...Thus have we made the world

So begins a quote at the end of the movie, “The Mission” which takes place in South America, but explains the death and slavery of a native population due to geo-political conniving in Europe.  While there is few harms greater than murder and enslavement, the world is caught in a web complexities brought about by ease of trade and travel.  We all enjoy cheap products made in China, many want that Japanese car, and still others desire an exotic pet or plant.  Humans, for the most part, are social creatures, and travel and exploration are ways to satisfy our curiosity.  The world trade in food, lumber, and other organic resources also brings about the transfer of pests.  To think that such freedom in trade and travel has few negative consequences to native species and populations is to show a lack of understanding of history.

Rose with a Japanese beetle inside its petals

Over 40 years ago the street on which I grew up was canopied by a number of stately elm trees.  A tall magnificent street tree, which my children have not had the benefit to enjoy.  Most of those trees were removed forty years ago as they died due to Dutch elm disease.  I recall Mr. Loney, who seemed to be the tree remover of choice, roping up high to bring a tree and its dead branches back to earth, limb by limb until only a stump remained.  I also recall my Dad, working with my older brother’s, using my grandfather’s heavy old McCulloch chainsaw, a beast of a machine, to remove a dead elm near the corner of our property.  Dutch elm disease made its way to the US in 1928 from a ship carrying logs to be turned into veneer in the furniture factories of Ohio.  It did not take long for the elm bark beetle and the fungus it carried to wreak havoc on the streets of the nation.  A decade after its debut in the US, scientists were hard at work attempting to find disease resistant cultivar’s which are now in use.  Although, I suppose the jury is still out on their level of resistance.  The building in which I work had planted some disease resistant elms on its lawn a decade ago, and are still seemingly healthy, but the trees are still very young.

Closeup of invasive beetle in the above rose

Of course, disease affecting the human population is another issue.  A large Ebola virus outbreak in Africa claimed its first US citizen this week.  The man had been attending to his ill sister in Africa, who unknown to him apparently had the Ebola virus.  Prior to making his way back to Minnesota, he stopped at a conference in Lagos, Nigeria.  Had he not stopped at the conference, where he would collapse and be hospitalized, he could well have made it to the US, and collapsed at the Minneapolis airport.  The Peace Corps has pulled out of some African countries due to the Ebola epidemic.  As we know from high school history, native populations in the US were decimated many years ago by diseases brought over by Europeans for which the native populations had little or no resistance.  These European diseases still wreak havoc today on indigenous populations in New Guinea, and the jungles of South America.  Today, every flu virus begins in China, and teams of experts attempt to find the virus that will be next winters dread, and to create a vaccine that many of us will receive in the fall.  Most of the time, they get it right, but sometimes a different strain develops that is resistant to the created vaccine.

Raspberry leaves eaten by Japanese beetles.

Vaccines may help with some disease, but plants and animals are a different story. Sometimes an invasive plant, animal, or insect is introduced to assist with some issue.   Kudzu, while unknown in Wisconsin and the Midwest, is a rampant plant originally from Japan that was brought to the US for the in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.  This fast growing vine is estimated to consume upwards of 150,000 acres annually in the southern states.  That is 234 square miles.  Its original purpose to control soil erosion has well gotten out of hand.  Crown vetch was used in WIDOT seed mixes, but is now an invasive.  African bees were introduced into Brazil in the 1950’s to breed with local bees and increase honey production, but this Frankenstein type experiment went horribly wrong and the killer bees have now made their way into the United States.  Some speculate they will make their way north and develop a resistance to the subzero temperatures we experience in the north.

Japanese beetle on a Raspberry leaf

 In other situations an invasive outbreak is brought on by meddling, or a desire for the exotic.  The most clear example is the Burmese python taken as pets in the US, but then grow well beyond the capability of the caregiver (owner) to provide they are released, and some into the Florida Everglades where they eat much of the native animals that are part of the overall ecosystem, and hence now starting to destroy the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades.  If the python is not enough for Everglade ecosystem to combat, trees in the Everglades are now being killed by a fungus brought over from Asia.  Asian worms are also destroying the detritus layer in our forests and woods.  This layer is important to the habitat of many small creatures that make up the circle of life.

