Archive for August, 2009
The Resource Matrix Part 1 of 4
The Resource Matrix Part 1 of 4
“The Resource Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”
In my last water efficiency article (Water-Efficiency: Why Most Advice You’ve Read is Absolutely Inefficient), we began a slow turn away from lighting with a discussion of the 80/20 Rule and how your little positive behavioral changes with water aren’t even a drop in the bucket when your other positive behavioral changes – making homemade pizza – evaporate the entire year’s ocean of benefits in a few tasty bites.
In a four-part series, we talk about a resource besides energy: water.
- Today, we begin far above this “turn off the porch lights and take short, icy showers” efficiency thing to show you how we got to where we are now both in fuels and in other resources.
- Next week, we introduce the resource called water, its parallels with fossil fuels, and its role in global warming.
- The following week, we continue going with the flow of water, when we show the parallel between the current hot Oil Wars and in the future cold Water Wars.
- And in the final week, we tie together the articles in a symphony of three movements, showing you how all the elements hold the Resource Matrix in place and how, like Neo in the movie, you can break the code that creates the graphical user interface and see the illusion for what it really is. (At least, my version of it, anyway.)
Ready to take the red pill and see how deep the rabbit-hole goes?
We start with one of the most boring subjects known to college students, one birthed out of the Enlightenment when extremely titled, idly rich, powdery wig-headed fancy foppish men dressed like women and walked in high heels and squealed like school girls:
Economics: it’s totally insane
Economics is described as the science of allocating scarce resources. Since it’s the study of human behavior, it’s a social science rather than a physical science.
And although any individual’s behavior may not be predictable, individuals as a group can be. Kinda like the weather: you don’t know much about a single raindrop’s effect but you can track the overall storm and predict what’s next.
Economics likes to fool itself that it can predict behavior based on the assumption that people make rational choices. Understand what people think and you understand what choices people will make.
It unfortunately leaves out the other part of being human: human behavior based on emotions.
And emotions weigh heavily in how we interact with each other, especially in exchanges of value.
Maximizing returns:
“I want your goodies for nothing”
Economics recognizes that people are motivated by self-interest to maximize their benefits at the lowest cost.
On an individual basis, this can turn into a “win-lose” proposition:
- I want to acquire the best stuff for the cheapest terms
- I want to dispose of the lousiest stuff for the greatest terms
In short, you want diamonds and gold for nothing and they want to give you useless junk for a king’s ransom.
May the Force be with you:
getting diamonds and gold for nothing:
Economics comes out of 18th century political economy, which studied production, buying and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government. Political economy itself comes out of moral philosophy.
This moral philosophy apparently had room for colonialism, which comes pretty close to getting your diamonds and gold for nothing: forcibly take over a country and use its people to extract its resources to be reallocated to your bank account. And make sure nobody but you has any say in the matter.
Social good in the equation:
A few people didn’t see the morality in this philosophy. Enter the lousy, meddling individual do-gooders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mohandas Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Upton Sinclair, and many others who messed with the “I want your goodies for nothing” crowd.
And some of the individuals do-gooders formed their own organizations like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace.
They all worked to increase awareness that there are alternatives to being forced to give away your diamonds and gold for nothing while having no say in the matter, and worked to change deals from “win-lose” to “win-win.”
The “I want your goodies for nothing” crowd, who could only lose in the change to “win-win,” found their salvation in the late 1800s with the rise of modern psychology (the scientific study of mental functions and behavior). Applied to politics, it’s called propaganda. Applied to spirituality, it’s called religion. Applied to commerce, it’s called marketing and advertising.
All these applications are forms of hypnotism, and are based on the proven principle that if you repeat anything enough times, including a falsehood, your audience will grow to believe it and then to defend it as the truth.
The “I want your goodies for nothing” crowd used economics to hypnotically declare for 250 years that fossil fuels, the air, and water were without cost. They called them “free goods.”
And they used force (”Oh yeah, and what the hell are you going to do about it?”) to declare that pollution had no consequences.
What’s an Oxymoron?
“Free Good” in economics
The free good is a term used in economics to describe a good that is not scarce. A free good is available in as great a quantity as desired with zero opportunity cost to society.
Earlier schools of economic thought proposed that free goods were resources that are so abundant in nature that there is enough for everyone to have as much as they want. Examples in textbooks (even in the 1980s) included fresh water and the air that we breathe. However, these are now regarded as common goods because competition for them is rivalrous.
In short, there is no free lunch.
An additional moral philosophy:
“There’s a sucker born every minute”
becomes
“How can I help you help me?”
The “I want your goodies for nothing” crowd continues to rise early and work late to craft their “win-lose” deals every day.
Yet, out of those rising early and working late, a small radical fringe discovered the curious fact that if you don’t beat a dog bloody every time you see it, it’s less likely to bite your hand off, and it even might go out and hunt down a squirrel for your evening stew.
Their moral philosophy became a hybrid offshoot.
The Hybrids still want your goodies, but they are willing to help you get your goodies with less pain and damage to yourself so you’ll be willing to come back to them and hand over more of your goodies.
