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And for all that, on 29 March 1999, Time listed her among ‘Time 100,’ the magazine honoring ‘The Great Minds Of
The Century’ (time.com).
So I want to speak openly about living and dying on this planet, of this planet. While Terra Cognita is not yet
terminally ill, we must now recognize that we have to talk globally and locally about life and death, the Eternal
Circle, and that, learning from Ms Elisabeth, in fact we can for instance apply the concept of Living Wills to
mitigate global warming.
Living Wills for Climate Change can be in the form of grants for projects for R&D in biofuels, and loans for enterprises
to encourage villagers to blanket Planet Earth with gas-guzzling green monsters - that is to say, plants harvesting
carbon dioxide from the air, decreasing air pollution. An intelligent species nursing wastelands back to life with its
own refuse; for this, we already have the crop: Sweet Sorghum.
In 2002, FAO called it the ‘camel among crops’ because it can
Living Wills for Climate Change
can be in the form of grants for
projects for R&D in biofuels, and
loans for enterprises to
encourage villagers to blanket
Planet Earth with gas-guzzling
green monsters - that is to say,
plants harvesting carbon
dioxide from the air,
decreasing air pollution.
grow in problem soils: dry or wet, salty or sweet (fao.org). A
Survivor Crop. We must learn from the camel and be a Survivor
Species.
Now I dare say global warming is the best thing that ever
happened to farmers in the tropics, for now they have to face
the reality that they can no longer be profligate with water, and
they can plant a survivor crop where no other crop dare grow.
Sweet Sorghum? In the United States, Sorgo used to be big; in
1888, the total US production was 20 million gallons of syrup,
mostly from family farms in neighborhoods with one farmer with
a mill for squeezing the canes and an evaporating pan for cooking
the syrup (Ken Christison & Keith Kinney, 2002,
herculesengines.com). Kentucky syrup alone in 1994 was worth
$8 M, a mere half of Kentucky’s potential (Morris J Bitzer,
ca.uky.edu). According to Morris, community Sorgo projects of one or more counties are becoming common.
Family farms and community projects - the Sorgo potential is all there. They are all to the good - if only we can
bring ourselves to graduate from the stages of Denial of Global Warming to Anger to Bargaining to Depression to
Acceptance. I’m thinking you don’t know global warm if you are in a cold country. That is bad enough. You don’t
know global hot until you are in the tropics, such as the Philippines. It’s badder such as it is.
I’m half naked as I write this, and it’s May, traditionally the onset of the rainy season, and it’s only 0944 hours in
Manila. I’m actually in good old cool Los Baños, not anymore the summer capital of Southern Luzon. The air is dry
and hot even inside the apartment. If you don’t call this global warming, you’re using a different language. Or you
don’t call a spade a spade.
The Children Of Maidanek