Bamboo is Best for Carbon Sequestering & Humans' Role as Earth's Stewards

Hi Dakota!

Thanks for your thoughtful response to my idea of bamboo as a top carbon sequestering plant. My response:

Regarding the point that the article made about there becoming too many leaves adversely affecting plants and soils. To me this idea seems far fetched and only plausible if there was a huge change in leaf production to a large amount throughout the year, which I don't forsee. And don;t forget there is a large leaf drop each fall and this does not adversely harm plants. In fact plants rely on this nutrient recycling, and I see this process as the way that the nutrients of the soil are brought to the soil surface and made more available to the plants roots and soil microorganisms.

People have been adding mulches to soil surfaces with no adverse affects in the long term. Mulch is, in effect, a very dense form of leaf matter.

There may be a change in the soil structure and organisms living in it. But this is surely caused by humans through many means. For instance, the introduced European earthworms are taking over the US and greatlly altering the soils' fertility and structure and thus changing the plant compositions of many forests.

Regarding bamboo. I think Bamboo is a great plant for purifying the air, puttin gout more oxygen than most plants, through most of the year. Running Bamboo can be contained with root barriers, or is easier to contain in urban settings with bldg. walls, concrete sidewalks, etc. In rural settings we could grow large stands of running bamboo without much worry since there is room. Here it can be contained if nec. through mowing. I have seen such stands in rural Maryland.

Also there are beautiful Clumping forms of Bamboo as well that do NOT run and stay in one clump that slowly expands to form a wonderful clump. My father has been designing gardens and included these clumps bamboo to great effect. One can also see them in many botanic gardens in Europe. The best genus, Fargesia, works well in small gardens too.

I think it is a great idea to include more plants in our urban environments, and more variety in our suburban environments in addition to the ubiquitous lawn. Adding more plants, esp. bamboo, wil limprove our air quality and lower CO2. But I also believe we humans should be investing much time and money on lowernig our emissions of all kinds to as low as possible levels as technology allows. We should be stewards of the earth, not destoyers, as we currently are.

That is why I do ecotours to Germany to show how this country is effectively striving toward a more sustainable future through increasing renewable energy use, great mass transit, great urban planning, wonderful green spaces, roofgardens, widespread bike paths, cutting edge architecture, etc. See www.GreenHarmonyTours.com I am currently planning future tours which will be up soon.

Cheers!

Roland Oehme
Green Harmony Design
www.GreenHarmonyDesign.com

How Important Are Omega 3s & Do We Need to Eat Fish to Get It?

A friend of mine sent me an email with an attached publication written by some group extolling the importance of humans getting enough Omega 3s in our diet. I have read about the importance of Omega 3s since I eat hemp seeds and it is advertised as being a rich source of these healthy fats. Which reminds me, it is time to order some more hempseed!!! I love the taste of hempseed and it is easy to use in many foods.

I don;t believe one needs to eat fish in order to get Omega 3s, as repeatedly written in the article, after all the fish is getting the Omega 3s not from itself but from plants, ie from algae and other water growing plants!!! I just love how these typical medical or organization publications write these supposedly helpful information writings and write that a person has to eat animal products to be healthy, when really they are projecting very biased points of view. It appears they construct the studies so as to give them the answer they want. Well what about all of the vegan animals out there that are doing just fine, in fact, thriving on their purely plant diets??? That is exactly how humans are designed to thrive too, on a vegan diet, as evidenced by their physiological construction.

I know Purslane, in fact it grows as a weed here, and I know it is healthy and rich in Omega 3s too. However, it does have the same oxalic acid that is found in Spianch I believe and as such is not recommended to be eaten too often since this acid can deplete minerals from thebody or such. I think today there is a lot of hoopla about this or that nutirnet we must get...blah blah blah. While it may be true that we need certain nutrients I think advertisers try to scare into eating their products or such. Look at all of the animals out there doing just fine eating what they find in the wild, including vegan animals.

So, that's why I think it is very valuable, even essential for every person to grow their own food and to not wash their food unless they have to. Our overly clean society washes much of the nutrients off of the food. If we just grazed in our vegetable gardens on all of the planted and wild greens found there we would get a more complete diet. To me this seems to be the easiest and closest way for us humans to replicate the wild, healthy diet our bodies were designed to consume. That's what my dad taught me and that's why you see me grazing in the vegetable garden or anywhere else I see a healthy dandelion growing!

For the record, I do eat purslane when I find a good bunch growing. It is good in a salad since it is fresh tasting (slightly acidic) and crunchy. Now where do I order my hempseeds??...

Cheers

Roland

RO's Intro & What is the Best Global Warming FIghting Plant

Hello Everyone!

This is my first post to my new blog, Roland's Green World. I intend to communicate ways of living a more sustainable life and to marvel at the beauty of nature. The goal is to wake people up from our destructive path of consuming all of the earth's resources until there is nothing left. Only by respecting our natural world can we lead a positive, fulfilling life.

Recently my father told me that he thinks that bamboo is the best plant to fight global warming since it is evergreen and has many leaves with a large surface area. So this would enable bamboo to put out more oxygen than any other plant the thinking would go. More plantings of bamboo would certainly release more oxygen during the winter months when most of the trees here in the east coast are leafless. So are mass plantings of bamboo in order as an at least partial soltion to the ominous effects of global warming? Has anyone done research into which plants release the most oxygen and consume the most carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases?