And if you get that reference, gold star for late-90's music literacy!
Friday Fun Fact!
There is a species of Central/South American leaf-cutter ants (
Mycocepurus smithii) in which there are NO male ants (girl power, yeah!). These amazons only reproduce when the queen clones herself. No males have ever been found, but even if they were, the ants could not mate because their "no-no parts" have literally evolved away to nothing.
The colonies live in a symbiotic (translation from bio-geek: both parties benefit) relationship with a particular fungus: the ants clean and feed the fungus, the fungus in return feeds the ants' babies.
I am reminded of a quote from Nicole Hollander:
Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy fat women. Go ahead, my dear lady ants, eat all the chocolate cake you want!
www.sosyasuni.orgThe president of Ecuador has made this unprecendented offer (see website) in a part of the world where people get shot for defying Big Money. I learned about this at the Society for Conservation Biology conference this past summer and I think you could have knocked me over with a feather. The deadline for this offer was December 2008 -- I do not know what the current status is.
The heartbreaking part: all it takes to keep this oil (literally only days' worth) underground and the rainforest (among the richest and most diverse in the world) intact is a sum of cash that is a pittance in comparison to what nations spend. Less than it would cost for us to buy one cutting edge fighter jet, an amount of money our government spends on toys without blinking an eye. On top of that, the price the president asks is only half the estimated value of the oil if it were to be extracted. And NO ONE, NO ONE has stepped up with any cash. NO ONE IN THE WHOLE WORLD, or at least they hadn't as of July 2008.
This should be front page news, given all the talk our society is giving to trying to be "greener." It doesn't get any easier than this -- just write a check and a huge area of priceless carbon sink and biodiversity is saved. No actual effort or inconvenience or thought required!! Sort of makes me ill even thinking about the lack of response....
And if that is not heartwrenching enough, read
this letter from a group of indigenous women from this section of Ecuador.
Spread the word, wanderers, I sent this link to the NYTimes main page and international department to see if they would cover it and had no luck.
I'm always looking for my next favourite book, so I have to introduce you to Wade Davis. He is an ethnobotanist (translation: anthropology mated with botany and the result is this esoteric but fascinating field of study) with a gift for writing. My first meeting with him was on the pages of "The Serpent and the Rainbow" where he travels to Haiti to investigate the legend of the zombie (oh yes, they DO exist and you'll just have to read the book to find out how). My mother gave me the book and I started it, thinking I'd be bored silly (despite my love of biology, botany leaves me noticeably glassy-eyed) -- instead, I was sucked in and couldn't put it down. Part adventure tale, part forensic investigation, and part just-plain-meeting-really-interesting-authentic-people, his travels with voodoo left me hungry for more.
So I hit up another (also a gift from mom, she has a knack for finding these things for me) that I just finished, this time the considerably more sizeable both in topic and doorstop quality "One River." Davis tells not only of his own mid-70's graduate project in the Amazon studying coca and its origins, but also his professor's exploits in the 40's and 50's with hallucinogenic plants and wild rubber. It did take me a loooooooooooooooooooong time to read it (and I'm a pretty fast reader), but it was simply fascinating and like most naturalist/adventure books, made me long for a good adventure, which I haven't had in years!
Interesting side note: Davis' professor, Richard Evans Schultes, supposedly had a lab where he taught at Harvard where he assigned his students to sample a hallucinogenic plant of choice and report on the results. All I have to say is: where was THAT class when I was an undergrad????!
Even if you don't think you're into reading biology books or books about plants, I still highly recommend. Davis makes the story flow so despite the fact that he is educating you, it doesn't hurt one bit. And it keeps me in perspective, reminding me that there is a whole world out there full of places that each have their own unique beauty and challenges, each with their own peoples and flora and fauna and rivers and seasons. I'm only a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny piece in all of that and somehow, that keeps me grounded....
So wander on -- right to your local library and check it out!
There is a species of Central/South American leaf-cutter ants (Mycocepurus smithii) in which there are NO male ants (girl power, yeah!). These amazons only reproduce when the queen clones herself. No males have ever been found, but even if they were, the ants could not mate because their "no-no parts" have literally evolved away to nothing.
