Can We Feed the World and Sustain the Planet? – Scientific American

November 2011

in Self-awareness

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How aware are we of our food choices and their impact?

How are we going to deal with the food issues of the future?

What actions can we, as individuals, take to help? Or are the solutions limited to policy changes and technological developments?

I just read an interesting article in the November 2011 issue of Scientific American by Jonathan Foley called Can We Feed the World and Sustain the Planet?.

Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, highlights three major food issues facing humanity in the near future, as well as a five-point plan for addressing them.

Three Food Problems

1. End hunger.

Over a billion people go hungry. We should do something about that.

2. Double food production by 2050.

In order to deal with the increasing population, and the increasing wealth and living standards of that population, current food production will have to double by 2050.

3. Do (1) and (2) while drastically reducing agriculture’s damage to the environment.

We already use over 38% of the earth’s ice-free land for crops, pastures, and rangelands for lifestock. There is little room for expansion. There are fertilizer and pesticide runnoff problems. Water is a limited resource. Tropical forests are being cleared at an alarming rate. Etc. etc.

What can we do about it?

[click here to keep reading…]

Human Behavioral Biology – 01 – Introduction

November 2011

in Self-awareness

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This post is part of a series summarizing Human Behavioral Biology, taught by Robert Sapolsky at Stanford University in 2010. Lecture videos are available for free online.

Thinking In Buckets

Sapolsky starts out by introducing a concept about how our brains think about stuff: we create boundaries – i.e. ‘buckets’ – around ideas.

These buckets can influence our memory, our language, and our ability to see the ‘big picture’.

For example, where does violet stop and red start on the following scale? Different cultures have different words for colours – for example, not having a word for orange – and this can influence their beliefs about the world!

Another example: when people are asked to memorize the following shapes,

they find it much easier to remember at a later time whether they had been shown a triangle rather than the particular squiggly shape above.

An implication of our bucketing minds is that we are bad at differentiating facts that fall within the same category. Two shades of red are labelled ‘red’.

A second larger implication is that when we focus on categories while talking about behavior, we loose out on the big picture.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

[click here to keep reading…]

Ecuador – Day 9-16 – Quilotoa Loop

November 2011

in Life + Travel

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The next portion of our trip took us through the Quilotoa Loop, an assortment of small town surrounded by mountains and away from busy roads and cities.

Day 9-12 – Isinlivi

The hike down to Isinlivi

It was time for us to get out of the city and into nature to really see the mountains. Isinlivi certainly delivered.

The bus from Latacunga to Isinlivi was relatively short. For the last leg of the trip we had the bus driver drop us off at the top of the mountain pass and we walked the remaining few hours down to the town.

It being out first real foray into hiking up in the mountains, we were blown away (figuratively).

Llullu Llama, our hostel, was fantastic: mounds of vegetarian food for breakfast and dinner, lots of places to hang out and relax, and the greatest view from a bathroom I’ve ever seen!

Llullu Llama bathroom view

From here we did several hikes, including a 5 hour trek to a small nearby town from which we could see mountains in an amazing 360 panorama. Awesome.

Day 13 – Chugchilan

Despite the awesomeness of Isinlivi, we did have to eventually move on. On the 13th day we hiked from Isinlivi to Chugchilan, the next bigger town on the Quilotoa Loop. We only stayed on night before moving on.

Day 14-16 – Quilotoa Crater

The Quilotoa Crater

And finally, the place that gives the Loop its name, we made it to the Quilotoa Crater.

We got there by truck from Chugchillan, which was an adrenaline-filled ride standing up in the back as we careened along the narrow mountain roads. Apparently a light *meep meep* is sufficient warning for oncoming traffic when zooming around blind corners along the edge of a cliff. :P

Crater Kayaking

Chillin on the edge

The first day there we merely settled in and explored the tiny town after find a place to stay and eating some food.

The second day there we hiked down to the crater lake and kayaked around. Anyone else concerned about the bubbling water?

The third day there we hiked along a portion of the rim of the crater. where we hung out, played cards, looked down over a cloud range near the coast, and watched some storms roll in.

Highlight: watching a clear starry sky while sitting on the very edge of the crater, with two separate thunder storms flashing in the distance, and watching the moon rise from behind the thunderstorm into the sky. Epic.

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Ecuador – Day 3-8 – Quito

November 2011

in Life + Travel

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We have survived our first week in Ecuador!

Day 3 – Heading to Old Quito

The daily incoming storm

We did little today other than wander the city of Quito and make our way to Old Quito, where there are many old colonial buildings, and found a good hostel.

We attempted to head up the Teleferico (basically a gondola) that takes riders up 1,000m above the city, but the lineup was insane. Instead we watched the incoming storm and then rushed back to the hostel before it hit us (we were unsuccessful!).

Day 4 – Climbing Pichincha

Touching the clouds at 4,600m

Definitely a highlight.

From the top of the Teleferico you can continue to hike up the nearest mountain, Pichincha.

We came very close to the top of Pichincha (4,794 meters) after a ~2h hike, where the view was phenomenal, we got to touch the clouds, and our lungs and heads took a good beating from the altitude.

The header image for this post is from the trail back down from Pichincha.

Day 5 – La Basilica

La Basilica

Also a big highlight.

After wandering the city for a bit, we headed to the Basilica, a very large and old church near the center of Old Quito.

At one point a large stainglass window was missing a key piece, so we took the opportunity to crawl through and get onto the roof.

However, after taking several photos and patting outselvers on the back for our cleverness, we realized that there were tourists way up in the top of the towers, legitimately, with a much better view than us! Turns out you’re allowed to the very top of the church’s towers, something we were not expecting – and something you’d never be allowed to do in North America!

View from the tower

I can climb anything

Clouds attacking the city

Day 6 – Reading & Learning

This was a take-it-easy day where we did lots of lounging and reading, and I watched the first few classes of Human Behavioral Biology from Stanford Univesity (more about that soon).

Day 7 – Real coffee

Quito night lights

Real coffee is the sweetest thing in the world when you’ve been drinking instant, which is largely served throughout Quito.

Today being the first ‘regular’ day in Quito (non-holiday and non-weekend) most stores were open, including Cafeto, a fantastic coffee shop where the owner basically let us set up camp there and get comfortable. The North American prices were more than worth the 6 hours we spend there!

We closed off the week spending our last evening in Quito on the roof of our hostel playing cards with two fellow travellers.

A great way to go.

Day 8 – Leaving Quito

The 'Regulars'

Today we finally left Quito after a week and caught a bus to Latacunga, a smaller city to the south of Quito, which is very central to many volcanoes, mountains and National Parks.

But we couldn’t leave without having breakfast at our ‘regular’ place, where an awesome elderly Ecuadorian served us up fantastic eggs almost every morning we’ve been here.

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