Earth Intelligence – Page 207 – Public Intelligence Blog

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Fruitful disobedience: Guerrilla Grafters grow undercover orchards

A secret operation in San Francisco disregards city regulations and grafts fruit branches onto non fruit-bearing public trees, hiding farm-fresh produce in an urban environment. Officials have banned fruit trees from the city sidewalks in the hopes that it will help keep urban areas clean and avoid messy situations as a result of fallen fruit. But Tara Hui and Miriam Goldberg have found a way around that law.

The two women are the leaders of Guerrilla Grafters, a group that exists to make “delicious, nutritious fruit is made available to urban residents” through the creation of inner-city orchards. Using electrical tape to color code their work, the Guerrilla Grafters develop partnerships in each neighborhood they graft in so there’s someone local to monitor progress. According to Hui, “There’s no ownership of these trees. There’s just stewardship.”

The LA Times reports that though city officials disapprove of the grafts, they haven’t done anything to formally remove them. But, it is considered vandalism and if this project were ever to really gain momentum it’s possible that officials would eventually decide to step in and halt it. Others, however, are impressed by their efforts: their work was featured in the “Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good” exhibit at the 13th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy.

The group (which consists of about 30 people) has grafted about 50 trees so far. Perhaps it will always be a small-scale project, but Guerrilla Grafters is working to reach as many people as possible: they’ve developed an online mapping app to help track their illicit produce and have an active Facebook group to help grow popularity.

[via LA Times, SF Gate]

2012/09/142012/09/14

SmartPlanet: Why algorithms need humans to predict the weather

Advanced Cyber/IO, Earth Intelligence, Knowledge

Why algorithms need humans to predict the weather

Mari Silbey | September 11, 2012

History is rich with intellectuals who have revered theories of determinism; ideas that suggest if we could only know every facet of a situation, every molecule of the landscape, we could predict and even shape future political, economic, and cultural outcomes.

But when it comes to the weather, forecasters long ago gave up any hope of cataloging all of the variables that could impact rainfall in Seattle, or the arrival of a cold front in New York. At least that’s what Nate Silver reports in his new book, The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don’t, an excerpt of which was adapted for a recent article in The New York Times Magazine.

Continue reading “SmartPlanet: Why algorithms need humans to predict the weather”

2012/09/08

Good News: Sea Otters Combat Climate Change

Earth Intelligence, Economics/True Cost

Sea Otters To Combat Climate Change?

Does a large population of sea otters reverse one of the principal causes of climate change? New research from the UC Santa Cruz is suggesting that a population boom of sea otters would go a long way to reduce sea urchin numbers, and therefore allow kelp forests to become very large.

“The spreading kelp can absorb as much as 12 times the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere than if it were subject to ravenous sea urchins, the study finds.” Of course, altering a food chain so significantly could have unintended consequences.

The theory was just outlined in a paper published September 7 in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

“It is significant because it shows that animals can have a big influence on the carbon cycle,” said Wilmers, assistant professor of environmental studies.

“Wilmers, Estes, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and their co-authors, combined 40 years of data on otters and kelp bloom from Vancouver Island to the western edge of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. They found that otters “undoubtedly have a strong influence on the cycle of CO2 storage.”

Read full article.

2012/08/182012/08/18

Chuck Spinney: USGS Intelligence with Integrity on Climate Change

Academia, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government

Below is a USGS press release describing some fascinating geological research into the effects of climate change — a huge drought — on the demise of Egypt's Middle Kingdom around 4200 years ago. This is one extreme climate event occurred well before man contributed significant CO2 to the atmosphere. It is also a interesting example of how one can meld science with contemporary/historical/archaeological accounts in the human record.

This research may also be a good object lesson for that subset of paleoclimatologists who are more concerned with erasing the effects of the Medieval Warming Period (~1000 AD when temperatures may well have been as warm or warmer than today) followed by the Little Ice Age (~1600 AD) from human memory, as a means to prove their theory that current temperature increases are unprecedented and therefore due to mankind's generation of CO2. [see Tony Brown's marvelous essay, “The Long Slow Thaw”]

Histories, archives, and folklore have many contemporary accounts of events suggesting the existence both the MWP (settling of Greenland, growing grapes in Scotland) and the LIA (River Thames freezing). The MWP/LIA sequence raises a cyclical possibility and suggests recent temperature increases (since somewhere between 1750 and 1850) may be a normal recovery from the LIA [e.g., see Professor's Akasofu's analysis here].

The stakes of such an hypothesis are huge, because if the MWP/LIA hypothesis is correct, money spent on adaptation would be a far wiser strategy that a huge, and ultimatly futile effort, to reduce CO2 emissions. [1] That is one reason why the study described below is important — it is an example of the benefits that arise from melding science and history and archaeology.

[1] Ironically, while the US is one of, if not, the largest CO2 emitters, its emissions have leveled off and show signs of declining according to data compiled by the Energy Information Administration. [source: here] The principle sources of CO2 growth since the mid 1990s are in the developing world, especially China and India, and CO2 growth is directly correlated with improvements in their standards of living (which is still very low by western standards). To get developing countries to cut back CO2 emissions is tantamount to asking them to reduce their future standard of living. [source: here]

Chuck Spinney
Gaeta, Italia

Climate and Drought Lessons from Ancient Egypt: Using Fossil Pollen to Augment Historical Records

Released:8/16/2012 10:00:00 AM

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: USGS Intelligence with Integrity on Climate Change”

2012/08/18

John Steiner: Whither Fukushima? Whither the World Brain?

