Hi

I see some forum members have already shared my recent BBC article and Living on Earth interview about my new book on figs Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers: The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees.

Thanks for that!

I thought you might also like the story below, which I am reposting here from my blog....
Best wishes
Mike

Can living fig-tree bridges save lives in a changing climate?

In 1841, a young Scotsman called Henry Yule was exploring the Khasi Hills of north-east India when he came upon something no other European had ever reported. There, in that challenging landscape of thick rainforest and perilous gorges, was a most extraordinary structure — a living bridge formed from the roots of a gnarly old fig tree.

The tree’s roots had somehow reached more than 20 metres across a river and taken hold on the far side. Over time, they had thickened and interwoven to form a walkway, onto which Yule now had to step. One of the roots, which in places was thicker than his thigh, provided a handrail. Side roots had descended from it and merged into the walkway, making the whole structure strong and secure. Yule could cross with confidence.

The bridge was no miracle. Long before, human hands had guided the tree’s roots across the river, training them into a shape that could promise safe passage. Yule had assumed the bridge to be “unique, perhaps half accidental”, but he soon saw several more. Their architects were local Khasi people, whose attitudes towards time, the environment and their unborn descendants we are sorely lacking in our fast-warming world.

The Khasi Hills are in Meghalaya, an Indian state whose name means ‘land of the clouds’. The clouds cry often on this land, for nowhere else on Earth must people endure such heavy rainfall. Twelve metres of it falls in a typical year. After monsoon rains, the region’s rivers rise. The rush of water racing downstream renders steep gorges impassable, isolating villages and endangering lives. Yet people have lived in the Khasi Hills for at least 3200 years. For generations, they have overcome this extreme environment by harnessing the strong yet pliant roots of Ficus elastica, a fig species best known as the Indian rubber tree.

Fig roots are exceptional. They grow fast, long and strong. They can even rip apart bare lava and concrete. In many fig species, including Ficus elastica, the roots aren’t all underground. These figs produce aerial roots that flow down their trunks and drop from their branches. Their roots can merge and split and merge again, forming strong, mesh-like structures. Long ago, the Khasi people worked out how to get such fig roots to do their bidding.

It’s a practice still alive today. The Khasi and neighbouring Jaintia peoples have shaped fig roots into living ladders, whose rungs ease journeys up steep slopes. They have woven the roots into nets that hold banks of earth in place, preventing landslides and soil erosion. They have even forced fig roots to form a platform, from which to watch football games. But the masterworks of Khasi architecture are their bridges. Most — like one Yule sketched, below — form from the roots of two fig trees, one on either side of a river. The longest spans more than 50 metres, the oldest an estimated 500 years.

Building these bridges involves first guiding slender fig roots through hollow trunks of betel palms, which support, nourish and protect the roots as they lengthen. Once the fig roots are long and strong, the bridge builders bind them to those of the opposing tree or embed them in the ground on the far side of the river. They shape secondary roots that grow from these mainstays into a net that will form a walkway. They use stones and soil to plug any gaps then wait for the roots to thicken and hold everything in place.

It can take 15-30 years before the bridge is strong enough to use. But in Khasi time this is an eye-blink. The Khasi people are investors in the future. People living there today benefit from the ingenuity and foresight of their ancestors and today’s bridge builders bequeath security to future generations. The fig tree bridges don’t only make commerce and romance possible between otherwise isolated villages. They also save lives. As the climate changes, this ancient approach to bioengineering has never been more relevant.

Meghalaya was already the wettest place in the world when Henry Yule explored its forested hills in 1841. Back then, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide was 283 parts per million. Today it is more than 400. More carbon means warmer air, and as warmer air carries more moisture, this means more rain. The state government’s climate change action plan says rainfall has increased in most districts of Meghalaya in the past century, with the highest increase in the West Khasi Hills. It warns that as temperatures continue to rise, so will rainfall and the risk of floods and landslides.

To architect Sanjeev Shankar, these threats call for renewed attention to living bridges. In a research paper he presented in 2015, he warned that they are being replaced by “inappropriate solutions”. Quick-fix bamboo bridges buckle and break – they can’t withstand the monsoon rains. People have died as a result. Modern steel bridges corrode, their cables weaken and snap. And because repairs are rare, these bridges last just 40-50 years compared to hundreds for living bridges.

Shankar says the living fig bridges cost next to nothing and become stronger, more robust and resilient with time and use – unlike expensive, short-lived steel suspension bridges. Indeed, some of the bridges Henry Yule saw in the 1840s are still saving lives today. Shankar urges a revival of fig-tree bridge-building, and even foresees bridge that are strong enough for vehicles to cross.