Both use the same mind-numbing hypnotic slogans: “We care about you.”
The difference is the Hybrids actually do some of those same things that someone who cares about you would do. Even if they don’t actually give a hoot about you. Contrast that to the “I want your goodies for nothing” crowd, who merely sends you more hynoptic slogans when they want your goodies.
Where Do You Want to Go Today?
Everywhere but here
We’ve all awaken to the shocking realizations that:
- finite energy resources will run out
- actions have consequences, and the consequences of our actions are already visible, rather scary, and quite irreversible, and
- the “I want your goodies for nothing” crowd hasn’t been telling the truth
In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, you could just pop some soma and totally trip out.
But the cowardly old world we’re experiencing has quickly turned into a total bummer of a bad trip, man. Down with the Establishment and praise the Collective.
We’re all in this together, or
Toss the lousy, greedy bastards overboard
The decades of the Do-Gooders increasing our awareness of possible “win-win” possibilities and of the Hybrids backing their “we care about you” lip service with actual service has brought us to another realization:
There’s a price to everything, and if I don’t pay the price, someone else will, and somehow, some way, on some sunny day, they’re going to get even and make me pay.
And this has been an important change in the understanding of energy efficiency and global warming: the environment has a limited capacity within our human-lifetime periods to absorb civilization’s byproducts and transform them into resources. It usually needs geologic time to turn dead trees and critters into oil and gas. In the meantime, the trash piles up in the streets.
The solution: create less trash.
Thanks to the Do-Gooders, we have greater awareness or our actions and the desire to change, and have the Hybrids offering ways to change.
And the result is a shift of power away from the “I want your goodies for nothing” crowd. It’s now Power to the People.
But wait, there’s more …
to the Resource Matrix
Just because you know about fossil fuels, their finite amounts, their polluting, warming effects on the environment, and alternatives offered by the Hybrids – even if you have done your part to the best of your ability to reduce, reuse, and recycle — you haven’t escaped the Resource Matrix.
Energy to power our lives is one component of the Resource Matrix. And it’s the most visible in discussions of global warming and being resourceful. But there’s more:
Coming Attractions!
In the next three articles, we will talk about concepts concerning the resource that makes up 75% of the planet and 75% of your body:
Water.
You’ll learn that, although 75% of the planet is water, only 3% of water is potable (can be consumed), and of that 3%, only a small fraction is available, and of that small fraction, only a small fraction is potable, because the rest is polluted for hundreds of years to come.
You’ll learn how the actions of an illiterate, lice-infested, foul-mouthed peasant on the other side of the globe affects you where you are.
You’ll learn how, unlike oil, water is transferred invisibly from poor to rich by sleight of hand, like paying your utility bill through your online bank account.
You’ll learn how poor water decisions, rather than fossil fuel’s atmospheric effects described in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, leads to those drybeds of the formerly humongous Aral Sea and along the Amazon.
You’ll learn how to measure the global water impact of any nation, city, corporation, even yourself – to the nearest gallon or liter.
You’ll learn the little changes you can make – the water equivalent of “change your incandescent lightbulbs to compact fluorescent lamps” – and still be able to take your wastefully long showers.
And all of this is for one purpose:
To help you see the Resource Matrix, everywhere, all around you.
And now I would like to offer you free access to powerful info on energy efficiency that’s easy to read and cuts through all this “green” information clutter — so you can literally start making positive changes today.
You can access it now by going to: http://www.a19.com/pub/articles/
From Cinnamon Alvarez: Founder, A19 — woman-owned green manufacturer of hand-made ceramic lighting fixtures
Solar stocks mixed as more solar companies post results, analysts … Sector Snap: Solar stocks mixed on earnings newsNEW YORK â?? Solar stocks were mixed on Thursday as two solar companies reported quarterly results and analysts raised concerns about near-term challenges for solar companies. Germany: Lots of solar, too much CO2 – Carbon Offsets Daily The giant solar power plant in Brandenburg is made up of 700000 shiny photovoltaic modules that cover an area of roughly 210 soccer fields. Located on Soviet-era military training grounds, the 53-MW plant can produce power for an … Energy and Climate News for August 27: Solar panels drop sharply … For solar shoppers these days, the price is right. Panel prices have fallen about 40 percent since the middle of last year, driven down partly by an increase in the supply of a crucial ingredient for panels, according to analysts at the … Another Little Ice Age? Solar activity and climate change … Some scientists are suggesting that the slow return to a more active phase of the solar cycle may portend a general decline in solar activity. If sunspots shut down, does that mean that we could stop worrying about climate change? … NCAR spots the â??transistor effectâ? â?? Small solar activity … Researchers from the USA and from Germany have now, for the first time, successfully simulated, in detail, the complex interaction between solar radiation, atmosphere, and the ocean. As the scientific journal Science reports in its …News Of Green Cafeteria
Saving Money and the Environment
Saving Money and the Environment
With the current economic problems, hopefully more people are interested in saving money and recycling. Businesses are always interested in keeping the customers they have and getting new ones.
