No Choice But Green
By Nicole Belle Monday Oct 15, 2007 5:58pmSomeone tipped me to this blog by Brad Bonham on the imperative we all must accept to do what we can to be more environmentally aware.
The alternative to our current system is a system that is unimaginable but begs us all to take the world and our place in it very seriously. All hands will need to be on deck. Every church, organization, business, and citizen will need to dig down deep and figure out if the world and its children are worth saving, and we'll need all the creativity and ingenuity in the world to figure out how to do it. If we do, maybe, just maybe our children will see a bright green future. If we carry on with life like it's business as usual, we might not get a chance to tell our children we're sorry.
So, that's where I've been. On the long, dark journey of a consuming soul who realizes that things in the years ahead will need to change drastically, but hopefully for the better. After all, my journey towards caring started with figuring out how to end poverty, and it took me to the unexpected twists and turns of sustainability. As it turns out, sustainability might help us avert wars as well.
I offer you two links to start your own journey. One is a dark alternative we face if we don't quickly change, and the other is a bright possibility we (hopefully) face if we all unite and realize that living like we give a damn might just mean we and our children get to live to see a better world.
1) Dark - Long Emergency
2) Bright - Worldchanging
John Amato several months ago recommended the documentary A Crude Awakening to me and the ramifications of Peak Oil as examined in the movie have haunted me to this day, and I've really tried to make very mindful choices to be more green. I really weigh how important it is every time I get in my car and try to carpool or use public transportation as much as possible...John laughs at me because I'm resistant to upgrading my pathetically old computer because I hate the notion of how un-environmental that is. Even little things like using compact fluorescent bulbs, canvas shopping bags (the bagger thought I was nuts when I forgot my canvas bags one day and asked him to place the unbagged groceries in the cart directly rather than me taking home any plastic bags) and avoiding using appliances during peak hours does make a big difference.
So in honor of Gore's Nobel win for raising awareness and Blog Action Day, I ask that you share with fellow C&Lers some ideas for making your life more green.
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I have been working on hydrogen generators in my spare time!
http://waterpoweredcar.com/index.html
Although eco-friendly choices in everyday life is a great way to express one's responsibility to the environment, we have to give credit where credit is due. The oil tycoons have been crushing clean energy alternatives for as long as they can, and that is why we're in such a tight pinch now. Left uninterrupted, there would have been multiple clean, free energy sources available on a mass scale that would make the transition easy. Hailing nuclear energy as the savior of the new century is just taking money out of the hands of Exxon and into the hands of Mr. Burns. We can do better.
going greener in your private life is ... well ... pretty. but pretty useless if we don't stop deforestation, which will set free far more carbon dioxide than we ecofriendly citizens can preserve. so help buy some acres of rainforest for preservation, if you can afford it.
To keep up to date on the "peak oil" debate, I recommend theoildrum.com. If you really want a tutorial, however, go to dieoff.org. It's a "doomer" site but it lays out the issues in a basic way that is sure to get your attention.
Thanks, Nicole. Full of useful information and great references.
Muzzle a republic[sic] and cut down on noise polltuion?
:)
Ok...lessee...what I did:
buy a scooter and get, depending on the model, anywhere from 60-100mpg (I get 60-70, city/hwy)
(please don't forget to get a full-face helmet. And folks: no high heels, no matter how cute they look while you ride)
The "dark" article is a bit naive, and doesn't take into account that the rich will fight the decline of the existing structure as long as possible, and use their massively disproportionate resources to make sure they stay protected.
Happened to catch Fox and Friends by mistake the other day, and that blond knob (Steve? Douche?) was advising us on ways to save energy. He said it's important because...[and here I thought he would mention reducing greenhouse gas emissions]...we want to reduce dependence on foreign oil!! Ah, those wacky wingnuts, always finding a way to avoid acknowledging climate change.
Go vegetarian already. It will make a much bigger impact than all the tiny little everyday things people do just to make themselves feel better.
We're past the time when people can whine "But I liiiiiiike meat." People who drive Hummers like those too, and if you're still eating meat you might want to research which impacts the environment more.
j @ 9:
Hell. I can't AFFORD meat.
If you don't have a smart power strip, please unplug your appliances and electronics from the outlets when not in use. It makes a big difference.
Thanks.
The Kunstler book (The Long emergency) is a good read, but it is way too pessimistic. You can almost sense the glee in he feels in ripping apart the wastefulness of the American Way of life. The fact is that there is a lot of oil left in the ground, BUT it is going to be much more expensive to extract. A couple of years of $200 a barrel oil will be the kick in the ass the U.S. needs to get going. Kunstler's whole theory rests on the U.S. never coming to its senses - or never getting the chance - he thinks so little of us.
Interestingly that during today's record oil high's, experts finally started to admit that the rise in oil is not just geopolitical. They basically said that demand is now beyond what we can pump out. OPEC is maxing out right now. People in the north are in for a terrible shock this winter when they fill up their oil tanks.
LOL Miss Kitty!
Hey, whatever it takes.
Whether Kunstler is "too pessimistic" will play out over the next few years. I'm not at all sure he isn't right about Americans. We've invested so much in the suburban, commuter, consumer culture that it's going to be incredibly difficult (not to mention expensive) to change our ways. It's not just the value of what we've built that will be declining, it's the expense of creating a different infrastructure to support the alternative. When you consider how far in debt Americans are, it's difficult to imagine where we're going to get the financial resources to do what must be done. We're starting from a much deeper hole in terms of our previous unsustainable investment than most other countries.
miss_kitty @ 10:
I heard that going vegetarian can make your carbon footprint smaller than buying a hybrid car. Or was that vegan? Either way, it is a terrific step to take and for many other reasons, as well.
I want to take another shot at it. I just need to plan ahead and have a full range of hearty vegetarian dishes lined up to help ween myself off the meaty meats.
:)
I have eliminated nearly all short trips in my car. I ride my bike up to the grocery store (1/2 mile away). Since I do try to work out a lot and I also enjoy bicycling, I try to combine exercise with running errands. For instance I will bike about 5 miles each way to go to Trader Joe's (if I don't happen to already be going that way in my car). I will bike 2 or 3 miles each way to go to Sprouts or Bed, Bath and Beyond, whatever. If I can carry it on my back, I can do the trip on my bike.
Of course, I have some special circumstances: I live in the desert Southwest, so pretty much any day is a good day to bike (even when it's 120 outside!). I am fortunate to live in an area where I can bike a long way without having to deal much with heavy traffic. And, I don't have a family so it's pretty easy to do the grocery shopping this way. I realize that not everyone can do this, but I do believe that a lot of folks could cut out these wasteful short trips in the car and get some much-needed exercise at the same time.
I also, as much as possible, combine errands into a single trip whenever I have to drive 20 miles or further from the house to get something done.
one more thing: what motivated me to do this was the realization that, during many long vacations spent living with family in Europe, I often walked a 1/2 mile each way to the grocery store to do the shopping and never thought twice about it. Why not do that here? What's stopping me, other than this ridiculous American notion that there's something wrong with walking or biking a short distance to the store?
Factory Farming emits more greenhouse gas than driving cars do. Going veg definitely helps. If you don't want to give up meat visit http://www.eatwellguide.org/index.cfm
Here you can find stores that sell free range meat. It's a start.
Angie @ 8:
wasn't all that long ago that Darth Cheney was pissing all over the notion of conserving energy as part of the national policy. Anything that gets the Fox-News-watching douchebags to do the right thing is OK by me.
Which one is the "bright" message?
Cythraul @ 7:
And that helps the lower and middle class how?
Just askin'.
miss_kitty @ 10:
I do like meat, and I don't apologize for it even to my vegetarian friends. Meat is a great source of protein and iron. But I'm eating less of it, and am in the course of changing my diet so that I eat much more nutritious and healthy foods. It's only been about 3 months, and I feel better already. Plus I've lost 17 pounds.
Two great resources for healthy, nutritious (and green) eating:
http://www.101cookbooks.com
Excellent site about vegetarian cooking by a Bay Area photographer and cookbook author. Mouthwatering photos, all kinds of tasty recipes, great links to other sites and books.
http://www.amazon.com/SuperFoods-Rx-Fourteen-Foods-Change/dp/0060535679/...
Amazon listing for 'Superfoods Rx' by Stephen Pratt. If you're interested in eating better, there is no better place to start.
Things I do that you can too:
1. Take navy showers - been doing this for 3 years now. It just means I turn on the water to get wet, turn it off, then lather up with soap vigorously (think of it like exercise), then turn the water back on to rinse. Repeat as necessary. You save on water, the energy to heat that water, AND soap! Also, if it's summer, I have experimented with taking cold showers - in Texas the "cold" water in summer is usually lukewarm and tolerable!