The only downside is the time it takes the bridges to grow. But Shankar sees potential to blend the old with the new. Having seen how Khasi people have used fig roots to mend steel bridges, he envisages planned hybrid structures — steel bridges that fig trees envelop with their roots and make stronger. Shankar wonders if other fig species could perform this role in other countries, helping people adapt to the changing climate.

The question is, will there be time? It’s a question for us all, as climate change doesn’t respect the short-term thinking that tends to rule our lives. The Khasi people’s approach is instructive. To build living bridges, they invest time and effort knowing they might not personally benefit but that their children surely will. Such foresight, patience and selflessness is rare.

It's an interesting read - thanks for sharing!  One question many of us fig growers have had is "how close to my foundation can I plant a fig tree"?  Reading about this ficus species and its roots would certainly make one think that foundation planting of figs might not be a good idea, especially in climates where they grow big. 

This is Ficus elastica.

A common houseplant that produce edible but not really tasty figs.

More carbon dioxide means more plant food, and that means more people food. The link between CO2 and warming is very shakey.

It was warmer in the hight of the Roman Empire than tooday, and CO2 was not the issue...

The sun has been and will continue to be the main natural force behind the climate.

Without governments sponsorship, the "Living Bridges" concept would not work in today's world where everything that gets built is for immediate benefits or fast monetary returns.
Thank You for posting.

Lewi, not amongst the vast majority of the science community.  I work with nothing but scientists and engineers (I'm a chemical engineer) and none of us are even remotely questioning this.  To the contrary many of us have dug down on this and the base science is rock solid.  This is mostly just turned into a political issue with people believing what works for the culture they choose to surround themselves with.  Climate has always varied and there are many drivers of this, but that does not nullify the effects of higher CO2 levels.  I really wish it wasn't so, but it just is. 

Amazing trees and a very nice fig story!
The wildlife of India are enjoying eating these bountiful figs.  Also shows how creative people can be to train a ficus elastica to serve a useful functional bridge for them to use.

Plants love Co2!  The more plants the happier the planet (and people).  If you can grow a fig tree then everybody wins so do it.

Greg, We are told that we are producing tons of Co2 (literally) and this is the problem.  
What about nature that produces 96.5 % of the CO2 wouldn't that be a bigger problem that dwarfs what we do? Are you worried about the toxic pollutants that make us choke? 
This ongoing climate change talk seems to go on forever and has my head spinning.  Yet I don't see any efforts or discussions to reduce pollutants and toxins in our air and water that are killings us today. 

Pino, read this.
https://www.skepticalscience.com/human-co2-smaller-than-natural-emissions.htm

There are many working to combat pollution globally. Just because you aren't personally participating in these efforts doesn't mean that it isn't happening.

well wouldn't it be great if c02 and other pollutants just floated out into space never to be seen again,
but unfortunately it doesn't,  it is held in by the earths atmosphere and just builds up,
im no expert but as far as I know the main way that nature combats c02  is by way of the
established rain forests to such it in and expel oxygen for me, you and more importantly our
poor soon to be sicker grand children, not to mention their children.

humans have been cutting down the forests at an alarming rate for many decades.
one reason is to produce cheap palm oil,  which is apparently 51%  saturated fat,  another good one for your grandchildren
palm oil should be boycotted////

if someone could produce pictures of the rain forests from 100 years ago
and current rain forests everyone would see why c02 buidup is a concern
the same pictures  could be produced showing the dwindling ice caps.

cough/cough.



 






 

@MikeShanahan - thank you for widening the audience for this.  It is an interesting read.
@GregMartin - thank you for speaking up.  You too @SDA.

Hi Lewi, poor choice of words on my part.  I questioned climate change science and still do, but the answers just make it clear that our activities are shifting the climate towards a warmer world.  I won't go out too far on this as there are many other places where we can all go for answers.  Let me just address one issue you mentioned...the infamous hiatus.  Trying to monitor air temperature as a means to see if our planet is warming is not a precise way to know what's happening.  It takes very little energy to change air temperature and the air isn't where energy is stored in a meaningful way.  Water, on the other hand, is a great energy storage material.  If you want to know what's happening you just need to track what's happening to the oceans.  They make up 70% of our surface and the depth and currents mean that 90% of any climate shift heating or cooling on Earth happens there.  The air just exchanges heat with the ocean and land surface and follows along.  And what happens when water gets warmer or colder?  It expands or contracts.  Fortunately we have a very straightforward way to measure this....satellite altimetry.  Satellites have been measuring the globes surface topography to within a fraction of millimeter of height for almost 40 years and the data shows very clearly what is happening.  During the "hiatus" did the ocean levels fall, stay the same, climb but at a slower rate, or did the rise in sea levels accelerate?........Yup, it was the later.  The average sea level is rising about 3.4mm each year and that rate is accelerating.  It did not slow down at all or pause during the so called hiatus.  During that time period cool waters from the depths of the Pacific were coming to the surface and the warmer surface waters where exchanging down into the depths carrying the surface heat down with it.  This is part of a natural decades long cycle when normally the Earths surface would cool, but this time air temperature just stopped rising as quickly as it was previously due to the extra captured heat in the atmosphere.  That pattern of flow in the Pacific has now ended and again we see new air temperature records every month....month after month after month.  Still, if you want to know what's happening you should watch the global average sea level....when it stops rising you'll know that the Earth isn't warming.  When it keeps accelerating like it currently is you'll know what's happening.  CO2's contribution to our planet's very important green house effect was figured out in 1898.  In the last 118 years scientists have only strengthened the case that that was correct.  This was figured out without government funding and the funding is only there to provide generation of information so that we can make good decisions about what the threat is and how we should react....don't want to overreact or underreact, there are implications either way.  Only in the last few decades have politicians began really trying to get involved.  When it turned into one side against the other was the day that good decision making started to become impossible. 

Oh, and no worries about spelling.  And also, on the nuclear front...you bring up another example of politicians not going with the scientists.  The unsafe water cooled design that most plants use was a legacy of the Eisenhower administration trying to rush nuclear submarine technology out into the world to beat the Soviets to deployment.  They ended up shutting down the national lab work that demonstrated molten metal cooling baths could not have a meltdown.  The Carter administration shut down nuclear fuel reprocessing that gives us our waste problem today.  Got to love politicians, can't let the people who've dedicated their lives to understanding these issues make the decisions or listen to them.  It's another avoidable tragedy when nuclear could have been (and can be) 100% safe and clean.  If you haven't guessed I'm not a big fan of our current political system....critical decisions need to be made by the best and brightest, not elected politicians.

Greg,

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. Attribution can be one issue with sea level rise:
http://climatechangedispatch.com/heat-from-deep-ocean-fault-punches-hole-in-arctic-ice-sheet.html/


http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7199/full/nature07075.html

Yes there must be room in ones mind to keep open ANY possibility, including my government sponsored science being 100% correct. But when it comes to power grabs and crowd (mind) control, it pays to question...anybody remember the congressional testimony of James Hanson?

https://skepticalscience.com/Hansen-1988-prediction-advanced.htm

Not jut Hanson, but the climate prediction models have been consistently wrong, often due to fraud:

https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/tracking-us-temperature-fraud/

http://principia-scientific.org/nasa-exposed-in-massive-new-climate-data-fraud/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/10916086/The-scandal-of-fiddled-global-warming-data.html

So how did BBC, or Abc, CBS, etc. Report on the Gulf of Tonkin "incident"...the same way they report on climate change, with lies, and more lies...until it becomes part of the cultural fabric, and it becomes taboo to question.

This conversation is timely in a week in which the Trump Administration has forced Federal agencies to cease communicating with the public and the media on climate change and other issues. The Administration is even making the EPA to take down its page on climate change.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/315876-trump-bans-epa-employees-from-giving-social-media-updates
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15906G

Yes, the same way our first Austronesian president put a gag order on NOAA:

http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/weather-service-employees-tethered-by-illegal-gag-orders.html

I agree science should not be politicized, but it's too late when most is funded by goverment(s)

http://www.capitolhilloutsider.com/margaret-thatcher-global-warming-provides-a-marvelous-excuse/

I just want to say this. I have flown in South America, Central America, North America and Europe. I know many have flown much more extensively than this. I always try to sit in a window seat even though it is much less comfortable for me. I always look down to observe what I can. I have been doing this since my early 20's. That's about 35 years.

What I see always makes me sad but I make myself do it. The predominant thing I see when I look down is the footprint of man. I know this not science. It is my eyeballs looking at the earth from above. But it is enough to make me very aware that we are a dominant force on this planet. If you get up in an airplane take a real good look. If you are not sitting in a window seat, excuse yourself and lean over and look. In fact, stare.

If someone were able to absolutely convince me that human beings are not largely responsible for global warming, would I not have that sinking feeling when I look down from the airplane? Would it make it not true that we have displaced a huge number of species on this planet? And we are poised to displace a huge # more in short order. We are taking huge stores of carbon deep out of the ground and liberating it into the atmosphere.

Have you ever made beer? You introduce yeast to convert the sugars in the mash to alcohol. The yeast do this very successfully. So successfully that eventually they die from the alcohol that they themselves created. There is a yeast infection on this earth. I don't know who gets to drink the beer.

Oh, and, my bad. Thank you to Mike Shanahan for sharing about the fig bridges. It gives hope.

Mike Shanahan, thank you for posting here and sharing your work with us. I have a ton of respect for what you are doing. Keep up the great work!

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Blackfoot, I agree and I understand where you are coming from.  I am not convinced of man made global warming. That being said, I fully understand that we are the stewards of this earth and I take this fact very seriously. The people who are profiting from the destruction of our earth are globalists. They do not belong to, nor are they loyal to any one country which is why you see such unfathomable disregard for human, plant and animal life these days. This is not the natural way of the world. We are moving away from a production (economy) society towards a 100% consumer society....hence you see consolidation on top tier corporate levels because there is no more room to grow on levels that matter so to speak. Carbon credit sales will be the last method to move more wealth into the hands of said people who have successfully subverted 1st world governments and the global economy. The infrastructure to collect and regulate this theft is already in place. 

This same phenomenon is happening in aerospace as well, not to mention the oil / gas industry, mining industry, steel, advanced composite materials market, seeds and fertilizer industry, heavy equipment, chemical...I could go on and on. 

I am an investment banker by trade. I have been privileged to see this happen from a bird's eye view. You can bet it is real and not just theory - those are the people drinking the beer that you speak of. And no, Donald Trump is not a nationalist - that is a smokescreen, hook line and sinker fed to a desperate American populace. Not to get political, but the United States is the greatest country on Earth - these people will be outed and their reign in this grand republic will end. Their time is coming.  This is not a republican or democrat issue - this is a human issue. They are on one side of the fence, and we are on the other. Don't give up on this issue.

Keep your head up. 

HouFig, thanks for the words of encouragement. I appreciate the reply.

Howdy Lewi,

I know how you feel Lewi, I love this planet too. And I don't know about you my friend, but I don't have overlords and neither does the rest of humanity.  There are some people out there who feel they are divine overlords, but I can guaranty you their time is coming. 

Speaking of big tasty Bauer figs..Germany is going thru hardships at the moment.  They are at war.  I was in Berlin just last year. Beautiful people and a beautiful country. Hopefully, Germany breaks ties with Brussels..the sooner the better. 

Sounds like you have an interesting back yard Lewi. Cheers to tasty figs.

I'll let Mike have the mic back. 
  

"I too have seen, and lived in many places outside the U.S.A. I have lived in cities, and in small outposts of humanity.

I live offgrid with solar pannels, on 20 acres in a poor, rural, part of Florida. I busted my backside (whilst sick, and not knowing what from) planting long leaf pine, and have been improving the environment by mostly planting fruiting trees and vines. Improving for man, and animal life.

Just some background in me, so you can understand, I LOVE this planet. This planet could be virtual Garden of Eden."

Sounds like you are doing a good job.


"That being said, I don't think so little of Human life as to compare overpopulation to yeast cells, and I am not sure how far you would take that analogy either.

I am deeply religious, not with gaia worship, but something far more ancient and direct. This I have a one God centered viewpoint, with a deep LOVE of Humanity.

YEAST CELLS are cultivated by a higher power (man), presuming you do not use wild yeasts, die off when the alcohol percentage gets too high. Some yeast (or dregs of the batch) would be saved by the higher power (man), for future use...the "waste" is alcohol converted from sugers..."

It was an analogy. Perhaps not a very good one in some ways. But sometimes very simple analogies drive a point better. It certainly was not meant to insult. Lewi I have children. I love them with all my heart. I cannot explain exactly why but it is not possible to love your children and hate humanity at the same time. At least not for me. 

I too believe in God. However I do not believe man is more or less important than the other animals on this earth. Everything is a system that works together. And yes I hunt and fish. I too love the earth. 

Yes we have poor leadership. We have been taught to be consumers, not stewards. Regrettably, I do not see this changing soon. Sometimes human beings have to look in their past to see what once was, to realize what they have lost. But some things lost are truly lost.

Here are my thoughts about whether the earth is overpopulated....If there were only 3 couples (6 people) on earth they could act in almost any manner they wished and it would have virtually no effect on the earth. But the way we are currently living on this earth 7.5 Billion people is too many. I believe that if we lived differently 7.5 Billion people could live successfully with the earth. Maybe. But there has to be a point at which no matter how well we adapt our living to the needs of the earth, there are just too many people. In 1960 there were less than half as many people on this earth. And no, that does not mean I agree with the crackpot that wants to come back as a killer virus.

First we need to begin to rapidly change. If I didn't care I wouldn't even reply to this email. Maybe if we get our collective heads wrapped around this thing, we can actually figure it out. I know one thing, acting like it's not happening is not going to get us to where we need to be.