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Vol. 1 No. 7 –
March-April 2009
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IN THIS
ISSUE:
Albert Bates to Speak at
Expo
Worth a Look: The Secret of El Dorado (It's not what
you think)
• Van Jones Named White House
"Green Jobs" Advisor
• The City That Took On Hunger
• Wastewater Recycling Gains
Acceptance
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WORTH A
LOOK:
"The Secret of El
Dorado"
In 2002, BBC TV aired a
remarkable documentary call “The Secret of El Dorado.” If you
haven’t seen it – if the words terra preta mean nothing to
you – then take 48 minutes and view it online. You won’t be sorry.
It’s available HERE.
The story begins in
1542, when Spanish conquistador Francisco de Orellana ventured along
the Rio Negro, one of the Amazon Basin's great rivers. Hunting a
hidden city of gold, his expedition found an impressive network of
farms, prosperous villages, even huge walled cities. At least that’s
what he claimed upon his return to Spain.
But when
missionaries went back decades later, they found no trace of
civilization in the Amazon, just isolated tribes of
hunter-gatherers. Orellana's story seemed to be a hoax. And for more
than four centuries, historians, anthropologists and scientists all
agreed: Orellana was either lying or crazy.
Why? Even more than the
missing settlements, the scientific argument against Orellana
centered on the native soil of Amazonia. Then as now, when
rainforest is cleared for agriculture, the poor soil degrades
quickly. Unless fortified by massive inputs of fertilizer, crops
fail after only a few years. So, the theory goes, 500 years ago no
one could have sustained city-sized populations in the Amazon. They
couldn’t have grown enough food.
But today,
that conventional wisdom is challenged by an amazing discovery.
Evidence suggests that, long before Orellana, native people of
Amazonia had learned how to fortify the soil in a way that might
yield abundant crops year after year –– enough to support settled
towns, even cities. Scattered throughout much of the Amazon, notably
in the region explored by Orellana, are rich pockets of soil locally
known as terra preta. Unlike ordinary rainforest soil,
terra preta is remarkably fertile. Importantly, it did not occur by
accident; it required human activity.
[Continued
at right]
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QUOTABLE:
"Every time I see an adult on
a bicycle, I no longer despair for the human race."
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CONTACT:
EarthWorks
Letter
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Van Jones
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Belo
Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas Gerais, is the third
largest metropolitan area of Brazil.
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| This facility in Australia recycles sewage
wastewater through a combination of filtration, reverse osmosis,
ozonation, activated carbon and disinfection. |
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Dear Friend,
You are receiving this
newsletter because you have expressed interest in EarthWorks Expo
and in living more sustainably. Please share this information with
others. Thank you! |
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Albert Bates to Speak at
Expo
We are delighted to announce
that Albert Bates will deliver the EarthWorks Expo keynote
presentation on Saturday, August 22. It would be hard to find any
person who more fully embodies the message and purpose of EarthWorks
Expo than this remarkable author, teacher, inventor and
humanitarian.
Albert Bates is the author of
13 books on law, energy, history and the environment, and a
permaculture and appropriate technology  instructor at the Ecovillage
Training Center at The Farm community in Summertown, Tennessee.
After graduating from Syracuse University and New York Law School,
he practiced law for 26 years, arguing for environmental, human
rights and religious rights of indigenous peoples before state and
federal appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been
Director at the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology
since 1984 and has taught integrated ecological design, natural
building, organic agriculture and permaculture to students from more
than 60 nations.
His inventions include pedal
flour sifters, cylindrical tofu presses and a solar-powered car that
was displayed at the 1982 World’s Fair. For 18 years he served on
the governing body of Plenty International, an emergency relief and
integrated development organization, during which time that
organization received the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the
"Alternative Nobel." One of his books, Climate in Crisis: The
Greenhouse Effect and What You Can Do (1990, foreword by Al
Gore) stemmed from 15 years of litigation over climate change and
water issues.
He has had a lifelong interest
in communal studies and is on the board of directors of the
International Communal Studies Association (Ramat Efal, Israel) and
is past president and chairman of the board of both the Ecovillage
Network of the Americas and the Global Ecovillage
Network.
His work at the present time
is in assisting a network of ecovillage experiments in the Americas
and educating of local governments to the crises of limits to growth
and climate change. He serves as United Nations headquarters
representative for the Global Ecovillage Network, which has ECOSOC
consultative status and works with UNITAR and other UN agencies on
habitat, human settlements, population and related issues. He is
also active in the International
Biochar Initiative.
With lively humor, warmth and
rare intelligence, Albert Bates will share insights gained from more
than 35 years of dedicated work in service to a more just and
sustainable world. His keynote address is tentatively titled "Beyond
Petroleum, Foul Weather and Financial Collapse: Recipes for Changing
Times." Extensive Q&A will follow his prepared
remarks.
Plan now to join us for this
informative and inspiring presentation by Albert Bates on Saturday,
August 22, 1:30 pm at the Denver Merchandise Mart. See you at the
Expo!
The Secret of El Dorado, continued
El Dorado
was supposed to be a fabulous lost city of gold. But the Secret of
El Dorado is even more amazing: a proven way to create and sustain
rich agricultural soil without chemical fertilizers. This secret has
potential applications worldwide, and could be a major key to
sustainable agriculture for the future.
But if
Orellana wasn't lying, where did the large settlements go?
Tragically, it now seems probable that Orellana himself carried the
seeds of their destruction: European diseases that could have
annihilated in a few decades nearly all the native people living in
that region. Without constant human tending, the settlements would
have been swallowed by the jungle before later missionaries found
them.
Van Jones Named White House "Green Jobs"
Advisor
Found in the New York Times,
March 10, 2009
The
City That Took On Hunger
Found in YES!
Magazine, March 13, 2009
The Brazilian city of
Belo Horizonte once had 11 percent of its 2.5 million population
living in absolute poverty, and almost 20 percent of its children
going hungry. Then, in 1993, newly elected city officials made a
bold commitment to radically reduce those numbers, declaring that
adequate food was a right of every citizen. A new city commission
composed of farmers, clergy, business leaders and others, working
with the city government, promoted the growth of farmers markets,
“people’s restaurants”, healthy school lunch programs and more. The
key to success was not government subsidies or giveaways, but broad
public participation. Among the results: in 10 years, infant
mortality dropped by more than 50%, and some 40% of the city’s
population was directly benefiting from the food programs. The cost:
less than 2% of the city budget. For the whole story, GO
HERE.
Wastewater Recycling Gains
Acceptance
Found in reuters.com,
March 12, 2009
As urban
populations grow world-wide and climate change threatens to bring
drought to many regions, the question looms: how will human water
needs be met? Conservation is certainly part of the answer.
Desalination is a favored option in coastal desert regions. But
better than desalination may be recycling of sewage water. Orange
County, California now operates the world’s largest wastewater
recycling plant, and local officials say it’s producing enough
potable water to meet the needs of 500,000 people. The main problem,
previously seen in pilot projects in Los Angeles and San Diego, is
the “yuck” factor – not a matter of technology, but of public
relations. For the whole story, GO
HERE.
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