*Åke Nordström wrote:* *I joined PBS some years ago, thinking I've found a group of persons who are having the same opinion as I have about environmental care, loss of biological diversity and so on. From what I hear and see there are great differences among us how we look upon things when we carry out what seem to be the most important thing in our lives: how to care about, and protect our plants. As long as possible I try to avoid pesticides, fungicides industrial fertilizers and so on. Only using what I can produce in the close environment. But still, because of my great interest I'm trying to get a wide variety of foreign plants that I can grow in my garden.* I find that a similar set of facts elicits disparate conclusions and world-views in different people. Most of us believe that species diversity is a good thing and indeed a high species diversity provably improves ecosystem resilience, although it does not necessarily improve survivability of a given species. But we are the worst culprits as humans and their food animals now comprise 96% of mammalian biomass according to https://ecowatch.com/biomass-humans-animals-257141… Many of us also believe that we should purge our ecosystems from invasive species, even though it conflicts with species diversity. In North America, most of our local species appear to have lesser competitiveness than their Eurasian counterparts, possibly as a result of genetic bottlenecks resulting from the Chicxulub impact. Island populations show a similar lack of competitiveness. And global warming means we might want to assist moves to higher latitude, especially the alpine species whose continuous transition to new homes would be problematic. In order for each farmer to feed a hundred city dwellers and other non-farmers in the United States where all of our food crops are invasives, we require the use of agricultural chemicals and fertilizers. Many decry this situation but none propose competitive solutions. We all find ourselves in a constant clash of our world views with reality, yet few of us are willing to change our world views as the world changes around us. When I joined The American Chestnut Foundation, whose original intent was to breed a blight resistant forest adapted 'American' chestnut by introducing the blight resistance of the asian chestnuts, I found myself exposed to many conflicting opinions. I thought it especially interesting that some of the same progressive thinkers who believed in integration of the entire human 'race' (species) were absolute racists when it came to hybridizing the American chestnut. And although I had always gardened organically before, I thought that genetic engineering involving insertion of genes like Bt which would negate the necessity of pesticides would be a godsend, I was amazed that the 'organic community' seemed to think it was the devil's work. And, I am truly amazed that some people consider insertion of the OXO gene in the American chestnut some sort of tragic hubris subject to karmic retribution. It seems to me that an inability to adjust to reality leads some to value the struggle rather than the goals. As Tom Lehrer said in "Folksong Army": *Remember the war against Franco,* *That's the kind where each of us belongs,* *He may have won all the battles,* *But we had all the good songs,* So, as I conclude my rant, collect all the seeds you can grow, but replant a few seedlings where you collected. Not a problem. _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> PBS Forum https://…