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 Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:28 am Post subject: |
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From Impossible Odds:
Harper's Bazaar
British Edition
Alive and flipping
When you volunteer to help on a research project,
you'll get closer than ever to some of the world's most
endangered species - as Stanley Johnson discovered,
walking Costa Rica's beaches to help protect a new
generation of leatherback turtles
April, 2007
| Quote: | The harsh truth is that, in the Pacific Ocean at least, the leatherback turtle is critically endangered. Its nesting beaches, all around the Pacific Rim, have been turned into seaside resorts. If a female leatherback does manage to reach the shore to lay her eggs, she may be hacked to pieces by waiting gangs, or her eggs, once laid, may be ruthlessly plundered. Industrial fishing, particularly long-lining, has further contributed to the tragic decline in leatherback numbers.
Playa Grande offers the last best hope of saving the species from extinction in the Pacific. Miraculously, the big-time developers have not yet got their claws into this part of the Costa Rican coastline. The bright lights from hotels and housing developments, so off-putting to the nesting turtle, do not shine here. Not yet, anyway. The local authorities have now declared Playa Grande and two neighboring beaches a marine National Park, called Las Baulas.
The Earthwatch team at Playa Grande research station doesn't just protect the turtles and their nests; it runs a hatchery, too. If, during the course of their beach patrols, the volunteers find a leatherback laying eggs below the high-tide mark, they will carefully collect them and move them to the hatchery for safety. A leatherback at Las Baulas lays 65 eggs per clutch and seven clutches a season, and nests every three to four years. Every egg protected, every hatchling saved, increases the chances of a turtle surviving to maturity,' project leader Bibi Santidrian tells me.
A quarter of a century ago, there were around 90,000 mating female leatherbacks to be found in the Pacific. Today, there are fewer than 5,000. ... (-- p. 265) |
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| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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National Geographic
Adventure
The Next Crusade
The offscreen adventures of an
eco-action figure
By Costa Christ
Magazine Subscription
April, 2008
| Quote: | He flies to the rescue, treks through jungles, dodges snakes, and saves rare treasures - and that's just in his private life. On screen, such pursuits have made Harrison Ford, 65, an adventure icon. (The first Indiana Jones film in almost 20 years, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, opens next month.) But since 1991 the actor, pilot, and environmentalist has been moonlighting as a strategic for Conservation International (conservation.org) - supporting biodiversity research, protecting endangered species, and working to persuade corporations with a history of polluting the planet to become stewards of it instead. In honor of Earth Day, Ford spoke to us about high stakes, hard landings, lost worlds, and why he prefers his adventures unscripted.
A: Is that the future of consdervation, partnering with global corporations? That seems like an uneasy alliance.
HF: I believe that it's the future of conservation in general. One of the tenets of CI has always been to offer economic opportunities in developing countries, where providing for people's basic needs puts a lot of pressure on the environment. By adopting better practices, international corporations can be very important partners in protecting nature.
...
A: Some years ago you said, "The last thing we need is another 100,000 people running around endangered places in Michael Jackson T-shirts." Tourism is now arguably the largest industry on the planet - far larger than Hollywood. Do you think it can be harnessed as an eco-opportunity?
HF: Well, I still have trepidation about bringing all these people to untrammelled wilderness. But it's proven to be an educational tool that's affected the people who've made those trips/ They come away as more critical partners in conservation. My concern wasn't the tourists in Michael Jackson T-shirts, but the indigenous people who would end up wearing them. (-- pgs. 17-18) |
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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From Impossible Odds:
COUNTRY LIFE
Magazine Subscription
Are you ready for climate change?
Camilla Akers-Douglas tackles the enormity of climate change - the facts, the figures and, most importantly, how you can personally make a difference
April 19/07
| Quote: | Includes an excellent 13-page spread on how to calculate carbon footprints and access many of the excellent new energy-saving technologies!
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| Quote: | The Government wants to reduce UK carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, and plans to make all new homes carbon-zero within 10 years. Now, David Cameron and Gordon Brown, the two pretenders to the Prime Ministerial office, are engaged in a battle to woo the Green vote. Mr Brown's desire to make all homes energy efficient in the next 10 years includes a pledge to phase out old-fashioned lightbulbs by 2011. Mr Cameron has called for a 'Green air-miles allowance', giving people one short-haul flight a year at the standard rate of tax before higher rates kick in.
The EU has also recently agreed an ambitious deal for tackling climate change, committing its members to reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions by 20% by 2020 and to producing a fifth of their energy via renewable sources. It also wants 10% of the fuel used for transport to be from biofuels, and to ensure that 20% of its power comes from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power and hydroelectricity.
The bigger picture may be daunting, but the best advice is to follow the old adage that it is easiest to pick low-hanging fruit, and start by making small changes that will bring immediate gains - such as not leaving electrical appliances on standby. (-- p. 109) |
| Quote: | | Town dwellers have an advantage. Terraced houses are more thermally efficient than free-standing ones - although for maximum effect, the drafty sash * windows should be sealed up (an act that people used to rattling sashes will regard as close to sacrilege; still, needs must). But country people are more likely to have a bit of ground around their houses, and this opens more opportunities to them. The windmill on David Cameron's North Kensington home looks more like a statement of intent, or even lifestyle accessory. If you have a field, you can erect a big enough windmill to make a useful contribution to your energy consumption. Geothermal heating, whereby pipes are buried underground so that water arrives in the house at a constant temperature and requires less energy to make it hot, can be installed in even quite small gardens. Mr. Cameron is digging up his at the moment. Country houses have more space for photovoltic cells, whereas the roof area of most London houses is too small to nmake a significant contribution. replacing conventional boilers with heat and power systems, which use the waste energy from heating the water to generate electricity may be attractive in houses with big fuel bills. ... (From Doing our bit for the planet, p. 93) |
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editor
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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What's the carbon footprint of MASSIVE housing failures worldwide?
Again, are these 'scientists' wilfully blind to the PANDEMIC! of housing failures due at least in part to ill-considered energy-saving provisions?!
The Suicidal Planet
How to Prevent Global
Climate Catastrophe
Hardcover
By Mayer Hillman with
Tina Fawcett and
Sudhir Chella Rajan
| Quote: | EXISTING HOUSING
The Alliance to Save Energy found that if the set of policies they put forward for improving the efficiency of buildings and the energy-using equipment within them were implemented, national building energy use could be cut by about 14 per cent by 2020. However, there is no legislation for raising the standards of the existing housing stock in spite of the fact that much of it is poorly insulated and the equipment used in it is wasteful of energy. There is a limited program of intervention for low-income households, known as "low-income weatherization assistance." However, while 28 million households are in theory eligible for the program, there are funds for improving only just over 100,000 households each year. Because of its small scale, this program does not yet deliver much in the way of overall energy savings.
OTHER POLICIES
There are several other significant policies targeting energy efficiency in the residential sector. Utility-based financial incentive programs have been in operation since the early 1980s, offering a variety of options including rebates, low-interest loans, and direct installation programs, which are leading to an accelerated market penetration of energy-efficient lights and appliances. Federal minimum efficiency standards are also in place for many residential appliance, including refrigerators and freezers, clothes washers, water heaters, and central air conditioners. These standards are being raised at regular intervals. The Energy Star, a voluntary appliance-labeling program, was introduced in 1992 to educate consumers about the advantages of purchasing efficient appliances. It is run by the Environmental Protection Agency and uses endorsement labels to identify which new homes and appliances are the most efficient on the market. The program also applies to products for the commercial market and covers over forty different product categories. It is estimated to have made considerable energy savings through influencing choices made by manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. (From Fiddling While Rome Burns, pgs. 138-139) |
Our e-mail to author Mayer Hillman of London's venerable PSI:
| Quote: | From: editor
To: website@psi.org.uk
Cc: editor
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 4:38 PM
Subject: Re: Saving energy at the expense of proper ventilation - the cause of MASSIVE HOUSING FAILURES - worldwide!
Hello venerable PSI,
We run a weblog http://www.bccondos.ca/ in Vancouver, British Columbia devoted to the massive failure of multi-family housing not just here but worldwide - failures due in no small part to the energy-saving measures the authors of The Suicidal Planet are thoughtlessly! promoting in an otherwise impressive text. Even worse, the book makes no mention whatsoever of these spectacular failures, which continue to pose unconscionable economic, environmental and immediate human health risks and not just to locals. What kind of green science is it that fails to calculate the carbon footprint of SO MANY housing failures and economies like B.C.'s that promote a toxic cycle of redevelopment-repair-resell-rerepair-redevelop? Surely PSI isn't in the pocket of real estate magnates ... is it?
As the great British humorist P.G. Wodehouse might have put it, the scales may be seen falling from my eyes.
Editor
http://www.bccondos.ca
Tracking all aspects of massive failures worldwide of unaffordable, inaccessible, barrier-full,
multi-unit housing and those who promote and profit by them. |
Our e-mail to the BBC:
| Quote: | From: editor
To: http://www.bbcworld.com/Pages/ContactUsDepartments.aspx
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 4:53 PM
Subject: Over-zealous insulators and willfully blind scientists!
Hello BBC,
Hey, I'm getting right fed up of all these venerable (read: over-loved) green scientists who have somehow - but HOW?! - failed to calculate the carbon footprint of the massive housing failures occurring each year worldwide and, even worse, economies like ours in British Columbia, Canada, that actively promote a toxic cycle of repair-redevelop-resell-rerepair. Are ALL of these characters in the pockets of the real estate industry?
I'm especially concerned about the mindless worship of all energy-saving measures with no consideration of their effects. Look at the food crisis created by inefficient U.S. biofuels! Consider, please, the toxicity of sick, over-insulated buildings! Health Canada did recently, probably in response to the asthma pandemic especially among young children!
More here http://www.bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1295#1295.
I dislike giving interviews but I feel I'd actually talk to you even in the middle of the night if needs be to get massive housing failures worldwide somehow on the green agenda! |
We'll post any replies we receive here. Please check back soon for updates.
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editor
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 11:22 am Post subject: |
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From Losing Streak:
COUNTRY LIFE
Magazine Subscription
Let it snow
Global warming could send some alpine ski resorts
into meltdown. Arabella Youens considers how old
favorite Val d'Isere measures up to up and coming
Sankt Anton
Country Life International
Autumn /Winter
2007
Link to this entry
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editor
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 11:44 am Post subject: |
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From Losing Streak:
COUNTRY LIFE
Magazine Subscription
Treasure islands
Azure seas lapping pure white sand mean
the Maldives are synonymous with indulgence.
But as Nick Smith discovers, there's a lot more
to do than just sit back and admire their beauty
Country Life International
Autumn /Winter
2007
| Quote: | ... Whatever activity you choose to take part in, however, you will be reminded to make sure you don't come into contact with the coral. This isn't simply because you could come to grief on the coral's razor edges, but because by merely touching it you can do it untold damage. Maintaining the coral reef is the Maldivian equivalent of painting the Forth Bridge, and it seems that almost every island has a small resident team of ecologists, marine scientists and oceanographers monitoring its progress.
Recent years have been very hard on the coral in the maldives, first with the 1998 El Nino event, which wiped out 16 per cent of the world's coral, then with the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which wreaked yet more destruction. Rising sea levels due to climate change are a constant threat, and living on such an environmental knife-edge means that money is always needed to fund scientific research, education and repair programmes. (emphasis added)
... Many eco-resorts in the Maldives encourage their guests to help their community-based and marine projects, promising to match their contribution dollar-for-dollar.
... I found the most interesting activity by far was spending time with the marine biologists, helping to clean the turtles or feed the sharks. ... (-- pgs. 106-107) |
Link to this entry
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 8:24 am Post subject: |
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From Punters:
COUNTRY LIFE
Magazine Subscription
Finding An Architect in Yorkshire
By Marcus Binney
Feb. 22/07
| Quote: | Digby Harris (info@francisjohnson.fsnet.co.uk) is part of the partnership which continues the legendary Yorkshire practice of Francis Johnson & Partners, the most accomplished country-house architect of his generation. The hallmark of a Digby Harris building is the wonderful choice and handling of building mateirals, whether brick or stone. Mr. Harris says: 'Francis used to lament that he never built a stone house. By good fortune, I am now on my third.'
