Episode 293. Quick Wins and Long Term Results

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 4th of April 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Given all the who-ha going on in the world at present and the fact we are on a seasonal change or just through it depending upon your location, I thought a look at quick return veggies and herbs would be useful. I’ll then follow that with a few longer term foods. Every major economic recession since 1970 has been preceded by a jump in energy costs. Some bigger than others but they highlighted structural problems within economies and made them worse.  Continue reading →

Episode 292. Heat Waves: Top & Bottom

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 28th of March 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Quote:

Record-breaking heatwaves hit both Antarctica and the Arctic simultaneously this week, with temperatures reaching 47℃ and 30℃ higher than normal.

End Quote

From Record-smashing heatwaves are hitting Antarctica and the Arctic simultaneously. Here’s what’s driving them, and how they’ll impact wildlife on the Conversation website.

So let’s just look at those numbers again: 47 and 30℃, that’s 116 and 86F. Those are mind boggling numbers. Continue reading →

Episode 291. Quick Silvering To The Sea

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 21st of March 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

There’s a link in the show notes and an embedded version over on the website transcript of this episode that I would urge everyone to look at. It shows millions of tonnes of topsoil pouring from the Tweed River, the border between Qld and NSW on Australia’s east coast. This is following the recent flooding. It is worth remembering the Tweed is one of more than fifteen rivers in such a state. Continue reading →

Episode 290. Chef’s Doing It & True Independence

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 14th of March 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

As you can imagine, with the levels of violence in this world, there are many individuals going hungry. The UNHCR does stellar work, they are hamstrung with bureaucracy despite the very best of intentions. Long established charities have had poor press of late. The major charities raising funds during the Bushfire Black Summer here in Australia, 2019-2020 were found to be hoarding funds for the next disaster which went against the grain for many people who donated for that particular emergency.  Continue reading →

Episode 289. Fertiliser Prices

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 7th of March 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Time displaced rewards. Those three words defined the human ability that separated us from the rest of the biological world. Clearly there are exceptions, squirrels burying acorns for later and so but as a general rule it is a good working hypothesis. 

While time displaced rewards are, let’s call it, one of our evolutionary advantages, the concept does not separate us from Nature. Now while I’m on an extreme generalisation roll I’m going to define a salient feature of Nature in a few words: Redundancy not efficiency. There’s no better place to explore this than our own bodies. Two lungs, eyes, ears, ovaries/testicles, kidneys, arms and legs when clearly we could make do with only one of each. The view of an economist would suggest we could lease out, say, a lung and be fine with the other. The lunacy of this is obvious. To whom would we lease our “spare” lung? It is also worth remembering that words become twisted. In an economic sense “being made redundant” means being removed from the economic system, maybe with a payout, maybe not. “You’re redundant, the business no longer needs you.” It is a truly barbaric twisting of the word. Back to our body analogy from a “Redundancy not efficiency” point of view having a spare keeps us alive and, as far as it pertains to Nature, able to reproduce, to pass on our genes for as long as possible. Yes, I understand the menopause sort of belies this but actually it contributes to care and development of those who carry grandma’s genes. A different sort of investment but another difference in humans that has survived the tests of the evolutionary process. Continue reading →

Episode 288. Great Green Wall & Local Resilience 

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 28th of February 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Way back on the 2nd of October 2017 in episode 84, I first reported on the Great Green Wall. From that episode:

Quote:

So this green wall is fifteen kilometer deep reafforestation program along the southern boundary of the Sahara desert. It will eventually stretch from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans. The idea to build a barrier against the southern movement of the Sahara. 

So that’s the what and the why but what about does it work?

So far Senegal is by far the most advanced with the planting and maintaining of the Green Wall. They have planted 11 million trees. The effect has been to reduce wind erosion, provided shade and increased microclimate humidity. But more than, formerly dry wells have re-filled, this has allowed gardens to be planted again, people to be fed and communities to flourish.

End Quote Continue reading →

Episode 287. Seaweed & Ancient Grain

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 14th of February 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Seaweed for Feed

An interesting paper has been produced by Meat and Livestock Australia entitled: Asparagopsis feedlot feeding trial. Now if we put aside the feedlot portion of the trial, the seaweed effect is quite remarkable. Asparagopsis is a red seaweed. The results are spectacular. Continue reading →

Episode 286. The Once & Future World

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 7th of February 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

As this pod enters its seventh year, I can see some patterns from the last six.

The big one is the continued decline in honeybee populations and mass deaths following spraying events. I’ve added a photo to the show notes on the website: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode286/ showing which foods would drop from the supply chain, as we say these days, if our pollinators went missing. “Went missing”, if we killed them off through our own inability to respond to reality. 

And the bee question is a microcosm of our planet. Continue reading →

Episode 285. Working Across Four Micro-climates

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 30th of January 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Summer is ramping up here in the North West of Tasmania. The home lands are 350 meters above sea level. The land at work is at 150 meters above and very exposed to the sea breezes and the usual roaring forties trade winds that all of Tassie benefits from.

Toss in the glasshouse and the two polytunnels and I’m basically dealing with four micro-climates at once. Home, outside at work, the glasshouse and the polytunnels. When I say glasshouse, half the roof is solid sheets and half see through sheets. As a result of the somewhat lower light levels, plants tend to grow very leggy. Stretched out and looking for more light, they are, nonetheless, productive. The polytunnels, and these are the first ones I’ve worked with, are booming and blooming. A quarter of one we put to a tall flower mix which took off. To the north of these and covering both sides are some sweet corn which are now starting to produce cobs of an edible nature.  Continue reading →

Episode 284. Vagaries of the Weather

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 10th of January 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

“Buy Me A Coffee”

My cups runneth over!

A big thank you to Jeay and an individual known only as “Someone” who made use of the “Buy Me a Coffee” link at the website and/or in the show notes. 

These gestures are gratefully accepted.

A Dry Spell

The dry spell, the hot dry spell that defines our Mediterranean climate here in North West Tasmania normally arrives around mid to late January. It lasts from two to eight weeks. This year it arrived in December, about the 3rd and broke on the 5th of January. I planted the seed stock for the Blue Corn on the afternoon of the 3rd of December. 24mm dropped that night and a week later the young corn plants emerged.  Continue reading →