Please look at this man’s real story at
https://www.facebook.com/JadavPayeng
He single handedly reclaimed 1,360 acres of barren land, to lush forest in 30 years.
Can someone please tell me the name of the movie, probably animated, from about 50 years ago of a very similar, probably imaginary story in Europe?
Answer: The Man Who Planted Trees. Based on a book by the same name by Jean Giono.
Here is a free copy http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/man_who_planted_trees.php
And here is the text
Click to access The_Man_Who_Planted_Trees.pdf
This story has always been without copyright. The intention was/is that it be freely distributed to help the EARTH and, just by accident, to help the humans that infect the Earth. See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Planted_Trees
It was long thought by many to be a true story, and if you scroll down the Wiki page to
Real-life counterparts
You will see that many have done just what was described in the book. The book is an allegory. But, sooooo very important.
In about early 2013, I read about the tropical jungle and the thick layer of rich black soil that they found, in the jungle, where there were ancient agricultural civilizations.
When we were in Central America, the present-day inhabitants often would slash and burn to clear the land. They were quite proud that with a machete and a box of matches they could take a large area of virginal, old-growth, ‘useless jungle’ and turn it into a nice cornfield. Or, pasture for raising low fat beef for McDonalds’ burgers.
One slight problem that they hadn’t quite worked out was that, for some reason this lush virginal, old-growth, useless jungle, had very thin topsoil. So, within a very few years nothing would grow in their newly made slash and burn field that was now, just red clay. But, no worries. They’d just make another one next door. Of course, the fish in the river, all died when it turned to chocolate milk from the top soil leaving.
A friend who had lived down there for many years, pointed out that unless the locals evolved into a creature that can live by eating red clay, that they need to get much smarter very soon, are there will be no food source within 1000 miles.
So, as I was saying, I think that science news (http://www.sciencenews.org) had an article recently about the rich black soil found in the Amazon delta that the archaeologists, not having green thumbs, assumed was a natural feature of ancient forests. However, recently it has been pointed out that on the contrary, the Amazon delta is not usually very fertile as found. Even the seemingly virgin forest.
The incredibly rich black soil was man-made in ancient times where, as a rule, large ancient cities grew their food. Modern man does not know how to make the soil, but curiosity has got a lot of people trying to reinvent it. Sounds like they need to go to Oregon and talk to my friends at
http://www.thesharinggardens.blogspot.com.tr/p/meet-founders-contact-us.html
LLyn is one of Janet many Wonderful Cousins.
I don’t remember which issue it was that I saw at sciencenews.org, but I did a Google for
ancient rich soil was man made
And got lots of good hits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
To name but a few. It seems to my non-‘green thumb’ mind that they are talking about exactly the same thing LLyn & Chris are, and I think anyone would enjoy wasting some time reading the articles.
Costa Rica has a huge percentage of its land devoted to national parks. Many of them are virgin tropical forest. In those virgin forests, our experience was that the streams ran crystal clear and beautiful. However, in the 70s many Costa Ricans tried to get rich off the fast food industry and its desire for lean beef. So they slashed and burned to make pasture to raise the beef, but the erosion was absolutely unbelievable. The rivers look like chocolate malts, where previously they look like the crystal clear water of a millionaire’s swimming pool. Anyway, you get the idea.
When we were there in the 1980s, there were lots of gringos down there trying to help. Unfortunately, most of them had no clue what they were doing either, and they would really screw up the ecology. This would devastate the local economy, but no sweat for the gringo. They would just go home and turn in their doctoral thesis about how bright they were. How much they help these poor ignorant tropical people. The group that we thought did the best job, would go in and harvest a few of the commercially valuable large, medium and small tropical trees for timber. Carefully leaving behind the trees that created various cash crops. This did not destroy the canopy, and so the rain was broken down and did not hit the ground directly. More light got through to the forest floor, but not too much. Since there was a very diverse cash crop selection, the resident earned money all year round from something or other. If there was some sort of catastrophe that affected one or two crops, he or she had many other crops to get money from to get through the dry spell. But they did not clear-cut. If this technology, which is clearly thousands of years old, can be reinvented, to make the soil more suitable, it would seem like a lifesaver for the indigenous people, and the planet as a whole. They probably need to keep certain trees to protect the soil from overheating and direct rain drops, which hit really hard.
I think one article mentioned that the ancient super soil, actually grew about a centimeter a year. Where the ‘modern technology’ clear cut land’s soil eroded away at a much faster rate, and a negative balance. And the ‘modern technology’ relies on expensive, petroleum based fertilizer, that often does not make truly healthy plants. Just big ones.
Google the Turkish city of Efes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus
When we were there, we were told that it became the Paris, New York, or London of its day, because it was located on a beautiful, protected, natural harbor that was perfectly situated for people sailing in the area, who needed to wait for seasonal winds to change.
The only problem was that there were no tree huggers around and they cut down the surrounding forests for fuel or timber or just because they could. And the erosion filled in the huge, beautiful, natural harbor. The ruins are now many miles from the nearest water. There are farms in the area where the harbor used to be. Unlike Rome which continued to be useful for thousands of years, the ruins at Efes, are locked at a snapshot in time thousands of years ago, when quite suddenly the harbor was no longer useful. The city died very quickly. Will the last one out please turn out the lights?
Clearly the work that Llyn & Chris and others have done demonstrate profound competency and should be encouraged and shared. But the big chemical and fertilizer industry can’t trap people into paying their life savings. Ditto patented seeds, and GMO. So, don’t expect much support from industry or government. It seems to me that the Internet is a wonderful way to disseminate extremely valuable ideas like this at very low cost, and very great benefit to the world. If you are in this field, keep up the good work.
I need to get back to work. But this was fun.
Dave
Alegria1976's Blog 