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Knowledge

Thanks to: carolwoman <cwolman@mcn.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPIOSZ9Vf9s&feature=youtu.be

This 3 minute video was put together by Dan Villalva , a member of the original Fukushima Response group, in Sonoma County, CA. More groups are forming around the country, as Yastel Yamada and Tak Okamoto, of the Skilled Veterans Corps for Fukushima finish their tour of the US..

Our group in the Bay Area has selected 3 goals:
1) Mobilizing an international effort to stabilize Fukushima now
2) Assessing and publicizing the impact of the disaster on California
3) Vigiling Fridays in support of the Japanese people, who are turning out en masse every Friday to stop nuclear reactors in Japan.

If you want to start a group in your area, email me – cwolman@mcn.org

Peace, Carol Wolman

2012/08/112012/08/12

Koko: Serial Entrepreneur Damon Horowitz Says “Quit Your Tech Job and Get a Ph.D. in the Humanities”

Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Knowledge, P2P / Panarchy

Koko: A smart human.

Serial Entrepreneur Damon Horowitz Says “Quit Your Tech Job and Get a Ph.D. in the Humanities”

Damon Horowitz, a philosophy professor and “serial entrepreneur,” recently joined Google as an In-House Philosopher/Director of Engineering. Prior to his work at Google, Horowitz co-founded Aardvark, Perspecta, and a number of other tech companies. In this talk at Stanford University’s 2011 BiblioTech conference on “Human Experience,” Horowitz explains why he left a highly-paid tech career, in which he sought the keys to artificial intelligence, to pursue a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Stanford (the text of the talk is available here).

Horowitz offers fellow techies a formidable challenge, but a worthwhile one. In saying so, I must confess a bias: As a student and teacher of the humanities, I have watched with some dismay as the culture becomes increasingly dominated by technicians who often ignore or dismiss pressing philosophical and ethical problems in their quest to build a better world. It is gratifying to hear from someone who recognized this issue by (temporarily) giving up what he admits was a great deal of power and societal privilege and headed back to the classroom.

Horowitz describes his intellectual journey from “technologist” to philosopher with passion and candor, and concludes that as a result of his academic inquiry, he “no longer looks for machines to solve all of our problems for us,” and no longer assumes that he knows what’s best for his users. This kind of humility and intellectual flexibility is, ideally, the outcome of a higher degree in the humanities, and Horowitz uses his own trials to make a case for better critical thinking, for a “humanistic perspective,” in the tech sector and elsewhere. For examples, see Horowitz’s TED talks on a “moral operating system” and “philosophy in prison.” Complicating Google’s well-known, unofficial slogan “don’t be evil,” Horowitz, drawing on Hannah Arendt, believes that most of the evil in the world comes not from bad intentions but from “not thinking.”

Serial Entrepreneur Damon Horowitz Says “Quit Your Tech Job and Get a Ph.D. in the Humanities”

in Education, Google, Philosophy, Technology | August 7th, 2012 14 Comments

Continue reading “Koko: Serial Entrepreneur Damon Horowitz Says “Quit Your Tech Job and Get a Ph.D. in the Humanities””

2012/08/09

Owl: Made in Japan Radioactive, Unsafe, Moving Toward Lethal

Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Economics/True Cost, Government, Idiocy, Knowledge, Politics

The data in this article is phenomenal – it shows tables of information containing test results for radioactivity in major foodstuffs in Japan, and it shows virtually all of it is contaminated beyond safe levels!

Don't Buy Anything Made in Japan!

“The Japanese people are beset by a food chain that has been thoroughly compromised by radioactive cesium. As a result, there is no longer any public confidence in the integrity of Japan’s food inspection system. Almost all edibles tested in Japan contain radioactive cesium, and it has now been verified that shiitake mushrooms in Miyoshi City, Hiroshima Prefecture have tested above the statutory limit for radioactive cesium. Thus, radioactive cesium has now spread far beyond Fukushima Prefecture. Like the HIV-tainted blood scandal of the 1980’s, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has once again been blindsided due to the lack of a proactive plan…There is now virtually continuous testing of edibles in many prefectures of Japan, and more than 2,300 samples (as of August 2, 2012) have tested over the statutory limits for radioactive iodine and/or cesium. Radioactive cesium is also now being detected in food products manufactured in Japan. Therefore, there is extreme concern about short selling of food sector equities listed on Japanese stock exchanges.”

Fukushima. Radiactive Cesium Contamination of Japan's Food Chain.
Almost all edibles contain radioactive cesium. Rivers and lakes are contaminated

One wonders what else besides food is contaminated. Do automobiles, electronics (TVs, laptops, etc.) – which are exported to the US and elsewhere – have dangerous radioactive residues? What will happen if this is the case, and the rest of the world refuses to buy Japanese products and foodstuffs? It would collapse the Japanese economy, leading to possibly incalculable world-wide economic repercussions. Such a possibility or probability is the likely reason why the Japanese government has lied about the truly dire nature of the situation in Japan. In light of this, it seems the worst-case scenario of the entire Japanese population abandoning the island and moving elsewhere – China? or eastern Russia? – becomes much more likely.

Category: Earth Intelligence

Koko: Cities are Jungles – Fruit Should Grow in Jungles