Don Weaver of RTE has written a letter to President Obama detailing the dangers of eco-degradation and possible solutions.

"This letter is intended to share lesser-known ideas and insights which may be of great value to the Obama administration and the citizens of America and the world. Offered are some foundational solutions to malnutrition, soil degradation, deforestation, climate change, and other interconnected problems of failing ecosystems and failing economies. If you, too, wish to help create a healthy future for humanity and the Earth, then this letter is written for you. Feel free to share it widely."

Click here for a full pdf of the letter.

Restore the Crown of Abundance

by David Yarrow

THURSDAY AUGUST 7, LOU ISMAY, an elder environmentalist in the upper Hudson Valley, drove me 70 miles to see a tree he has watched and measured for 35 years. Lou’s tree is in dense forest on a steep slope at the south end of Schoharie Valley. Its 18-inch dbh trunk isn’t impressive for that forest. Actually, it’s a midget compared to its mighty ancestors—but these days, any American Chestnut is rare. This one is a giant and an elder.

If dirt were dollars we'd all be in the black. So ends the 80's tune by the Eagles' Don Henley whose words read like a business plan for Michael Dean of Grand Forks. Dean founded Gaia Green Products Ltd. In 1990 to make a buck manufacturing and selling organic fertilizers that are good for the soil.

Like Henley the singer, Dean the organic farmer is vocal and passionate about what his products can do for the soil. He make a point of telling me that glacial rock dust, his signature product, can work wonders for soil and that it has a smooth, sensual feel to it as he let it sift through his fingers. "It has the full spectrum minerals in and it activates the soil microorganisms so they become stimulated," he says. "You get an increase in their numbers and then they process all the other ingredients and nutrients. Basically you are providing a smorgasbord of minerals in a useable form for plants through the natural processors in the soil." 

The Eco-Logic of Vermiculture

By Uday Bhawalker

Each organism has a role and occupies a niche. In fact, shown by the Russian ecologist, Gause, about 30 years ago that each niche has only one organism with its specific food. If another organism is introduced, it either gets wiped out or creates its own micro-niche by living symbiotically with the first, for example, by using the waste matter of the first organism as food.

The Greening of the Nevada Prison System project is a pilot program that intends to develop sources of woody biomass feedstocks for conversion into biofuels, biopower, and biobased products through a comprehensive program that advances the use of fast growing trees in enriched soil conditions along with better forest/woodlot management. The economics of this integrated system are enhanced by innovative production systems, low cost labor including prison inmates, and creative technologies such as remineralization.

Lars and Katharina Angstrom with Cameron and Moira Thomson

The fast growing popularity of the soil remineralizing SEER Rockdust has spread across the North Sea to Sweden.

by Don Weaver

While many socio-ecological problems have worsened over these 30 years, it appears that an ever higher percentage of our 6.6 billion population is waking up to the need to transform our ways of living, to truly go “green,” to make peace with the Earth and ourselves, to end the “war on Terra.” This Terra, the beautiful living Earth of which we are an essential part, needs each of us to become conscious contributors to personal/planetary healing. You are needed and invited and welcomed! Here are some views from my perspective as a health-oriented ecologist and organic grower.

by John Todd

Project manager William Turley showing one year old Jatropha fruit

By Marc Daelemans

More than 60 years ago prominent German scientists, under the guidance of Dr. K. Seidel, rediscovered, by observing nature, the self-cleansing process of natural rivers, streams, and waterways.

Botanical sewage purification, a natural process, is an outgrowth from classical land treatment of wastewater. Today, this classical method of application to land has been updated and serves as an ideal, natural way to purify human, animal and industrial sewage. It also has the potential to clean rainwater, reservoirs, and groundwater. The system consists of shallow basins connected by pipes. The purification is accomplished through a symbiotic relationship of substrate (lava and lavadust) and anaerobic and aerobic bacteria and certain aquatic plants. The process is subdivided into two steps: Pre-purification and Main - Purification.

Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st the nutrient density in our food crops has been consistently declining. USDA studies show that an average apple from the 1960's had 5 times the nutrition of that same apple produced today. This is an average of course, and there are many farms who have figured out how to produce high nutrient density crops even while the national average has been plummeting.

Remineralize The Earth has just embarked on a research project in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts to document the effect on nutrient density of crops with the application of rock dusts and biological amendments.