Smooth ashlar facing stone is relatively cheap compared to what it used to be, thanks to modern cutting techniques. One client found a sandstone quarry near Richmond producing a lovely golden stone. Stone slates are coming from Northumberland. 'They're the only quarry producing riven slates of the northern variety, brownish rather than the black as you get in the West Riding.'
The key to his success is the choice of suppliers. For bricks, he often goes to the York Handmade Brick Company, which produces colors, sizes and shapes to order. ...
He laughs when I ask him about sash windows. 'I am now on the last single-glazed house we shall be able to build. The problem with double glazing is that it's never guaranteed for more than 10 years, and that's about the time when seals start to go. The likelihood is that they will have to be replaced, and that probably outweighs the loss of heat from single glazing in carbon-footprint terms.'
Aesthetically, he says, the best way to get the right proportions is to mirror the chunky glazing bars of the early 18th century. If you want thin astragals of the late Georgian kind, you have to form a lattice over a large sheet of glass. Visually, this works well, but if the double-glazing seal goes, it will be difficult to replace the glass without damaging the frame. (-- p. 110) |
| Quote: | Deeves Hall Rocks On
It survived music legends,
now its fortunes are revived
By Penny Churchill
| Quote: | ... In 1967, the three found members of the group decided to form a new band. Having searched for a suitable audition venue, they rented Deeves Hall. Eventually, the make-up of the new band was decided by which time the group had decided to change its name. Concrete God was one of the names chalked up on the wall at Deeves Hall, but the vote went in favour of Deep Purple. The hall become the group's headquarters for a couple of years.
The fortunes of the hall took a turn for the worse, and in 2003, the house was in need of 'some modernisation' .... Since then, Deeves Hall has been totally renovated, and extended ... It's now back on the market, with Strutts quoting a guide price of £2 million. (-- p. 109) |
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editor
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| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 8:41 am Post subject: |
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From Impossible Odds:
Lexus
Lexus Owners' Magazine Bling
You've got ale
Bike riders and other eco-friendlies in
Colorado beer country
By Thomas Bedell
Quarter One, 2008
| Quote: | ... The bicycle is both a corporate metaphor and a real-life symbol of New Belgium's beginnings. While biking in Belgium in 1986, Lebesch, an electrical engineer, had an epiphany about the glories and idiosyncratic flavors of Belgian beers, which led to his home brewing efforts to replicate Belgian styles. He and Jordan, a social worker, married in 1990. As she recounts it, once they decided to go professional they formulated a four-part strategy: "To have fun, to make world-class beers, to proceed on a sound environmental basis, and to promote good beer culture." ...
The brewery promotes biking in a variety of ways, like its Tour de Fat, a funky 12-city roving music-and-bike festival that raises funds for local cycling groups. On Thursday evenings in summer, New Belgium has been known to arrange bike-in cinema nights where locals peddle on over to sip beers and watch films outdoors on an inflatable screen. And at the company, it is the bicycle that is the first of several career milestone markers: every NBB employee receives a bike after a year. (The tour of Belgium comes after five, and a fruit tree planted in the brewery orchard after ten.) ...
Many breweries have long recycled spent grains to local farmers for use as feed. Others, such as Sierra Nevada Brewing in Chico, Calif., and Great Lakes Brewing of Cleveland, are also making innovative waste reduction efforts. But few can boast of a sustainability director, like New Belgium's Jennifer Orgolini. She began on the company bottling line in 1993, but has moved through a variety of positions, including chief operating officer. ...
NBB's laundry list of efforts to reduce its energy footprint can fill pages, but includes more efficient brewing vessels, lighting from fluorescent bulbs and passive solar tubes, desks fashioned from recycled paper and cardboard, a brewhouse constructed from reclaimed timber, and even tasting room seats made from old bicycle rims.
