http://www.alternet.org/story/148335/

Meeting the growing demand for energy in the U.S., even through sustainable means, could entail greater threats to the environment, new research shows.

The study was carried out by Circle of Blue, a network of journalists and scientists dedicated to water sustainability, and could have implications not just for the relationship between energy demand and water scarcity in the U.S. but elsewhere in the world, as well. “It is not just that energy production could not occur without using vast amounts of water. It’s also that it’s occurring in the era of climate change, population growth and steadily increasing demand for energy,” explained Circle of Blue’s Keith Schneider, who presented the findings in Washington Wednesday.

“The result is that the competition for water at every stage of the mining, processing, production, shipping and use of energy is growing more fierce, more complex and much more difficult to resolve,” he said. About half the 410 billion gallons of water the U.S. withdraws daily goes to cooling thermoelectric power plants, and most of that to cooling coal-burning plants, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Meanwhile, climate change is leading to decreased snowmelt, rains and freshwater supplies, says Circle of Blue.

One of the things missing from the discussion, then, is the recognition that saving energy also saves water, the group contends.

The U.S. government has not been blind to the conflict between energy and water needs. The first part of a report commissioned by the U.S. Congress in 2005 laid out the consequences of not paying enough attention to water supply issues in increasing energy production. The second part, which would have laid out a research agenda and begun developing solutions, has yet to be made public, says Schneider.

He says the U.S. Department of Energy has declined repeated requests to explain why the report has not been published.

Energy demand in the U.S. is expected to increase by 40 percent as the U.S. population rises above 440 million by 2050. The water supply will not be able to support that growth, Schneider says.

Renewable sources of energy will certainly be a large part of trying to meet that energy demand, but these, too, come with a hidden water cost.

In 2009, the U.S. dedicated 23 million acres of public lands in six states for new solar electricity-generating plants as part of its economic stimulus package, which apportioned nearly 100 billion dollars for clean energy projects. Though the plan appeared promising, environmentalists soon began to point it could have damaging, unintended consequences. Schneider notes that criticism of the impact the water-cooled solar plants could have on water priorities in the U.S. Southwest even came from within the government.

“In arid settings, the increased water demand from concentrating solar energy systems employing water-cooled technology could strain limited water resources already under development pressure from urbanization, irrigation expansion, commercial interests and mining,” wrote Jon Jarvis, then head of the National Park Service’s Pacific West Region, in a February 2009 internal memo. “Solar generating plants that use conventional cooling technology use two to three times as much water as coal- fired power plants,” Schneider noted.

In other countries, the threat of water scarcity is even more pertinent.

Egypt, for example, has a population of approximately 82 million, but an annual water quota of about 86 billion cubic metres – and the population is expected to rise by more than 10 million people in the next decade.

Yet 30 European blue chip companies are set to invest 560 billion dollars over the next 40 years to build solar power plants in North Africa as part of the Desertec Industrial Initiative. Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have agreed to work with the initiative. Comparing this project with the U.S.’s, Schneider notes that in an environment that faces even greater water scarcity than the southwestern U.S., such projects could prove disastrous. Circle of Blue calls the intersection of a rising demand for energy and diminishing supply water a “choke point”, but energy development – whether of the fossil fuel or renewable variety – is just one aspect of the water scarcity crisis that is unfolding in various regions of the globe.

Yemen is widely seen as the place where this scarcity will hit first and hardest.

“Analysts are worried Yemen could be the first country in the world to effectively run out of water,” said Christine Parthemore, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, where she studies the intersection of natural resources and security issues. She spoke at a separate event Wednesday.

Yemen, which has no rivers and cannot afford desalination, is drawing water at around 400 times its replacement rate, she says, and this looming crisis is compounding other issues in the region, like the fact that Yemen has become a key recruiting spot for groups like al Qaeda.

“We are about to see water wars in the future,” said U.S. General Anthony Zinni. “We have seen fuel wars; we’re about to see water wars.”

ATHENS, GA—Air quality in homes, offices, and other indoor spaces is becoming a major health concern, particularly in developed countries where people often spend more than 90% of their time indoors. Surprisingly, indoor air has been reported to be as much as 12 times more polluted than outdoor air in some areas. Indoor air pollutants emanate from paints, varnishes, adhesives, furnishings, clothing, solvents, building materials, and even tap water. A long list of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs [including benzene, xylene, hexane, heptane, octane, decane, trichloroethylene (TCE), and methylene chloride], have been shown to cause illnesses in people who are exposed to the compounds in indoor spaces. Acute illnesses like asthma and nausea and chronic diseases including cancer, neurologic, reproductive, developmental, and respiratory disorders are all linked to exposure to VOCs. Harmful indoor pollutants represent a serious health problem that is responsible for more than 1.6 million deaths each year, according to a 2002 World Health Organization report. 

Stanley J. Kays, Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia, was the lead researcher of a study published in HortScience that tested ornamental indoor plants for their ability to remove harmful VOCs from indoor air. According to Kays, some indoor plants have the ability to effectively remove harmful VOCs from the air, and not only have the ability to improve our physical health, but also have been shown to enhance our psychological health. Adding these plants to indoor spaces can reduce stress, increase task performance, and reduce symptoms of ill health. 

The ability of plants to remove VOCs is called “phytoremediation”. To better understand the phytoremediation capacity of ornamental plants, the research team tested 28 common indoor ornamentals for their ability to remove five volatile indoor pollutants. “The VOCs tested in this study can adversely affect indoor air quality and have a potential to seriously compromise the health of exposed individuals,” Kays explained. “Benzene and toluene are known to originate from petroleum-based indoor coatings, cleaning solutions, plastics, environmental tobacco smoke, and exterior exhaust fumes emanating into the building; octane from paint, adhesives, and building materials; TCE from tap water, cleaning agents, insecticides, and plastic products; and alpha-pinene from synthetic paints and odorants.” 

During the research study, plants were grown in a shade house for eight weeks followed be acclimatization for twelve weeks under indoor conditions before being placed in gas-tight glass jars. The plants were exposed to benzene, TCE, toluene, octane, and alpha-pinene, and air samples were analyzed. The plants were then classified as superior, intermediate, and poor, according to their ability to remove VOCs. 

Of the 28 species tested, Hemigraphis alternata (purple waffle plant), Hedera helix (English ivy), Hoya carnosa (variegated wax plant), and Asparagus densiflorus (Asparagus fern) had the highest removal rates for all of the VOCs introduced. Tradescantia pallida (Purple heart plant) was rated superior for its ability to remove four of the VOCs. 

The study concluded that simply introducing common ornamental plants into indoor spaces has the potential to significantly improve the quality of indoor air. In addition to the obvious health benefits for consumers, the increased use of indoor plants in both ”green” and traditional buildings could have a tremendous positive impact on the ornamental plant industry by increasing customer demand and sales. 

### 

The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortScience electronic journal web site: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/44/5/1377

Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org

We can join Bill McKibben on Oct. 24 in nationwide protests over rising carbon emissions. We can cut our consumption of fossil fuels. We can use less water. We can banish plastic bags. We can install compact fluorescent light bulbs. We can compost in our backyard. But unless we dismantle the corporate state, all those actions will be just as ineffective as the Ghost Dance shirts donned by native American warriors to protect themselves from the bullets of white soldiers at Wounded Knee.

“If we all wait for the great, glorious revolution there won’t be anything left,” author and environmental activist Derrick Jensen told me when I interviewed him in a phone call to his home in California. “If all we do is reform work, this culture will grind away. This work is necessary, but not sufficient. We need to use whatever means are necessary to stop this culture from killing the planet. We need to target and take down the industrial infrastructure that is systematically dismembering the planet. Industrial civilization is functionally incompatible with life on the planet, and is murdering the planet. We need to do whatever is necessary to stop this.”

The oil and natural gas industry, the coal industry, arms and weapons manufacturers, industrial farms, deforestation industries, the automotive industry and chemical plants will not willingly accept their own extinction. They are indifferent to the looming human catastrophe. We will not significantly reduce carbon emissions by drying our laundry in the backyard and naively trusting the power elite. The corporations will continue to cannibalize the planet for the sake of money. They must be halted by organized and militant forms of resistance. The crisis of global heating is a social problem. It requires a social response.

The United States, after rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, went on to increase its carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels. The European Union countries during the same period reduced their emissions by 2 percent. But the recent climate negotiations in Bangkok, designed to lead to a deal in Copenhagen in December, have scuttled even the tepid response of Kyoto. Kyoto is dead. The EU, like the United States, will no longer abide by binding targets for emission reductions. Countries will unilaterally decide how much to cut. They will submit their plans to international monitoring. And while Kyoto put the burden of responsibility on the industrialized nations that created the climate crisis, the new plan treats all countries the same. It is a huge step backward.

“All of the so-called solutions to global warming take industrial capitalism as a given,” said Jensen, who wrote “Endgame” and “The Culture of Make Believe.” “The natural world is supposed to conform to industrial capitalism. This is insane. It is out of touch with physical reality. What’s real is real. Any social system–it does not matter if we are talking about industrial capitalism or an indigenous Tolowa people–their way of life, is dependent upon a real, physical world. Without a real, physical world you don’t have anything. When you separate yourself from the real world you start to hallucinate. You believe the machines are more real than real life. How many machines are within 10 feet of you and how many wild animals are within a hundred yards? How many machines do you have a daily relationship with? We have forgotten what is real.” 

The latest studies show polar ice caps are melting at a record rate and that within a decade the Arctic will be an open sea during summers. This does not give us much time. White ice and snow reflect 80 percent of sunlight back to space, while dark water reflects only 20 percent, absorbing a much larger heat load. Scientists warn that the loss of the ice will dramatically change winds and sea currents around the world. And the rapidly melting permafrost is unleashing methane chimneys from the ocean floor along the Russian coastline. Methane is a greenhouse gas 25 times more toxic than carbon dioxide, and some scientists have speculated that the release of huge quantities of methane into the atmosphere could asphyxiate the human species. The rising sea levels, which will swallow countries such as Bangladesh and the Marshall Islands and turn cities like New Orleans into a new Atlantis, will combine with severe droughts, horrific storms and flooding to eventually dislocate over a billion people. The effects will be suffering, disease and death on a scale unseen in human history.

We can save groves of trees, protect endangered species and clean up rivers, all of which is good, but to leave the corporations unchallenged would mean our efforts would be wasted. These personal adjustments and environmental crusades can too easily become a badge of moral purity, an excuse for inaction. They can absolve us from the harder task of confronting the power of corporations. 

The damage to the environment by human households is minuscule next to the damage done by corporations. Municipalities and individuals use 10 percent of the nation’s water while the other 90 percent is consumed by agriculture and industry. Individual consumption of energy accounts for about a quarter of all energy consumption; the other 75 percent is consumed by corporations. Municipal waste accounts for only 3 percent of total waste production in the United States. We can, and should, live more simply, but it will not be enough if we do not radically transform the economic structure of the industrial world.

“If your food comes from the grocery store and your water from a tap you will defend to the death the system that brings these to you because your life depends on it,” said Jensen, who is holding workshops around the country called Deep Green Resistance [click here and here] to build a militant resistance movement. “If your food comes from a land base and if your water comes from a river you will defend to the death these systems. In any abusive system, whether we are talking about an abusive man against his partner or the larger abusive system, you force your victims to become dependent upon you. We believe that industrial capitalism is more important than life.”

Those who run our corporate state have fought environmental regulation as tenaciously as they have fought financial regulation. They are responsible for our personal impoverishment as well as the impoverishment of our ecosystem. We remain addicted, courtesy of the oil, gas and automobile industries and a corporate-controlled government, to fossil fuels. Species are vanishing. Fish stocks are depleted. The great human migration from coastlines and deserts has begun. And as temperatures continue to rise, huge parts of the globe will become uninhabitable. NASA climate scientist James Hansen has demonstrated that any concentration of carbon dioxide greater than 350 parts per million in the atmosphere is not compatible with maintenance of the biosphere on the “planet on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.” He has determined that the world must stop burning coal by 2030–and the industrialized world well before that–if we are to have any hope of ever getting the planet back down below that 350 number. Coal supplies half of our electricity in the United States.

“We need to separate ourselves from the corporate government that is killing the planet,” Jensen said. “We need to get really serious. We are talking about life on the planet. We need to shut down the oil infrastructure. I don’t care, and the trees don’t care, if we do this through lawsuits, mass boycotts or sabotage. I asked Dahr Jamail how long a bridge would last in Iraq that was not defended. He said probably six to 12 hours. We need to make the economic system, which is the engine for so much destruction, unmanageable. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has been able to reduce Nigerian oil output by 20 percent. We need to stop the oil economy.” 

The reason the ecosystem is dying is not because we still have a dryer in our basement. It is because corporations look at everything, from human beings to the natural environment, as exploitable commodities. It is because consumption is the engine of corporate profits. We have allowed the corporate state to sell the environmental crisis as a matter of personal choice when actually there is a need for profound social and economic reform. We are left powerless.

Alexander Herzen, speaking a century ago to a group of Russian anarchists working to topple the czar, reminded his followers that they were not there to rescue the system. 

“We think we are the doctors,” Herzen said. “We are the disease.”

Reposted from Turthdig.

You already know that shopping at your local farmers market or CSA is a great way to reduce your food miles. And, if you take that one step further, growing your own food can eliminate shopping altogether. But what’s the ‘greenest’ form of feeding yourself? How can you feed yourself with the smallest possible carbon footprint? Foraging, of course! Finding your food underfoot.

The following tips will help you begin finding food everywhere you go. Whether you live in the city, country, or ‘burbs, it is possible to skip the greasy junk at the mall that’s been flown in from the other side of the planet in favor of the free food in the park beside your apartment. (Just make sure you’re not in the dog park…’cuz ew!)

The following is an excerpt from When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency, by Matthew Stein. It has been adapted for the web.

WARNING: Never eat any wild plant unless you have 100 percent positive identification that it is edible, or you have taken the time to complete the 2-day plant edibility test described in Chapter 4 of When Technology Fails. A small bite of certain plants is enough to kill an adult.

Brief Guide to Wild Edible Foods

There are thousands of edible varieties of plants in North America. Some edible plants are truly delicious, but many considered edible taste bad and are primarily useful only in survival situations. A few of the more common and tasty wild edible plants are listed below. I suggest that you pick up one or two “real” guides to edible plants in your geographical region. Steve Brill’s Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places is an excellent start. It is entertaining, practical, and offers varied cooking suggestions and recipes.

A good plant guide will also warn you about potentially poisonous “look-alike” plants that might be confused with the one that you think you are identifying. Harvesting wild edible plants can be fun and will help you make your diet more complete by adding more vitamins, minerals, and trace elements than are found in typical grocery store veggies. Use caution in your forays into wild edible plants, because nibbling on wild plants can kill you if you make a serious mistake. (For a list of recommended edible and medicinal plant guides, see the suggested references in Chapters 4 and 9 of When Technology Fails.) In addition, Foxfire 2 has an excellent section on foraging and cooking with wild greens from the Southern Appalachians.

Acorns. Acorns are the nuts from about 55 varieties of native oak trees. Gathered in the fall, acorns were traditional staple foods for several indigenous peoples. They were stored in baskets and crushed or ground into flour for cooking. In my local area, grinding depressions, where indigenous peoples ground their nuts into meal, are a common sight on the granite slabs adjacent to lakes and rivers. Some varieties of acorns are sweet and may be used without special preparation, but bitter varieties require treatment to remove excess tannic acid prior to eating. To remove bitterness, shell the acorns and boil in water until the water turns brown. Drain and repeat until the water stops changing color. If boiling is not an easy alternative, wrap nutmeats in a cloth and soak in a clear running stream for a few days until they taste sweet. Soaking acorn mush to remove bitterness takes less time than soaking the whole seed. Acorn meal makes excellent pancakes and muffins.

Black mustard, field mustard, and others. These weeds grow more or less anywhere in fields and disturbed areas. Most mustard leaves are best when harvested young in the spring, but some in the mustard family are good throughout the summer. Seeds can be harvested, ground, and mixed with vinegar, like commercial mustard. Young basal rosette looks similar to dandelions, only there is no milky sap. This is a tangy treat if you like strong flavors. There are no poisonous look-alikes.

Bulrush. Like cattails, bulrushes provide a source of year-round food. Found in wet, marshy areas and shallow waters of lakes or ponds. Identified by long, nonbranching stems, with a spiky cluster of flowers. Young roots and shoots can be used as a vegetable. Older roots can be pounded to remove fibers and then ground into flour.