2. Put any electrical appliance which uses "phantom power" on on a cheap power strip with a real switch, and turning off said switch when not using said device. "ON" buttons are of two types - the type where the device just sits there sucking up power waiting for you to delicately touch the on button, and the type that you actually have to physically switch a lever / push a button in hard (involves slightly more finger energy). Are we freaking lazy or what? If you aren't sure if your device uses energy while waiting to be turned on, buy a "Kill A Watt" power meter off Ebay for ~$20.
3. Already switched over all lighting to Compact Flourescent Light Bulbs. I'm looking forward to high tech innovations like Organic LEDs, but they aren't here yet.
4. Got an indoor house plant. (Tongue of mother in Law, ~$15). Helps clean up your indoor air, which can get nasty!
5. Caulked my windows nooks and crannies with a caulk gun.
6. Installed some weather stripping on my internal front door frame to seal the gaps (my front door still has some gaps as it is an old house and the door is kind of misaligned) with a staple gun.
7. Buy my energy from Green Mountain. 10% is generated from wind power and 90% from hydro. If I pay a little more (7% increase in price) I can buy 100% wind power. People WE HAVE TO DO THIS, we can't wait for the STATES TO GENERATE 20% of their energy from renewables!
8. Go outside and learn to read your kilowatt hour meter. I do this every few days and now I have a great idea about how many KWH I use every day. Also that KilloWatt meter will help you. For example I know my computer setup uses about 100 watts per hour (have a good flat screen monitor) and my refrigerator uses 1.8KWH/day.
I ride my bike to the grocery store (recumbent trike with a big basket on the rear). Have been hanging all my laundry on the line to dry. Bring my own shopping bags to market. Shop at local farmer's market to cut down on transportation of produce.
Wear a button from my CafePress shop. Graphic of earth with the text: Live Like Your Life Depended On It.
Compact flourescent light bulbs, in every socket in the house. Fuel efficient Honda (hybrid as next car, for both of us). Energy efficient appliances, used only when there's a full load. Water-saving spickets. I stopped watering my lawn completely this summer, and used only "natural" fertilizer (chopped-up compost, and composted cow and worm poop). All windows weather-stripped; energy-efficient windows installed throughout the house three years ago. Doors are weather stripped. Energy-efficient water heater and heating system replaced the old one as each went from age. And I ride my bike to work once or twice a week now (and lost five pounds).
Kids pay a .25 fine for leaving lights and/or PCs or electronics on in empty bedrooms. Fine jar pays for gas.
AND I drive my colleagues nuts by turning out any lights that are on in empty classrooms.
This is really impt to get message out
If you can't go veg we all can
- buy CFC bulbs
- use reusable shopping bags
- and enough of the plastic water bottles already
I wonder how much impact it would have if all Americans just did these 3 things.
I think a lot more now about food miles and oil miles. I think we really need to get back to local economies, not just for food, but things like clothes too.
Turn out the lights. Drive less. You can make a diff.
Since there has been a blackout on acknowledging climate change no one has been able to Move Beyond That Debate. It's real! But we need folks in the media with hopeful/helpful tips.
I always think back to when Carter asked us to turn down our thermostats---can you imagine what it would be like now to have a Pres who suggested we do the things listed above?
One thing that I've not seen mentioned is to plant trees around your house. You want evergreen type trees on the north side of the property and deciduous trees (ones that lose leaves) on the other sides of the house. This will shade the house in the summer, therefore use less energy to cool it and in the winter, the light can come through the bare branches, warming the house and using less energy to warm it. The evergreens on the north side will act as a windbreak from cold northern winds and help the house stay warmer.
Put curtains and window shades/blinds on windows. This will help with heat/cold transfer from outside to inside. I keep the blinds about 3/4 closed in the 2 extra bedrooms and the living room as I don't really use those rooms a whole lot. The blinds are open just enough to see clearly in the day. My bedroom blinds tend to stay closed all the time as I'm gone during the day and it's now dark in the morning that I have to turn on lights to see.
I've changed out many of the regular light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs and with lower wattages (50 watt to 40 watt -and whatever it translates to in fluorescent). I participate in a van pool for work, that is 35 miles door to door distance. But, I do drive to work on my own about 6 times a year. I have a 2007 Toyota Corolla that I got 12/27/06. It has 2900 miles on it now. I try to run all my errands at one time and map the stops out so that I'm backtracking as little as possible.