In general, one of the heaviest footprints in brewing comes from the wastewater used largely in cleaning bottles, barrels, and production tanks. Brewing efficiencies vary, but an industry standard is to expend about five barrels of water in brewing one barrel of beer. "We have that down to a 3.9-to-1 ratio," said Brandon Weaver, New Belgium's lead process water technician. "Our goal is to reduce it to 3.5-to-1." The on-site water treatment facility moves wastewater through a series of anaerobic and aerobic ponds, where bateria munch away on the organic wastes, cleaning the wastwater and simultaneously producing methane - which in turn can proudce about 15 percent of the brewery's power needs.
Transforming waste into a commodity is a good thing, although to the discriminating beer drinker, it's what is in the glass that counts. If the brews concocted by NBB were mere bellywash, there wouldn't be much hullabaloo. But its regular and seasonal lineups of beers are among the best in craft brewing, and the line often lets its hair down with imaginative ingredients - kaffir lime leaves, crushed coriander, gogi berries. (-- pgs. 27-28) |
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:00 am Post subject: |
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From Impossible Odds:
Reason for Hope
A Spiritual Journey
Hardcover
By Jane Goodall with
Phillip Berman
| Quote: | ... All this would seem to suggest a hope-less millennium ahead. Indeed, environmentalists have produced terrifying statistics that "prove" that life on pleanet earth is doomed, statistics computed from the rate at which the rain forests are being destroyed, the greenhouse gases building up, the human population growing, and so on. It is as though we were on a large ship. The lookout in the bow suddenly sees rocks ahead and alerts the crew. Yet it takes time for a big vessel to change course, so all attempts to avert disaster will fail. Of course, it will take time for the ship to disintegrate in the waves. Our world will end "not with a bang but a whimper." It is easy to imagine that such a fate awaits life, as we know it, on Spaceship Earth. Yet despite this, I do have hope for the future - for our future. But only if changes are made in the way we live - and made quickly. We do not, I think, have much time. And these changes must be made by us, you and me. If we go on leaving it to others, shipwreck is inevitable.
My reasons for hope are fourfold: (1) the human brain; (2) the resilience of nature; (3) the energy and enthusiasm that is found or can be kindled among young people worldwide; and (4) the indomitable human spirit. ...
The hope lies in the fact that, finally, we have begun to understand and face up to these problems. ...
... More people are concerned than ever before. Even in China, the government, which has for so long denied that it has any environmental problems, has been jolted into concern by the terrible floods of 1998. Today environmental concerns are freely discussed in the Chinese media. ... After all, humans have accomplished "impossible" tasks before. Would anyone have believed you a hundred years ago if you had predicted there would soon be a man on the moon? a fax machine? a jumbo jet? ...
And there is more good news. Many companies have begun "greening" their operations. ... No African government will sit on "black gold,: so it is important that the exploring, drilling, and pumping be done by the most responsible and ethical companies. And unless you and I support those companies, by purchasing their products, they will never survive in the competitive marketplace.
There are hundreds of similar examples of corporate encironmental responsibility. And there are sighns everywhere that illustrate a changing attitude. ...
My second reason for hope lies in the amazing resilience of nature if we give her a chance - and, if necessary, a helping hand. There are many success stories. The lower reaches of the River Thames in London were once so poisoned that almost all life was dead; today, after a massive cleanup operation, fish are swimming, and many birds have returned to breed. ...
... For a hundred years the toxic emissions from a nickel mine (in Sudbury, Ont.) had polluted the environment for miles around. ... citizens finally realizing that their health as well as their environment were at risk, had decided to do something about it. The mine had reduced its emissions by 98 percent in about fifteen years. As a symbol of hope, they gave me a feather from one of the peregrine falcons that once again nested there - after being locally extinct for more than forty years. ...
There are, in fact, success stories everywhere. ...
It can be argued that changes of this sort will lead to major social injustices. Meat farmers, for example, would need alternative livelihoods. The same is true for trappers and miners and those in the animal laboratory industry, and so forth. I am not, for a single moment, denying the complexity, the interrelatedness, the social and political implications of these issues. But we cannot condone forever the pursuit of unethical, cruel and destructive behaviors simply because to end them will create problems: would anyone advocate the continuation of concentration camps in order to ensure the jobs of those in charge? ... (emphasis added)
I truly believe that more and more people are seeing the appeal in the eyes around them, feeling it in their hearts, and throwing themselves into the battle. Herein lies the real hope for our future; we are moving toward the ultimate destiny of our species - a state of compassion and love. ... (From Chapter 15, Hope, pgs. 232-251) |
| Quote: | Reason for Hope
Audio CD
Narrated by audiobook force majeure Anna Fields
An especially soothing treatise by one of the world's best loved and most committed scientists, the first to show the world animal emotions and their selection, use and refinement of tools[. Beautifully and simply written and narrated. Highly recommended for stressed ESL students weary of academic harangue. |
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editor
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| Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 11:43 am Post subject: |
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Making Globalization Work
Hardcover
By 2001 Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz
| Quote: | ... The issue of openness in international discussions has long been a major concern. President Woodrow Wilson put "open covenants ... openly arrived at" (my italics) at the head of his agenda for reforming the international political architecture in the aftermath of World War I, going on to argue that "diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view" (my italics). But this has never been the case - or even declared objective - in trade negotiations. Typically the United States and the EU would together select a few developing countries to negotiate with - often putting intense pressure on them to break ranks with other developing countries - in the Green Room at WTO headquarters. (Today, even when the negotiations occur in Cancun, Seattle, or Hong Kong, the room in which the representatives huddle is still called the Green Room, with all the negative connotations.) Having trade ministers closeted in a room, separated from the experts on whom they rely, negotiating all night, may be a good test of endurance, but it is not a way to create a better global trade regime. Worse still, special interests are far more likely to influence international negotiations when they are conducted under the cloak of secrecy.
The justification for these secret, high-pressure negotiations is that it is impossible to negotiate with dozens of countries at a time. That is certainly true, but there are ways to make the negotiation process fairer and to have the voices of developing countries heard more clearly.
Compounding the problems of an unfair agenda and unfair and nontransparent negotiations is unfair enforcement. As we have noted, the enforcement mechanism is asymmetric. Antigua won a major case against the United States on online gambling, but there was no way that Antigua could effectively enforce the decision. Putting tariffs on American goods would simply raise prices for the people of Antigua, making them worse off. But there's a simple solution, which would go some way toward creating a more effective and fair enforcement mechanism: allowing developing countries, at least, to sell their enforcement rights.* Europe, for instance, might have some grievance against the United States in a pending case; rather than waiting for the outcome of that case, it could use the threat of enforcement action in the already-decided case to induce a quicker resolution. (emphasis added) (some footnotes omitted) (From chapter 4, Making Trade Fair, pgs. 98-99) |
Link to this entry
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editor
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| Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 1:55 pm Post subject: |
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New York Times Magazine
The Green Issue
Why Bother?
Looking for a few good reasons to go green.
In a thoughtfully organized vegetable garden (one planted
from seed, nourished by compost from the kitchen and
involving not too many drives to the garden center), you
can grow the proverbial free lunch - CO2-free and dollar-free.
By Michael Pollan
April 20/08
| Quote: | Going personally green is a bet, nothing more or less, though it's one we probably all should make, even if the odds of it paying off aren't great. Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can't prove that it will. That, after all, was precisely what happened in Communist Czechoslovakia and Poland, when a handful of individuals like Vaclav Havel and Adam Michnik resolved that they would simply conduct their lives "as if" they lived in a free society. That improbable bet created a tiny space of liberty that, in time, expanded to take in, and then help take down, the whole of the Eastern bloc.
So what would be a comparable bet that the individual might make in the case of the environmental crisis? Havel himself has suggested that people begin to "conduct themselves as if they were to live on this earth forever and be answerable for its condition one day." Fair enough, but let me propose a slightly less abstract and daunting wager. The idea is to find one thing to do in your life that doesn't involve spending or voting, that may or may not virally rock the world but is real and particular (as well as symbolic) and that, come what may, will offer its own rewards. Maybe you decide to give up meat, an act that would reduce your carbon footprint by as much as a quarter. Or you could try this: determine to observe the Sabbath. For one day a week, abstain completely from economic activity: no shopping, no driving, no electronics.
But the act I want to talk about is growing some - even just a little - of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don't - if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade - look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it's one of the most powerful things an individual can do - to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.
