Help me help mushrooms save the world!

Hello friend (and friends of friends),

I hope this message finds you in good health and high spirits. This is a personal appeal explaining something I’m putting my energy towards. I want

to give you the opportunity to learn about it and support it however you are able. Thanks

for reading.


You might have heard that mushrooms can help save the world. With your help I can work with mushrooms (and other amazing humans) this summer to help clean up oil pollution in Ecuador. I'm trying to raise $1000 to support this solution in the Amazon. Please read on to learn more. Any amount of support is helpful.

My name is Martin (marty) Dagoberto Driggs. Some of you know me as an outspoken proponent for environmental justice and the conscious evolution of our species. I am honored to be alive with each of you in this time of unprecedented change, complete with its daunting challenges and revolutionary solutions. Along my path as an Earth Activist, I have encountered this emerging culture of “solutionaries” who give me renewed hope for the future. I am hoping you, too, will share my excitement and offer your support.

Solutionaries are now at work in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where indigenous peoples of the once-pristine rainforest are living with the aftermath of decades of corporate abuse. Over a 30 year period, Texaco (now owned by Chevron) intentionally discharged over 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste into hundreds of unlined pits. As a result, birth defects and cancer rates are extremely high in local communities. Chevron has recently been found guilty after an 18 year long court battle, but the corporation still refuses to pay to clean up its mess. While Chevron avoids responsibility, an international (and inter-species) alliance is working to heal the damaged earth.

The Amazon Mycorenewal Project (AMP) is a ground-healing effort to apply recent advances in mushroom science (mycology) to actively break down toxic organic compounds found in the polluted Amazon (a process called “mycoremediation”). Amazingly, mushrooms have the ability to break down the most persistent toxic organic pollutants: long-chained hydrocarbons, PCB's, oil, dioxins and even TNT – mushrooms eat them for breakfast (and break them into less harmful compounds, like water, carbon dioxide, and fungal mass). Although it's been proven in the lab, there have been limited real-world applications.

I have been asked to join this team of scientists and advocates from the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ecuador this summer to help develop and apply methods of mycoremediation to clean up oil pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon. As an intern with the program, I'm able to contribute my formal scientific educational background in biotechnology and my perspective, skills and passion as an environmental activist. After th

is experience, I will be able to take my new skills and partnerships back to New Bedford, where mushrooms can help break down cancer-causing PCB's.

Everyone involved with the project is a volunteer, and we all pay our own airfare to Ecuador. I will be reallocating my current savings to seize this opportunity to contribute my energy to this cause. Interns also contribute and raise funds to help pay for the program and research materials costs. I am hoping that my extended networks of positive world-changers will be able to help support this work and defray my personal cost. My goal is $1000.

Donations in any amount will help. Tax-deductible donations can be made through the AMP's parent organization, the Cloud Forest Institute (link, below). Please be sure to add indicate that the donation is designated for "The AMP c/o Martin Driggs" so that it makes it to my fund.

Please let me know if you are able to support these efforts in any way (including ways beyond money) by emailing me at mdriggs.amp[at]gmail.com. Thank you for your support.

Also, for those in the Boston area, on Tuesday June 14th at 8p I will facilitate a discussion/short film screening on mycoremediation and the Amazon Mycorenewal Project, hosted by Evolver Boston and Music Ecology (a weekly future dance music showcase at the Wonder Bar in Allston.) I invite you to join us to learn more about the project, connect with other local solutionaries, and enjoy some local electronic music. (facebook event page)

Wherever you are and for everything you're doing. Thank you.

I am grateful for the opportunity to co-create with you this transformative culture of healing.

With Hope, Love and Gratitude,

Martin (marty) Dagoberto Driggs

mdriggs.amp[at]gmail.com

Links and Videos!:

Amazon Mycorenewal Project

http://amazonmycorenewal.org/

“A Solution to Pollution - Mycoremediation in the Ecuadorian Amazon”, short film by Nicola Peel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO1WjFRL_XA

“Crude”, acclaimed feature documentary by Joe Berlinger (trailer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTnm01lWsTg

ChevronToxico (Amazon Watch, campaign page)

http://chevrontoxico.com/

Paul Stamets TED Talk: 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY

Graduation: Exxon Mobil or a Sustainable Future?

A storm is brewing at my alma mater, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The CEO of Exxon Mobil is to give the commencement speech this year. Students are refusing to receive his words of wisdom. An incredible debate has engulfed the WPI community. If anything, it's getting people talking about some critical issues of our time. Here is my contribution to the conversation.

Exxon Mobile. The World's largest oil company, world-record profits in a time of global recession. Not only a particularly successful corporation (#1 or #2), a world economic force and world class tax dodger, but also a top spender on American politics. They are not just another company, they are at the head of what has become a new ruling class, a corporate plutarchy - a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of wealthy people. This is not a conspiracy theory, this is the world we're living in.

Thanks to the Citizens United Supreme Court case, corporations, now considered legal persons, have a Constitutional “free speech” right to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing elections. That means they have a LOT more free speech than any other citizen, and are much more invested in the course of politics. Not coincidentally, the government, now effectively by and for the Corporations, is moving towards policies which are more conducive to the efficient production of wealth at all costs - environmental, social or otherwise. That means, for instance, limiting the powers of the of the Environmental Protection Agency to effectively regulate carbon.

Not only is Exxon Mobile directly influencing our politicians and regulatory mechanisms, they have been engaging in a well documented cigarettes-are-good-for-you style disinformation campaign for years, spending more than 16 million dollars funding junk science, climate skeptic front groups and echo-chambers to keep us confused and apathetic.

Of course, as the largest oil company, they see a future where we remain addicted to oil “for decades”, as Rex, himself, projects. Would it really be that hard to believe that as powerful as they are, they wouldn't be making moves stay in that position?

It's not enough to have us continue our suicidal addiction to fossil fuels. They are directly participating in what is recognized as the most environmentally destructive practice on Earth: the extraction of the Canadian Tar Sands. We can forget about past oil spills and other apparently excusable errors in management. We can look to today to see deliberate actions of destruction and exploitation in the quest for ever increasing profits.

With their Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Oil, Exxon is currently expanding tar sands operations in Alberta, which, if you haven't heard, are ripping up Boreal forest ecosystems on native land to extract oil from the tar sands, using ridiculous amounts of fresh water ( 2.5 to 4.0 barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced) and leaving behind huge toxic lakes (visible from space), emitting record amounts of greenhouse gasses in the process (3 times more per barrel than conventional oil)- facts. Exxon is currently trying to figure out how to ship gigantic truckloads of mining equipment through indigenous lands, a federally protected corridor, in order to reach processing sites in Alberta as part of a 50 year expansion. The route and loads, if approved, will create a permanent industrial corridor right through the heart of Nez Perce (indigenous) territory in order to facilitate the exploitation of other indigenous territories in Alberta (Recent post from former VP Candidate and indigenous leader, Winona Laduke)

In short... there appear to be more than a few reasons why some people of conscience would hear a call to action when their alma mater decides to invite a representative and Chief Executive Officer of this corporation to offer his blessings to their graduating class. This presents a most serious and symbolic opportunity for each person who sees it as such to choose the vision they hold for the world: either one in which we remain addicted to oil and exploitation, or one in which we have a clean, efficient, and equitable economy. Some graduates will make a choice not to listen to the words of this man, and instead hear Richard Heinberg speak, thought leader from the Post Carbon Institute. Those students, may in effect be choosing to not complete the graduation ritual in front of their parents and friends, as they had once pictured. And when the commencement speech is interrupted, it very well may tarnish some memories for a few people. For others, it may represent their initiation into conscious global citizenship. Either way, in the scheme of things, climate change threatens all Life on the planet, and this guy is at the helm of a ship bringing us towards that future. The school made a big mistake inviting him to give the speech. Ultimately any fault for an interruption lies on them, as they have presented a choice of conscience that some can not turn down.

Re: Incinerators - my statement to the MA DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection)

The DEP recently held a series of hearings to obtain public comment on their "zero-waste" plan. Members of the local group Massachusetts Coalition for Clean Air mobilized community members to attend and deliver statements, with particular attention being given to the part of the plan that provides for trash, including construction and demolition debris, to be incinerated at plants across the state. (Also, see this post from Toxics Action Center on the hearing) This is what I had to say...



My name is marty driggs. I'm a Community Mobilization Leader with the New Bedford POWER project - People Organizing for Wealth and Ecological Restoration. We are local New Bedford residents who are dedicated to helping our fellow community members restore the equity, economy, and ecology of our area and our Nation.

Let me start by saying, combustion of any kind is a foolish band-aid of a non-solution. We have no way to capture the carbon dioxide that will inevitably be dumped into our common atmosphere. What about greenhouse gases?! We are in a state of climate emergency! Carbon dioxide levels are higher than they've been in the past 900,000 years! Leading NASA scientist, James Hansen told us in a peer-reviewed journal in January 2008 that [in order to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted we must maintain atmospheric carbon dioxide below 350 ppm.] We are currently at 392 ppm. So clearly, any proposed solution that includes combustion is not only a false solution, but a big problem.

Further, the introduction of plasma gasification into the mix of proposed solutions for our waste problems provides a cracked door for Dirty old King Coal to insert his dirty foot. Plasma gasification of trash is just one step away from coal plasma gasification, bringing with it the dirty Death Cycle of coal; mountaintop removal coal mining and other forms of strip mining which are sacrificing communities and ecosystems across Southern Appalachia and many areas of the global South.

Now, if I may expand our level of perception just a bit: As a world, as a species, we've found ourselves in quite a sticky situation. Our habits, and most significantly, our economic model, has systematically destabilized and dismantled the very life support systems of our planet which allow us to live here in the first place.

I would like to offer my vision, or rather my prediction for the future: If, in 10 years, there is even a global economy to speak of, we will have eliminated the very idea of waste. Like Julia Butterfly Hill says, "There is no away." Further, the concept of "waste" is purely a human construct. In Nature, there is no such thing as waste. "Waste" is simply a resource out of place (and I'm not talking about a resource for combustion).

If we are going to rely on market forces, that is, if capitalism has any hope of evolving from a life-destroying construct to one which honors and enriches our lives, then we have to talk about extending producer responsibilities. The DEP master plan makes mention of "extended producer responsibilities" but lacks any teeth and is clearly not a priority. If we are going to have the kind of systemic change we need in order to avoid GLOBAL SUICIDE, we must make this a legislative priority. We must internalize the true cost of products (including recycling). We have to create market incentives to eliminate the production of toxins and make products more easily recycleable.

Massachusetts has the opportunity to lead the way in this effort, and we should cooperate with other states to codify the law to create cradle-to-cradle production and UPcycling streams. We have the opportunity to transform this economy from one dependent upon ever increasing amounts of energy, dependent upon high consumption and throughput, and implicitly, high waste, to one which is life-honoring and sustainable. Finally, we have the timely opportunity to create good, green jobs for the people of the commonwealth.

In conclusion, we need a more holistic perspective if we're going to solve this problem. We must address the root causes of our global conundrum. As Einstein put it, "the solution will not be created by the same frame of mind which created the problem in the first place."

To bring it back to tangible demands. We need stronger legislative provisions, with sharper teeth, and less loopholes, which serve the people and NOT the corporate interests and their predatory agendas. We must create an economy that is not only waste-free, but free of the very idea of "waste."

Mycoremediation - The Power of Mushrooms

A little paper I wrote for my Permaculture Design Course back in 2007.

"Mycoremediation" is a new term for a process that has been occuring
for millions of years, and is now being proposed, by some, as a
powerful tool for the remediation of soil and water contaminated by
man-made toxic pollutants. The most visible public presentation of
the idea comes from mushroom guru Paul Stamets, in his 2005 book,
Mycelium Running. I decided to see if this "new" idea was yet being
applied, and if not, why. I was also interested in finding out where
research was happening, as I might be looking for a graduate school
program in the near future. What follows is a brief summary of some
highlights from my research findings, which included a broad overview
of mycoremediation. A large list of leads on research groups and
firms were amassed and are at some degree of organization at this
point.
Fungi, as decomposers, have the ability to digest plant-based
molecules. A wide range of man-made compounds are synthesized from
oil, a substance produced by ancient plant material. Some of the most
dangerous toxins; PCB's, Dioxins neurotoxins and even TNT, to name a
few, apparently resemble natural plant molecules enough to be digested
by fungi present in the soil. The wood-digesting house-wreckers known
as brown and white rot, together with the oyster mushroom and A. niger
are seemingly the most popular candidates for use in mycoremediation.
Stamets stresses the idea that the best place to look for powerful
remediating fungi is at site of contamination. Mycologists and other
field researchers have, in fact, isolated a large number of species
capable of breaking down contaminants.
After reading Mycelium Running, one gets the impression that this
field of remediation is a rising science, about to break through to
popular application. However, it appears that Paul Stamets remains to
be the most vocal proponent of mycoremediation, at least in the public
realm. In his book, he even proposes one major hurdle to widespread
application: many of the techniques of mycoremediation are subject to
patent protection. Stamets, himself, holds several patents. Since
most contaminated sites are polluted by many several contaminants, its
easy to inadvertently step on toes.
Although there appears to be no formal graduate programs in
mycoremediation, there are a great many research groups within the
academic realm, studying the degradative powers of fungi. They
publish in journals like "International Biodeterioration and
Biodegradation", "Bioremediation Journal," and "Applied
Microbiological Biotechnology." Much of this work is in the
laboratory, using single contaminants in control conditions. However,
a search for recent articles with keywords "soil bioremediation"
returned almost 200 articles in the last year. Many reviews of the
literature close with remarks to the effect of "this promising field
lacks outdoor trials" or "the fate of pollutants in the ecosystem is
unknown."
According to a book "Biotechnology for the environment: Soil
remediation," bioreactors are already being used at an industrial
scale in Germany to clean soil contaminated with PAHs (persistent
aromatic hydrocarbons). The book outlines several bioprocess
techniques, most relying on the indigenous fungal community of the
soil, and gives the impression of demonstrated viability of industrial
application of some types of mycoremediation.
As a matter of coincidence: during my trip to the Bay area in
California, a recent oil spill in San Francisco was being cleaned up
using oyster mushrooms. Not surprisingly, Paul Stamets was the one
supplying the innoculant and consultation on this project, for the
non-profit organization, matter of trust. Activists trespassed on the
restricted site of the oil spill in order to absorb the slicks with
mats of human hair, which are now being digested by oyster mushrooms.
There seems to be a general consensus that mycromediation is
promising tool for future regeneration of ecological systems. It is a
noteworthy consideration for students of the regenerative science of
permaculture. It will be interesting to see how the field develops.
Fortunately, the patents are only good for 17 years.
The research for this project was conducted mostly using the internet
and the library resources at my alma mater, Worcester Polytechnic
Institute. Using interlibrary loan, I ordered Mycelium Running and
several other books found through internet searches for books on
"mycoremediation" or "bioremediation." One particularly helpful
research tool is Google scholar, which searches academic books and
papers. Science Direct was another useful tool to find recent papers.

Resources:

S. Agathos and W. Reineke, eds. (2002) Biotechnology for the
Environment: Soil Remediation
-offers a look at industrial application of bioreactors and bioremediation
Harbhajan Singh (2006) Mycoremediation: Fungal Bioremediation
-an encyclopedia of research on the degradative powers of fungi, heavy
on science
Paul Stamets (2005) Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
-well-known and inspiring book on the power of mushrooms

another weirld is possible

big ups to the love police

no time like the twenty dime

i'm very excited about a string of documentaries which, to me, appear to resonate with our collective psyche in its various stages of awakening. they reinforce what i know many of us are feeling. we know that things are changing in a big way.

in lak'ech and namaste

ReGENERATION Trailer from Phillip Montgomery on Vimeo.

ps. please suggest any others that I should keep an eye out for!
pps. thanks scallie for the post title

Change the meme.

Memes are our cultural genes - theoretical units of cultural transmission - essentially, the pool of ideas, assumptions and programming of our society. Like genes, some memes end up being fatal. Fortunately, like their genetic counterparts, they are also mutable (susceptible to change), and will themselves, at some point, cease to exist.

ie. [watch]