Dear Friends

In 2003, the probiotic market in the U.S. was valued at $952 million.  Five years later it had grown by 160% to one billion, 527 million.  By 2015 it is projected to be at $3.1 billion.  Definately a growth industry, and rightly so.

The awareness that a healthy gut flora is manditory for a truly healthy body and robust longevity, and the consensus that a good probiotic formula can facilitate the building of a healthy gut flora has spread from beyond the holsitic medical community to the hollowed medical research centers of the National Institute of Health (NIH). 

In 2008, NIH established the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) to study the significance, in health and in disease, of the vast number of microbes that intimately associate themselves with our human bodies.   HMP is focusing their research on four major dwelling places for these human associated microbial communities— the ecosystems of the GI tract, the respiratory tract, the urogenital tract (in women), and the skin.

The gastrointestinal tract (from the mouth to the anus) is the largest and most diverse of the microbial ecosystems, comprised of 100 trillion organisms (mostly bacterial), that is 10 times more one-celled microbial organisms in the lumin of our gut than the total human cell mass of our body, which is at 10 trillion.

Where doctors had previously isolated only a few hundred bacterial species from the body, HMP researchers now calculate that more than 10,000 microbial species occupy the human ecosystem. Moreover, researchers calculate that they have identified between 81 and 99 percent of all microorganismal genera in healthy adults.

HMP researchers also reported that this plethora of microbes contribute more genes responsible for human survival than humans contribute. Where the human genome carries some 22,000 protein-coding genes, researchers estimate that the human microbiome contributes some 8 million unique protein-coding genes or 360 times more bacterial genes than human genes. (MacDougall, R. NIH Human Microbiome Project defines normal bacterial makeup of the body.  NIH News, June 13, 2012)

Actually, each human gene is capable of producing three different proteins where as each bacterial gene only can produce one protein, so that helps the totals a bit for human derived proteins—now its 66,000 to 8,000,000 bacterial proteins.  As they say it is mind blowing.

Just think, genes produce proteins, and proteins are the building blocks of metabolic pathways, enzymes, receptor site molecules, messenger molecules, structural molecules, neurotransmitters and hormones.  The new understanding is that the collection of proteins that run our bodies comes not only from our human cells but also from our microbial selves, our own unique microbiome.  The sum total of our human cell genome and our microbial genome is called our metagenome.  Our gut is awash with proteins from our human cells and microbials cell.

Our adult bodies harbor 10 times more microbial cells than human cells. Their genomes (the microbiome’s) endows us with physiological capacities that we have not had to evolve on our own and thus are both a manifestation of who we are genetically and metabolically and a reflection of our state of well being. (NIH)

This brings us  to the door of the probiotic product world, a door that we will open over the next couple of weeks.  In the last few years alone there has been alone 482 peer-reviewed papers published regarding  lactobacillus and human health, catalogued within the US National Library of Medicine at NIH.  Stay tuned.
 

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

Clinical Note:
 

The Last Quiz Answer:

Check out the Orangutan Foundation International. There mission is to support the conservation, protection, and understanding of orangutans and their rain forest habitat while caring for ex-captive orangutan orphans as they make their way back to the forest.

Furthermore, OFI educates the public, school children, and governments about orangutans, tropical rain forests, and the issues surrounding orangutan and forest conservation and protection.  Our support can help them save the orangutans, and save their magnificient jungle habitat in Borneo.
  

I went to The 350.org National Tour opening last Wednesday night in Seattle at the Benaroya Hall.  There were 2000 people there.  I'm way in the back right corner.  It is a critically important movement.

On Thursday they were going to Portland, Friday to Berkley, Saturday to San Francisco and Palo Alto and Sunday to LA. This week they will be doing the East Coast.  

The Lecture is entitled Do The Math.  It is very important for you to go if you can. Check out their calendar and agenda.  Here we are:

P.S.  Have you wondered what Al Gore is doing?  Well wonder no more.  Beginning this evening, Wednesday night Nov. 14th at 8:00pm EST, Gore et al is rolling out The Dirty Weather Report International.  It's 24 hours of non stop commentary on the world man-made weather crisis.  Tune in on line by going to Climate Reality Project.org.  If it's Nov. 15th, it is happening live right now.
                   
                     ©2005 – 2012 BioImmersion Inc. All Rights Reserved

Dear Friends

As we age we tend to store more fat, simply because our body is less efficient converting stored body fat to energy. So then we diet and employ a caloric restriction, but our body, very quickly, slows down its metabolism, which makes it more difficult to loose fat weight.

But the good news is that in studies, 7-Keto DHEA and Seaweed Extract, demonstarte healthy support of weight loss as 7-Keto enhances metabolic rate by promoting thermogenisis (fat burning), while seaweed polyphenols help facilitate the balancing of healthy insulin levels.

No. 4 Systemic Booster:  Metabolic Balance addresses weight loss issues—the reduced metabolic rate and the rate of absorption of calories through its two components: 7-Keto DHEA which is a downstream metabolite of DHEA and seaweed extract from kelp and bladderwrack.

7-Keto DHEA

Clinically- Proven 200% More Weight Loss Than Diet and Exercise Alone.

• A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of 3-Acetyl 7 Oxo-Dehydroepiandrosterone in Healthy Over Weight Adults,  Curr Ther Res 2000;61(7):435-442.
• The Effect of 7-Keto Naturalean on Weight Loss: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.  Curr Ther Res 2002:63(4).

Majority of Weight Loss is Fat Loss.

• A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Thermogenic and Body Composition Effects of 3-Acetyl-7oxo- Dehydroepiandrosterone (7-Keto) Clinical Study Final Report, Humanetics Archives.
• A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of 3-Acetyl-7-Oxo-Dehydroepiandrosterone in Healthy Over Weight Adults.  Curr Ther Res 2000;61(7):435-442.
• The Effect of 7-Keto Naturalean on Weight Loss: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.  Curr Ther Res 2002:63(4).

Promotes Weight Loss Without Use of Stimulants.

• A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of 3-Acetyl 7 Oxo-Dehydroepiandrosterone in Healthy Over Weight Adults,  Curr Ther Res 2000;61(7):435-442.
• The Effect of 7-Keto Naturalean on Weight Loss: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.  Curr Ther Res 2002:63(4).

Awarded U.S. Patent for Metabolic Rate Increase and Weight Loss.

• United States Patent Number 7,199,116.

Augments What the Body Naturally Produces.

• Ergosteroids II: Biologically Active Metabolites and Synthetic Derivatives of Dehydroepiandrosterone.  Steroids 1998;63:158-165.
• Induction of Thermogenic Enzymes by DHEA and its Metabolites, In: Bellino F, Daynes RA, Hornsby PJ, Lavrin HD, Nestler JE, eds.  Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and Aging.  New York:New York Academy of Sciences; 1995:171-179.
• Studies in Steroid Metabolism: Isolation and Characterizartion of New Urinary Studies. J Biol Chem 1954;210:129-137.

Clinically- Proven Weight and Fat Loss

• A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of 3-Acetyl 7 Oxo-Dehydroepiandrosterone in Healthy Over Weight Adults,  Curr Ther Res 2000;61(7):435-442.
• The Effect of 7-Keto Naturalean on Weight Loss: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.  Curr Ther Res 2002:63(4).

Safe, When Used As Directed

• Safety and Pharmacokinetic study with escalating doses of 3-acetyl-7-Oxo-Dehydroepiandrosterone in healthy male volunteers. Clin Invest Med 2000;23(5):300-310.
• A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of 3-Acetyl 7 Oxo-Dehydroepiandrosterone in Healthy Over Weight Adults,  Curr Ther Res 2000;61(7):435-442.
• Humanetics Affidavit, Humanetics Archives.

Activate 3 Thermogenic Enzymes- Promotes Thermogenesis by Burning Fat.

• Ergosteroids II: Biologically Active Metabolites and Synthetic Derivatives of Dehydroepiandrosterone.  Steroids 1998;63:158-165.
• The Effects of  the Ergosteroid 7-oxo-dehydroepiandrosterone on Mitochondrial Membrane Potential: Possible Relationship to Thermogenesis, Arch Biochem Biophys 1997;341:122-128.
• A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of 3-Acetyl 7 Oxo-Dehydroepiandrosterone in Healthy Over Weight Adults,  Curr Ther Res 2000;61(7):435-442.

Natural 7 Keto Levels Decline With Age

• Marench LP. Secretion of Testosterone, Epitestosterone, Androstenedione, and 7-KEto-Dehydroepiandrosterone in Healthy Men of Different Ages. Prob Endokrino. 1979;25(4):28-31.

Increases Metabolism 5.4% Without Use of Stimulants.

• HUM5007, a novel combination of thermogenic compounds, and 3-acetyl-7-oxo-dehydroepiandrosterone:  each increases the resting metabolic rate of overweight adults. J Nutr Biochem 2007;18:629-634.

Brown Seaweed:  Ascophyllum nodosum (Kelp) and Fucus vesiculosus (bladdwrack)

Consumption of brown seaweed extract inhibits activities of alpha glucosidase and alpha amylase.

• Roy M, Anguenot R, Fillion C, Beaulieu M, Berube J, and Richard D. 2011.  Effect of a commercially-available algal phlorotannins extract on digestive enzymes and carbohydrate absorption in vivo.  Food Res Int. 44(9): 3026-3029, doi:10,1016/j.foodres.20011.07.023.
• Apostolidis E, Lee CM.  In vitro potential of Ascophyllum nodosum phenolic antioxidant-mediated alpha glucosidase and alpha amylase inhibition.  J Food Sci. Apr 2010 75(3):H97-H102.

Digestion of carbs is slowed down, not blocked.  You eat 100 calories, you digest 100 calories.

• Roy M, Anguenot R, Fillion C, Beaulieu M, Berube J, and Richard D. 2011.  Effect of a commercially-available algal phlorotannins extract on digestive enzymes and carbohydrate absorption in vivo.  Food Res Int. 44(9): 3026-3029, doi:10,1016/j.foodres.20011.07.023.

Lowers postprandial plasma  glucose and insulin levels.

• Paradis ME, Couture P and Lamarche B.  2011.  A randomized crossover placebo-controlled trial investigating the effect of brown seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum and Fucus vesiculosus) on postchallenge plasma glucose and insulin levels in men and women.  Anal Physiol Nutr Metab. 36:913-919 (2011)

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell
Clinical Note:

The Last Quiz Answer:

Grey langurs are a genus of Old World monkeys once thought to be a single species. Seven distinct species are now recognised, which are widespread throughout south Asia. The most northerly species are generally larger and heavier than the southern langurs and walk with their tails pointing forward, while southern langurs point their tails backwards. Grey langurs, with their black hands and face, are also known as Hanuman langurs after the monkey-god, and so are considered sacred in the Hindu religion. (BBC Nature)

The Chital deer and the langur monkeys work together to warn each other of danger, like a hungry tiger.  Imagine yourself out in the Land of the Tiger witnessing this drama between the between a tiger and its prey, the deer and the monkey.

Dear Friends

Over the next several months we are going to be taking a close look at some very exciting food derived secondary metabolites that are proving to be of utmost importance for our health, wellbeing and longevity—they belong to the leading edge of new scientific research.

What are secondary metabolites?  Why are they important to our health?  How are they key to getting your patient truly well?  This discussion will provide you with the big picture, a view that allows you to see the forest from the trees so-to-speak, next, we will examine the trees, the second metabolites, individually. Stay tuned.

We will also be looking at six new Therapeutic Foods—products that are two years in the making. More on that in the coming weeks.

We are very excited about our remodeled website which we will be turning on in the next couple of days.  You’ll find it very user friendly—clean, clear, crisp, uncluttered and full of useful information. I hope that we will meet at the site next week!
Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell
Clinical Note:

The Last Quiz Answer:

The average life span in the wild for a giraffe is 25 years.  They’re around 6 feet at the shoulder, and 19 feet to the top of their head.  They weigh up to 2,800 pounds.  They are big creatures.  They can run as fast as 35 miles per hour for short distances and can cruise comfortably at 10 mph.  Their tongue is  21 inches long.

Female giraffes give birth standing up.  Their young must endure a five foot drop to the ground at birth. These infants can stand in half an hour and run with their mothers an incredible ten hours after birth.

Dear Friends,

Last week we looked at the shear magnitude of life on earth.  It’s breathtaking—roughly ten million visible species and perhaps as many as a billion microbial ones, filling every cranny of land, sea, and air. Yet, the mystery of how life began some 3.5 billion years ago within the oceans that covered Mother Earth remains a mystery, one that we bridge with our various beliefs.

How about you, what do you believe?

As for me, I’ve embraced a number of beliefs over the years.  As a teanagers I was raised within the Unity Church, as a university zoological major I embraced whole-heartedly evolutionary theory and became an athiest.  As life experiences unfolded I became a Buddhist, a Sik, a Yogi, a Scientologist, a humanistic transcendental psychologist, a Taoist, a Christian (Presbyterian) with a Jewish twist, who believes fully in evolutionary theory. Most of all,  I love the beauty of all beliefs when practiced with love towards humanity and our earth.

I would like to share one of the iterations of how earth was form:  it is a theistic evolution, the version spelled out by Dr. Francis Collins in his book, The Language of God.  It rests on the following premises:

• The universe came into being out of nothingness, approximately 14 billion years ago.
• Despite massive improbabilities, the properties of the universe appear to have been precisely tuned for life.
• While the precise mechanism of the origin of life on earth remains unknown, once life arose, the process of evolution and natural selection permitted the development of biological diversity and complexity over very long periods of time.
• Once evolution got under way, no special supernatural intervention was required.
• Humans are part of this process, sharing a common ancestor with the great apes.
• But humans are also unique in ways that defy evolutionary explanation and point to our spiritual nature.  This includes the existence of the Moral Law (the knowledge of right and wrong) and the search for God that characterizes all human cultures throughout history.

For those of us who enjoy reading from old documents, just a couple thoughts from the Old Testament, notice the similarities to Collins’ “nothingness”:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

The above quote from Genesis 1 comes from the New American Standard Bible’s translation of the Torah (the Hebrew Bible).  Dohrea informs me that another translation of the hebrew into english, as she reads hebrew directly from the Torah the spirit of God is gliding, hovering, immersing, and uniting with the formless, limitless, yet organic and whole universe. When Dohrea explains this part, the beauty and wholeness of this strange place (to us), not formed, not in our realm, and not found, sounds other-worldly awesome.

There are many serious evolutionary biologists who are also serious believers in theistic evolution. The list includes the 19th century Harvard Botanist Asa Gray, who was Darwin’s chief advocate in America; Theodosius Dobzhansky, the 20th century architect of evolutionary thinking; and for the 21st century, Francis Collins himself, the lead scientist and director of the Human Genome Project, the group credited for completing the mapping of the human genome.  Francis Collins  is now the director of the National Institute of Health.

Eric Chivian MD and Aaron Bernstein MD (Founders of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School) begin their magnificent, beautiful book, Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity, with quotes from Genesis 9:16, the Koran 6:38, the Bhagavad Gita VII:7-9 and the Gradual Sayings of the Buddha. I love the Bhagavad Gita quote,

All this world is strung on me like jewels on a string. I am the taste in the waters, the radiance in the sun and moon, the sacred syllable Om that reverberates in space, the manliness in men. I am the pleasant fragrance in earth, the glowing brightness in fire, the life in all beings.

How fortunate we are to be free to contemplate and share such things.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Single mineral supplementations can provide very powerful therapeutic results.  For example, we brought into our Therapeutic Foods Line our Fructoborate Complex back in 2006, based on the research of our collaborating Yugoslovian team of scientists, who have the worldwide patent on calcium-fructoborate.  Each capsule of our product contains 240mg of fructoborate and 260mg of calcium ascorbate.  The success that we have had with your patients  consistently confirms the research results recorded in the European trials.  These are:  improvement in bone density, reduction in osteoarthritis, selective increases in steroid hormone blood levels (testosterone, DHEA, and Vitamin D3) while at the same time lowering level of CRP.

A recently completed (2012) U.S. pilot clinical study (double-blinded placebo-controlled), using 108mg of calcium frutctoborate BID with osteoarthritic patients suffering from minor knee arthritis, achieved the following results:  WOMAC and McGill results indicated that subjects in the fructoborate group experienced by day fourteen a score improvement of 29% and 14% respectively.  Testing on CRP and 1,25(OH) Vitamin D also revelaed exceptional results.  CRP was reduced by up to 37% compared to baseline levels (established prior to treatment). Blood levels of endogenous D3 increased more than 19% on average compared to baseline.

We recommend starting low, one capsule a day and after a couple weeks if no results then increase it to 2 a day.  Sometimes it take a month or two to kick in.

The Last Quiz Answer:

I love these creatures of the night. A couple of weeks ago we called the mystical Lynx the Spirit of the Boreal (the magical forests of the North), and I think of the hyena as the Spirit of the African Night. Often disappearing in aardvark holes to sleep during the heat of the day, they emerge again in the cool of the evening to hunt. They seem so relentess, so bloodthirsty, but are they really? There is another side that is so precious—check out this You Tube video: Naabi, a hyena princess (2009). It’s worth watching the whole things. Hyenas have a different hunting strategy than lions. They work the crowds by ambling along, meandering amongst the wildebeast appearing disinterested, which relaxes their prey. Yet all the time looking for the opportunity.  They are a wild animal that can bond with humans beings.

I remember hearing, about three years ago, Dr. Eric Holt-Gimenez (executive director for Food First) speak at the University of Washington regarding his new book, Food Rebellions:  Crisis and the Hunger for Justice.  He urged us that if we really want to do something effective toward changing our food system, we must keep track of how the farm bill legislation is being crafted and voted on each year within the US Congress. Well, the tracking is being done for us and we have an opportunity to add our voice of support for a corrective ammendment to the current 100 billion dollar farm bill allotment that is being pushed through Congress as we speak.  Click here so you can add your voice to get the Farm Bill rightly conceived.

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,

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.

Dear Friends,

At this very moment I’m 30,000 feet over gorgeous northern California on my way to LA, thinking of all those people down there. What an awesome experience it must be to view mother earth from space. Astronauts have characterized it as a transcendental experience, giving them pause to think differently about their own lives and their relationships to the rest of life. Perhaps it leads one to reflect on the big questions like: Who am I? What’s my purpose? How can I fulfill that purpose? Certainly a trip, figuratively speaking, we all need to take.

This planet is not terra firma. It is a delicate flower and it must be cared for. It’s lovely. It’s small. It’s isolated and there is no resupply. And we are mistreating it. Clearly, the highest loyalty we should have is not to our own country or our own religion or our own hometown or even ourselves. It should be to, number two, the family of man [human], and number one, the planet [mother earth] at large. This is our home, and this is all we’ve got.

(Scott Carpenter, Mercury 7 astronaut)

A Chinese tale talks of some men sent to harm a young girl who upon seeing her beauty, became her protectors rather than her violators. That’s how I felt seeing the earth for the first time, I could not help but love and cherish her.

(Taylor Wang, astronaut)

As we got farther and farther away, it [the earth] diminished in size. Finally it shrunk to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. The beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man.

(James Irwin, astronaut)

We each have our own personal narrative, our story about how we relate to the rest of life around us. The blessing for all of us is that the way in which we interact with the rest of life can change as we grow in experience, and evolve into new ways of understanding ourselves—where we fit in life. As Americans, we have viewed ourselves as separate from nature as though we can do what ever we please to her without paying the piper. How shamefully childish and unenlightened we have been. But, this is changing…there is reason for hope.

I propose a new narrative (as Dohrea says), one that deeply connects us to the biosphere. As we look at earth from space, thinking about it from a biospheric perspective, we know a few things: One, is that earth’s blue/green color comes from its covering of life (take a look at the picture above!). Life that is, in essence, one vast food chain that consumes, cycles and recycles both living and non-living matter. Secondly, that this process creates the rich soil, an oxygen filled atmosphere, pure water and weather suitable for the emergence of increasing biodiversity. Thirdly, we now conceive of life not so much of a process of the survival of the fittest, but as a process of symbiosis—life forms helping other live forms symbiotically to survive through forming complex networks of communication and support at all levels of existence, from our cells and bodies to ecosystems and the whole earth herself as one vast ecosystem—named Gaia.

Let’s examine the biosphere. From deep space, into the troposphere (look up this word!) we drop, finding ourself by chance descending into one of the wild places on earth—the middle of the great Ituri rainforest in the heart of the Congo. The jungles of central Africa and the jungles of the Amazon are the lungs of the earth, pulling CO2 from the air and putting oxygen back for us all to breathe.

This special place was filmed by the Planet Earth team. As in any ecosystem, each of its creatures play a special part in keeping it healthy. The elephants drink very rich mineral water, while their waste contributes nutrients and organic matter back into the soil. A critical watering hole for these forest dwellers. As we zoom in closer we see these three together, perhaps they are a family. Elephants mate for life. Family members, bonded together, protecting and supporting each other for their mutual survival.

Taking a closer look still, at the largest of the three, not sure if it’s the poppa or momma, we know that this beautiful creature is a collection of both elephant cells and microbial cells, not unlike us and our human microbiome. If you recall, our human microbiome in our gut is composed of 100 trillion bugs, that’s tens times more than our total human cell mass—yet when were healthy they work together as one collaborative system. It is the same for our elephant friend, whose physiology relies on healthy elephant and symbiotic microbial cells within its gut, and its other orafices, and on its skin—all working together for the survival of this intelligent pachyderm. What’s the microbiome count for an elephant gut?

So what are we? An individual self trying to survive in a dog-eat-dog world, or an intimate part of a collective whole called Gaia—or somewhere in between? The bottomline is, at every level, we are an intimate part of the natural world where even our individual human cells have evolved as an intermingling of human DNA and microbial DNA. As we’ve closely looked at the power house organelle within each of our cells, the mitochondria, we’ve come to realize that these membrane bound entities contain their own DNA, unique to that of our cells’-most likely derived from ancient bacterial origin. At our cellular core we are symbiotically connected to the microbial world. From a purely Gaiac perspective, James Lovelock with help from Lynn Margulis in his 1979 book, Gaia: A New Look at Life On Earth, proposes:

All organisms and their inorganic surroundings on earth are closely integrated to form a single and self regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet …. The troposphere, the blanket of air covering the earth where all the weather takes place, is the circulatory system, produced and sustained by life …. Humans may be the emerging brains of Gaia. We are the micro-beings and Gaia is the macro-being.

In conclusion, life is a vast network of relationships to which we are deeply connected. A lifeless Earth would have a surface atmosphere somewhere between Mars and Venus, which is mostly made up of CO2 and methane. It would be much hotter, much more acidic, the clouds on Venus are mostly composed of a sulfuric acid atmosphere. Fortunately, we are becoming aware that by our actions we are affecting the whole biosphere, and that how it all turns out for us is very much in our hands. Knowing this is the good news. Now it is time to smell the roses and get to work.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Isn’t it time for a Spring cleaning of our body? Many of you have your detox programs
for your patients in the Spring. Our new product fit right in. Here they are: Energy Sustain, Cruciferous Sprouts Complex, Chlorella, Phyto Power, Ultra Minerals and Original Synbiotic Formula.

Let’s look at them from right to left: 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 bacteria and good fiber. Mix with a little dilute organic pear or apple juice-a good breakfast.

The Last Quiz Answer:

A new study has found that forest elephants may be responsible for spreading and planting more seeds in the Congo than any other species. Dr. Stephen Blake’s, of the Max Planck Institute in Ornithology, research shows that elephants consume more than 96 species of plant seeds and can carry them as far as 35 miles from the point of origin. The study did not take into account seeds smaller than a centimter, even though seeds of this size were estimated to number in the hundreds and thousands in the dung piles studied. The forest elephants are under the threat of extinction due to poaching for their ivory for the Chinese market. There numbers have been reduced by 80% in the last 50 years. We are witnessing their annihilation.

A Farm For the Future by Rebecca Hosking Rebecca Hosking is a wildlife film maker, who has made to spectacular documentary of her journey back to her aging parents farm to becoming a farmer herself and save the farm. It is a documentary divided into five chewable parts that will totally delight you and masterfully inform you. It is every bit as important as Food Inc. Just watch the first segment and you will be delightfully hooked.

Dear Friends,

It’s spring.  It’s time to check out the soil, plant the garden, watch life sprout and grow.  Watch the biosphere do its thing.

Two questions for you: What is your definition of the biosphere?  How can a proper understanding of what the biosphere is, save us from extinction?

Here’s mine:  The biosphere is the biofilm of life on the rock we call earth. (Bardell. S., 4/11/2012)

Here’s another, expanded a bit more for further clarification: The biosphere is the totality of life living and dead plus its interactions with rocks, water, and air.  It is diverse and complex. (Donovan, P., Carbon Cycle video, Soil Carbon Coalition, 2010)

So, the biosphere is the zone of the earth where the complex interweaving of living and nonliving systems occurs.  Fritjof Capra (1996) in his book, The Web of Life, takes us into the workings of the biosphere through explaining its carbon cycle/.  Let’s look at the carbon cycle from two vantage points as he provides us with foundational and transformative ideas.

By blending water and minerals from below with sunlight and CO2 from above, green plants grow out of the soil, but in fact most of their substance comes from the air.  The bulk of the cellulose and the other organic compounds produced through photosynthesis consists of heavy carbon and oxygen atoms, which plants take directly from the air in the form of CO2.  Thus the weight of a wooden log comes almost entirely from the air.  When we burn a log in a fireplace, oxygen and carbon combine once more into CO2, and in the light and heat of the fire we recover part of the solar energy that went into making the wood.

We have this great plant next to our kitchen sink.  It’s been with us for years and all I’ve ever done to keep it happy is water it.  No plant foods given, no changing of its soils, nothing but supplying water—and still it’s alive, healthy and busting with life.  This wonderful plant supplies us with beauty, fills our room with oxygen, and takes the CO2 out of the air.  Isn’t it amazing to realize that most of its material for existance and growth comes from the air?

Another example of how carbon cycles through the biosphere is called The weathering effect.

Rain (containing CO2) falls to the earth and mixes with the rocks (containing calcium), which is catalyzed by soil bacteria to form calcium carbonate (CaCO3).  The soluble CaCO3 washes into the ocean where it is absorbed by microscopic algae to form their tiny microscopic shells.  When they die, they fall to the bottom of the sea to form limestone.  As the weight of the limestone builds it eventually finds its way through the ocean floor’s earth crust, falling into the mantle of hot molten rock underneath.  This is then, through volcanic action, spewed back into the atmosphere as CO2, to be recycled once again by plants and rainfall.

The only waste generated by the ecosystem as a whole is the heat energy of respiration, which is radiated into the atmosphere and is replenished continually by the sun through photosynthesis. Eugene Odum’s dictum, “Matter circulates, energy dissipates.” (Capra, 1996)

Knowing the path carbon takes during its cycling, gives us the power to control our fate when it comes to the escalating atmospheric green house gasses that are catapulting us into extinction.

The slide, on the right,  comes from the excellent Carbon Cycle powerpoint on the home page of the Soil Carbon Coalition.  As you can see from this slide, there is more carbon trapped in the soil in organic matter (humus) than in the atmosphere and plants combined.  The humus holds carbon and reduces CO2 levels in the atmosphere.  The humus plays a leading part in the storage of energy of solar origin in the surface of the earth.  As Donovan says in his carbon cycle video, “When there is more carbon in plants and soils there is more water in the soil, more photosynthesis, more work ,more food and more of what we need and the rest of life needs.  If is a reinforcing or positive feedback loop.”

So, what is the biosphere?  The biosphere is the totality of life on earth that captures the energy of the sun to continuously cycle matter.  The pattern of this work can becomes clear as we come to understand the carbon cycle—a circular never ending flow of matter that flows through and connects all life.  It is the cycle of birth, growth, death and decay. (Donovan)

How does this understanding help us save ourselves?  By understanding the carbon cycle we also realize the key factor in whether or not we will be able to stop the escalating rise in greenhouse CO2 levels, which threatens us with the next mass extinction. How well we manage the soil of the earth has the potential of saving our world but if we continue with our present mismanagement of our farming practices we will reap the grim consequences.  So roll your sleeves, plant your organic gardens, water your plants indoor with love, and pass on the urgent message that change is good.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Isn’t it time for a Spring cleaning of our body.  Many of you have your detox programs

for your patients in the Spring.  Our new product fit right in.  Here they are:  Energy Sustain, Cruciferous Sprouts Complex, Chlorella, Phyto Power, Ultra Minerals and Original Synbiotic Formula.

Let’s look at them from right to left:  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 bacteria and good fiber.  Mix with a little dilute organic pear or apple juice—a good breakfast.

The Last Quiz Answer:

This gorgeous frog comes from the jungles of Central America, where it was filmed by the Planet Earth team.  Their experience as they traveled around the earth to wilderness places was that the amphibian populations are in collapse.  Of the 6000 species of frogs worldwide one-third are endangered.  Why?

They are like the carnary in the mine—sensitive to unhealthy atmospheric conditions.  The frogs are the canary of our world.  Their skin is very vulnerable to the rising tide of pollutions and pathogens.  One of the lead scientists in the Planet Earth Video said that frogs are becoming extinct throughout Central America.

Climate Impact Day on May 5th, 2012 is coming! From early morning on May 5th when the sun first rises in the Central Pacific and our colleagues in the Marshall Islands do a daybreak dive on their damaged coral reef, we’ll be following the day around the globe, providing an endless stream of pictures and images.  People around the world will upload a group photo from their local event that captures their big climate dot.  We’ll help you figure out what makes sense, and how to pull together the logistics, but we need you spirit of solidarity to get it going. Imagine one of the largest banners the world has ever seen, staked down on a California glacier with a simple message:  I’m melting!  Now imagine, at the same moment, activists in Ho Chi Minh City gathering along the Saigon River to mark the ever higher tides that are swamping homes and neighborhoods.   Now imagine our friends in Hobart, Tasmania gathering along the beach to mark severe erosion from a recent series of freak storms.  Start or join an event near you for Climate Impacts Day on 5/5/12.  Click on the above link.

Dear Friends,

Home, home on the range.  Where the deer and the antelope play.  Where seldom is heard a discouraging word.  And, the skies are not cloudy all day”—a verse from a good old American cowboy song from times gone bye.

Just imagine what the experience of Lewis and Clark must have been like as they crossed into the Great Plains and saw this vast grassland, home to 64 million bison, along with wolves, bear, birds, bees and humans (the native Americans)—a humming, thriving healthy ecosystem.

The soil of the prairie was rich and deep, filled with microbes, worms, insects and organic matter, able to absorb and sequester carbon from the atmosphere, thereby reducing excessive CO2 levels (greenhouse gasses), protecting against the warming our planet, and resultant erratic and violent weather patterns.  The Great Plains soil was able to hold water and to filter water, thereby providing protection against draughts, erosion and providing to its inhabitants’ clean drinking water—an ecosystem perfectly in tune. Mother Nature provides these ecosystem services for free.  The biosphere left in the hands of Mother Nature to do its work, creates grasslands, forests and abundant biodiversity, not desserts and wastelands.

But, what do we have today in the mid west?  Just a handful of bison (count them with one hand), and over 40 million cattle and other live stock in animal prisons (CAFOs). The cattle are fed foods that they are not genetically able to handle, given antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to push their unhealthy bodies into rapid growth and to hasten their trip to the slaughter house.  Have you seen Food Inc.?  If not, you truly owe it to yourself to see it.  It is a perfect educational tool for the whole family, for your patients, for the public school systems of America.  Food Inc. exposes factory farms for what they are. The corruption of our food system worldwide, by a handful of giant transnational corporation, becomes apparent and understandable.  The need for action unmistakable.

The grasslands of the midwest have become vast monocultural plantations, and because of the modern industrial agricultural practice of the heavy tilling of the soil, pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, we’ve degraded its ability to hold carbon, losing it back to the atmosphere as CO2. The weakened soil is easily eroded, the increasing wind storms and tornadoes have carried away much of the top soil, and with it the services it provides us.  In some areas of the Great Plains, topsoil has decreased in thickness from twelve inches to 4 inches.  During the past 50 years or so our actions have resulted in the loss of roughly one fifth of the earth’s topsoil, one fifth of its land unsuitable for agriculture (Sustaining Life, How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity, 2008, Oxford University Press).

What can we do?  Plenty!  These are very exciting times and there is much being done. Briefly, I’ll introduce you to some exceptional individuals and organizations, worthy of your checking out.  Here are their links:

The Soil Carbon Coalition- Put the carbon back where it belongs.  Check out this non-profit organization.  They have an amazing solution.  If you have only a minute, go to the bottom of their home page and click on the Carbon Cycle Video, and if you’re really pressed for time just click on Part 2.  It is well done.  You’ll be glad you did.

The Polyface Farm- At Polyface our goal is to collect as much solar energy as possible. And grow as much grass as possible because we are completly grass based. In this link you’ll meet Joel Salatin, and his Polyface farm—it shows us what a farm can be.  It’s a bit of heaven on earth—truly home on the range.

That’s it.  I’ll keep this email short and sweet because my hope is that you will take just a moment to check out the important links above—they present a new vision of how to stop global warming, and reverse the de-evolutionary process.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Isn’t it time for a Spring cleaning of our body.  Many of you have your detox programs for your patients in the Spring.  Our new product fit right in.  Here they are:  Energy Sustain, Cruciferous Sprouts Complex, Chlorella, Phyto Power, Ultra Minerals and Original Synbiotic Formula.

Let’s look at them from right to left:  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 bacteria and good fiber.  Mix with a little dilute organic pear or apple juice—a good breakfast.

The Last Quiz Answer:

This amazing creature is the Amur leopard.  The last remaining viable wild population, estimated 20-25 individuals, is found in a small area in the Russian Province of Primorsky Krai, between Vladivostok and the Chinese border.

In adjacent China, 7-12 scattered individuals are estimated to remain. In South Korea, the last record of an Amur leopard dates back to 1969, when a leopard was captured on the slopes of Odo Mountain, in South Kyongsang Province.

It is estimated that between 1970-1983, the Amur leopard lost an astonishing 80% of its former territory. Indiscriminate logging, forest fires and land conversion for farming are the main causes.  According to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), one of my most favorite conservation groups, believes that the Amur leopard can be saved from extinction if the present conservation initiatives are implemented, enhanced and sustained.

This Spring We Rise! April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to train ourselves in non-violent action and join together in the work of reclaiming our country. History is calling; it’s time to step up. Hey guys, click on the above link, and check this out.  I did, and have signed up to go to an instructional meeting in my neighborhood, to get us ready to move in mass across the country.  There will be a meeting in your area to educate you in the non-violent protest process, all in preparation for the show of force in mass.