Check out what colleges and universities are doing to promote agreen home: Solar Home Contest in D.C. Returns Amid Rising Climate Worries
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/10/11/ST20071011...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/10/AR200710...
Well, a little bird told me something interesting:
Among the cognoscenti in the ruling class, there is ZERO argument - Peak Oil is seen as a fact, and imminent peak oil very likely. Who is my source? Former Secy of Defence, Secy of Energy and Dir of CIA, JAMES SCHLESINGER. He was at the ASPO conference in Ireland.
No shit.
So, there it is. Prepare - the slope down is NASTY.
Instead of buying a hybrid car, with all those new components, products of strip mining and all that nasty stuff, buy a small used car. Or buy a used hybrid when they come on the maket.
We've stopped using the gas powered lawn mowers and started using a combination of horse and goat mowers coupled with the scythe we bought recently (its amazing how much hay you can get from a 20x20 ft patch of yard. We garden in a 20x30 ft plot (there aint anything more local than your own back yard). There's the flock of chickens who provide us, family, and a few others in fresh eggs (for a modest fee - which goes directly into keeping the birds alive) as well as some light mowing (they do graze a bit) and an ever constant supply of chicken poop for the compost. The farm truck (~12mpg) rarely gets driven much farther than 10 miles (as far as the house to the local feed store) once a month while my plastic death trap of a '98 mazda is the zoot scooter of choice (~34 mpg). When grocery shopping at Walmart started to cost as much as buying comparable products from the hippy food store we started shopping there, so there is lots of bulk goods. ( Since I'm not in the military any more I've taken to baking, hey, it beats shooting people.) So I bake bread and muffins, less packaging that needs to be purchased by the stores - less gas in the long run. Every shopping day has us tossing cloth shopping bags into the car (less plastic and paper that the store has to go through, less that needs to be shipped, less that needs to be manufactured.) ...
My blog, http://solarray.blogspot.com, is all about small scale solar starting from a single LED light and button batteries up to one window/one room systems. You can see videos of some of my experiments at http://www.youtube.com/user/gmoke
Solar IS Civil Defense and we better get ready.
Stop smoking and eating so much.
j @ 9:
Hold on. Vegetarianism is not as great as people think. Simply not eating meat does nothing. What matters more is where the food comes from and the farming methods used. If you still believe eating boca burgers and fake chicken nuggets is better than a cheeseburger, there's a big dead spot in the Gulf of Mexico that wants to talk to you. Some farmers have actually found it to be very environmentally friendly to raise livestock along with planting crops. But I will say that americans do eat too much meat.
this has a list of ways to help the environment
http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/gather/help.htm
I converted my Ford Escort to electric power 14 years ago. I drive it everyday and don't need to buy gas for it. Over 60,000 electric miles on the car now. We still have a gas van but I only use that for hauling stuff and fill it up every 2 to 3 months. Even with the electric car my son and I ride bikes to school which saves 6 miles everday or 30 miles a week. That saves more necessary trip miles for the electric car. The electric car only uses as much electricity as an electric refrigerator per year which isn't that much at all. We're pushing for Plug-In hybrid cars which some of my friends have converted themselves from their Priuses. These cars get up to 100 mpg and can go 40 miles just on the electric alone.
We're installing a grid-tied solar photovoltaic panel system on the house to help offset the electrical costs and feed excess power back to the grid and also installing a solar hot water heater system. An array of solar photovoltaic panels is expensive but not many people realize they can still go solar and install a cheaper solar system which has a faster payback: solar hot water. Generally, the payback is 2 to 3 years and in the summer months it can provide practically all the hot water and in the winter augment the existing system. A do-it-yourself system can cost $3000 to $4000 and to have one installed is about $6000 to $8000. Plus you may get tax credits or rebates for going solar depending on your state so it could be even cheaper then that which is why going solar hot water is one of the most cost effective energy systems you can install.
To save more electricity, last year we chucked our old central air and furnance and replaced it with a high-efficiency, high-SEER unit. Just installing that cut our monthly electric bill from 1200 KW per month to 900. We've also replaced the incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents and LED lighting as the incandescents have burned out. There is talk of the high mercury content in compact fluorescent bulbs. But the new cold cathode fluorescent bulbs have significantly lower mercury levels which are safer for landfills.
