In the early 1900's a pathogen called Cryphonectria Parasitica, or Chestnut Blight, caused the mass extinction of the American Chestnut tree. The American Chestnut was, until that time, the dominant canopy tree as well as the primary producer of hard mast throughout all of Appalachia. It's extinction created food shortages of up to 27% in some areas, and habitat loss of up to 25%, which in turn had a major impacts

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• East Tennessee develops and urbanizes faster than any other area in the state.
• 96% of Tennessee’s forests are available to timber industries.
• Twelve of eighteen of Tennessee’s Oak species, or 66%, are slowly vanishing.
• Tennessee’s youngest forests have been declining since 1971.
• Before Europeans settled the region, forests covered an estimated 85% of Tennessee, compared to just 52% today.
• Almost ALL of Tennessee’s (and the nation’s) Old Growth and

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IRIN Films is pleased to announce the launch of two more chapters of The Gathering Storm, our award-winning series of short films highlighting the human cost of climate change

In the first of these films, we look at the charcoal industry in the
south of Madagascar and discover how the prolonged drought has
driven farmers - whose barren fields can no longer support them - into
the forests in search of a livelihood.

http://www.irinnews.org/film/?id=4630...

This morning, I found myself at Wal-Mart picking up a few items for the family. The list included laundry detergent, vitamins, and fresh fruit. While cruising through the produce section, I noticed that there was a choice between organic and regular bananas, both for the same price of $.52 per pound. I grabbed two bags of organics and headed to the checkout aisle.

The lady ringing up my purchases slid the bag of organic bananas across her scanner and said, “These bananas come in...

Arpad Fekete - On the proper way to limit overpopulation 2

published April 19, 2011
revised May 1, 2011

In a previous article of mine, I discussed how to limit overpopulation in the proper way if we speak about evolutionary time. My conclusion was something like the following: we should limit the number of the births, and we should do this by not allowing some people to reproduce – at least until they get richer – while encouraging others – the more useful for...