Burdock. Burdock grows throughout the United States on roadsides and in fields and disturbed areas. The large broad leaves look a bit like rhubarb leaves (and rhubarb leaves are poisonous), so be careful. The leaves are bitter tasting, but the first-year plant’s long taproot tastes like a delicious cross between potato and artichoke heart. The root may be harvested until the second year flowering, when it becomes inedible. Peel roots, slice to break fibers, and then boil or sauté. Burdock root has excellent nutritional and healing properties for the skin and kidneys, and for overall health. Young flower stalks may be peeled and eaten raw or boiled. Burdock flowers with purple to pink crests grow into sharp, hooked, little burr balls that are either annoying or great toys, depending on your point of view.

Cattail. Another staple of indigenous peoples, cattails are still used for food throughout the world. Find cattails in shallow waters of swampy areas. You can dig up roots in early spring to find delicious sprouts that can be eaten raw. Young summer stalks, up to 2 or 3 feet tall, may be peeled for their tasty core (known as “Cossack asparagus”), which is eaten raw, steamed, or boiled. Young buds can be picked before pollen ripens and boiled like mini corn on the cob. Roots can be harvested in the fall through spring. Dig, dry, and peel, and then pound into flour. Pounded roots may be soaked and then decanted to render starchy material. Poisonous look-alikes are the stalks and roots of wild irises, so be sure to identify stalks by the presence of old cattails. Pollens can be harvested as a flour or flour extender.

Chicory. Like its close relative the dandelion, chicory is a staple green in many countries and has a long taproot. When young, the leaves look like dandelion leaves with the addition of irregular hairs on most of the leaves. When it matures, the resemblance to the dandelion disappears as it grows a tall hairy flower stalk with numerous sky-blue fringed flowers. Widespread, chicory is found in fields and other disturbed areas. Harvest leaves and shoots early in spring. Older leaves may require boiling and water changes if bitter. The taproot is rather bitter, but makes a good caffeine-free coffee substitute when roasted at 250°F for 2 to 4 hours until brown, and then ground.

Curled dock, yellow dock, and sour dock. In early spring, this plant is easily recognized by its rosette of long, narrow leaves-up to 2 feet long-with curly edges. It grows throughout the country in fields, disturbed soil, and near water. Early spring leaves are delicious steamed and may be acceptable raw, but should be washed first. For later harvests, boil the leaves with multiple water changes to reduce bitterness. In summer, the flower stalk may be peeled and steamed as a vegetable. With much difficulty, the seeds may be threshed and ground into flour. Dock was a staple green during the Depression. The taproot is too bitter for eating, but is a useful medicinal herb for skin and liver conditions.

Dandelion. The common dandelion is quite a versatile and delicious plant. It is found throughout the country in open fields and disturbed areas. The young leaves are excellent as salad greens, and are more nutritious than any you can buy in the grocery store. Peel young roots and eat raw or slice thin and boil. If leaves or roots are bitter, boiling in a couple water changes improves the taste. Dip the blossoms in fritter batter and fry in oil, like tempura veggies.

Fiddleheads (bracken and ostrich ferns). Collect young ferns in midspring, before the round “fiddlehead” has started to unfurl (up to about 8 inches tall). Wash to remove fur or unpleasant scales. I found the not-so-furry ostrich ferns much sweeter and not bitter like the furry bracken ferns. Perhaps it was just due to local effects or the age of the fiddleheads? Steam or boil bracken fiddleheads to remove mild toxicity. Large quantities of mature bracken have been known to poison cattle. Fiddleheads are an expensive delicacy in upscale restaurants. Please leave a few fiddleheads in every cluster, as they will not return if you harvest the whole lot.

Lamb’s quarters, goosefoot. “Along with dandelions and watercress, lamb’s quarters is one of the most nutritious of foods” (Brill 1994, 47). Being widespread, tasty, long-seasoned, and easily identified, lamb’s quarters is a prime candidate for the beginner to learn to identify. This plant has little or no odor, so if the plant you pick has an odor, it’s not lamb’s quarters and may be poisonous. Leaves are alternating, almost triangular, with a blunt tip and jagged edges. Leaves may develop a white tinge, but they remain perfectly edible. Harvest young shoots up to 10 inches tall, or tender new growth until late fall. This plant is a good pot herb, although it shrinks by about two-thirds when cooked.

Pigweed (amaranth). Similar to lamb’s quarters (which is sometimes also called pigweed), but with smoother, more elongated leaves. Use young leaves as a lettuce substitute. Harvest seeds and grind for flour. Seeds have more nutrition and higher protein than grains. Amaranth was a key staple cultivated by the Aztecs for its seeds. Pigweed concentrates nitrates, so use sparingly if taken from fertilized fields.

Pine trees. Harvest pine nuts in the fall from hard, green pine cones. Open the cones in the heat of a fire to reach the pine nuts buried inside. “Open” cones have probably already dropped their nuts. Pine nuts from the piñon pines were once a staple food for the indigenous peoples of Nevada. One of the ways that the U.S. government used to force these tribes to move off their land and onto reservations was to destroy the piñon pines, thereby removing one of their major sources of wild food. Pine needles can be boiled in water to make a tea rich in vitamin C, and in a survival crunch the inner bark can be eaten.

Plantain. Plantains are identified by their distinctive parallel veins, running the length of the leaves. This plant is another weed common to fields and disturbed areas. Leaves grow in a basal rosette and the plant grows a long, green, central flower stalk. Harvest young greens and new growth for salads or as a pot herb. After midspring, the leaves become very fibrous and are mostly good for vegetable stock or as survival food. Harvest seeds for storage and sprouts.

Purslane. Cultivated in ancient times, purslane is now mostly seen by gardeners as a pesky weed. Both the seeds and the greens are very nutritious. This plant has succulent- like, smooth, fleshy leaves, often reddish-purple, and tends to lie flat in thick mats. Pinch or cut leafy tips from June through September. Purslane shoots are excellent cooked or raw in salads. This weed likes fields and disturbed areas, and has spread across the country. It has no poisonous look-alikes.

Ramps (wild leeks). Similar to its close cousins, wild onions and wild garlic, ramps are found ranging from the Great Lakes to New England and south to the mountains of Georgia. Wild leeks thrive in partially shaded, moist, rich woodlands, often under maples. They have long leaves with parallel veins, similar to many poisonous members of the lily family. Crush a piece of one leaf and smell for the characteristic strong onion odor. Plants that smell like onions are not poisonous. In early spring, they look much like smaller versions of grocery store leeks before the leaves shrivel and are replaced by a slender stalk with an umbrella-like cluster of small white flowers. When a few of the small, three-lobed seed clusters survive the fall, they point to an underground winter supply of delicious bulbs. Harvest green leaves in the spring or the bulbs any time of the year. Use as flavoring in soups and stews or sauté like onions.

Rose hips. Wild roses are found in many different varieties across the United States. Their fruits are a fantastic source of vitamin C. The larger fruits can be quite good raw, although you may want to avoid the bitter seeds. Many people collect rose hips for a delicious tea. They may be boiled and strained to make a sauce with the consistency of applesauce.

Sheep sorrel. An excellent green, sheep sorrel is one of the few wild plants that does not get bitter as summer comes along. It is distinguished by its elongated arrowlike leaves with “ears” that resemble the front view of a sheep’s head, and is found in fields and disturbed areas or areas of poor soil. There are no poisonous look-alikes, but this plant sometimes grows alongside the poisonous vines nightshade and bindweed that also have arrowshaped leaves. Sheep sorrel leaves are tangy, tart, and kind of lemony. Mix them in salads with blander greens.

Watercress. “Along with dandelions and lamb’s quarters, watercress is one of the most nutritious of foods” (Brill 1994, 256). Watercress is another Eurasian-introduced, cultivated green-turned-weed that has spread across America. It is usually found in clear running water, such as springs and small creeks. Wild watercress looks like the store-bought variety and is excellent in salads, sandwiches, and cooked like spinach. Collect young growth nearly all year, but it is best in the spring and autumn. Each sprig of leaves grows alternating off the main stalk and contains paired leaves with a single central leaf at the tip. It flowers in clusters of small, white, four-petaled flowers about one-fifth of an inch across and produces slender, capsuleshaped, ¾-inch-long seeds. The look of the watercress in my local spring varies considerably with the season. In early spring, the leaves sprout with dense, closely spaced, fleshy leaves that lay on the surface of the water. In early summer, shoots rise up out of the water, bearing thin, widely spaced leaves and flowers that look more like the illustration. It is very delicious with a slight peppery taste.

Wild onion. Wild onions are found throughout the United States, except in the hot and dry areas. They are found on the plains, hills, and mountains, usually in open areas, and all have the characteristic onion or garlic smell. Its bulb is usually reddish-purple, and the plant has tall slender stalks with a typical allium cluster of flowers. Avoid all onion look-alikes that do not have a strong onion smell when the leaves are crushed, because they may be poisonous.

Poisonous Plants to Avoid

Some poisonous plants to look out for are listed below. A few of these plants are also listed as medicinal herbs, but they are poisonous when eaten in quantity. Both Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide by Elias and Dykeman and Edible Native Plants of the Rocky Mountains by Harrington contain illustrated guides to some of the common poisonous wild plants.

Common Poisonous Plants
American false hellebore Anemone (wind flower) Angel’s trumpet (Datura)
Arrowgrass Azalea Baneberry (pretty white or red berries)
Bleeding heart Bloodroot Bouncing bet
Black locust Butterflyweed Castor oil plant
Celadine poppy Christmas rose Chokecherry
Cocklebur Columbine Corn cockle
Crocus Daffodil Daphne
Deadly nightshade Death camas Desert rose
Dieffenbachia Dutchman’s pipe European bittersweet
Foxglove (Digitalis) Frangipani (Plumeria) Horse chestnut
Horsetail Horse nettle Hyacinth
Iris Jack in the pulpit Jimsonweed
Jessamine Larkspur (annual delphinium) Laurel
Leafy spurge Lily, flame Lily, glory
Lily of the valley Lobelia Lupine
Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis) Marsh marigold Mayapple (except fruit)
Mistletoe Monkshood Morning glory
Mountain laurel Narcissus Oleander
Poinsettia Poison hemlock Poison ivy
Poison milkweed Poison oak Pokeweed
Poppy, horned Poppy, Iceland Poppy (Somniferum)
Privet Purple cockle Rhododendron
Rhubarb (leaves) Rosary pea Skunk cabbage
Snowdrops Solomon’s seal Star of Bethlehem
St. Johnswort Tobacco Water hemlock
Wild black cherry Wisteria Yew

Matthew Stein is the author of When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency, from Chelsea Green.

Reposted from Alternet.org.

Osvaldo Sala, director of the Environmental Change Initiative and the Sloan Lindeman Professor of Biology at Brown, and Pedro Flombaum, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown, said the results confirmed tests charting how biodiversity affects aboveground plant productivity in artificial ecosystems. Aboveground plant productivity (ANPP) is the amount of biomass, or organic material, produced by plant growth.

But the Brown team also learned that the correlation between plant species richness – the number of plant species in a unit of area – and ANPP in a natural ecosystem was greater than had been expected. What that means, the researchers wrote in a paper published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that the greater the number of plant species, the more productive the ecosystem.

Conversely, species loss has a decidedly negative impact on ecosystems. This is especially true in light of the role ecosystems play in capturing the global warming gas carbon dioxide: The fewer the plant species in a given natural environment, the less carbon dioxide they capture.

“It’s a double whammy,” Sala explained. “We not only are disturbing our planet by putting more carbon into the atmosphere, but we’re reducing the ability of ecosystems to capture and store it.”

Sala and Flombaum conducted their experiments in the Patagonian steppe, a semiarid grassland located on the east side of the Andes Mountains in Argentina. They marked 90 plots, each containing three species of native grasses and three species of native shrubs. The team then removed a certain number of species from the plots and measured each revised plot’s productivity.

“The water is the same, the nitrogen is the same, the sunlight is the same,” Sala said. “What is different is the diversity of the plants.”

What the researchers also learned in their experiments, which ran from 2002 to this year, is that plant productivity in a flourishing ecosystem is enhanced because each species assumes a specific niche. Ecologists call this “niche complementarity.” The plants use the resources available to the whole system harmoniously, such as extending their roots at different depths in the soil, using different forms of nitrogen, and staggering when they photosynthesize.

“We are deeper into understanding the mechanisms of an ecosystem’s productivity,” Sala said.

Brown University, the InterAmerican Institute for Global Change Research, Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica and Argentina’s National Research Council funded the research.  

Reprinted from Brown University.