I Want a New Drug

One quarter of our medications come from natural sources. Additionally, about 70% of the most widely used drugs today are models of natural chemical compounds, mostly from plants, but others have even been derived fungi and bacteria. Scientists are currently optimistic about a protein contained in vampire bat saliva which is currently being tested anticoagulant and a possible cure for thrombosis.

The search for potential cures (pharmaceutical or bioprospecting) from natural origins is a strong argument for forest preservation as so much has yet to be discovered. It is estimated that less than 0.1% of known plant species has been examined for potential medicinal use.

Salix alba, White Willow, origin of aspirin

Lost in the forest...

Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig

and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart. 

Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves. 

Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind
 

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind 

cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood--- 

and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent.  

                                                                          Pablo Neruda

                                                                          

                                                                          



Good Vibrations:     http://bit.ly/1RN5IRC                                                  

We Are the World

    ‘’One of the penalties of an ecological education is that

one lives alone in a world of wounds’’   

-Aldo Leopold, American conservationist 

Born on this day in 1887, Aldo Leopold is considered by many to be the most influential conservationist of the 20^th century. His research demonstrates highly advanced thinking and the most innovative practice across virtually the entire spectrum of natural resource conservation, policy and management in the first half of the twentieth century.

Educated at Yale,  he went on to become a professor at the University of Wisconsin and published more than 500 scientific works and essays. Also a forester, philosopher, educator,  outdoor enthusiast and writer, he is best known for his work, A Sand County Almanac.

Leopold maintained that we need to think of the environment in terms of a community that includes us as human beings. His innovative concept of the “Land Ethic” broadened the idea of community to include “soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively.’’

Wild Thing !

Highland Wildcat (Felis silvestris grampia) 

 

The Scottish or Highland wildcat (Felis sylvestris grampia)  is one of Britain’s most endangered species and only remaining native feline! Part of Scottish history and heritage, the wildcat has populated Britain for over 9000 years and long been admired by the folk of the Scottish Highlands.

One of the main threats to the species is hybridization, as Highland wildcats often breed with domestic cats.  Not only does is it damaging to the genetic integrity of the species, it can seriously compromise the physiology of the animal, causing pain and suffering throughout its life. A progressive neutering program is underway, as is a conservation program sponsored by the RZSS (Royal Zoological Society of Scotland).

   T.S. Eliot  Naming Cats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXkLgtusza4