Watching the earth from shuttle Discovery

19 August 2005
Shuttle Commander Eileen Collins Sees Wide Environmental Damage

HOUSTON -- Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned that greater care was needed to protect natural resources.

"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan.

Collins, making her fourth shuttle flight, said the view from space made clear that Earth's atmosphere must be protected, too.

"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have." by Jeff Franks

Published by Reuters as "Shuttle Commander Sees Wide Environmental Damage".

French born Michel Fanton, co-founder of the Seed Savers Network, is forever grateful that twenty five years ago, he saw the problem and experienced first-hand conservation of natural resources.

For long periods of time in 1979, Michel and friends lived high up in a 1200 year old tree in Terania Forest, NSW, Australia. He was at the time involved in the first environmental battle to stop the logging of a precious rainforest basin. Today this forest is a popular national park.

Today other virgin forests in Australia and worldwide are being cut down for woodchips and other short lived products.

When the forest was saved, Michel returned to his natural gardens/Permaculture system to produce food and conserve agricultural biodiversity within natural/permaculture farming systems. Seed Savers was born soon afterwards. He had learned that wild ecosystems and cultivated farming systems all need protection.

Back in 2005, the conversation between Discovery's astronauts and the Japanese prime minister that has poorly been reported by the media, rings an alarming bell.

www.seedsavers.net

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Reuter a reporte que les Discovery astronauts en orbite en Aout 2005 ont demandes aux terriens de "sauver la planete" alors qu'ils parlaient avec le premier minister japonais Junichiro Koizumi.

Michel Fanton et sa femme Jude, fondateurs du Seed Savers en Australie, ont commence a conserver les ressources naturelles il y a 25 ans. Ils ont maintenant 60 reseaux semences en Australie et sont actifs dans quatre continents. Michel passera le mois de septembre 2005 en France pour prendre contact avec des gens engages. Contactez le!

Le texte en anglais plus haut, raconte ce que les cosmonautes en orbite ont dit au premier minister japonais a propos des forets decimees et de l'erosion massive des sols vue de leur position.

Comment Michel ont vécu dans des arbres millenaires en Australie en 1979. Il etait alors impliqués dans la première bataille environnementale afin de conserver un bassin précieux de forêt tropicale dans la forêt de Terania, NSW. Aujourd'hui cette forêt est un parc national visité par beaucoup.

Écosystèmes sauvages ou cultivés, ils ont tous besoin d'être protéges. Nous espérons que la conversation des astronautes avec le premier ministre japonais sera entendue.

Maintenant Michel reflecte sur les expériences qui l' ont aidé a creer Seed Savers et conserver la biodiversité dans les systèmes agricoles naturels. Ceci avec des milliers de jardiniers. (Dominique Guillet de Kokopelli, meme demarche). Michel a connu un autre écosystème rare dans un endroit des plus isole sur terre : l'atool de Clipperton, a 1150 kilomètres de la côte Pacifique mexicaine.

http://www.cdxc.org/

Il etait en 1966 sur un bateau de recherches oceanographiques appele "La Coquille" (avec le SMCB, SMSR) et il voudrait bien entrer en contact avec des gens qui etaient a Mangareva (Iles Gambier) en 1966/67.

Photos sur nos jardins tropicaux:

http://www.seedsavers.net/tour/tour.jsp

L' addresse de Michel:

michelatseedsavers.net