The cost of fuel has been big in the news for years but, when compared to plastics, it’s a small percentage of petrochemical use. Saving on the use of petrochemicals for making plastics can extend the timeframe before peak oil and lower the price of fuels.
Most grocery stores offer a five cent per bag discount if you bring in your bags. You can do that in a variety of ways. One is by taking the old plastic bags back and another is using cloth bags, which can often be purchased at the store. Usually, grocers will sell cloth bags with their advertising on them at their cost, which is cheaper than an equivalent type bag can be purchased elsewhere. By doing that, the grocer gets their investment back and advertisement as well. If your grocer doesn’t have a program of that type, tell them about the advertising value and mention that you take your bags everywhere, including their competitor’s store.
If you don’t want to spend the money on cloth bags, reuse your old plastic ones. Plastic bags aren’t as durable as cloth and it’s a good practice to double bag when using a plastic bag more than once or twice.
We’ve found cloth bags to be a good investment. Most of our bags are almost twenty years old. If we save two cents a bag and buy ten bags of groceries, and do that five times a month, we’ve saved a dollar a month. That doesn’t sound like much but our cloth bags paid for themselves the first year, with the last eighteen plus years being pure savings.
Tying the bags off keeps the goods inside from spilling all over the trunk on the way home. But, tying them off presents another problem. Getting them untied, especially the plastic bags, can be difficult if not impossible. Most people consider it not worth the effort and rip them apart. There’s a simple answer to that problem. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I have a brief slide show that explains the process. Once the bags are tied in the manner I show in the pictures, they untie easily and can be used over and over.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I have put together a slide show tutorial. You can access the slide show by going to the URL in the resource box.
Helpful health, how-to, travel and automotive information can be accessed by going to http://www.newliferoadmap.com
Green with Pure Water Technology
Recycle – Takes Care of Two Things at Once: Composting Food Waste
Recycle – Takes Care of Two Things at Once: Composting Food Waste
Years ago my dad taught me the benefits of composting food waste. It had nothing to do with any type of “green” movement or being environmentally friendly, no, it had everything to do with reintroducing nutrients back into the soil.
Here is what he taught me then and it still holds true today. By burying your food waste and kitchen scraps (no steak bones though), you are providing a quality food source for the creatures that live in your soil. From micro organisms and those creatures that the human eye can not see, up to worms, which of course we do see.
See, what happens is these creatures eat the food (and of course each other) and then finally the worms eat basically everything and their castings (worm poop) create the best nutrients your soil could ever have. By continually supplying your garden soil with food waste you are feeding the earthly creatures and they reward you with healthy soil. Now where can you get a trade off like that!
Ok so here is how you do it. Get yourself a fairly large Tupperware bowl. One large enough to hold at least a week’s worth of food scraps. Then after each meal dump everything and anything into that bowl. Just do not put steak bones in there, they wont biodegrade or be eaten by the worms. Banana peels, apple peels, coffee grinds, fish, vegetable scraps, egg shells and basically anything you don’t eat, all qualifies.
When your Tupperware bowl gets full, take it out to your garden and dig a hole about a foot to two feet deep and then dump the food scraps into the hole. Fill in the hole with the dirt and mark the spot with a stick or something else so that you do not dig up that area again for another three months. You need to give those little rascals some time to eat it all.
Now you simply repeat this process as the Tupperware bowl gets full. If you find that you live in colder climates where the ground may freeze for lengthy periods of time, then consider starting a warm box to recycle your food scraps. That goes beyond the scope of this article but I am sure if you Googled the search term “vermicompost” you will get all the information you will ever need.
So what are the two things I was talking about earlier? Well obviously the first is you are adding nutrients to your soil through composting food waste. The second is by composting your food waste you are limiting the amount of garbage that ends up in a landfill. The average four person house hold creates about 8 pounds of food waste per week. If every family in America followed this process we would eliminate nearly one billion pounds of food waste garbage a year. Now that is a lot of trash!
Do your part and compost your food waste. The worms in your garden will love you for it and so will everyone else in the environment.
About the Author
Bruce Tucker is a contributing writer to Mike’s How-To Blog, a blog that covers a wide variety of topics and how to do them. You can also follow him on Twitter.
Notices For New Technology
Aqueduct For Florida A Modern-Day “Roman” Germ of an Idea
Aqueduct For Florida A Modern-Day “Roman” Germ of an Idea
The west coast of Florida remains trapped in an ongoing drought. In Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties (Tampa and St. Petersburg/Clearwater) severe restrictions on water use are in place. Even the use of reclaimed water for lawns and gardens is now restricted. The rainy season is not yet here; but in past years the amount of rainfall received during the wet months was far below the historical average, so that reservoirs and ground water supplies have never had a chance to recover.
The situation is quite different in northern Florida, in the Panhandle and all across the State close to the Georgia border. The weather in those parts of the State is generally wetter, and more consistently so, than the weather farther south.
Yesterday, our local St. Petersburg Times carried a story (with photographs) of the damage which is now being inflicted in Madison County (which borders Georgia) by floodwaters from the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers. The storms which produced the rain moved from west to east across the Panhandle over the past week, to the point at which the Withlacoochee crested at 89 feet, four feet above the record set in 1948. So far, the rising floodwaters have destroyed or caused severe damage to almost 200 homes and lesser damage to 500 more, all areas combined. Two people are known dead, and one person is missing.
Quite apart from the possibility of reducing the tally of deaths, personal injury, and property damage which even a partial remedy for river flooding in these areas might entail, it boggles the mind just to consider the sheer waste of so much fresh water. Most of that damaging flood water will be gone forever as it eventually finds its way to the Gulf of Mexico. That’s a shame, because so much of it could be put to good use in the west coast, central, and other parts of the State where it is so desperately needed. The waste is not just limited to damaging flood waters, either. The “top of Florida” is blessed with more rainfall, on average, than it needs. Obviously, the flow of river water into the Gulf represents a volume of water which has not been put to good use.
In passing, we acknowledge that the flow of a certain amount of river water into the Gulf is said to be necessary for the health of the shellfish beds near the coastline.
Even so, it seems inadmissible to stand by and do nothing but watch a surfeit of water in the northern counties lay waste and then go to waste while there is such a great need for water in other areas of the State. Surely there is a partial remedy which might ameliorate the problems in the affected sections.
The Romans found a way to move big volumes of water over considerable distances. Surely we can build on their success – and on successes over the centuries since that time – by constructing an Aqueduct system to bring excess water from the northern Florida counties to drier areas to the south.
The best part is that the right-of-way is already in place! It’s called Interstate 10 and Interstate 75. Take a peek at a map of Florida. Find the intersection of I-10 and I-75. The Suwannee and Withlacoochee Rivers are close by, as are other rivers. There are others to the west, and I-10 probably crosses every one of them.
Excess water could be fed into the Aqueduct lying above-ground or underground in the median of I-10 at various points along its route, and then fed south toward Tampa and St. Petersburg/Clearwater in that part of the Aqueduct lying within the median of I-75 and I-275. Do you see how obvious that is?
If ever there was a perfectly-planned right-of-way for a particular purpose, although not part of the design at the outset, this is it.
There would be hurdles. There always are. Will and determination were invented for the purpose of overcoming hurdles.
It seems to me that the construction and operation of The Florida Aqueduct is an undertaking which private capital should undertake. It need not cost the State a penny.
Let’s see whether anyone steps up to the plate.
.,.,.,.,.,.
William Kurtz
Palm Harbor, Florida
April 11, 2009
The author is a retired corporate CEO and attorney, and a long-time investor. He has passed the NASD Series 65 Investment Adviser exam. He publishes his Investment Newsletter and Action Suggestions three times per week at http://www.candlewave.com/ The Action Suggestions provide specific Safety Stops on major Indexes; a review of the major Indexes; an individual review of each of the Gold, Silver, and Crude Oil markets; an individual review of each of the Dow 30 stocks and of selected non-Dow stocks; a review of five popular Forex pairs; and his Daily Commodities Report. The Daily Commodities Report is also available as a free-standing service at http://www.commoditiesjunction.com/ The Operating Manual for his copyrighted “Candelaabra” technical analysis trading system for all financial markets is also available through its own website at candlesticksonsteroids.com and via info@candlewave.com
“Candelaabra” rides atop Genesis Financial Technologies’ “Trade Navigator” © platform. “Trade Navigator” with the “Candelaabra” overlay, and data feed, are available directly from Genesis by arrangement with CandleWave, LLC. in a joint risk-free 30-day trial of Trade Navigator and of Candelaabra.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_Kurtz
Green Technology of ISAAC 2008
Climate and Biodiversity For Common Good
Climate and Biodiversity For Common Good
Concerns about dangerous climate change and large biodiversity loss are visible throughout the world: unprecedented rates of temperature increases and species extinctions are a reality. In 1999 Dr. Peter Raven, president of the International Botanical Congress, published a paper in which he states that “current extinction rate is now approaching 1,000 times the background rate and may climb to 10,000 times the background rate during the next century, if present trends continue. At this rate, one-third to two-thirds of all species of plants, animals, and other organisms would be lost during the second half of the 21st century, a loss that would easily equal those of past extinctions”. He then outlined seven “Points to Slow the Extinction of Plants”, including financial and capacity building instruments to help developing countries protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity they host. As far as climate change is concerned, the responsibility of developed countries is high in providing the most threatened regions in the world with good instruments to cope with this challenge (or at least examples of them to implement autonomously).
Climate change plays a significant role in this human-induced mass extinction because it is increasing the already large biodiversity losses caused by habitat destruction and fragmentation, water and air pollution, introduction of invasive species. Marine ecosystems will be affected by an increase in sea temperature, but also by ocean acidification, because of the higher concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide (carbonic acid): in fact this reduces the shell formation ability in many organisms. Polar (and mountain) ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to climate change, with effects such as thawing permafrost, decreased snow cover, losses from ice sheets and changes in ocean temperatures. Large impacts on Arctic biodiversity are already evident, pictures of polar bears wandering lost on small icebergs being a scary and sad symbol of the era we live in (even former U.S. President Bush, at the end of his mandate, recalled this image to show his fellow citizens he cared about climate change …)
In this rapidly changing environment it is therefore extremely important that conservation plans include adaption measures for ecosystems accordingly to the predicted regional climate patterns (but models need still to be improved a lot at this scale): dynamic approaches are needed to set good options for future ecosystems and landscapes. It will be necessary to facilitate the movement of species to new geographical locations, as they follow the shifting habitats.
The public concern is growing: in Africa last 28 February young people organized a march from impoverished urban areas to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness on climate change, together with the Kilimanjaro Initiative and the UN’s global UNite to Combat Climate Change campaign. It seems though that the global attention on climate change doesn’t fully consider implications for biodiversity yet: while the negotiations and speeches on climate issues are very popular (and the Nobel Prize was awarded to the entire IPCC together with Al Gore in 2007) the meetings and decisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity (http://www.cbd.int/) don’t raise comparable interest. Is it because the anthropocentrism is (still) the prevailing philosophy and animals and plants are mainly seen by people as beautiful “supporting actors” on the planet we live on? Right when we are losing control of the global situation it is probably time to reflect on our role of dominant species and acknowledge the fundamental contribution of other organisms to our livelihoods, despite many of us live in the so called Technosphere.
Policies to protect the climate avoiding irreversible effects on the ecosystems need to be strongly interconnected with conservation strategies: preserving natural areas while helping them adapt to the changing climate means hopefully to leave better, or not as compromised, ecosystems to future generations. Climate and biodiversity, though ever changing and evolving, are common goods and they need common policies: if we reduce the human Ecological Footprint both the atmosphere and the biosphere will be better off (and our children and grandchildren living in them).
Written by Luca Marazzi on behalf of Responding to Climate Change.
For further information on Climate Change please visit the Responding to Climate Change website – http://www.rtcc.org
The Ecological Footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody lived a given lifestyle. For 2005, humanity’s total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.3 planet Earths – in other words, humanity uses ecological services 1.3 times faster than Earths can renew them. See also: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/
Marvell's digital PFC chips
science-news,callin,opinion of Invasion Earth
Last week, we introduced you to the Resource Matrix, which is everywhere, it is all around us. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. We showed you how economics leads to people maximizing their benefits in “win-lose” propositions: you want diamonds and gold for nothing and they want to give you useless junk for a king’s ransom. And how we’ve been hypnotized in believing what they want is also what we want. But the scales have been falling from our eyes, we’re beginning to see the truth, and the power has been shifting away from the “I want your goodies for nothing” crowd: We now realize we’re all in this together: we have greater awareness of our actions and the desire to change, and have ways to change. Hallelujah and Praise the Collective! Today, we introduce the resource called water, its parallels with fossil fuels, and its role in global warming. None of this is to dismiss or diminish the contribution of fossil fuels in global warming. Hey, just like the Special Olympics, if you participate, you get a medal. We just think that gold-medal winner Fossil Fuels has stolen the spotlight, letting silver-medalist Water Use keep us hypnotized in believing that water is a free lunch, and that nature will clear up polluted waters while getting away with breaking the rules. Water, water, everywhere, According to our friends at How Stuff Works, who I wrote about sarcastically for their oxymoronic clean coal article in discussing how true public relations stuff really works, gives us this data: Okay, so 20% of the usable water (only 0.4% of all water on Earth) is accessible, right? Well . . . no. Many of the aquifers, wells, lakes, and rivers have been sucked dry like a once-juicy fly carcass in a spider’s web. (The 18% and 1.8% you see above is like the money in the Social Security Fund: there actually is nothing there.) And many of those water sources that do still have a drop to drink are worse than the ocean’s salt water. Drink salt water and you’ll need to yawn into a bucket. Drink this water and you’ll kick the bucket. And I know you aren’t asking this burning question:
“So . . . global warming to release fresh water from ice caps and glaciers is a good thing, no?”
Percentage this, percentage that. I know I’m pulling the disgusting old government trick: drowning you in an ocean of water statistics. So let’s make it plain and simple: You bring in $10,000 a month. You’re also living high on the hog and doing your personal best to outshine every bling-bling Hip Hopster Musical Artist in materially conspicuous consumption: Aquifers and wells and lakes and rivers: Fred Pearce, author of When the Rivers Run Dry, helps us quickly understand it:
We can all save water in the home. But as laudable as it is to take a shower rather than a bath and turn off the faucet while brushing our teeth, we shouldn’t get hold of the idea that regular domestic water use is what is really emptying the world’s rivers. Manufacturing goods … consumes a certain amount, but that’s not the real story either. It is only when we add in the water needed to grow what we eat and drink that the numbers really begin to soar. (emphasis mine.) (Fred Pearce, When the Rivers Run Dry, Boston: Beacon Press, 2006. p 3)
Here are a few numbers he gives: He kindly puts water use into perspective in annual terms: —————————————– sidebar: US Beef industry’s Cattlemen’s Association: 441 gallons In an industrial beef production system, it takes an average three years before the animal is slaughtered to produce about 200 kg of boneless beef. The animal consumes nearly 1300 kg of grains (wheat, oats, barley, corn, dry peas, soybean meal and other small grains), 7200 kg of roughages (pasture, dry hay, silage and other roughages), 24 cubic meter of water for drinking and 7 cubic meter of water for servicing. This means that to produce one kilogram of boneless beef, we use about 6.5 kg of grain, 36 kg of roughages, and 155 litres of water (only for drinking and servicing). Producing the volume of feed requires about 15300 litres of water on average. —————————————– Where does all that water come from? If it comes from imported goods (Thai rice or Egyptian cotton), the water comes from those countries. When the water is collected from rivers or pumped from underground, as it is in much of the world, it’s: And when the rivers are running low, as they are more frequently, there is less water to grow anything at all. The water used in growing and producing goods around the world is known as “virtual water” and the trade of these goods is known as “virtual water transfers.” And who’s the biggest water exporting Mouseketeer of them all? The United States. When you drink coffee from Central America, you are influencing the hydrology of the region, virtually taking a share of the Costa Rican rains. The same is true within a national and regional boundaries. The Colorado River is drained so Californians can eat their Big Macs and have friends over for a Sunday afternoon barbecue. In the same way that your use of fossil fuel is measured as a “carbon footprint,” your water use, actual and through virtual water transfer, is measured as a “water footprint.” How big is my water footprint? Arjen Y. Hoekstra, professor at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, introduced the water-footprint concept in 2002. It “shows water use related to consumption within a nation, while the traditional indicator shows water use in relation to production within a nation.” (Hoekstra and Chapagain, Globalization of Water, Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2008, p. 3) With Hoekstra and Chapagain’s water footprint calculator (waterfootprint.org), you select your country, input food, domestic water use, and industrial goods consumption, press a button, and you get your: For example, you’re in the US, eat only 1 pound of cereal a week (.4545 kg) and have a low-fat, low-sugar diet, use a low-flow showerhead, use a no-flush eco-toilet, and never run the tap while brushing your teeth. Two extremes: Three notes on the calculations, because Professor Hoekstra is European and lives in the social welfare country that started birthing hippies in Amsterdam decades before they showed up in the US at Woodstock: So how is Cinnamon’s capitalist water footprint? Answer: 650 cubic meters (172,900 gallons) I showed you mine. Now you show me yours: Get the naked truth: Calculate your waterfootprint now: Water’s running out: We return to Fred Pearce’s book to find an example, of which he has oceans: China’s Yellow River: The fifth longest in the world, it begins high in the mountains of eastern Tibet and journeys more than 3000 miles. Almost half a billion people depend on it for drinking and crop irrigation, and it’s made China the world’s largest wheat producer and second largest corn producer. Yet more than half of the lakes it feeds have disappeared over the last 20 years, and a third of pastures have turned to desert. This desertification generates huge dust storms that choke lungs in Beijing, close schools in Koreas, dust cars in Japan, and rain dust on mountains across the Pacific and Western Canada. State irrigation projects along the Yellow River soak up the majority of its water – the total official allocations are greater than the actual flow. The resulting drought could be an early warning sign of global warming. Much of the declines in moisture reaching rivers is in line with prediction of climate researchers. So how does this global warming happen? Higher air temperatures from desertification increase evaporation from oceans and intensify the water cycle. This increases atmospheric water vapor – 8 to 10% more than today. This increases global rainfall, but the rain is being redistributed: middle latitudes (read: the US) are becoming drier. Higher temperatures increase evaporation on land, meaning soil dries out faster, meaning less rainfall is reaching rivers. The higher temperatures melt glaciers and snowpacks. At first, this leads to unpredecented floods. After the glaciers disappear, meltwaters that feed rivers disappear. The combined decreasing rainfall and increasing evaporation will lower moisture by 40% in the southern and western states. The Sierra Nevada snowpack could diminish by 70 to 80 percent over the next 50 years. And some of the world’s most productive agricultural regions could dry up. Global climate is becoming more extreme: the dry areas become drier, and the wet areas become wetter. And more areas are becoming dry deserts. Loss of habitat and agricultural lands. It’s a vicious cycle. So what can you do? As Fred Pearce points out, your drinking and bathing account for 0.05% of your total water consumption. Your food and clothing weigh in at 95.00%, although I find his 12,000 gallons needed to produce a pound of burger rather wild. As Professor Arjen Y. Joekstra shows with his Water Footprint Calculator, your consumption of meats accounts for a lot, as does your guilt by association of being in an industrialized country. The obvious solution: eat fewer e-coli burgers from your neighborhood Salt and Fat Slop Bucket restaurant. The wiser solution: like your choices in energy use, become more aware of the resources needed to produce anything and the consequences. Such as luxurious cotton grown in the Egyptian desert. Next article in the water efficiency series: We continue going with the flow of water, when we show the parallel between the current hot Oil Wars and in the future cold Water Wars. And all of this is for one purpose: To help you see the Resource Matrix, everywhere, all around you. Thanks for letting us keep you updated . . . To your green, brighter future, Cinnamon Alvarez, And now I would like to offer you free access to powerful info on energy efficiency that’s easy to read and cuts through all this “green” information clutter — so you can literally start making positive changes today. You can access it now by going to: http://www.a19.com/pub/articles/ From Cinnamon Alvarez: Founder, A19 — woman-owned green manufacturer of hand-made ceramic lighting fixtures
science-news,callin,opinion of Invasion Earth
Water Efficiency The Resource Matrix Part 2 of 4
not a drop to drink.
Talk my language, will you?
Dry or polluted, oh my!
How Many Gallons to Produce One Pound of Beef?
Lies, damned lies, and statistics
Fred Pearce: 12,000 gallons
Water Footprint Network: 1854 gallons (calculations: 15500 litres of water per kg; 4079 gallons per kg; 1854 gallons per pound)
From virtually everywhere
I’ll show you mine if you show me yours
I get the fossil fuel analogy so far.
And what about climate change?
Navigating through the Resource Matrix
How an illiterate, lice-infested, foul-mouthed
peasant on some other side of the globe affects you
A19
How Can Technology Help the Environment?
How Can Technology Help the Environment?
How can technology help improve the environment? Are we promoting a more singular existence, where individualism is the force that is driving us along? We are now living in a world that is in an accelerated mode of change and innovation. Is this rate of change detrimental to our existence? Think about this for a moment. On the one hand we have improvements in all areas of our lives some are greater than others. On the other hand we are looking at the effects of the harmful destruction of our planet earth.
The first computers started to emerge around the 1940’s, now we have computer processors in a lot of the electronic equipment we use every day. We even have computers that can fit in your hand that have more power than the first computers.The first Television and television transmission appeared in 1925 and now we are watching gigantic flat screens, some as big as buildings and others screens as small as wrist watches. In the past 80 years the medical field has also grown in leaps and bounds in the areas of IVF, genetic research, cloning, stem cell research, along with the progress in the prevention, cure and management of various diseases. Other fields such as astronomy, environmental science, weapons/warfare and engineering have also had their fair share of extraordinary development achievements.
Looking at the issues of Global warming and human environment interaction we are currently facing within our natural environment. Should we really be in a race to ruin the land where we live? We cannot keep up with the current technology, just look at all the equipment you have taken to the recycle tip in just the last 12-24 months. Consider how many Televisions, Videos, DVD players, Computers, Laptops, Hi-fi’s and Home entertainment systems you have changed or bought recently, the list is endless. When an improvement is made to a product it can sometimes make the original product obsolete. Satellite Navigation equipment a new and easily available product for everyone. Even if you only use it once a year it is believed to be a must have product. Mobile phones is another product every man and his dog has one these days. How often do you change your mobile phone for the latest model? Can you ever imagine being without a mobile phone? How did we ever cope without them? The raw materials used to make a phone cannot be recycled easily.
I believe as we get to understand one part(s) of our lives we seem to lose sight of others parts that are equally as important. What can be done to slow down the rate of change or how do we as a nation become more aware of the effects of the rate of change has on our environment.
If we could not have a new television or other new product until the old one had been recycled properly we would help the environment tremendously. Today if we implemented this many products or versions of products would be missed because of the speed at which technology changes. Like the latest flat screen with super clear picture quality. It seem that every other week we get the next new and improved product. Just look at washing power or washing up liquid advertisements.
Just some food for thought more to come soon.
Take advantage of more free valuable content at this website: http://computerbass.com/
You will find something of interest…
TheGrahamBaileyShow Episode 3 in Going Green
Climate Modeling Proves Global Warming
Climate Modeling Proves Global Warming
Many folks have taken to Global Warming, which by definition means the planet is warming due to CO2 from man-made emissions. If the planet were warming from any other source, it would be by definition called climate change. Unfortunately for the Global Warming evangelists the planet may not be warming, in fact, as of late the solar minimum is at a record low, and the planet is cooling.
Still, the believers in this doom and gloom scenario say that Climate Computer Modeling proves it. Oh, really, because as it stands humans wrote those computer models and the algorithms that generate these futurist prediction. In fact, one of the biggest issues with the climate modeling is they keep re-adjusting them to get the desired resultant. There is something seriously fishy about that.
Personally, I do not like pollution, land, sea or air, or even all that space debris up there. That’s just proof of inefficiency, which is not worthy of human potential or intellect. But, computer modeling is only as good as the program and data. Garbage in = garbage out.
If reduction of pollution, let’s say CO2 is the goal then let’s dump the scientific pretendism and get real; let’s just say that the human race has agreed to reduce greenhouse gases on the planet caused from mankind and then start doing it. But to hold this Global Warming doomsday theory out as real is really not helping anyone. In fact, we are liable to change our entire civilization’s infrastructure for no reason whatsoever.
Because the reality is that the Earth’s atmosphere and ambient surface temperatures heat up and cool in cycles and they have for billions of years, and there is nothing that mankind presently can do about that. Think on it.
Lance Winslow – Lance Winslow’s Bio. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/.
Green Technology
5 Easy Tips Conserving Water
5 Easy Tips Conserving Water
Everyone is looking for ways to save money and help conserve our natural resources. There are many methods that are easy to start in your own homes, but one very simple and obvious way to save is by reducing water consumption. Here are just a few easy water saving tips that you can begin doing today.
1. Turn off running water in your sink or shower when you’re actually using the water. You can easily fill the sink with a enough water to wash your face, or fill a cup to brush your teeth. You may consider turning off the shower faucet while you’re washing your hair and then turn on again to rinse. Think about how much water is wasted. The same goes for dishes in the kitchen, turn off the water until you’re ready to rinse.
2. There are low-water consumption toilets available that use only a couple of gallons of water each time they are flushed. If you have a standard toilet, one green living tip you may consider is placing a plastic bottle filled with sand into your toilet tank. This little trick helps the tank fill up faster and use less water.
3. The laundry is another area where it is easy to waste water, and just as easy to save. Do your laundry in large loads rather than several smaller ones.
4. Limit your water waste outdoors. Don’t wash your car or driveway as often as you have been, and when you do, turn off the outside faucet until it’s time to rinse your car.
5. Look throughout your home, checking the faucets, toilets and pipes for any leaks. The very smallest of drips coming from a leaking pipe can eventually cost you a lot of money. Fix any leaks that you find.
If you are looking for simple ways to save the planet and save yourself money, start at home with these 5 easy steps. The planet and your wallet will thank you.
Learn more Green Living Tips and Ideas at http://greenlivingtipsandideas.com
Sanyo Eneloop Portable Solar panel
Sanyo’s back, adding more prestige to the Eneloop brand by offering the Eneloop Portable Solar panel that can be used to juice up a slew of USB devices as well as Sanyo’s very own Eneloop Mobile Booster. Perfect if…
Solar Cycle Linked to Global Climate, Drives Events Similar to El …
BOULDERâ??Establishing a key link between the solar cycle and global climate, new research led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) shows that.
Iraqi border posts testing wind, solar power | Defense Technology …
BAGHDAD: Although Iraq is blessed with one of the world’s largest reserves of crude oil, it has little or no refining capability and the lack of petroleum.
Greentech Media: TSMC Goes Shopping for Solar
Chang told Bloomberg on Monday reiterated that the company is in discussions to invest in solar and LED companies. These two industries share some similarities with the chip business in how they manufacture products. …
Peak Energy: Clark & Acciona To Develop 500-MW Solar Project for …
Peak Energy – Peak Oil. Global Warming. Viridian Solutions.
Mobile Car Wash Rules Slated City of Oxnard CA
Mobile Car Wash Rules Slated City of Oxnard CA
The City of Oxnard, California is concerned with the quality of its storm water and rightfully so, as it has made great strides over the years. Oxnard CA is also home to the gateway to the channel islands with some incredible beaches and nice resort style living, and all that storm water leads to the ocean and those beautiful beaches. Thus, the city has chosen to start cracking down on mobile car washes.
This should not come as any surprise to anyone, as the city had previously implemented many programs to help clean the storm water runoff. They had developed a nearly bullet proof NPDES plan to insure clean water. The beaches never looked so good and this recent ruling to finish that job nearly a decade and a half later has come all the way down to washing of cars.
Our company had dealt with this issue in the late 80s and early 90s and helped write all the NPDES BMPs for several counties near there. The devices used are fairly easy to buy, and it really doesn’t take much, further it is my contention that all mobile car washes ought to follow the rules to protect the environment and there ought to be no excuses on that.
Indeed, over the years, we’ve worked with many cities on this, in fact, one thing we did was join the committees to help write the original BMPs for surface cleaners in Ventura County, CA where the City of Oxnard is located. A mobile car wash operator should not only follow the rules but be part of the solution. Think on that.
Lance Winslow – Lance Winslow’s Bio. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/.
The Rogues Gallery » Blog Archive » Solar energy experts say the …
Ken Zweibel, director of the Solar Institute at George Washington University recently stated that current technologies â??have made the kind of progress that we were hoping futuristic technologies could make.â? …
Sasol sponsors Stellenbosch solar thermal energy research
Petrochemicals giant Sasol has announced a sponsorship of R3-million over the next five years to the support solar thermal energy research by the University of Stellenbosch’s Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering.
VK Solar torches: Killer | Ads of the World: Creative Advertising …
VK Solar torches: KillerEmergency torches. Advertising Agency: Publicis Communications, Delhi, India Executive Creative Director /Copywriter: Emmanuel Upputuru Creative Director: Anindya Banerjee Creative Group Head / Art Director: …
Solar panel cleaning jacks output – SmartPlanet
The Thinking Tech blog focuses on technologies such as virtualization, smart electric grids, enterprise 2.0, open source, data center management, green technology and the intersection between the innovation and application of these …
NewNet News – Solar energy technology company Evolution Solar …
NewNet News – Solar energy technology company Evolution Solar Corporation is to move its primary business office to China.