... At least in this one corner of your yard and life, you will have begun to heal the split between what you think and what you do, to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen. (emphasis added) ... (--pgs. 23, 88) |
Link to this entry
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editor
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| Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:54 pm Post subject: |
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Harrowsmith Country Life
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Self-Sufficient with Style
A couple balks at spending $35,000 to hook up to the
hydro gird and decides to go it alone on ther state-of-the-art
eco-homestead in the country.
By Paula Salvador
April, 2008
| Quote: | They feel good that their (Bay of Quinte, Ont.) house doesn't demand any fossil fuels. The solar tubes supply hot water for showers and can also be used to heat the house by means of the radiant heating system of tubes laid out in concrete flooring. There is a propane boiler as a back-up hot water system, but it has only been used a few times (in the dead of winter, after more than four cloudy days in a row).
But on very cold or sunless days, Les and Gwen prefer to fire up their masonry heater in which they burn sustainably harvested wood. There's also the advantage of a little stone oven that has been built into the masonry. Gwen uses it to bake bread and cookies...
... The house stays cool well into a heat wave. Likewise, when it gets cold, it takes days for the house to cool down. One particularly frosty March, Les and Gwen were away for a couple of weeks and the house was left on its own. When they got back, the first floor was still 13C. But that was part of the passive solar strategy: The sun streaming in through the windows is absorbed by the big stone wall around the fireplace - that's enough to keep the pipes from freezing.
The house also harvests the rain. ... After a final ultraviolet treatment, it's perfect for all their cooking, and their morning coffee. Lucky for them, because their well water turned out to be good for nothing more than flushing the toilets. It is potable but its strong sulphur and iron content makes it taste terrible.
At a glance, this completely sustainable house may seem beyond reach, but Les's advice to any homeowner is to start with the basics. "The no-brainer part is passive solar. That's the first principle. Then insulate the hell out of it, because energy saved is much better than buying it." (The couple insulated walls with straw bale (R40) and ceilings with rock wool (CR40). (-- pgs. 68-72) |
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=3816#3816
Last edited by editor on Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:29 am; edited 2 times in total |
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editor
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Harrowsmith Country Life
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World's First Vertical Farm
Sin City rolls dice on 30-storey food factory
Compiled by Jason Santerre
April, 2008
| Quote: | What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. And that goes double (or nothing) for the city's vegetables. The desert playground's neon glare is taking on a "green" hue as state officials gamble on an image makeover, from giddy excess and wastefulness to "sustainability and environmental awareness." The first major step involves the construction of a 30-storey building just off the Strip. No, not another casino. This time developers are breaking ground on the world's first vertical farm.
The US $200-million building is designed to grow enough food for 72,000 locals and tourists every year. Dickson Despommier, a professor at New York's Columbia University and a designer with Sun Works, an eco-friendly engineering firm, says the time is right. After all, the world's population - 60 per cent of which lives near or in an urban centre - will exceed 9 billion by 2050. Despommier imagines a future when skylines are dotted with skyscraper farms. "Each will grow enough crops to feed its citizens without weather or pests ever being a factor."
The plan is to grow each crop using hydroponics, whereby the plant travels along a conveyor belt, passing beneath grow lights and automated nutrient-delivery systems. Genetically modified strains could come into play with regard to certain fussier crops, but the details still have to be finalized. Some aspects are certain, especially in cities other than Las Vegas. For instance, less land is needed in vertical farming. Depending on the crop, one indoor acre is equivalent to six outdoor acres. Vertical farming should also reduce fossil fuel consumption: No more tractors, heavy machinery or 18-wheelers used in shipping. The controlled environment is said to help eliminate herbicides and pesticides.
And what about irrigation? Despommier says water will come from filtered sewage and "evapo-transpiration," a natural process that collects water vapour from condensation from the plants; leaves. When it comes to real estate, vertical farms can go up on unused or even condemned lots.
The initial costs of the world's first vertical farm is high, but planners says it will generate an annual revenue of US $25 million through produce sold to the city's myriad restaurants and hotels, and another US $15 million from tourists. "It should be as profitable as a casino with operating expenses being $ US 6 million a year." The farm is said to open its doors in 2010. (-- p. 80) |
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=3817#3817 |
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