
Image from Basin and Range
How much longer will humans put their blind trust in this World's Credentialed Elites to problem solve ??? 😔
Someone on Facebook reposted a link from the religious cult website, "IFL Science", which strangely enough for once published an interesting subject for a site otherwise known for it's obsession with unrealistic PopSci fantasties. It was a video from 2012 showing where ink had been injected into a chicken egg embryo which allowed the viewer to see the heart cells beating. Here it is below.
The video above recalled back to my mind a controversial event which took place back in 2008 about grocery store chicken package from Tyson Foods being labeled antibiotic free, which in truth was a misleading false advertisement. It was all a marketing scheme by Tyson Foods to capture consumer market share from the organic movement who were spooked by chemicals and drugs being infused into their foods. In a nutshell, Tyson Foods was injecting science-based antibiotic vacs into chicken egg embryos and later claiming their chicken was antibiotic free because they never fed or inoculated antibiotics in chickens raised at their industrial farms. The USDA disagreed and filed a lawsuit against Tyson (Tyson also counter-sued) to stop using the misleading label. Tyson's argument was that the drugs were injected long before the chickens were alive. In otherwords, in Tyson's science-based worldview the chickens were not alive while they were still in the egg and didn't come to life until the day they hatched. Joel Salatin explained the controvery plain and simple in the video below at one of his farm tour events.
Worldview Conundrums for Both Sides of this issue
Image - Mike Byrne
So how did Joel Salatin put it ??? "Wow, that does make interesting conundrums does'nt it ?" Except this conundrum hits both ways for people of the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life crows. Of course the obvious meaning here is the controversial subject of abortion being alluded to. One side believing an embryo is nothing more than unviable tissue mass and the other side claiming it's life, even labeling themselves 'Pro-Life.' I don't mind the term pro-life, but the person using the term would have to be consistent in their view of life. For example, many who claim abortion kills life (I agree), sometimes view abortion as okay if the pregnancy is the result of rape. But this just begs the question, 'Is such a baby conceived as a result of rape not also a human life ??? Then there's the other issue where almost all folks claiming to be pro-life are also pro-military & diehard God & Country proponents. Hence when that baby is finally allowed to be born, it's later expected to support both God & Country during war time when it's country demands complete unquestioning obedience, possibly killing other like minded people with their same religious worldview. This requires going out and killing another life or themselves being killed when engaging in such a risky occupation. Not to poke fun here, but ponder for a moment, how exactly is that a pro-life stance ??? During World War II the people claiming to be Christians from both sides claimed God was on their side and they were told that by their very own Ecclesiastical Hierachical Authorites, even where the same demoninations existed on both sides. Although those Christians from the Allied side viewed their version as being on the righteous side of the issue, so did Nazi Germany as shown below by the often worn pin or badge by soldiers who believed God would give them the victory.
But this is especially serious in view of biblical command calling for true Christians to keep separate from the world outside which is alienated from God. So can you see the other side of the conundrum ??? World War II more than anything else is why central and northern Europe is mostly Secular Athiest/Agnostic. I mean, a futher example, shows that before the war Germany in a census showed that 60+ million citizens claimed to be Christian. 60% said they were Evangelical and 40% claimed to be Catholic. But close to100% Christian in identity. What if every single one of them practiced a true pro-life stance ??? It doesn't take a genius to understand how a wack job like Hitler would never have come into power. Then there is the conundrum of the secular worldview side of things who generally are of the organic, eco-green & environmentalist worldview who will fight tooth and nail to save any animal, bird, insect, fish or plant, even at the embryo stage, but ultimately could careless about human life, especially humans not of their political ideological mindset. Many of them often celebrate this coming mythical futuristic 6th extinction event, insisting that human beings (themselves being exempted) should go extinct for the sake of the planet. Nothing seems to make sense anymore in our modern world. There's a biblical text of Isaiah 5:20 which has been fulfilled in our society many times over by both sides:
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who make bitterness sweet and sweetness bitter."
Image - Sergey Yechikov (Shutterstock)
Okay let's get back to the bogus Tyson Chicken advertisement spin on life which insists that life doesn't exist until you breathe. Frankly under the present newer abortion controversy arguing for live birth abortion, which degrades life further, it does create more sensationalism for the ideologues of both sides who live for the combat debate. It doesn't take a self promoting credentialed genius to see that Tyson's claim that the chicken isn't alive while still in the egg doesn't hold water, not only in view of the egg video of heart beat, but also what many scientists themselves have truthfully stated about when life begins. Here are some links:
The bottomline here is Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat processor and the second largest chicken producer in the United States, was forced to admit that they injected their crowded factory farmed chickens with antibiotics before they hatched, but then later went ahead and labeled them as raised without antibiotics anyway arguing that the chickens were not alive until after they hatched. In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) told Tyson to stop using the antibiotic-free label. The company since then has sued the USDA over what they believe is their right to keep using it. In one of the above linked articles from wired.com, Edward Bell, a neonatologist at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, admitted that the problem on life before birth is this,
“It depends on how you define it.”
Sounds very much like another famous legal argument many are aware of known as "It depends on what your definition of 'is', is." One developmental biologist, Scott Gilbert, said this:
“Philosophers and theologians have argued for centuries about when personhood begins. But scientists know when it begins. It begins at fertilization.”
Gilbert also concluded this:
“The science has very little to do with the answer. Every iteration and advance in the lab make the question even more the purview of philosophers and theologians. And lawyers.”
That's right, science and scientists are not needed in order to confirm what common sense clearly tells the rest of us. Life starts in the embryo.
Image - Food Business News
Why do Tyson & other Factory Farm Owners even use Antibiotics and other Science-based Chemicals in the first place ???
Image by Andrew Fox
Perhaps as a human being, you can understand how if you were forced to live under such filthy crowded conditions where you ate, slept and were confined in an enclosed cramped space with your own feces and urine spread around, in time you too would become deathly ill. But now how logical would it be to take multiple drugs to counter the diseased conditions without any attempt to change your filthy disgusting living surroundings ??? Yet this is what all factory farms do every single day and many scientists insist that this farm business model practice is perfectly safe and science-based. Criticize it and you are labeled Anti-Science. Don't believe me, well look at and read the link below.
Finally, this Youtube video below while humorous, is also sadly realistic & true in highlighting how this world's ongoing deceptive business model keeps on marketing and scheming just to sell their junk products to an otherwise gullible public who generally refuses to do their own due diligence homework. Something to consider the next time you go shopping at your flavourite grocery store. Seriously!!! 😳
Back to what constitutes real information for the development of a bird within the DNA
"The works of Jehovah are great; They are studied by all those finding pleasure in them." Psalm 111:2
There's a reason why science fails. There's a reason why we have Climate Change, Sickness, Disease & Viral Pandemics (think genetic manipulation), Civil Social Unrest, Revolutions & Wars. The reason is more commonly known as the worldview promoting catch phrase:
