Another collection of ideas

More ideas from the SCANZ 2011 conference. These are framed with a talk by Andree Mathieu of the University if Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.

I particularly love the analogy, Sustainability is like….

Well, you’ll have to watch it to find out, enjoy:

 

Ideas to save the world

Earlier in the year I attended A Hui at the stunning Owae Marae in Waitara.

The Hui was called Eco Sapiens, organised under the umbrella of SCANZ it was a sort of ‘think tank’ getting together some interested (and interesting) minds from across the globe to share ideas.

Over the weekend I captured snippets of the Hui, and asked people to share one complete idea. Any idea, wether it be something they come to the hui to share, something they’ve come across while there, or something generated by the talks and people around them.

The result will be a series of short videos, attempting to capture the ‘essence’ of what the hui was all about, and why it’s so important to get minds together in the sort of situation that facilitates discussion and evolution of thought.

It is this sort of discussion that will seed the ideas and actions that change our world.

Here’s the first one:

We came together and shared a roof, great food, glorious sunshine, and most important of all: thought.

Tequila sunrise?

Mezcal and worms, pic by Suvi Korhonen

Is there a bug in your drink? Don’t panic! if it’s tequila then it’s supposed to be there – well sort of.

While consuming the ‘worm’ at the bottom of your bottle of tequila might not play an important role in fulfilling your dietary requirements it’s an interesting story so I thought i’d mention it.

For starters it’s not a worm (annelid) it’s the juvenile form of the moth Hypopta agavis, and it feeds on the blue agave plant from which tequila is made.

These critters are a common snack in a traditional mexican diet, but their presence in your tequila bottle is just a novelty really. That hasn’t stopped the maguey worm from making a worldwide impression on tequila lovers – even making appearances in tequila lollipops!

But fame isn’t always a good thing. Tequila exports are placing a demand on the wild gathered worms that can’t be sustained – Mexico is still a developing country (in some areas) and the value of local environments for exports needs to be taken into account in terms of protecting water sources and ‘wild’ places.

So have a think next time you encounter a maguey worm (or when you’ve sobered up perhaps – depending on how ponderous you are upon reaching the bottom of a bottle of tequila). Where did it come from, and why is it there?

A paper on gathering resources and the effect on the environment.

Not sure if this is a genuine tequila worm – but it’s an impressive image.

Things about water

The quality and availability of water are often things we take for granted. Living with more than 15,000km of coastline and miles of rivers flowing across what often seems to be a country of cloud and rain (they don’t call it the land of the long white cloud for nothing), seems to make us complacent about where our water comes from, and what effect we are having on the other things that depend on these waterways.

It seems odd not to consider what lives below the surface, and taking care of something that provides us with so much should come naturally – but it doesn’t

Here are a few random links about water

Miraculous waters, the reason why

Acoustic ecology, an issue under the sea

Water issues, in NZ and in general

Hope you like them, and think a bit about your water, what do you depend on it for (fish for tea, or a hot shower at night?) and where does it come from.

Big oily mess

The mess in the gulf of Mexico is growing, it’s our fault. Watching the effects on such a grand scale brings up all the big questions, it’s breaking our hearts. We’re asking how could we let this happen?

Sometimes its difficult to remember that the big critters aren’t the only ones stuck here. Everything living within reach of the oil (as well as the burn-off fumes and dispersant chemicals) is affected, including the bugs. Insects, crustaceans and microorganisms are at the front line. And their place at the bottom of this complex food web makes them key in the recovery of the whole system.

The macro-fauna needs much more than an oil free environment to make it through. Without their natural food sources, and with bodies already stressed from the changing environment, it’s going to take a long time to get anything even resembling what it used to be.

But not all bugs will be adversely affected, and some might even be able to help. There are an array of microorganisms that survive and thrive in crude oil, creating and breaking down hydrocarbons. While some people are working to stop the leek, others are finding ways to cleanup the mess, without residue and stimulating natural processes.

Microorganisms are amazing and its hardly a surprise to discover that some of them can breakdown oil. In the long run they are our only hope, while we can and will clean and contain as much as we can, we are really trying to keep species alive until these clever microorganisms, natures cleaning ladies, have done their bit with a little help from the weather.

And thats not all, these little treasures might be the answer to the overreaching problem of producing and using fuels without damaging our environment. But more on biofuels another day.

What happens next? well we’ll clean it up the best we can, hope and wait. It’s impossible to know exactly how things will pan out and it might be 10 years before things are back where they were. Everyone’s got something to say on the topic. What i want to know is does that mean it wont happen again? Today i’m the skeptic.

more on: efforts to contain the leek,  the gulf, the NZ connection, and a great article on the whole issue.

Awesomeness of glowing in the dark

Ok so bioluminescence has been a bit done to death, but for me, and most people I think, glowing living animals never seem to loose their novelty.

While fireflies (not the song, but the insect) are the most well known ambasadors for bioluminescence, all kinds of creatures create their own light, in the bug world we can include worms and glow worms (not actually worms, but fungus gnats).

New Zealand is known for it’s glow worms (species: Arachnocampa luminosa) particularly in the north island at Waitomo caves – a huge tourist attraction,  and they are present in allsorts of caves, overhangs and shady forest banks across the country. They glow through waste processing and, to our current knowledge, excrete only light and water. And the glow attracts allsorts of flying critters to their beautiful traps = dinner. So its a bug eat bug life in the world of glowworms, but they arent the only ones…

New Zealand has a less known glow worm. These are the giant earthworm Octochaetus multiporus and they secrete bioluminescent slime – but i’m not sure why. Theyre also said to be one of the main foods of our giant Powelliphanta landsnails, and the image of a snail sucking up a giant glowing worm is rather fantastic, now I just have to find one.

I wont go too much into the chemistry of glowing as this woman covers the basic chemistry and the ocean dwelling glowers – and she has some great videos! so check it out.

And now a little fanciful thinking, to wrap a rather information heavy ramble…

You know those moments when the beauty of the world around you seems too great to be real, I had one of those on my trip to Cambodia last year.

We were in the southern region of Takaeo, near the coast, in the tidal region of a river travelling up to see the night sights. As we left the lights of town behind us I thought for a moment that the fluroescence on the boat’s hull was electrical, a second glance, and the memory that we weren’t that high tech, revealed thousands of green glowing algae. You could dip your hand in the water and pick up spots.

Then the light show started, in addition to the algae we came across great spindley trees full of fireflies, all flashing at their own pace, but eventually all in sync, against a background of violet skies cut with bolt lightning.

Its hard to describe the feeling, but it was one of awe at the wonders in this world, it made me feel small, and privelaged to be there.

awesomeness.

Not better, just different.

While the Territory was truly stunning, the adventure didn’t end there. The next stop, 6 hours drive through scrubby savannah, was A bustling metropolis in the west – Kununurra. Kununurra is a sweet little town thriving on an interesting combination of tourists mining and horticulture, the latter made possible by a reliable supply of cheap water from lake Argyle.

Lake Argyle is a dendritic lake formed behind the Ord river dam, and fills what was once the station Argyle downs, and now holds 12 times the volume of Sidney harbor. It ensures that the ord river flows throughout the seasons and it is because of this that many animals flock here for water in the big dry.

Its this flocking of animals to the river that supports the tour guides line – its better for everyone, providing water all year round to the farmers and the wildlife. But my response to that is ‘different not better’ the animals here have survived here without our interference, they have evolved ‘coping mechanisms’ for the harsh environment. The river never did dry up completely, there were always deep pools and billabongs that provided food and sanctuary for those waiting for the rain, an when it rains it pours, rainstorms can cause the water to rise meters within minutes in some parts of the river so obviously this waterway hasn’t been completely tamed but are human influences mediating our environment too much?

Are we homogenizing the world, making way for those animals adapted to a middling environment to reign supreme and loosing the ‘masters of specialization’ that rule the harshest environments?

….and despite all that the link between water and life is undeniable:

Any corrections to my ID’s are much appreciated, i’m not terribly familiar with the Auzzie fauna