SHRINKING HERBSBio-diversity preserves what is. The earth is currently experiencing a sixth (known) phase of mass extinction, life-forms are dying off - FOREVER. Informed opinion suggests that a species of plant or animal life becomes extinct every 20 minutes and that this is at least a hundred times faster than the natural rate. This massive increase over and above the norm is directly or indirectly a consequence of human activities. Globally, vast acres of land have been given over to food crops obliterating biodiversity in those areas. Pesticide and herbicide use means that large tracts of land are now inhabited by one species. Furthermore single species crop growth and plant cloning means that genetic diversity within individual species is shrinking, and we know from lab rats/mice and indeed from human in-breeding that this produces weak species Bio-diversity preserves what is. Ecology is the science of the inter-relationship and inter-connectedness of different species - little fleas have bigger fleas to bite'em and so on ad infinitum. We know that plants pollinate with the help of bees, sea otters eat purple and red sea urchins, which, in turn eat young kelp fronds, kelp provides a home to many marine life forms, some of which eat sea otters and a delicate ecological balance is maintained. Lose a few sea otters, because of, say, pollution from an oil spill and the sea urchins run wild, young kelp is decimated and a hundred life forms die out. Bio-diversity preserves what is. We know perhaps 1% of the ecology of the entire planet and just as chaos theory tells us that a butterfly flaps its wings in Luton causing a hurricane in Tokyo so the loss of the cabbage white butterfly in the U.K. means that goldenseal (hydrastis canadensis - an invaluable multi-purpose herb which actually is endangered) becomes an endangered species. I have no idea whether the loss of the cabbage white butterfly equates to a shortage of goldenseal. The point is is that no one knows enough to say that it is not so!! Herbal medicine is under threat, all plant species are under threat, as biodiversity shrinks and a hundred species a day disappear FOREVER. One day, a species, on which an invaluable medicinal herb depends, will become extinct, closely followed by the extinction of the herb itself. That day could be tomorrow. We must preserve our bio-diversity - more importantly we must give up our destructive farming and industrial practices and work to preserve life in all its wonderful variety. The need for herbal medicine is greater now than it has ever been, old drugs are becoming less effective, new drugs carry ever-increasaing side-effects, people are getting sicker and are turning/returning to natural medicine. White willow (inspiration for aspirin) never killed anybody, but NSAID's (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) kill 4000 people a year in the U.K. alone. Antibiotics represent orthodox medicine's only successful cure and at the same time the greatest crime against mankind. The remaining arsenal of drugs only suppress symptoms to a 'hopefully' tolerable level, whilst, sometimes, the body heals itself. The crime of antibiotics is that indiscriminate use has decimated the benevolent/beneficial bacteria that reside within the human body resulting in epidemics of irritable bowel syndrome, fungal infections such as thrush and dandruff, and conditions such as eczema/asthma/psoriasis, not forgetting that antibiotic use has created MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococus aurea) and increased the virulencre of all bacteria and many viruses. The huge advantage of herbal preparations (Echinacea, Goldenseal, Garlic, St john's Wort, Cat's Claw, Oak Bark, T-tree and on and on) for combatting infections is, that there are no side effects, because these preparations work principally by enhancing the body's own anti-infective activity and direct anti-infective activity is secondary and does not impact negatively on benevolent flora at all. The population of the west are realising, for example, that a diagnosis of hypertension results in a lifetime of medication and enduring a slowly developing host of side-effects, such as loss of libido, cold extremities, constipation and other impaired get function. Contrast this with a herbal regime of cleansing/detoxifying and a few months of say, Hawthorn berries/cayenne/ginger/black cohosh/gingko biloba (my favourite Heart/Blood pressure formula) resolving the hypertension, as opposed to suprressing it. The law does not permit patenting of herbal medicines, fortunately, but the big pharmaceutical companies now recognise that the people of the west are choosing the safer herbal (and acupuncture and aromatherapy etc.) route and are endeavouring to gain control of the natural medicines of the world. The first step has been to lean on the Medicines Control Agency (UK) to bring in swingeing legislation, under the pretext of consumer safety, which will squeeze out of the public's reach more than 50% of the natural treatments currently available. In anticipation of better public acceptance of genetic modification, more than 400 GM medicinal herbs have been patented - the law allows this. Genetic modification of medicinal herbs is a nighmare of epic proportions. Every year new uses for old herbs are discovered, St John's Wort's traditional use was for nerve pain and its fabulous anti-depressive and anti-viral activity is a recent discovery. T-tree is very effective against MRSA. New herbs, such as Rooibosch, Cat's claw, Wild Yam and Macca suddenly appear in our herbal pharmacy. These new herbs are not new really - all the peoples of the world, collectively, have a huge database of medicinal herbs, of which we in the west are still largely unaware. I estimate that there are as many medicinal herbs awaiting discovery by the west as have been discovered to date, and I am talking here about medicinal herbs known and used by some peoples somewhere. Consider, given the vastness of what was Russia, how many hundreds of medicinal herbs must there be in the database of the native peoples there. If we then factor in medicinal herbs that are completely unknown by anybody anywhere then natural mass extinction notwithstanding we, the human species must not continue to contribute to shrinking bio-diversity as aggressively as we are. BIODIVERSITY PRESERVES WHAT IS!! |
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Stephen MacAllan |