Bulletin 3, 29 August 2002
The Agricultural Revolution did not occur in all places 10,000 years ago.
We often see and use the 10,000 years ago figure for convenience, but we
should not lose sight of the fact that there are still pockets of hunter-
gatherers in 2002 who have held out – until now. Just. Against all the
odds, they have done a better job than you and me! There is a disturbing
report on the Awa people of Brazil on the BBC website at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2217423.stm. Read there a summary of
the Awas’ traditional way of life and the penetration by the railways
sponsored by the World Bank, the way the Awa are being forced into
agriculture, the way poor settlers are used to battle the Awa for land and
the way the educated people, with Western views of equity ask <Why do the
Indians need my land? They have so much already> The article was prepared
for the Johannesburg Summit, but the story of the Awa will resonate for
years. To find out more about remaining hunter-gatherer groups follow the
links at the foot of my page http://www.evfit.com/rights.htm
Another BBC report this week was on asthma. This one was not produced in
text form and I am posting my notes from the broadcast separately later
today.
Last week I was part of the ABC (Australia) studio audience at a forum on
complexity. The transcript is at
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/buzz/stories/s659042.htm Entertaining
and helped me get my head around this important tool for understanding.
One aspect of complexity is the power laws referred to frequently by Art
De Vany. Not reported in the transcript were the audience questions which
focused on climate change and how climate patterns lasting tens of
thousands of years could switch off within a few years once a critical
point was reached. I recalled excited discussion on how global warming
could freeze Western Europe in just a few years. The mechanism is
something like this: The origins of the Gulf Stream are in the Greenland
Sea, where water becomes dense and cold around the ice caps, squeezing the
salt into the remaining water. This dense, cold water sinks to the bottom
of the Greenland Sea and acts as a pump, which helps push the ocean
currents, including the Gulf Stream, around the globe. But if the water
fails to freeze, and is supplemented by increased icecap melt, then the
water will be too diluted to sink and the pump will slow down. If the ice
formation doesn't happen then you won't get the convection. The current
slows down and while the water will get to Europe, it will be colder.
The marketing of Australian red meat to the US is covered briefly on page
6 of the Adobe document at
https://www.mla.com.au/uploads/templates/publicationspdf/1740366247.pdf
Further information is available at www.australian-beef.com and at
www.australian-lamb.com. I’d urge US readers to stir them up by asking
them about the organic or Pleistocene quality of the product they are
selling in the US. Show them you care!
Finishing with a lighter note:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/2216858.stm carries the story of a
goose, fitted up by scientists with electronic tracking gear, lost and
then discovered ... in an Inuit hunter’s freezer on Disko Island off
Greenland.
Keith
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list send an email to [log in to unmask] with the words SIGNOFF EVOLUTIONARY-FITNESS in the _body_ of the email.
To get a copy of the old archives or the FAQ, look in the EvFit folder at http://briefcase.yahoo.com/dryeraser
|
