Bioprospecting, Ecological Services and Feeding 10 Billion

So this is one of those rabbit trails I have no idea will come between the first and second cup of coffee in the morning browse.

From the Anthropocene Magazine link called provocatively “Making Nature Pay for Itself” I followed the trail to a plant-based ivory substitute to the Author of the article David Simpson to the Breakthrough Institute where he publishes to the environmental iconoclasts Nordhaus and Shellenberger and their notions that nuclear energy and big ag are the only ways to save the natural world.

And while I am using Roam Research wonderful and recently-available and still-developing tool for cognitive connections to hold onto this trail to follow on another morning, I paste the early stages below because, well–because it’s my space and I’m pretty much the only one using it, and maybe–if unlikely–somebody else will stumble across this and follow the scent. Towards…dunno. But that’s the thrill of exploring ideas, isn’t it?

• Phytelephas – Wikipedia tagua or vegetable ivory, bioresource utilization #blogthis see also The Problem with Making Nature Pay for Itself | Anthropocene [[**R. David Simpson**]] https://thebreakthrough.org/about
  • Given trade restrictions in elephant ivory as well as animal welfare concerns, ivory palm endosperm is often used as a substitute for elephant ivory today, and traded under the names vegetable ivory, palm ivory, marfim-vegetal, corozo, tagua, or jarina. When dried out, it can be carved just like elephant ivory; it is often used for beads, buttons, figurines and jewelry, and can be dyed. More recently, palm ivory has been used in the production of bagpipes.[4]
  • Vegetable ivory stimulates local economies in South America, provides an alternative to cutting down rainforests for farming, and prevents elephants from being killed for the ivory in their tusks.[4]
  • How an obscure seed is helping to save the elephant – BBC News
    • Numbers of elephants in the wild are still falling; it’s estimated 100 of them are killed by poachers every day for their tusks to meet the continuing demand for ivory.

• https://thebreakthrough.org/about
  • The Breakthrough Institute was founded in 2007 by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. Breakthrough’s early work built on Nordhaus and Shellenberger’s argument, first articulated in their 2004 essay “The Death of Environmentalism,” that 20th-century environmentalism cannot address complex, global, 21st-century environmental challenges like climate change.
    • “Toward that end, Breakthrough has been a leading advocate for innovation in advanced nuclear designs and business models.
    • In particular, we have made the case for industrial food systems. Large-scale industrial food systems are more land-, water-, and GHG-efficient than small scale low-intensity farming, and are better able to harness technology to increase land productivity, which holds the key to both climate mitigation and preserving biodiversity.
    • ecomodernism, a movement built on decoupling environmental impact from human well being. In 2015, 19 coauthors, including several Breakthrough representatives, published An Ecomodernist Manifesto, which laid out this new environmental vision and sparked a debate about the future of environmentalism that continues today.
      • [[EcoModernism]] comment by fred first
    • Bioprospecting environmental services conservation rural-to-urban transition #energy #biodiversity #agriculture
    • ” https://diigo.com/0gnovr