Comments on: Gardening on ice: a mammoth project

By: Garden Seeds

Garden Seeds — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:55:25 +0000

Great post.Thanks for sharing such a useful information with us.

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 17 May 2011 05:43:02 +0000

The Salix arctica as your link says is a biofuel. For the Inuit it was an important source of vitamin C. [ http://members.shaw.ca/karen.fediuk/VitaminCintheInuitdiet.pdf ]

It would be interesting to understand how this important plant was managed sustainably by the Inuit. Certainly hope the world never has to contend with ‘drooping forrest’ syndrome! [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5369284.stm ]

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Tue, 17 May 2011 05:11:53 +0000

I like the term 'Mammoth steppe' and would like to see Salix arctica growing wild. The programme I listened to, on American public radio, about using alcohol as a fuel, argued that the gasoline industry is spending a small fortune (ie small change to them) on putting out counter-information about the use of biofuels. They are supporting the argument that using land for biofuels is pushing up food prices, whereas, it is argued, food prices are related to oil prices, because so much oil is used to produce food. Our diet is said to be 'dripping in oil'. I will do a blog post about this.

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 17 May 2011 04:18:42 +0000

This article on the mammoth diet suggests that the ecology environment in which he lived is now extinct, with no known similar ‘analogue’. Differently to the proposed landscape design the mammoth lived in a treeless environment. There seems to be some resemblence between the garden created and the vegetation on the tundra:

“the vegetation was not uniform but was differentiated according to water supply, depending on wind exposure, slope, aspect, snow-lie, etc. into a mosaic of communities reminiscent of remnant areas of grassy tundra in Siberia and Alaska today.”
[ http://www.bjerknes.uib.no/pages.asp?id=1587&kat=8&lang=2 ]

The primary issue with biofuels seems to be sustainable production:

“If done wrong, the production of biomass for biofuels like ethanol could destroy habitats, worsen water or air quality, limit food production and even jeopardize the long-term viability of the biomass resource itself. The environmental impact of biofuels is comparable to certain agricultural crops. For example, the growing of corn has similar consequences whether the corn is grown for food, animal feed, or as a biofuel feedstock.

The environmental impact is particularly high when forestland is cleared for monocrop farming of current generation feedstocks like corn. If done right, next generation feedstocks, such as mixed prairie grasses, may offer a lower-impact alternative, especially if grown with smart farming practices, such as no or low-till, plant diversification, and lower pesticide and fertilizer use. This potential for displacing some of our fossil fuel use makes next generation biomass feedstocks a worthwhile target for research and development. As we expand our biofuels production, there must be adequate safeguards in place to ensure that fuels are produced in a manner that safeguards the environment.”

[ http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/technologies_and_fuels/biofuels/the-truth-about-ethanol.html ]

[ http://www.bjerknes.uib.no/pages.asp?id=1587&kat=8&lang=2 ]

By: Cole Wilson

Cole Wilson — Sun, 15 May 2011 20:32:26 +0000

It would be great to see them re-create the Tundra vegetation from the Mammoth era. Great post, im interested to be hearing more about this!

Cole

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sat, 14 May 2011 18:50:00 +0000

Does the garden represent Tundra vegetation as it now is, or as it was in the age of the mammoths, or are they the same thing? The illustration looks more like the garden of a hotel in the tropics than the type of environment I associate with mammoths.
BTW I heard a programme about alcohol as the wonder-fuel to save the planet from global warming. The interviewee was David Blume http://www.permaculture.com/ He sees it as an aspect of permaculture, hence the name of his website.