We all share the same mitochondrial DNA...we are a human family. We get our mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell) from our mother. It is like a symbiotic bacteria in our cells.

In 1987, studies of mitochondrial DNA (which tracks maternal ancestry), suggested that all human beings were descendants of one woman who may have lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

We also have other mothers in common. We all live on Mother Earth and in Mother Nature. This week we'll take a break from the news and honor Mothers...

Mother Earth
Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot

(3.5 min) The first comment below the clip...
I grew up in poverty in South Korea during the 70s. I must have been about 10 or 11 years old when I watched Carl Sagan's Cosmos on our tiny TV and it made a huge impression on me. I remember saving money to buy the book, translated into Korean, which I still own. I ended up migrating to Australia and eventually completed a PhD in theoretical physics. Thank you, Carl, for inspiring a young person so far away. It seems we were also connected to each other on this tiny blue dot.

We are a star ship, and our star is the sun. The sun powers our planet in many ways and on many levels. Stars are atom generators as they fuse (in our sun's case) hydrogen into helium. As stars age the fusion sequences changes and eventually stars create all the elements of the periodic table.

Our sun is main sequence star developing along the lower track toward a white dwarf where iron is generated. The heavier elements are thought to come from supernovas.
We, and everything around us, are stardust. As Joni wrote:

We live on a dynamic planet that is always in flux. It may be that we are experiencing a magnetic reversal. We even saw an aurora here in Alabama for the first time in my memory. These colors in the sky are an interaction of Earth's magnetic field and the charged particles of the solar wind.
We learned that the magnetic field reversed from looking at the iron laden rock on the seafloor. It recorded those reversals and led to the discovery of seafloor spreading.

The magnetic fields are mirrored on both sides of the spreading center. This was a primary piece of evidence leading to the understanding of plate tectonics. The idea that pieces of the earth's crust move around the planet.

Understanding these movements provides an understanding of mountain building, volcanoes, ocean formation, and continental growth from terranes.

All this is driven by the heat within the planet forming giant convection currents.

The internal heat of Earth is thought to be from meteor collisions, friction of deep plate movement, and radioactivity.

We are a unique planet because we have water in all three phases...solid, liquid, and gas. The changes from phase to phase also change the Earth. Today about 70% of Earth's surface are ocean. In fact when seen from space our planet might be better named, Ocean. Water's phase changes shape Earth's surface.

The water cycle drives an endless cycle of erosion and deposition.

The Earth changes in many ways. The axis on which the Earth spins also shifts, and may be a reason for the coming and going of ice ages.

During an ice age, the water is frozen on the land surface and ocean levels are low. Sea level rises as the ice sheets melt.

Add life to the dynamic changes to our physical world and we really have change.

Mother Nature

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
Chief Crowfoot (1830 – 1890)
Our lives are so short, these Earth scale changes are imperceptible.

In geologic time, ecosystems come and go along with the lifeforms.
The valley I look over was once an ocean community.

Full of ancient starfish relatives.

The mountain top was a forest of Fern and Moss Trees.

Some of which were compressed into coal. Some were petrified as large fossils.

Despite the fact we know ecological change is inevitable, we can work with nature to improve what we have degraded. Here in Alabama our soils were eroded due to decades of cotton with its slow growth and wide rows. As a soil scientist, I see soils as key. We used to speak of sustainable agriculture. Now the term has changed to regenerative agriculture...the idea that we improve the health of the system rather than just maintain it. Of course the terms have changed throughout my lifetime: organic agriculture, biodynamic agriculture, permaculture, agroecology, holistic management and so on. They all encompass the idea of taking care of our soils and the land...leaving Soil,earth, healthier than we found it.

Humans have interacted with the planet, first as hunter gathers, and then as farmers. This is our intimate relationship with Mother Earth...it is even called husbandry or sometimes stewardship. No one has done more to promote sane stewardship than the lunatic farmer Joel Salatin.

(66 min) Few things are more valuable in life than the food we eat and the soil that grows it. So today, we have the great honor of talking with Joel Salatin. Named "the most famous farmer in America", Joel has spent his career advocating for sustainable farming practices, and pioneering models that show how food can be grown & raised in ways that:
are regenerative to our topsoils
are more humane to livestock
produce much healthier, tastier food
contribute profitably to the local economy
Who wouldn't want that?
Well, the government and Big Ag for starters.
Joel refers to himself a "lunatic farmer" because so many of the changes he thinks our food systems need are either illegal under current law or mightily resisted by the deep-pocketed corporations controlling production and distribution.
But that doesn't stop him from his passion of inspiring others to take a better path. He co-owns and operates, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with produce and pastured beef, pork, poultry, as well as forestry products. On the farm, Joel and his staff pilot new practices, mentor young farmers, educate the public, and produce an excellent set of workshops for those looking to truly 'get their hands dirty' learning how to farm sustainably.
He's a true hero to many, including me. And I predict he'll be one of yours, too, by the end of this discussion.

Allan Savory was the first to educate people of the power of grazing ruminants, and their ability to restore ecosystems. His famous 22 minute TED Talk revealed his work.
(47 min) Running out of Time | Documentary on Holistic Management https://savory.global/

Savory says, ruminants (any animal that feeds on grass) should be kept in tight herds in small sections of pasture and moved frequently—as soon as the forage has been lightly clipped but not destroyed. Timing is critical. After being browsed by the animals, the plants draw
on nutrients stored in their roots to regrow leaves, and that new foliage provides energy that allows the plants to replenish their root systems. Overgrazing occurs if livestock feed again before this cycle runs its course, which can happen even with traditional rotational practices. The root systems weaken, eventually causing the plants to die. In regenerative grazing, animals return to an area only after the vegetation has fully recovered.
...
Savory says his theory of livestock management replicates—and aims to restore—an ancient cycle. The original vegetation of the world’s grasslands co-evolved with enormous herds of Cape buffalo, elephants, bison and other large grazers. These animals stayed in compact herds to protect themselves against predators and moved often to find grass unsullied by their urine and dung. Because they grazed for only a short time in any area, the forage plants rebounded rapidly, fertilized and watered by the animals' excrement. Their hooves trampled desiccated and inedible plants, thus increasing sunlight and nutrients for “good” vegetation and breaking up hard soil crusts, creating conditions conducive to water infiltration and seed germination. The crushed leaves and stalks from less desirable plants provided natural mulch that retained soil moisture and prevented runoff during rainstorms. The livestock’s excrement added nutrients to the soil and further improved its ability to retain water. In turn, better soil produced bigger and thicker grasses that could support more animals. Better soil also harbored more carbon.
...
Savory insists that raising livestock is the only practical way to combat environmental destruction and global warming. “Humans have no ability to sequester atmospheric gases in the soils without livestock,” he says. “We have only one option if we are serious about climate change. It cannot be done with current technology—nor any technology we can imagine. We have to change the public attitude from vilifying livestock to vilifying the current reductionist livestock-management practices.”

Savory’s transformative methods in action in the bone-dry Karoo region of South Africa: The land on the left side of this fence line started out as bare ground and small desert bushes several decades ago. The neighboring land on the right remained under conventional management over the same period.
Allan Savory has used cows to restore degraded African savanna and increased water retention, native wildlife, and tourism as a result.

Allen Williams makes a compelling case that grazing ruminant animals are needed to regenerate our soils...
Cows Can Help Save the World w/ Dr. Allen Williams

The Peter Byck Show - "When you stand on healthy soil, there’s a universe beneath your feet.”
00:01 - Nature got it wrong? We don't think so.
00:50 - Introducing Dr. Allen Williams
02:00 - Are cows the problem?
05:39 - Why would you fight nature?
09:40 - It's not just cows. Plant based agriculture causes problems too.
11:41 - Why isn't regenerative agriculture studied more in universities?
12:57 - Problems with current regenerative agriculture studies.
17:35 - How good can things get when you work with nature?
23:06 - Rewilding vs regenerative agriculture
28:14 - The problems with industrial agriculture
33:19 - The ethics of eating meat worldwide
36:00 - Eating vegetables won't fix everything
37:16 - How AMP grazing and regenerative agriculture can improve the world

Many farmers focus on crops and much of my research was focused on no-till farming.

(10 min)

Our mulched garden hasn't been plowed on over 35 years. However I did subsoil over each bed when we started, and we plant two of our ten beds each year in sweet potatoes which we dig, or more or less plow or turn. After all these decades we have rich fertile soil full of worms.

There are many heroes restoring Earth's ecosystems.
Green Gold: Regreening the Desert | John D. Liu | (47 min)
Environmental filmmaker and Commonland Ambassador John D. Liu documents large-scale ecosystem restoration projects in China, Africa, South America and the Middle East, highlighting the enormous benefits for people and planet of undertaking these efforts.
“I believe we must empower everyone on Earth to understand and participate in restoration of the Earth.” – John D. Liu

Agriculture is a human focused activity, but there's plenty of restoration projects needed for both man and Mother Nature. Rivers come to mind. Think of the people in Flint and so many other communities drinking contaminated water. Katie and Jordan talked about the on going dilemma the other week (13 min)
Full interview here.
Jordan Chariton discusses water privatization across the U.S. and talks about his book, "We the Poisoned: Exposing the Flint Water Crisis Cover-Up and the Poisoning of 100,000 Americans," the story behind how the government poisoned a major American city— and how they’re still covering it up

The Story — and Fate — of the Hudson River
For the past century, pollution has been an outsized part of the Hudson River’s history. Proposed NYC storm barriers, oil-barge anchorages, and other new challenges come with ecological costs. Can activists and environmentally conscious regulators restore the legendary river to its former glory?

Food maybe a way to control us, but water is an even more powerful tool. Today, 2.2 billion people – 1 in 4 – lack access to safe water and 3.5 billion people – 2 in 5 – lack access to a safe toilet.

Food and water are our basic needs and main reliance on our planet. However many people have a spiritual link to nature...especially indigenous peoples.
"Faith in wilderness, or in nature as a creative force... is a
philosophy, a faith; it is even, if you like, a religion. It puts your
ultimate trust not in human intelligence, but in whatever it is that
created human intelligence."
- Joseph Wood Krutch

Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondria are interesting organelles. They are thought to have been bacteria which became absorbed by primitive cells and used to create energy.

They are able to reproduce in our cells and we have hundreds of them in all our cells.

Mitochondria generate our energy molecule ATP

For all living cells, ATP is like the gas in a car's fuel tank. Without ATP, cells wouldn't have a source of usable energy, and the organism would die.

In 1987, a group of genet­icists published a surprising study in the journal Nature.­ The­ researchers examined the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) taken from 147 people across all of today's major racial groups. These researchers found that all modern humans descended from one of two branches in humanity's family tree. One of these branches consists of nothing but African lineage; the other contains all other groups, including some African lineage.
­Even more impressive, the geneticists concluded that all human beings on Earth right now can trace their lineage back to the Eve gene, a single common female ancestor whom scientists called the Mitochondrial Eve. She lived around 200,000 years ago. Because one entire branch of the human lineage is of African origin and the other contains African lineage as well, the study's authors concluded Africa is the place where this woman lived.
...
Biologists have been aware of mitochondria since the 19th century. But it wasn't until the late 1970s that the value of using the DNA within mitochondria to track ancient human history became clear.
Mitochondrial DNA differs in a few key ways from nuclear DNA — the variety of DNA located within the nucleus of each of your cells determines your eye color, racial features, susceptibility to certain diseases and other defining characteristics. mtDNA, on the other hand, contains codes for making proteins and carrying out the other processes mitochondria undertake.
The genetic material you carry in the form of nuclear DNA are the result of a merger between your mother's and father's DNA — a merger called recombination. mtDNA, however, almost exclusively derives from your mother.
This is because the egg of a female human contains lots of mtDNA, while male sperm contains just a bit of mitochondria. One of the functions of a single mitochondrion is generating power for the cell that contains it, and sperm use a few mitochondria in the tail to power their race toward the egg for fertilization. These mitochondria are destroyed after the sperm fertilizes the egg, and thus any mtDNA that could be passed on from the father's side is lost.
...
Given that researchers believe Eve lived duri­ng a time when there were other women alive, how is it that humans alive today descended from her alone? There are a couple of explanations for how only Eve’s mtDNA alone could have survived, and most likely a combination of converging factors is responsible.
...
A report issued in 1998 concluded that about 70,000 years ago, the number of living humans dropped to only about 15,000 people on the whole planet...The event that caused the near loss of our species was an eruption of Mount Toba in Sumatra. This volcanic eruption was so immense that it lowered global temperatures, killed off the animals and plants that nourished humans and spurred the coldest ice age the planet has seen, lasting 1,000 years.
The Mitochondrial Eve theory evokes similar scenarios. If the human population became dramatically reduced, and there weren’t many women around to have kids, the stage is set for one “Lucky Mother,” as Cann puts it, to emerge as a most recent common ancestor.
It’s possible that after a few generations, the mtDNA of the other women died out. If a woman produces only male offspring, she won't pass on her mtDNA since children don’t receive mtDNA from their father. This means that while the woman’s sons will have her mtDNA, her grandchildren won’t, and her line will be lost.
It’s possible that this was the cause of Eve emerging as the sole “Lucky Mother,” who in essence gave birth to us all.

We are indeed a family of humans, and our Mothers have carried the message all these millennia.
So Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers reading, to Mother Earth, and Mother Nature...all of whom we depend on for our lives!

I thought this paired well with Carl's pale blue dot. I'm not wild about the god is watching us...sadly it is Big Brother watching us. None the less a nice song sung by the writer, Julie Gold

From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.

From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace,
it's the voice of every man.

From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.

From a distance we are instruments
marching in a common band.
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace.
They're the songs of every man.
God is watching us. God is watching us.
God is watching us from a distance.

From a distance you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for.

From a distance there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves,
it's the heart of every man.

It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves.
This is the song of every man.
And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance.