Boom Forests! Climate Champ–Luiz Rocha, Got Science? It’s A Podcast!!

PARIS’S BOOM FOREST!

We’ve talked about a couple of companies doing big things, building miniforests using the Miyawaki Method in their specific towns in countries around the globe. Add to that list, BoomForest!, out of Paris, France. Boomforest believes everyone can restore the ecosystem around them. That the Miyawaki method is accessible to anyone. 

According to their website, they are but simple citizens who experimented with the method, achieved some success and are now helping other people who want to experiment on their own and share the knowledge. The key to any good Miyawaki Method planting organization is understanding their specific location’s potential natural vegetation, or PNV.

PNV is widely used in modern conservation and renaturation projects to predict the most adapted species for a definite ecotope. Ecotopes are the smallest ecologically distinct landscape features in a landscape mapping and classification system. A better way to think of an ecotope is “the particular portion, […], of the physical world that forms a home for the organisms which inhabit it”. In other words, ecotope means hyperlocal biodiversity. Maintaining biodiversity is a key component of the natural world remaining resilient in the face of climate change.

Native species being considered having optimum ecological resilience for their native environment, and the best potential to enhance biodiversity.

To determine “natural” vegetation, scientists research the original vegetation of a land through retrospective ecology.

How is BoomForest different from its competitors, and why does BoomForest matter to us? Mostly from their willingness to openly share their business model. While all Miyawaki Method forest growers we’ve found so far extol the virtues of the method, BoomForest actually treats it like open source software. Their Launching a Project section provides for free all the information you need to know to grow your own mini, pocket, corner, or micro forest. Boom!

DEEPER DIVE: BoomForest, Ecotope, Launching a Project

CLIMATE CHAMPION, LUIZ ROCHA

A hundred meters (350 feet) or more beneath the ocean surface in the Maldives lies a twilight zone whose wondrous corals and strange life remain unexplored. In pioneering diving expeditions, a leading expert in the study of fish, Luiz Rocha, plans to survey these deep reefs to find and describe new species and make the case for their protection.

Rocha grew up in coastal Brazil. It was upbringing that inspired him to become a scuba diver, and then a master diver, eventually mastering the highly technical diving required to reach depths 150 meters (about 500 feet) below the surface.

Rocha now deep dives in the Maldives to see, learn about and document Mesophotic coral reefs. Mesophotic corals are part of the Mesophotic coral ecosystem, deep communities of reef building corals that occur on the deeper edges of coral reef zones in areas where there is still sufficient light to support photosynthesis.

The Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, is a chain of islands long regarded as one of the last coral refuges on Earth. Globally, shallow coral reefs are dying from the stresses of climate change. With its national income dependent on coral tourism and fishing, the Maldives government is keen to learn how to protect this precious national asset and discover whether deep reefs can serve as a haven for surface corals and the sea life they sustain.

Says Rocha, “I want to protect coral reefs because they are unique products of an evolutionary process that took millions and millions of years. To me it is like art.”

Why does Luiz Rocha matter to us? He has already completed the first step in his latest  project, an underwater expedition in the Maldives’ Rasdhoo Atoll, during which he discovered eight new species of fish. Rocha is a 2021 Rolex Awards Laureate.

DEEPER DIVE: Rolex, CA Academy of Sciences, Wikipedia

GOT SCIENCE? WHAT A PODCAST!

The Got Science? podcast features one-on-one discussions with scientists and experts about their research and how it applies to current issues like climate change, missile defense, autonomous vehicles, and more.

It was started in 2017  by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The Union of Concerned Scientists itself was founded in 1969 by scientists and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to the website, that year, the Vietnam War was at its height and Cleveland’s heavily polluted Cuyahoga River had caught fire. Appalled at how the United States government was misusing science, the UCS founders, including Henry Kendall and Kurt Gottfried, drafted a statement calling for scientific research to be directed away from military technologies and toward solving pressing environmental and social problems.

The UCS goals are to share information, seek the truth, and let our findings guide our conclusions.

The Got Science? Podcast is a wonderful evolution of those goals. The podcast itself is actually a twofer. It’s wonderfully hosted by Colleen MacDonald in English, and in Spanish by Michelle Rama-Poccia (Poscha). And that’s why Got Science? matters to us. Because science, the climate crisis, and a solutions oriented approach to climate change doesn’t happen only in English.

Got Science? is backed by a kickass team of writers and editors. The one-on-one interviews are lively, the music is funky and the solutions-oriented approach is upbeat and inspirational. But wait! There’s more. Got Science? is more than a podcast. Like The Climate Daily podcast, Got Science? also provides its listeners with additional information on its website. For example, there’s an Issues section, a Reports section, and a section chock full of Activist Resources.

Check out Got Science? wherever you get your podcasts.

DEEPER DIVE: GotScience?, Union of Concerned Scientists