Flexitarianism, Veganism, Pescetarianism, the list goes on and on. The latest name to drop is apparently the “food religion” you belong to, an oddity that has many people wondering where our faith really is, with the church we belong to or in the food we eat. With any popular new trend comes some behind the scenes groups ready to poke fun at the ‘next best thing’, and in this case, that group is known as the Freegans.  Ready to share their concept of minimal consumption with Red Flag Magazine, I got a chance to witness a Freegan meet-up based around NYU’s lavish dumpsters firsthand.

The dreaded “packing up process” has finally plagued universities across the nation.  After a hard year of work, students are expected to leave their rooms spotless before finally heading home. As expected, not all students can take home everything they compiled in their dorms over the year, and usually end up throwing away a majority of their belongings as a means of getting the clean up job done quicker.  To be frank, the last thing on these students’ minds is how much is going to waste during this process, and how the amount of things they are throwing out is being multiplied incalculably due to the fact that millions of other people are going through the exact same situation as themselves.  Luckily, a group of people by the name of the Freegans are extremely aware of the amount people such as these college students are wasting, and are ready to make use of what most of us have classified as “dumpster worthy”.

I recently met up with a group of these Freegans located in New York City, many of which were eager to share their opinion on what it is exactly that they were doing. The meet up was based around digging through NYU’s dumpsters and trash that had been left behind by students who were packing up and preparing to go home. It was graduation day, and the trash piles were soaring above the rain-glazed streets. “Just because you’re throwing something out doesn’t mean its reached its last stages of use, and often times things that are being thrown out are just as good as when they were first bought,” exclaimed one of Freegans (who at the time was hidden behind a pile of trash bags). Jumping on this point was an older man standing next to me, eager to share what got him involved in Freeganism. “Seeing people first hand in Vietnam venture through toxic garbage to find food, that’s something that can be understood as contaminated.  But those people had no other choice, and that was the only source of food they could turn to. That’s not the case here; we’re spoiled! Our garbage can’t even be considered garbage…we’re running out of resources and at times I feel like I’m the only one that realizes it.” The man proceeded by pulling out an unopened box of cereal, giving me an ‘I told you so’ kind of look.

So I stood by while the group began to meticulously open and dig through the trash bags, only to see that what they were finding was implausible. First, a woman found a working IPod, and the next a collection of unopened hot chocolate boxes. Many are under the impression that Freegans only collect food, but I was surprised to see that they were finding perfectly functioning items that they could use day-to-day as well. Roughly 26 people had attended the meet up, and there was more than enough food and other useable items in the trash bins to go around. I was in absolute shock by how many valuable things they were discovering, and all I could think about was how different things would be if every person adopted a Freegan attitude. “We’re not rummaging, we’re discovering…finding treasures that people just didn’t believe existed anymore in a world where everything is about buying more, more, more!” After hearing that from one of the newer members of the NYC Freegan community, all I could define the meet up as was the ultimate environmentally conscious treasure hunt.

As we neared the end of the meet-up, I got a chance to speak with one of the Freegans who had collected all she wanted away from the hustle and bustle of looking through the trash bags. She told me about how she sees Freeganism as something that can only grow from this point, not only as an actual action but also as a mindset. “If we can get people to really just start realizing how much they are wasting when they throw things out on a daily basis, we could really start making a huge change.” According to the Department of Agriculture, 40% of all food produced in the United States is tossed out. At first glance this may seem expected and acceptable from such a highly populated country, but further research uncovered that 5% of that wasted food could feed approximately four million people a day. To know that this is the case all of a sudden made the Freegans frequent ‘dumpster dives’ seem much less extreme, and in all honesty qualifies the Freegans as one of the few groups of people that are actually taking responsibility in a sea of people that could care less.

Slowly but surely, grocery stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joes are becoming more understanding of the Freegan cause, setting out food with the thought in mind that the Freegans will be there that evening to pick the perfectly consumable food up that otherwise would have been put to waste. It all might seem like an honest mistake to some, an inevitable process that people go through daily that can never completely be avoided.  To graduating students, an easier way to get rid of the things they need out of their dorms before leaving for home. To city-goers in general, a way to keep their life uncluttered in a place where time is of the essence. While it isn’t expected of everyone to get out and start collecting food from trash bins, the least we could do would be to keep in mind how much we may be wasting the next time we throw out leftovers, or decide not to doggy bag the pasta dish we weren’t hungry for at lunch. Not only is wasting food a problem environmentally and ethically, but on top of that, the more we waste the higher the price of our food is going to be.  Walking away from the group of Freegans, I reached the corner to find the same old man I had talked with earlier, but loaded with a suitcase full of goodies from what apparently was the luxuriously filled NYU trash bags. “It’s just all about creating a more effective system, and plenty of people are all for it, but I bet we come off as the most impatient ones who want it the most.”