No words needed

Personally, I see first-hand the devastation caused by the invasive Japanese beetle.  The beetle is thought to have first entered the US even before Dutch elm disease, arriving in 1912 in a container of bulbs, but not being discovered until 1916 in a nursery in New Jersey.  One only needs to look at my raspberry plants, and roses to see their negative effect.  In the first years they were noticed in my yard, they left my pole beans but a skeleton of leaves, with no discernable crop.  They did not eat, and so far have not eaten the bush beans I plant.  They now make green bean production to forever be horizontal and not vertical.  They even can host on elm, maple, arborvitae, and perhaps 70 other types of host plants.  While they host on tomatoes, peppers and many other garden plants, so far they best enjoy the raspberry plants.  If they want to host on a plant, why cannot it not be creeping Charlie?

Another view of the pest

One other example is the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB).  Another import from the Far East, where it has natural predators, but where such predators are lacking the in US.  I have been treating my Purple Autumn Ash, a cultivar of the white ash developed at UW Madison, for two years as I now head into year three.  The EAB has gradually made its way into Wisconsin from Michigan.  It devastates whole forests of ash, and is not particular.  The problem is the chemical treatment, at least those non-injected, I recently found out, may be partially attributed to the decline of the bee population.  Although the decline of the bee population is more likely due to mono-culture and wide spread use of agricultural chemicals.  Foresters in Minneapolis have noted that the cold severe winter likely affected the EAB population, at least in their area, perhaps by as much as a reduction of over 50%, but this was dependent upon the micro-climate situation.  Mother Nature may have been giving us some moderation for the pesky EAB.  There is talk of importing a wasp from China which is a predator, but if that is done, hopefully it will not have the negative detriments that other well intended efforts created in regard to invasive species.

Several Japanese beetles have destroyed a rose

Travel and trade have given, and continue to give many benefits.  Yet there are negative effects.  We now see Asian Carp are flying out of the water in the Mississippi River basin, and probably making their way to the Great Lakes via our friendly Illinois brethren having changed the course and flow of the Chicago River, or the small broken shells of zebra mussels originally from Russia (by way of ship ballast) are now scattered over the beaches of Lake Michigan, and of course, the ill health caused by exotic and tropical diseases.  Our children will not have known the majestic elms, and perhaps their grandchildren will not know an ash tree (and what will baseball do).  The invasive problem is rampant and costs the economy billions each year.  I do not mean to say travel and trade should end, but more care needs to be utilized to avoid what could be costly invasion of the species.   In “The Mission” the second to last exchange is relevant to us today, albeit, in a different way:  

Senor Hontar:  “We must work in the world.

                                The world is thus.”

Papal envoy:  “No Senor Hontar

                              …thus have we made the world.

                              Thus have I made it.

 Photos by the author in his home garden on 30 July 2014

Age of Atlantis

On this day in 2011, just a few short years ago, the Space Shuttle program ended when the shuttle Atlantis touched down at the Kennedy Space Center along the east coast of Florida. It is interesting that the day ending the US known manned space flight program would occur 42 years and one day after its pinnacle achievement of Apollo 11. Apollo 11 saw President Kennedy’s goal being met--sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to earth within the decade of the 1960’s. This would be a rather nondescript end to a program that came to be seen as a filler program. It was to be a program that would provide the insight to reach Mars. It was a program that never lived up to its expectations of regular manned space flight, as its peak year produced nine flights. The first shuttle, Columbia, was launched in April 1981, seeing the results of the early 1970’s announcement by President Nixon of the move to a reusable space flight vehicle. This, and the four other orbiters would make runs into space for a variety of reasons, with much of it related to assemblage, manning and provisioning the International Space Station (ISS).

Apollo Astronaut space suit

Named for the mythical, or lost city, the shuttle Atlantis conjures images of a can-do-attitude. A place where human kind reached a level for now which one may only dream. Perhaps, for the American manned-space program, Atlantis is a fitting metaphor. Apollo brought the country together at a time when social change was tearing it apart. Space flight would not become routine as the founders of the shuttle program would intend.

Space Shuttle Atlantis

Saying the manned space flight is ordinary belies the risks inherent into such a project. Of the five shuttles, two were destroyed in accidents beyond the reach of earth. The first of course was the Challenger explosion of 1986 in which seven persons died, one being a teacher. The other being Columbia, in which also seven persons died, but this tragedy occurred during reentry. Atlantis will have its day in history as the last of the group of five to fly. Of the men and women lost in the space program, the shuttle, also the longest running program, counted for 14, and the other three persons lost were in what is now known as Apollo 1, a test simulation. It was not accorded a flight status until sometime after its test explosion in 1967. As Jim Lovell is quoted in the movie Apollo 13, space flight can never be seen as routine.

Astronaut Jim Lovell in 1990's

Costs certainly were anything but routine. NASA has estimated the Shuttle program to have cost about $209 billion. The program never obtained the efficiency level it had desired due to certain aspects of not being reusable. Also, the program was designed in the 1970’s when material and computerization efforts were still rather Paleolithic compared to what is known 30 years later. Of course (in terms of monetary costs), it was less expensive, but not as daring as Apollo. Apollo costs were estimated by NASA in 1973 to have been $25.4 billion, and again estimated by NASA in 2005 to have a 2005 cost of $170.6 billion, or probably about the cost of the shuttle program in today’s dollars. In its day each Apollo launch was $375 million (say 1970 dollars) whereas Shuttle costs in (say 2010 dollars) was pegged at $1.6 billion.

One of the launch pads used for Apollo and Shuttle missions

As for now, the US plays second fiddle for manned space flights to Russia, and is dependent upon the Russian program to ferry astronauts to the ISS. They have a monopoly on that route, and being the good capitalist they are, using it to their full advantage. Elon Musk is working on a private venture for which the US can subcontract space flight to the private sector. Musk’s SpaceX venture to save costs, is doing much of its own manufacturing. And, it subject to the whims and fancy of congress for many states to get a piece of the action. On the other hand, SpaceX would likely not be where it is today without the pioneering work of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle programs. These programs made advances that have well brought benefits to overall society.

SpaceX module

NASA now has to be content to focus on unmanned space exploration, whether it be to a planet in our solar system or beyond. the search for water continues. The search for life outside of planet earth goes on. The children of today will need to focus on a different set of heroes than the men with the right stuff. Hopefully, such people will be in areas beyond football and basketball, but in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities where human progress can be realized and admired. The nation needs pioneers

Pioneering has always been present in the history of the nation. It was seen in the Lewis and Clark expedition, which departed 210 years ago to explore the northwest part of the Louisiana purchase and attempt to find a water route to the Pacific. The nation seems to be at its strongest when it is on a quest for discovery. The nation cannot simply live in its past only idealizing the relics of our past Atlantis, and give up reaching for a dream. The question is what will be the next national mission of discovery?

Constructive Paranoia

For the past couple weeks I have been reading an interesting book titled: The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? (2012) written by geographer Jared Diamond. The title of this post comes from a part of the book, where Diamond coined the phrase “constructive paranoia” after visits to a traditional society in New Guinea. What drew me to ponder his interesting phrase is the recent death of a nine year old farm boy in Grant County, WI in a grain bin on the family’s farm, and the death a few weeks ago of a young child in a hot car in the Atlanta, Georgia area. In the latter case the father is being charged with murder, while in the former the county sheriff said it was a tragic farm accident.

Jared Diamond, Geographer and Author

First, what does Diamond mean by constructive paranoia? In the book he relates three examples of constructive paranoia, including the one that truly made him think about risk. What made him ponder risk was a New Guinea research trip where he set a tent near a dead, but sturdy tree. To native New Guineans, who are part of a traditional society, they would not sleep near such a tree, in case it were to fall over on to them. They viewed it as an unacceptable risk. During subsequent visits Diamond realized that almost every night he had spent in a New Guinea forest he would hear a tree fall and from this realized the paranoia of the locals was actually constructive. Diamond views this hypervigilant attitude toward low risks as constructive paranoia. Traditional societies lack modern health care, EMS, and police or fire services. A broken bone may mean disfigurement or becoming handicapped. Even our family camping trips there have been times when summer storms dropped parts of, or whole live trees on a camp site. Luckily, as far as we know, no one was injured. Similarly, last year the community in which I work saw a tree fall being driven down a road, where the driver sustained some serious injuries. If a falling tree can hit a moving car, the local New Guinean concern seems more real, and appropriate.

Hunter Gatherer in a Traditional Society

The US has become less a farming nation, and so farm accident deaths have dropped. But, the death of the nine year old yesterday shows they still occur. I was in eighth grade when a friend of mine died in a farm accident. As we have become more suburban and urban the risks we take have changed. The death o fell into a grain bin but luckily was f the toddler in a hot car, only brings up the point that such deaths are in fact not uncommon, with most cases being termed an accident. People do not regularly crawl into grain bins, and the boy was helping his family fix an auger, but yet, they were not sufficiently vigilant. Several years ago a farmer of which I am acquainted fell into a grain bin, but luckily he was rescued by a full time Fitchburg Fire crew. About three times a year, to my wife’s chagrin, I climb up on the roof to clean gutters. She is most perturbed when I do it at times when no one is home. Perhaps this expression of her concern for my well-being is not simple paranoia, but rather an expression of Diamond’s term. Or course, if she is upset at my getting on the roof in dry conditions, you would not want to be around when I go on the roof in the winter, when it is covered with snow and ice, to remove snow or examine an ice damn. I now can term her concerns constructive paranoia. That is not a bad term.

University of IL drawing.  Obviously, contrary to the drawing, as shown by the case in Grant County
a person can still get sucked in the grain even when it is not being removed.

In a 2013 NY Times article Diamond provided a another take on this phrase, claiming that it is more likely for a modern day person to fall and get hurt in their bathtub, than to get robbed. Falls, particularly to the elderly, can be life altering and dramatically affect the persons standard of living. He notes that the everyday mundane activities of daily living pose more risk. Perhaps one reason is that they become a habit. Almost every day the typical American takes a shower, or a bath.  It often is a habit for a person to take their child to daycare, but of course if their mind wanders by thinking about the upcoming day, one can forget the most important duty, dropping the child off. As we have seen, too many times, it can have tragic consequences. It is not a habit to regularly enter a grain elevator and clean out an auger, so it was not a situation of constructive paranoia at play as much as one needing to be prepared and vigilant. I was cutting a broken branch that had fallen into a tree about one month ago and as I felled a piece of the tree it freed the branch of another tree which came up and hit me in the head. But, I was prepared having worn a helmet (with ear protection) to avoid a head injury.

 

A modern theory on risk management, perhaps using constructive paranoia is too simple for modern man

 Modern times have changed the daily risks we face. Diamond, in his NY Times article goes on to say that Americans exaggerate risks of perceived events particularly those beyond our control such as terrorists, active shooter, or a nuclear accident. On the hand, we underestimate those risks that are under our control. In our American society we have whole hosts of careers or fields of study dealing with risks and their potential occurrence. Beyond trial lawyers, think of insurance companies, actuaries, not to mention the whole field of risk management. Risk management seems like a paradox as most people do not go looking out for risk. Stuff happens, and when it does there is a consequence. Yet, there is a field of study devoted to managing it. Of course, what they really do is educate people on ways to avoid risk. Modern day living is but yesterday in the time of human experience on earth. In a traditional society risk avoidance it is a natural outgrowth of their living conditions--Diamond’s “constructive paranoia.” In modern day America we have a field of study devoted to lowering risk. Perhaps there is much we can learn from traditional societies, or in my case pay more attention to what my spouse has to say.