Bamboo and Windbreaks

This fastest growing plant rather a grass is one of the most vandalized plant in this country. Since it is growing fast we take for granted to destroy at every opportunity available and never care to plant any.
I have never seen a nursery for bamboo even though there are hundreds of varieties.

These plants are not seen in the temperate countries and in early as 18th century Americans took them from Asia and started growing them as ornamental plants.

While they do research on these plants we vandalize them.

Why?

We have plenty of them and we do not care for the mother nature.

If I write one plant a day and continue I may have to continue for years how we destroy our wealth of plants.

The plants going extinct were never recorded in our history and we have not even begun to take an inventory as a proactive exercise.

This is not to elaborate on that issue but to state how bamboo tree protects our river beds and roads that run along the rivers.

The do protect the embankments but what our guys do is to chop them at will since they are not protected by the local authorities.

River basin and embankment is nobody's business in this country.

It also act as a windbreaks.

It cools the air on a warm day with with gentle air currents.

Not only that it reduces our CO2 foot prints.

None of these are taken into accounts since our guys who gets to the parliament have never studied any including social science and not at all pure science.

They use environment issues to form green parties but never practice what they preach once they get there.

If we want to do as little as possible for our mother nature grow a few bamboos around river path and the surrounds.

Like eating a banana a day (not poisoned by UREA) is healthy for our life growing a bamboo a day would protect our rivers, roads and environment (air) too.

That is my message for today.

Raindrops and Coconut Palm

I asked some of my students to list 10 important points about coconut tree as a creative thinking exercise and I couldn't get anyone of them to think it as related to mother nature.

Then I told them we are the only animal species on planet earth who behave like aliens.

The coconut tree purifies the water and present us a drink superior to saline that we inject as a life support in an emergency. In the second world war it was used as saline substitute when things were in short supply. How they did I do not know but it is a heresay!

It gives us water to drink.

It cleans the carbon foot print of ours by taking in CO2 and releasing O2.

The two most important things the animal life needs for its survival but yet we forget to mentioned them but obsessed with coconut milk and coconut oil.

Why?

We tend to think we are the only important living animal on this planet.

We are the only selfish animals on this planet.

That is true and will remain true for the current century unless we open ourselves to creative thinking and awareness of our mother nature.

We build houses.

We build roofs to protect us from rain and sun.

If we take the plant kingdom.

The story is different.

It lives by the day under sunlight but rest by night but never sleeps.

It takes rain as survival god never complains if there is snow or frost

They are in constant touch with air currents and the wind

They are in harmony with all physical elements.

Remain and stay put for another day come sun or rain what it may.

When rain drops fall on the roof and runs through the gutters if makes a constant and a big racket and and I even find it difficult to sleep at night.

But when rain drops falls on tree tops and leaves there is no rackety pitch.

We only hear the wind blowing but raindrops hardly make a noise. They gently touch the leaf surface and trickle down gently to the soil. No big gush and the roots soaks in as much so that the water that seeps out is clear.

But on a rainy day in a city we see all rubbish and mud that comes out of the gutters and frequently see minor floods all over the place till the rain ceases.

There are no tress with roots to soak the extra water.

Coming back to coconut tree it leaves take the water in a peculiar way not sen in other smaller leaves. The peculiar way it handles water make it and excellent covering for roofs and thatched coconut leaves that used to cover the village huts did not make a big racket on a rainy day but the asbestos sheets that cover us now are totally different and alien to mother nature.

Mind you the coconut tree takes all the shocks of thunder and lightening too.

If not many of us would be dead by lightening.

The golden rule was not to rest under a tall tree in a thunder storm.

None of these came out of my students creative thinking exercise.

What the hell the education system is doing to them in schools and university?

I do not know.

It is said that even in America in the first two years in the university they do not gain any extra incites or creativity.

Why?

Education is now a money spinner.

No more creativity left in it now.

Make money when going is good but leave the students without opportunities.