10 questions with Dr. Wolfgang Stuppy, Seed Morphologist at the Millennium Seed Bank Project

How long have you been studying seeds and how did you become interested in this field of science?
Ever since I bought my first flowering cactus (a Mammillaria bocasana) I wanted to become a botanist. While studying biology in Germany, my botany professor happened to be one of the very few scientist with a special interest in seed structure. The rest is history. Intrigued by his genuis and guided by my love of plants, I became very interested in the study of seeds and decided to do my PhD in this field. By now, my experience of studying seed structure goes back 22 years.  

In your time as a seed specialist what major advances have been made?
Taken seed science as a whole, probably some of the most notable scientific discoveries of the recent years were:
a) The identification of a butenolide present in plant-derived smoke [3-methyl-2H-furo[2, 3-c]pyran-2-one] as an highly active compound stimulating seed germination in a wide range of plants akin to smoke or aqueous extracts of smoke.  This compound has been discovered in 2004/2005 by two teams independently in Western Australia and South Africa.


b) The non-invasive diagnosis of seed viability using infrared thermography (Kranner et al. 2010 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA) – this research has been carried out by my colleague Dr. Ilse Kranner here at the Millennium Seed Bank


c) The finding that changes in the glutathione redox-potential are a universal marker of cell viability; this has first been studied in seeds (Kranner et al. 2006 in Free Radical Biology and Medicine) but the findings apply to both plant and animal cells and may have implications for cancer research as well as other – again, this cutting-edge research has been carried out by my colleague Dr. Ilse Kranner here at the Millennium Seed Bank.

What is the most fascinating information about seeds that you have come across in your work?
There are many astonishing facts about seeds and fruits. Probably the most fascinating side of seed and fruit structure are the various adaptations that plants have evolved over the last 360 million years to ensure the dispersal of their seeds. The most incredible structures are found among the tiniest of seeds which look like microscopically small honeycomb – bimechanical masterpieces made by nature. Another awe-inspiring aspect of seed and fruit biology is the existence of fruits and seeds which are adapted to be dispersed by long-extinct animals. Such anachronistic fruits and seeds are found on all continents, for example the Osage orange (Maclura pomifera), a large, grapefruit-size fleshy fruit that simply drops of the tree and rots because the original dispersers used to be among the extinct ice-age megafauna that disappeared from America c. 13.500 years ago. There are many other examples such as the fleshy pods of honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos),  the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) or the football-sized fruits of the calabash tree (Crescentia cujete). They are far too large to fit in any mouth alive today! I find the idea that the existence of such awsome and iconic beasts such as mammoths, ground sloths, mastodons etc. is still reflected in today’s plants who once shared the same habitat with them absolutely intriguing!


What world region (or regions) is at the highest risk of extinguishing certain plant species due to various causes such as land development, environmental degradation, and lack of governmental awareness and protection.
In this day and age which has already been named the ‘Anthropcene’ it is hard to pinpoint a place on Earth that is not currently being changed/destroyed by humans. Naturally, the areas where large numbers of plant species face the risk of extinction are the centres of biodiversity such as the Cape, Madagascar, the rainforests of S America, Africa and SE Asia, China but also regions where human population growth and or land conversion is the fastest, e.g. Australia, India, S America etc. There is a whole suite of causes that are currently changing and depleting Earth’s biodiversity for the next 4-20 million years to come (this is how long it approx. took after previous mass extinctions to restore Earth’s biodiversity), most notably land conversion, habitat fragmentation, pollution, invasive plants – towering above everything else – climate change.

There are many seed banks throughout the world, do they have a dialog or partnership with one another in order to consolidate efforts towards the same goal?
As far as seed banks dedicated to the collection and preservation of wild species are concerned, they are pretty much all united in the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) Partnership which is essentially a global network of seed banks for wild species. The MSBP brings together 123 institutions in 54 countries all over the world. With the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership the UK is spear-heading the world’s most ambitious internationally co-ordinated ex-situ conservation project for wild plant species.

Have you ever visited the Svalbard Global Seed Vault? How does it differ from the Millennium project?
Our Head of Deparment and leader of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, Dr. Paul Smith, has recently visited the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV). Contrary to the MSBP which is dedicated to wild species, the SGSV is focussed on preserving the world’s crop diversity. Therefore, the MSBP and the SGSV are complimentary in their efforts to preserve plant germplasm (i.e. wild vs cultivated). In fact, the MSBP and SGSV have recently agreed to collaborate on the targeted collection and conservation of the seeds of wild crop relatives. From an operational point of view, the SGSV simply stores the seeds in an unmanned underground vault whereas the MSBP runs a very active seed bank which includes constant germination testing and monitoring of viability as well as cutting edge research into problems related to seed banking, e.g. lipid content of seeds, artificial ageing experients to assess species-specific longevity, physiological and biochemical causes of dormancy (e.g. gene expression during dormancy and germination), the biochemistry of ageing and programme cell death in stored seeds etc.

With even the right conditions created at each seed bank how long can each seed collection last, and as a precaution are new harvests brought in to replace and refresh the old?
Although it varies from species to species, approximately how many seeds are needed to ensure their survival?
The longevity of a seed collection under seed banking conditions (at the MSB this means dry state at minus 20 degrees Celsius) largely depends on the species in question and to a lesser degree also on the quality of the original seed collection. At one end of the spectrum there are species that will almost certainly survive in the seed bank for thousands of years but at the other end there are species that will probably only survive for a decade or two at best. It is these very short lived species that are our greatest concern and the subject of some of our most important research. To give you an idea how the ’shelf life’ of seeds may vary under seed banking conditions, here are some examples of crop plants. Sunflower seeds retain their viability for c. 165 years, lettuce for 447 years, soybean for 1122 years, wheat for 5079 years and sugar beet for 10542 years. So there is a huge species-specific variation in longevity under seed banking conditions. Currently, the viability of each seed collections held in the MSB is tested every 10 years. If the viability of a collection drops below 75% management decides which steps to take to ensure the safe and continued storage of a sufficient amount of seeds of the respective species (i.e. at least 5.000, ideally 20.000 or more). Depending on the species and the circumstances (e.g. situation in the country of origin), we will either try to re-collect fresh seeds of this species or harvest fresh seeds from plants grown from the existing seed collection.

Have you ever gone out in the field to collect seeds for the Millennium Seed Bank or another seed project yourself?
Since I started working for the Millennium Seed Bank Project in 2002 I’ve been on seed collecting trips in Australia (2006), China (2006), Mexico (2007) and Texas (2008). I’ve also taught a course on fruit and seed structure and biology in Australia (2004 & 2006), New Zealand (2007) and Brazil (2009).

What are your thoughts on the debate of GMO’s as it pertains to seeds and the preservation of heirloom plant species.
RBG Kew has a neutral position to GMOs and does not carry out any research in this field. We believe that wild species are an untapped resource for crop improvement through ‘traditional’ plant breeding in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. We believe we should start here first.

What is an important life lesson you have learned from studying seeds?
A brief exerpt from one of my books may give you the answer:
“ Plants are truly amazing. Unlike animals, they have the remarkable ability to use sunlight to make sugar from just water and carbon dioxide. In doing so, they not only produce their own food but also feed – either directly or indirectly – all animals and people on Earth. Furthermore, as a by-product, they produce the oxygen in our atmosphere. Quite simply, without plants we would not be able to breathe or eat. Rice alone is the staple food of over half of the Earth’s population; then there are all the other cereals, pulses and vegetables such as beans, potatoes and many more. Plants play an important role in our lives in so many different ways, but because they seem static and make no sound, most of us do not think of them as true living beings. Their utterly different texture and appearance, the fact that they are tied to one place and move on a time scale that is far too slow to be noticeable to the human eye seem to render any comparison with animals and humans absurd.”

 

If the study of the structure and evolution of seeds and fruits has taught me anything it is that this common perception could not be further from the truth. Just like animals, plants are living beings and like them, over several hundred million years of evolution, they have developed very complex and highly sophisticated ways of life that are intricately interwoven with other species they share the same habitat with – both fellow-plants and animals. In fact, despite their differences, plants and animals share the same goal in life: survival to achieve sexual reproduction in order to ensure the continuity of the species. My conclusion: plants are fellow living beings with whom we share this amazing planet and, as such, they deserve more respect. After all, the continued existence of humans on this planet depends entirely on plants.

Wolfgang Stuppy is the seed morphologist at the Millennium Seed Bank Project, an international conservation initiative managed by the Seed Conservation Department of the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in England. He has a doctorate in comparative seed morphology and anatomy. After joining Kew in 1999 to work on plant conservation, he moved to the Millennium Seed Bank in 2002. At the heart of this large international project, which collects and stores seeds and fruits from all over the world, Dr. Stuppy has found the ideal environment to feed his passion for research into their astonishing diversity. 

To learn more about seeds read “Noah’s Ark of the 21st Century” by Nicole Davis

 

To many, Hawaii is only seen as a paradise vacation spot; America’s tropical playground for mainlanders and other tourists alike to run free and do as they please.  At first glance, this thought comes across as enchanting, a comforting idea to those who must cope with freezing winters as opposed to simply enjoying warm weather day after day. Having just returned from studying the environmental and cultural ties of Hawaii in the heart of the main island, this notion that is so commonly assumed all of a sudden seemed disgraceful to me. As I exited the airport into the biting New York wind, I started to notice that things seemed a bit off. Specifically, the sky just wasn’t the same blue as it is in Hawaii, and the people just couldn’t care less about this. Of course, perhaps it is not that they do not care, but rather that it has been such a gradual change over the years that people can’t even tell the difference between blue and blue.

The first morning in Hawaii I attended an opening protocol, in which our ‘cultural’ leader chanted at the foot of one of the craters of Kilauea, the volcano that I would be studying for the next couple of days. The chants were carried out in order to ask for safety from the volcano god, Pele, as the group of students and I entered the island, many of us for the first time. What struck me most was the fact that Hawaiians still treat everything as if it is alive and has a soul, a concept that would be considered madness by many people living in the United States. Returning my attention back to the way things are when I am home, I pictured myself telling a friend to not pick a flower, because the earth might get mad, and their presumable response of calling me a lunatic and to mind my own business. With the recent eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjnallajokull volcano, which cost airlines at least $1.7 billion due to flight disruption, it’s hard not to consider giving these colossal beings a bit of respect. Given the strong spiritual presence in Hawaii, this respect for the land, known there as ‘aloha aina’ seemed like a tangible concept. As I thought more about this, I realized how much this thought makes sense. ‘Aina’, defined as the land that is our source of food, ultimately is sustaining us, sacrificing itself so that we can continue our day-to-day routines. Why wouldn’t we treat it with respect? Of course, the next thing that entered my mind was how I could possibly bring with me that sense of deep spiritual respect for the land that could be accepted and carried out into my community.

This all brought me back to when a group of students and I ventured into one of the numerous lava tubes that lie buried in the forests of Kilauea. As we reached the end of the tube, we were asked to turn our flashlights off, and sit silent in the absolute darkness.  The man who had brought us into the tube went on to tell us the story of how men used to climb into the lava tubes with nothing but a small bag of provisions and a torch. After sitting in the tube for days on end, the man would then climb back out of the tube without his torch, slowly emerging into the daylight. This ultimately symbolized a purification process, in which the man was said to be reborn. And as I remembered this story, and returned to the daylight after reflecting in the lava tube, I wondered what it would be like if we were all reborn with a keen sense of the theory of ‘aloha aina’. If people would be willing to embrace the truth that the earth runs through us, in the food we eat, in the air we breathe.  To emerge from the depths of the darkness with this thought in mind, would truly be the greatest gift we could give to the land that has sustained us for centuries.

Students from Maryland talk to students from Namibia about HIV/AIDS Prevention

 

Skype connects friends across oceans, families members on opposite sides of the country and even neighbors who would rather save their cell phone minutes. Aside from being convenient Skype is also a facilitator for change. 

On a Saturday morning in March four American teenagers sat in front of monitors in a classroom in Baltimore, while on the other side of the globe gathered six Namibian students in Swakopmund, Namibia in front of a similar set of monitors. The ocean that divided them was vast, but at this moment they felt as if they were sitting in the same room. This level of intimacy was very important because these students were brought together to discuss the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Each student brought with them their own perspective on the problem of HIV, and many were able to share their firsthand experience with the devastation it can bring upon individuals, families, and entire communities. 

 

 

The meeting was organized by Focal Point Global, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to link youth from around the world for the purpose of exchanging ideas and promoting cross-continental debates on some of today’s most pressing issues. Focal Point Global utilizes the internet as a tool. In their hands, an application like Skype is transformed into a forum for hosting virtual global summits between candidates that would otherwise not have had a chance to contribute their voices.  

The goal is to strengthen youth education worldwide by allowing students to learn from each other. For example, the Baltimore based students were prepared to hear about the high rates of HIV and AIDS in Namibia, but the Namibian students were not prepared when they found out that Washington D.C. and its surrounding area (which includes Baltimore) is where the highest rate of people with HIV in the United States live. 

Together the students came up with actions they could take to further their awareness and the awareness of those in their community on ways that HIV can be prevented. The discussion did not air on the light side. They talked about sex, alcohol and drugs and all the ways that lifestyle choices can impair one’s ability to make safe and healthy decisions. 

Dania Moore, on the American side of the conference, pointed out how the initiative was able to bridge distinctions she made in her mind about herself and of people from other cultures, “Working with a group of kids from Namibia really changed my thoughts about them, America, and the rest of the world. It really amazes me how our cultures are so different, yet so alike.”

She was also effected by one major difference, the pervasiveness of  the issue of HIV in Namibia ,” Even if they do know they have the disease, most Americans won’t really publicize if they are HIV-positive, but our Namibian peers have a different side to the story. Everyone, except one person from the Namibian group, knew or knows someone with HIV. That alone was very shocking to me.”

Frieda Mukufa, a Namibian student who also participated in the conference wrote in a letter: 

     “Thank you for allowing me to express my views regarding the US-Namibia HIV/AIDS Education Initiative. I believe that the reason we participated was because we want to know what impact HIV has on other people who are far away, and also what people can do about it.

      My concern is that not a lot of people are aware of what HIV does and how it spreads. Not a lot of people are educated. They do not have access to information. For example, in the U.S. schools, especially the government-run schools (public schools), kids are not educated on how to use condoms or  on other important ways to prevent oneself from contracting HIV. They think that the only way to prevent HIV is to abstain. I am also concerned because a lot of parents do not talk to their kids about HIV. In some cultures, it’s believed that kids should not bring up the topic of HIV because they are too young to discuss such “adult” topics.

      My personal connection to HIV is that some of my family members are infected with the virus. Quite a few of them have passed away, and just like in other cultures, they never told me what was the cause of death. My parents do talk to me about HIV, but they never tell me why the person died. Like my dad, when I ask him, he will just change the topic. My aunt and uncle just say the person died of tuberculosis or something. In my community, especially in the northern rural areas, people are being mocked because of their status. That is what we call stigma.

      This teleconference helped me a lot. Now that I know what other people think, it helps me to see life from a different perspective. There are many solutions, and I believe that we can achieve them. We can start campaigns to educate people. I believe we cannot really get everybody to listen, but the little difference we make will benefit others.”

The conference was held over just two days, and yet,  just from reading these two students personal accounts, it is clear that the effect was tremendous on the participants.  The US-Namibia HIV/AIDS Education Initiative was the first of its kind for Focal Point Global, but like Red Flag, they are a start-up with a very ambitious mission to take on the toughest issues facing our planet today. In addition Focal Point Global is working to ensure change will take place from the ground up by starting with our youth. The U.S.-Namibia HIV/AIDS Initiative will not stop here. The students will reconnect in three months time to mentor one another on how to keep up their commitment to follow the actions they promised to take and to continue to keep the awareness alive. 

 

 

 FOCAL POINT GLOBAL is a nonprofit organization educating the world’s youth on global issues using the best technology innovations.

I was always told to keep myself on my toes. Keep myself safe from the often time unpredictable world. Keep myself aware that sometimes the world is an unfair and merciless place.  When news of the earthquake in Haiti hit, the only thing I could think of was how knocked over I felt. Images of bodies being dumped into trucks and families that were left without a home infected into my mind, and the only thing I could think of was how can I help.  As devastating as the earthquake was, with every unfortunate event comes something to turn things around and help us realize that all hope is not lost.

At only seven years old, Charlie Simpson, born and raised in West London, decided to take matters into his own hands. With the intention of raising £500 by means of a bicycle ride around South Park, London, Charlie was pleasantly surprised to see that his actions were gaining much more attention than he thought they would. Now at a whopping £205,510, Charlie is in shock by how much his simple efforts have made. “I saw the pictures on the tv and I thought it was really sad so I just wanted to, you know, wanted to do something.” To see a child at such a young age get so involved is astonishing. Charlie has become a loveable figure, an example of how our youth has evolved into a much more aware part of society. Help Charlie’s cause now by visiting http://www.justgiving.com/charliesimpson-haiti.

Red Flag Magazine features “Playground Project” – a documentary video on the sexual exploitation of children in America. 

Director Libby Spears fearlessly takes on one of the most underreported problems facing children today. 

 
   

Playground Project (trailer) directed by Libby Spears – artwork by Yoshimoto Nara from Red Flag Magazine 

Executive producers: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Steven Soderbergh, Abby Disney, Lauren & Gale Embrey and Jeff Vespa.  Associate Producers: Martha Adams, David de Rothschild, Libby Spears, Arden Wohl, Julia Ormond, Devon Schneider and Stefan Nowicki

THE BACK STORY

In 2001,while in the Philippines, I first encountered women who, as children (11 to 17 years old) during WWII, had been enslaved to serve as Comfort Women – a “supply” the Japanese Army literally requisitioned like food or weapons forcing the women to provide sex for Japanese military men. Appalled by this history, I began an investigation to document the worldwide sex trafficking of children that continues to this day.

My colleague and I went undercover with a group of nuns to infiltrate brothels around U.S. military bases in South Korea, A successful tactic, until we attempted a similar investigation at a Thai military base outside of Bangkok where our guide threatened to make us disappear for 10 bucks. We held candid, first-hand interviews with victims, their pimps and their customers and mapped the commerce fueled by the purchase and sale of minors.

Sexual exploitation of children is a problem that we tend to relegate to back-alley brothels in developing countries. Such is the initial premise of my investigation into the topic, quickly I concluded that very little thrives on this planet without American capital – and the commercial child sex industry is certainly thriving.

Over 35,000 children were orphaned in Indonesia during the 2004 tsunami—an unregulated supply for a demand that in no way was limited to the East. Closer investigation led us back to the West, tracking the child sex tourism industry and trafficking routes. What we discovered was a harsh reality; the commercial sexual exploitation of children is every bit as real in North America.

A Screening of this film to raise funds for the cause is being held in West Palm Beach, FL on February 28, 2010

for more information about this event click here

For more ways on how to help go to the Reel Look Action List 

The Next issue of Red Flag Magazine on the topic of children has launched…

Click Here to check out a pictorial history of Vaccination

“We, in a motorized world, have a lot to learn from the behaviour of a school of fish in terms of each fish’s degree of freedom and safety,” stated Toshiyuki Andou, the manager of Nissan’s Mobility Laboratory and the principal engineer of Nissan’s latest robot car project.

Released on October 1^st, 2009, the “Eporo” robot fish (which stands for Episode 0 Robot) is a group of prototypes for an energy revolution aiming to be CO2 free and accident free. The robot itself is based off of one of the simple attributes of sea life, the migration tendencies of a typical school of fish.  To create the Eporo, Nissan took three different behavior rules into account. The first is that schools of fish naturally aim to avoid collisions. The second, the fish tend to travel side by side. And the third, in order to move efficiently the fish gain closer proximity to other fish that are a distance from themselves.

By taking the tendencies of a school of fish to navigate instinctively and intelligently as a group, Nissan revolutionized fish’s migration patterns into a system that could be used for everyday human travel. Nissan simply utilized these behavioral tendencies to create vehicles that would act the same way.

Ultimately aiming to create a vehicle that would contribute to an environmentally friendly and traffic jam free driving environment, the Eporo would assist in clearing traffic jams with ease. When a group of the Eporo travels together, the robots share position information of others through communication technologies developed by Nissan in order to navigate safely around each other and other obstacles.

A prime example of how companies are beginning to look back at what nature gave us in order to move forwards in their technological endeavors, the Eporo is in a way a scientific look back at what the ocean has to offer us. Of course, like Katharine Werner, many see the ocean as a place to gain a spiritual connection. But people are beginning to realize the potential the ocean has to provide us with vital information to advance in future technology, in a much more palpable way. The world’s first robot car to function in this way, the Eporo is setting the standard not only for how future prototype cars should function, but more importantly, where the inspiration for the models is being taken from. -LS

Click here to read about water pollution through the ages…

Given all the hype surrounding the recent discovery of water on the moon, questions pertaining to the issue have been surfacing and shooting back and forth like bullets. As if to say, that one day humans will definitely be settled on the moon, scientists have been delving into the question of what the moon needs to be capable of sustaining humans. Without much thought, the most obvious and logical answer comes to mind easily: water. For years scientists have been exploring the possibility that there could be water in the moons craters, and now the dream is all coming to life.

The mission was carried out by the LCROSS, NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. With evidence of ice water by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter just weeks before, the unearthing of the approximate 48 gallons of water found by the LCROSS had scientists and explorers alike in awe. The water was discovered at the depths of one of the moons massive lunar craters, in a temperature of approximately minus 365 degrees Fahrenheit. This sparked an information hunt for scientists, eager to figure out how it is that water could be easily accessible in hopes of unlocking the key to safely settling on the moon. Scientists came to two main hypotheses as to where the water was coming from. The first, the water was brought from outside sources, such as a water bearing comet that could have stricken the moon’s surface, or a water source that was possibly formed by the interaction between solar wind with moon rocks and soils.

Essentially, the moon is no longer unchanging in the eyes of explorers. For some time many thought that everything to know about the moon had already been discovered, but what the LCROSS found had this theory falling flat on its face. Perhaps we are nearing the point where we will finally get a fresh start away from our own atmospheric crisis. The discovery wasn’t just an extraordinary scientific achievement, but also in a way a headstart for mankind. In it’s own way it is letting us know that it is time to develop a system which, in the case the moon is capable of creating a colony on, will provide a healthy environment for not only us, but the moon itself as well. Slowly we are unearthing this blank canvas from which we can turn into a ‘new world’.  The only question is, will we be prepared to make the right choices in order to preserve the perfection of the untouched..

 

“Many people still seem to believe that water simply falls out of the sky and should basically be free, forgetting that it costs hundreds of billions of dollars a year to collect, clean, store, and distribute water.” – John Dickerson

Water and money are often metaphorically equated. It is the flow of money through the global economic system that keeps the world turning. And, money just like water, creates “disease” when it stagnates. Therefore, during an economic crisis, like the one we have experienced over the course of this past year, the average citizen is encouraged to “keep spending” – to keep money flowing in and out of the many arteries of commerce. John Dickerson, founder of Summit Global Management, a financial advisory team that specializes in managing assets derived from the global water industry, equates money and water literally.

One promising resuscitation plan Dickerson suggests for the current economic downfall: “INVEST STIMULUS FUNDS IN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE.” His explanation: “Despite estimates that the United States will need to invest as much as $500 billion over the next 20 years to repair and upgrade its aging and dilapidated water infrastructure (i.e. utilities pipes that bring every American their drinking and bathing water), various government stimulus packages, including the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, have earmarked, at most, just $10 billion for various water projects. Besides the clear advantages that would be imparted to the public welfare, Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing estimates that 19, 759 jobs are created for every $1 billion invested in water infrastructure – representing the biggest bang-for-the-buck in terms of job creation out of any of the spending initiatives contemplated yet.

Read our interview with John Dickerson below to learn more about the hidden value in water, which will drive the global economic market in the next 15-20 years when water scarcity, population growth, and the need for natural resources in energy production and manufacturing will reach a critical point. Just another reason to appreciate water…

THE RED FLAG FORUM TEN : 10 questions with John Dickerson of Summit Global Management

1. Who are you?

John I. Dickerson, founder, portfolio manager and chief executor of Summit Global Management, and investment management firm with a 30-year specialization in hydro-commerce and other industries directly impacted by water. In 1999, I founded the first investment fund with a specific focus on the global water industry.

2. How did you get interested in water?

At Summit, we have been water investors since 1980, when I first volunteered as treasurer of a municipal water district. I became intrigued with the water sector due to the cash flows generated by the nonprofit utility I was volunteering for. I asked Wall Street for their research on water companies, but was universally told, “We don’t follow that group”. Being a value investor that favors misunderstood and underpriced assets, this immediately got my attention, and Summit soon started doing its own work on water stocks – first on just utilities and later on the whole industrial supply chain.

3. What are some of the most unknown uses of water, but are integral to keeping the financial world in motion?

Emerging hand-in-hand with the deepening water crises is an increased focus on the concept of “virtual” water – a measure of the water necessary to produce a given commodity or product.  Although we rarely think about it, nearly every physical good traded in global economic commerce requires some amount of water to produce. For example: 1300 liters is required to grow one kilogram of wheat, 15,000 liters is needed for the feed and processing that goes into one kilogram of beef, 400,000 liters is used for the production of a standard passenger car, etc. The movement of commodities from water-rich to water-scarce regions now represents more than 300 cubic km of water per year, or almost 5% of the water used in global agriculture production annually.

4. What does the phrase “water is artificially cheap” mean?

Utility prices come nowhere near the life-cycle costs of actually providing water, and are even less reflective of its true economic and social worth. Many people still seem to believe that water simply falls out of the sky and should be basically free, forgetting that it costs hundreds of billions of dollars a year to collect, clean, store and distribute water.

5. Can you describe the symbiotic, yet, tenuous relationship between water and energy?

Simply put, energy is needed to pump, treat, and transport water, and large quantities of water are needed to support the development of energy. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy estimates that water and wastewater treatment facilities account for 35% of energy used in municipalities, at a cost of $6.5 billion a year. On the other side of the equation, thermoelectric power plants, which require large quantities of water for cooling and steam-driven turbines, account for 39% of total U.S. freshwater withdrawals.

6. In the best case scenario, what will happen in terms of the value of investments in the water sector within the nest few decades, and what detrimental global changes will occur to create such an upside in the water marketplace?

Truthfully, no disastrous global calamity is necessary for water to be a promising investment. Population growth and crumbling or otherwise insufficient infrastructure are the most important investment drivers, and they are already well in force – albeit largely ignored.

7. What are some of the most interesting and promising water start-ups you have come across?

We do not focus on start-ups. Unfortunately, the technology adoption curve in the water industry is extremely slow, so emerging tech is not an important consideration for out investment purposes.

8. What would you say is the biggest problem facing the U.S. in terms of water today?

The continued focus on supply-side solutions to water scarcity. There are no more rivers to dam, no more sources that can be utilized efficiently. Hopes for a silver-bullet solution in desalination completely ignore the energy side of the equation. Our best hopes for the future are recycling and reuse, and demand-side efficiency improvements, and free markets for water rights.

9. If you had the opportunity to sit with the president and advise him on what needs to be done about water in the United States, what would you say?

INVEST “STIMULUS FUNDS” IN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE. Despite estimates that the United States will need to invest as much as $500 billion over the next 20 years to repair and upgrade its aging and dilapidates infrastructure, various government stimulus packages, including the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, have earmarked, at most, just $10 billion for various water projects. Besides the clear advantages imparted to the public welfare, Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing estimates that 19, 759 jobs are created for every $1 billion invested in water infrastructure – representing the biggest bang-for-the-buck in terms of job creation out of any of the spending initiatives contemplated yet.

10. What do you think is the most fascinating thing about water?

Global population has doubled, and water use has quintupled over the last century. The global supply of water has remained fixed. By 2025, 1.8 billion will live in regions with absolute water scarcity, and two thirds of the global population will experience water stress.

Mr. Dickerson graduated from Colorado State University and began his career in Washington, D.C. as an international economic analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency. Over the years he has served on many Boards of Directors and advisory boards, and has participated extensively in private equity and similar transactions within the water sector. 

A recent article dispatched on CNN brought up a rather abnormal issue pertaining to the water we provide to our troops. A group of 20 Marines and the sons of Marines have all been diagnosed with cancer. While to some this would not seem out of the ordinary, it was the knowledge that all the men were based or had lived at Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps’ training base in North Carolina, between the 1960s and 1980s.  The most alarming detail of the diagnoses is that all of these men were diagnosed with the same type of cancer, breast cancer. The fact that less than 2,000 men in the United States each year are diagnosed with breast, cancer compared to 200,000 women, had some of these Marines thinking; perhaps it isn’t  just a coincidence.  

Recent discussions with the effected men reveal that they “blame the water at the base”, and that this was the only commonality they felt they shared with each other that could explain the sizeable number of men affected.  Given that government records show that the water provided at the base had indeed been contaminated with high levels of toxins, this assumption doesn’t seem out of line. The Marine Corps reported that these water sources had been removed and replaced as soon as signs of toxic chemicals were evident, but it may have been too late as the Marines and their families had already been drinking the water for some time. Despite all of these facts, numerous studies have shown that there is no correlation between the drinking water at Camp Lejeune and the breast cancer diagnoses. Yet, one must ask, given the amount of men that are diagnosed  with breast cancer each year, what are the chances?

This occurrence had us thinking, what does it truly take to rid water of dangerous toxins once they have been discovered? Are the current EPA safety levels truly safe? To add to that, with stories such as this, how can the water municipals gain trust from the public to ensure them that the water being provided is safe? 

In truth, the probability of someone consuming chemicals while drinking water is more likely in bottled water than tap, since bottled water is not regulated at all.  In time, this will be realized by more people. Water seems like it would be a simple thing to manage and distribute – just find the source, bottle and ship. But when tests are showing that drinking water, such as that at Camp Lejeune, is contaminated with chemicals like trichloroethylene, benzene, and perchloroethylene, there is one factor that we must keep in mind.  These cases of toxic water are not meant to shy people away from drinking tap water, but rather to get them thinking about how we can begin to provide and ensure that the water distributed for public consumption is safe. The hope is that people will realize that tap water isn’t necessarily the cause of all evils, but that people must be willing to pitch in to urge for a safer system for providing clean water. With enough effort, there will be a solution.

 

CNN coverage of Marines

image and video courtesy of CNN

We’ve launched the first issue of Red Flag Magazine. Our debut issue raises awareness about problems surrounding water.  Click here to view a pictorial history of bottled water.