==JAPAN: KM== [Nature]
@If I say that dandelions, which are called gTampopoh in Japanese, are summer bloomers, everyone will say that I am wrong. My teacher at elementary school certainly taught me that dandelions were spring flowers. In fact there were many dandelions at the side of roads at the beginning of spring and dandelions were known as the representative of spring flowers in my hometown. However, I hear dandelions certainly open up during summer. You may find that main reason is rapid climate change, especially global warming, but itfs wrong. You should think carefully. If global warming caused it, dandelions would bloom in winter, before spring.
The answer is that there are two kinds of dandelions. One is Teraxacum Platycarpum, which are called gKanto Tampopoh in Japanese and native plants in Japan, the other is Common Dandelion, which are called gSeiyo Tampopoh in Japanese and nonnative plants. Teraxacum Platycarpum is spring bloomer, whereas Common Dandelion is summer bloomer, and Common Dandelion has extended power in the large area of Japan. Thatfs reason why dandelions become to open up during summer in Japan. Amazingly you can see Teraxacum Platycarpum at very limited area, such as Ueno Park and Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo.
The reason why Common Dandelion has extended power is biologically distinctive breeding technique. A pistil of one plant doesnft need pollen of other plants. In other words, they can engender seeds alone. If the wind just blows, seeds can spire and multiply even at a side of a road or between buildings. In the meantime, Teraxacum Platycarpum needs other plants to multiply. In turn they are not self-replicating, and it definitely dies off in one generation if a seed spires by its lonesome.
In Japan there are many examples of this type of extinction crisis that nonnative species which have high-level ability of reproduction drive out native species of lower-level ability. Itfs common knowledge that black bass and bluegill have extinguished many native freshwater fish at Lake Biwa, but an example of wild insects is less well known.
Lately insects are prevalent among children and especially three-horned beetle and giant stag beetle are more popular than ever. However, almost every popular insect is nonnative species. Three-horned beetle originally come from Indonesia and Malaysia and most of giant stag beetle are hybrid between native species and nonnative species. In addition enthusiasts and brokers variously crossbreed insects, so that new species that we have never seen go out into the world. Of course they can escape from a cage. Thus, there are many new species in wild field in Japan.
In the old days it used to be controlled by Plant Protection Convention to bring insects into Japan from abroad, yet in 1999 it was permitted to import forty-five kinds of insects simply because they donft cause harm to agricultural crops. For instance, European Bombus, a kind of bees, had been heavily imported since 1991 simply because they help flowers of tomato pollinate others in greenhouse. The trouble is that some European Bombus escaped from greenhouse and became wild. They are terribly aggressive and violent. Therefore, they have rapidly multiplied and compressed the existence of native bees. For your information, this problem has only recently been seriously considered in government. It is currently permitted to import more than two hundred kinds of insects and more than four hundred thousand insects from Southeast Asia and Africa and all that. In addition, popular insects such as giant stag beetle generally have more than thirty children in a year. As a result, it is said that the number of them runs into astronomical figures.
@Additionally, there have been 100 percent new species, which is nonexistent in nature, because of progress of biotechnology. For example, at a flower shop you can see bosh, called gAsagaoh in Japan, which donft have any strings. It is said that they are popular among young women because they donft get in the way. You may want them. Stop and think, please. Can you insist that they donft do any harm to other plants? Leave everything to take its natural course, and things will work.
I oppose the importation of nonnative species and distribution of new species derived by biotechnology simply for the sake of economic benefit for human beings. There are more species listed as endangered every year, but they arenft seriously protected until in ones and twos. Itfs too late. Human beings are just one of species, and you too.
"Getting It Together" Don't flatter yourself.
Some students say, "Because I'm just a student at the University of Fukui, there is really not much that I can do." Certainly it is easier to enter the University than other national Universities. However it doesn't automatically mean that they are inferior to students at the University of Tokyo.
They also tend to believe religiously that whether they can pass the entrance examination to a famous university decide a person's destiny. Now that man's span of life is over 80 years. It's definitely not true that only 20 years defines another 60 years.
What you should attach importance to is not what you have done but what you can do now. Don't spoil yourself! Get forward! People who don't make any efforts necessarily fall back. Only by daily effort you will reach your best self.
