Dear Friends,

Not counting the microbial world, and just looking at the plant and animal world, how many species would you estimate that there are on mother earth?

The rough estimate would be around 10,000,000.

Determining how many microbial species there are is a tough task, for several reasons.  For one, most microbes cannot be grown in culture, which makes it hard to determine their genetic identity.  We use the nucleotide sequences of the 16S rRNA gene to determine species. These sequences are unique for each species, and have remained a constant, which means they are highly conserved for each species (they do not change), thereby providing their fingerprint over the last millenium.  These sequences also show how closely related one species is to the next and what  ancestor they may share in common.

The Tree of Life has changed its look.  It has become a molecular sequence-based phylogenentic tree, with the concept that genetic base sequences can be used to relate organisms’ evolutionary path. This was first proposed by Carl Woese in 1990.

As you can see there are three domains— Bacteria, Archaea and Eucarya.  The bacteria and archaea are prokaryotes (organisms without nuclear membranes), and the eukaryotes posses a nucleus with a nuclear membrane.  Thus from the bottom group you have the protozoa (microscopic), fungi (some microscopic), plant and animals.

From the Tree of Life diagram it appears that the bacteria/archaea world will have much more biodiveristy than the eucarya world.  And, this is certainly true, many times more.  Using the new genetic testing technologies scientists are combing the earth, taking samples from the deepest ocean floors to volcanoes, from the Dead Sea to the Great Salt Lake, from Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone to Lake Vostok which is buried under Antarctic ice.  They are finding bacteria and archaea, and are coming to grips with just how incredibly vast the microbial world is.

The number of individual microbes on Earth is thought to be as high as 4 to 6 times 10 to the 30th power, most of them are thought to live in subsurface layers of the land and the oceans.  But no one really knows how many microbial species there are, even to the nearest order of magnitude (estimates run from ten million to as high as one billion distinct species).  In a single cubic meter of soil alone, there may be millions of different microbial species, and yet only 6,000 species of bacteria and archaea have been formally named. (Sustaining Life, Eric Chivian & Aaron Bernstein 2008)

In the beautiful Sustaining Life, which is must read for all medical professionals, Chivian and Bernstein make the point that our very survival is dependent on biodiversity and that the rate of species loss to extinction is a harbinger to the next mass extinction. The present rate of loss of species is a thousands times above the baseline before Homo sapien came on the scene.  There was only this rate of loss in deep time before the past five mass extinction of the biosphere. They clearly make the point that this present loss of diversity is caused by our actions and that it is in our hands to reverse it.

Next week we will look at how does loss of species diversity affects our lives?

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

When it comes to probiotics we believe in diversity.  We presently give you seven different probiotic formulas to choose from. Here’s a combination we find very effective.  Add one teaspoon of Number 7 Systemic Booster and one heaping tablespoon of the Beta Glucan Synbiotic Formula to a large glass of water.  The combination gives you 12 different strains of lactic acid bacteria plus 15 grams of soluble fiber.  The good bug count is 40 billion. Plus, you are getting beet, pomegranate, tart cherry, cranberry, pineapple (all organic), carnitine, carnosine, Vitamin D3, folate and fructoborate.

The Last Quiz Answer:

This amazing bird is a cross-beaked finch.  They live in the boreal forest, even in its most northerly reaches. Their beak’s unusual cross over shape gives them the ability to pry open the hard outter plates of the spruce cones and dine on the inner seeds.  The different shapes of the beaks of finches around the world in the multitude of habits spawned the genesis of his natural selection hypothesis.  There is a wonderful book, The Beak of the Finch, by a team of Princeton scientists who, based on their 20 year study, confirmed Darwin’s thesis.

Forging Food Sovereignty with Farmers:  Dismantling the Industrial agri-foods complex at the local food system level must be accompanied by the construction of alternatives that suit the needs of small scale producers and low-income consumers, worldwide.  Check out Food First.

Dear Friends,

A major purpose for our Forward Thinking Newletter is to connect the dots, to introduce you to the people who are working effectively towards bring about a world that is socially equitable, environmentally clean and economically sustainable.  In this week’s newsletter I want to focus on one of my favorites, the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).

Last week RMI came out with their Spring 2012 journal.  Here is a link to it.  Do take the time to read the different articles.  It will just take a few minutes and it will truly inspire you with hope for a future that is good for all humankind.  I’ve highlighted a few gems from it for you below, but here is your direct link: RMI eSolutions Journal- Spring 2012.

A couple of quotes from Amory Lovins’ (RMI’s co-founder, Chairman and Chief Scientist) article Practicle Transformation:

Most of the world’s biggest economic entities are no longer countries but companies, and many central governments are stagnating while private enterprise innovates. Therefore turning scarcity by inattention into abundance by design requires fundamental change that some of the world’s biggest, most complex, and most entrenched industries can lead.

This certainly is true.  We know that the food industry worldwide is controled by a handful of transnational corporations we group under the Industrial Agri-Food Complex (Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto, General Foods, etc) and of course there is Big Oil controling our energy use and choices.  The tendency is for us to say that these are our enemy.  But Rocky Mountain has taken a different approach, and I think the enlightened approach.

Lovins, in his article, calls it a Jûjutsu like approach.  That is you use your apponents strengths, redirecting them into accomplishing your desired goals.  RMI is working with the biggest of the big, and they are bit by bit changing, getting the message. As Emory says,

This gentle trimtab steers incumbents’ strength and force from blocking change to driving change. Jûjutsu-like, its suppleness can overcome superior force by subtly redirecting it—turning opposing weight and strength into an advantage through fluidity, centeredness, leverage, and up-close, hands-on engagement. Fighting with an opponent turns into dancing with a partner.

From our perspective, it is not about manipulating, but working together, as partners, to bring about changes.  Read his article.  The momentum is beginning to shift.  It’s truly exciting.

Michael Potts is Rocky Mountain Institute’s President and CEO.  In his article RMI’s Trademark Approach he states,

First, we focus on solutions, not problems. We find that decision-makers and practitioners don’t respond well to preaching or scare tactics, but are challenged and energized by a fact-based path to efficiency and renewables. Second, we base our work on solid research and analysis, anchored in industry expertise and informed by fresh thinking and novel questions. This earns us a seat at the table where pivotal decisions are made. Third, we connect and convene leaders across sectoral and disciplinary boundaries to spread innovation and speed adoption across industry and civil society.

Michael highlights in his piece RMI’s recently published (Fall 2011) Reinventing Fire:  Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era.  Reinventing Fire gives a business led roadmap to get the American economy off of oil, coal and nuclear power, and to use one-third less natural gas by 2050.

Have you heard of the Dutch Postcode Lottery Funds Diverse Groups?  I certainly hadn’t. Molly Miller (RMI) enlightens us about this wonderful group in her article, A More Charitable World:  Dutch Postcode Lottery Funds Diverse Groups.

This year the Dutch Postcode Lottery, the Netherlands’ largest charity lottery, will distribute a record 284 million euros ($376 million) to 85 organizations, including such annual recipients as UNICEF, Amnesty International, and Médecins sans Frontières. Together with the Postcode Lotteries in Sweden and the UK, this Dutch fundraising machine is the third-largest private charitable donor in the world.

Sustainability is not the sole important focus for the lottery, which also funds global humanitarian organizations. “Our money is often used as leverage or for projects that are harder to raise funds for, like disasters that do not get a lot of media attention,” says van Schaik. For example, the lottery supports Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), which provides emergency medical assistance to populations in danger in more than 70 countries. The lottery’s contribution is used for as projects as HIV/AIDS treatment in Burma, Congo-Kinshasa and Ethiopia, and support for refugees in Darfur and South Sudan.

This year RMI received $1.2 million from the lottery.  Since 2009, they’ve received more than $4 million in unrestricted revenue from the Postcode Lottery.

Lottery’s Managing Director, Marieke van Schaik, said “We are very proud to support Rocky Mountain Institute.  The world needs organizations working for a better and more efficient use of our natural resources. RMI is able to combine this objective with market-oriented solutions, which creates much needed transformation in both the corporate and the private sphere.”

RMI presents a great example for us on the holistic path, and that is not to demonize our apponent.  It causes me to think again about those activists in our movement who’ve gone on to accept high level positions in giant corporations, companies whose philosophies and actions are at the causative core of our ecological problems, the very companies we need to change.  Maybe they, our comrads, too are practicing Aikido. What do you think?

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

When it comes to probiotics we believe in diversity.  We presently give you seven different probiotic formulas to choose from. Here’s a combination we find very effective.  Add one teaspoon of Number 7 Systemic Booster and one heaping tablespoon of the Beta Glucan Synbiotic Formula to a large glass of water.  The combination gives you 12 different strains of lactic acid bacteria plus 15 grams of soluble fiber.  The good bug count is 40 billion. Plus, you are getting beet, pomegranate, tart cherry, cranberry, pineapple (all organic), carnitine, carnosine, Vitamin D3, folate and fructoborate.

The Last Quiz Answer:

The Japanese macaques are the most northerly-living non-human primates. In the forested and mountainous region of Japan where they’re found, some populations have been known to bathe in hot springs during the freezing winters and swim during the sweltering summer heat. Japanese macaques have become famous for washing their food in saltwater before they eat it. This skill has spread through the population and down the generations. For fun these macaques make snowballs, just like us. (BBC Nature)

Forging Food Sovereignty with Farmers:  Dismantling the Industrial agri-foods complex at the local food system level must be accompanied by the construction of alternatives that suit the needs of small scale producers and low-income consumers, worldwide.  Check out Food First.

Dear Friends,

We are beginning to wake up.  We desperately need fresh air!

We are awakening to the understanding that life on earth has the power, in the way that it behaves, to alter the very composition of the gasses that make up the troposphere (the troposphere being the blanket of air covering the earth where all the weather takes place).

Furthermore, being the self-conscious, reflective animals that we are, we’ve come to understand that the way in which we have conducted ourselves on earth since the industrial revolution, has brought us into a crisis point that in all likelyhood, unless we get a hold of ourselves, will lead us to our very extinction, along with that of most other higher, high oxygen requiring creatures—the Sixth Mass Extintion.

When comparing the atmospheres of our closest neighboors in our solar system, Mars and Venus, to the earth’s atmosphere, Dr. James Lovelock (founder of the Gaia Hypothesis)  contends that, the Venusian atmosphere yielded figures of 95-96% carbon dioxide, 3-4% nitrogen, with traces of oxygen, argon and methane. The same analysis for Mars returns 95.3% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, only 0.15% oxygen and only 0.03% water. In comparison the Earth’s atmosphere at present is 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen with traces of carbon dioxide, methane and argon.

Chemically speaking, life enables the atmosphere to exists in a state far from equilibrium.  Conversely, if there was no life on earth its atmosphere would resemble that of Mars and Venus with levels of CO2 well over 90%, and oxygen being negligible.  Basically, reaching a state of equilibrium.  Life exists far from equilibrium.

So, the rising CO2 levels are very alarming, especially since they haven’t been at 380 ppm since 2 million years ago.  The more they rise the hotter the planet gets, the hotter the planet gets, the more the ice caps melts, the oceans rise, and the higher species die.  We’ve been here before, five times. This time, extinction, will be of our own doing.

Fortunately, we see help coming from all corners of the earth.  It is literally happening all around us, and the goal with our Forward Thinking is to help connecting the dots of positive movements so we can be encouraged and motivated to participate in quickening the change.  The following are a couple more points of light for us to know about:

Number One:  It’s happening in our very own neighborhoods.

On Tuesday afternoon Dohrea and I drove to Seattle to one of our new favorite food coops, the Madison Market.  As we arrived to our destination I noticed right across the street the most gorgeous wooden office building going up. I had to take a picture, so I took out my trusty cell phone and took these two shots. As you can see in the second picture it says the Bullitt Center.  Would you like to know what the Bullitt Center is up to?  It’s very exciting!

Their goal is to be the greenest commercial building in the world. They have entered into the Living Building Challenge.  To be certified as a Living Building a structure is required to be self-sufficient for energy and water for a least 12 continuous months and to meet rigorous standards for green materials and for quality of its indolor environment.  The Living Building Challenge requires a project to meet 20 specific imperatives within seven performance areas.

For the Bullitt Center, meeting the imperatives will include the following:

• Site:  The location will support a pedestrian, bicycle, and  transit-friendly lifestyle.
• Water:  Rainwater will be collected on the roof, stored in an underground cistern and used throughtout the building.
• Energy:  A solar array will generate as much electricity as the building uses.
• Health:  The building will promote health for its occupants with inviting stairways, operable windows and features to promote walking and resource sharing.
• Materials:  The building will not contain any “Red List” hazardous materials, including PVC, cadmium, lead, mercury and hormone-mimicking substances, all of which are commlonly found in building components.>
• Equity:  Unlike many office buildings, large operable windows will offer fresh air and daylight to all the people who work in the Bullitt Center.  The goals of Seattle’s Community High Road Agreement will guide selection of the construction team.

Their website is trendously informative, an important resource.  It will take you into a whole new world of enlightened building design.  Click here or above at the Bullitt Center.

Number Two:  It is happening all over the world.

350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis.  They have a fabulous educational site, that will arm you with all the information you needs to grasp and to speak on behalf of the issues regarding global warming.

They just completed an online project called Climatedots.org where people from all over the world took videos and photos of climate changes occuring in their part of the world.  Check out the link.  Communities gathering from all over the world—Brazil, London, Florida, Afghanistan, Egypt, Kenya, Micronesia, etc—it’s grassroots and people are getting involved.  I will let these links do the talking.

The coral reefs of our Maldivian island is bleaching and breaking apart because of climate change, threatening our community, country, and culture. Photo By: Mohamed Fahumee.  These islanders are standing on the dead coral at low tide.  Very sad.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Energy Sustain:  organic quinoa, amaranth, chia, buckwheat and millet, all especially milled to make their nutrients available.  There is no gluten, yeast, wheat, corn, soy, or excipients and additives of any kind.  They are clean and pure. They are kosher. Cruciferous Sprouts:  broccoli, daikon radish, red radish, watercress, kale, mustard, cabbage.  All freeze dried sprouts harvested on the third day when their glucosinolates are at their heights.  Phyto Power:  whole and very potent multi-species of wildcrafted Blueberry, Dandelion and Rosehips—just think of the red, blue and green power.  Ultra Minerals:  72 nano sized, negatively charged plant derived minerals from Deep Time—predating humans destructive involvement with the land.  Original Synbiotic Formula:  good lactic acid bacteria and organic inulin from chicory root.

The Last Quiz Answer:

Lynx are masters of deep snow and cold winters. In Washington, they are at home among the boreal habitats in Okanogan County, where winter persists for much of the year.

Their down-like fur protects them from the cold, and their large paws (the size of a cougar’s foot) and small weight (similar to a 25-pound bobcat) enable lynx to float on the deep fluffy snows of the high elevations of northern Washington. These large feet act as snowshoes for lynx to pursue their primary prey, the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus).

Excessive numbers of fires in the past decade may be a threat to the species’ survival in Washington … In the past decade, more than 50 percent of these spruce and subalpine fir forests along the northeastern Cascades have been burned. (from a talk by Gary Koehler, wildlife research scientist, Washington Deparment of Fish and Wildlife).

I just picked up a book, that just came out, at our new food coop in Bellevue called Local Dollars, Local Sense:  How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity.  It has received some very high endorsements from authors I respect.  For example John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman (a must read) said, This long awaited book is a masterpiece and a field guide to a much needed journey into creating the kind of economy our children will be happy to inherit.  Future generations will praise Local Dollars, Local Sense as one of those seminal works that helped transform human societies.

Dear Friends,

To your right, the Spirit of the Northwoods greets you. Its home, the great Boreal Forest encircling the Artic.

In total, the boreal forest covers 6.41 million square miles. Also called the Taiga, it is found throughout the high latitudes between the tundra and the temperate forest,from about 50 degrees to 70 degrees North. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental US.  It also covers most of Sweden, Finland, much of Russia, Northern Kazakhstan, northern Mongolia and northern Japan. A little over 30% of the world’s forests are in the far North.

The boreal forests cover 17% of the Earth’s land surface area, and as such are a big storage area for carbon—a carbon sink.  In this picture the boreal forests are dark green areas, the tundra and barren land are tan, while crops and grasslands are yellow.

The Last Quiz Answer:

Research concerning the chemical analysis of the composition of the Venusian atmosphere has yielded figures of 95-96% carbon dioxide, 3-4% nitrogen, with traces of oxygen, argon and methane. The same analysis for Mars returns 95.3% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, only 0.15% oxygen and only 0.03% water. In comparison the Earth’s atmosphere at present is 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen with traces of carbon dioxide, methane and argon.

The earth’s atmosphere exist in a state far from equilibrium because of life, the biosphere—Gaia.

350.org is building a global movement to solve the climate crisis.  Their online campaigns, grass roots organizing, and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by people in 188 countries.  They are connecting the dots all around the world.  They are the life force of the biosphere and their pulse is strong.  This is good news my friends, let’s reverse the de-evolutionary path.