Speaking of landfills. We've also embarked on saving them by starting a compost pile. I built a compost bin in the backyard and our biodegradable food waste (mostly veggies, tea bags, coffee grounds and egg shells) go in there. We don't bag up yard waste like leaves and grass for the trash pickup. That stuff also get mixed in with the compost pile. It's incredible how fast all that stuff turns into dirt, especially the leaves. And of course we recycle. I've noticed since we've started composting and serious recycling, our household produces significantly less curbside garbage then the other neighbors.
I also mow the grass with an old GE Elec-Trac electric powered lawn tractor and a rechargable Black and Decker mower. It's a shame GE stopped making those lawn tractors. Mine is 30 years old and still going.
We're also using a wind-catcher clothes dryer (clothes line) to dry our laundry instead of using the electric dryer.
So that's what we're doing.
Here in Japan, many companies have made going green a little easier.
When the Mrs. and I went shopping for a refrigerator, we could read on the price tag how much our refrigerator would add to the electric bill monthly.
Another way they save here is by bathing together. Sponge baths to rid yourself of the dirt and sweat, then a communal soak in the tub. And after we are done soaking in the tub, we have a special pump attached to our washing machine to use that water for washing our clothes.
The initial costs for a fuel-efficient frig and water-saving washer were pretty high but after two years, we've made up the difference and are now saving money.
Also, hang your clothes out to dry. Why use electricity when you can use the sun and wind for free?
Lastly, communal baths are highly recommended for all consenting couples. I would hope I don't have to explain the other perks.
Shout at the automakers, demand plug-in/biofuel/solar hybrids.
more than 50% of the shit in the air comes from transportation.
Anyone over here of methane-hydrates?
My understanding is there is enough stuff to last for hundreds of years.
In response to Cythral's (sp check?) notion that we are being naive, Peak Oil is Predicable and most geologists, both inside and outside the oil industry agree that it has already occurred. That means 7-15% drop in total oil production per year over the next 20 years, and rising cost of infrastructure because oil at the bottom costs more and takes more energy to refine.
I have a lengthy post about this for those who are unfamiliar, and I'm glad that more and more people are being informed about the issue.
You may like to read this. http://www.oism.org/pproject/
And see this.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3028847519933351566&hl=en
Not to say that green is not good…I have been for 30 years…BUT!
use other colors too. black will absorb heat if even a bit of sun has a chance to hit it. Warm anything by using the black to absorb heat and spread it to the room by warming the air after the sun heats it coming through the window. And the opposite: white. use it to reflect the light, reflect that extra heat away from you. A white umbrella or even cloth will lower the temperature by double digits, and cut the UV factor as well.
green is good too.
Some easy stuff - turn off the lights when you aren't in the room. Don't let the water run when you're washing dishes. Don't use clean fresh water to "rinse" the dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. Use a scrub brush and a bowl of "gray" water. Don't flush every time you pee (if it's not too yellow). Insulate your house. Walk, ride a bike instead of driving. Don't leave the water running when you brush your teeth. Don't leave the water running when you wash your hands. Fill a bucket or a jug when you are running the water for a shower waiting for it to warm up. Saving water and electricity will also save you money! Recycle. Re-use what you can.
Step lightly on the Earth.
Nice to see this topic covered on C&L, thanks Nicole :) Long-time C&Ler and thought I'd add my 2 bits. I run a blog that folks might want to check out called Green Brooklyn.
http://www.greenbrooklyn.com
Covering all kinds of topics, not just the average green building, renewable energy stuff, but also grassroots community action, green space, sustainable education, urban environment, etc. And it's ALL Brooklyn-based. Keepin' it strictly local. We also cover big local environmental issues like the massive Newtown Creek oil spill (a spill twice as big as the Exxon Valdez sitting under Brooklyn) and the nastified massively polluted Gowanus Canal. It's all local baby! Check it out, hook up with the RSS feed and we'll see ya out there on the internets.
Don't vote Republican.
"Some guy"... sorry, but you are wrong. Read the UN report on animal agriculture. It's killing us in many ways.
greendawg @ 44:
I just laugh-snorted. I'm really glad I was drinking anything carbonated when I read that.
It may seem small, but... I air dry everything. I think about everything I use, where it came from, how it was made, what resources and energy were used to make it, how much pollution it created being made, can I re-use it, recycle it, or do without it completely. We have a good re-cycling programme where I live-- everything is recycled. Big waste items you must pay to dispose of. Special garbage bags are taxed and must be used/purchased for all waste.
Once you think about where everything comes from and how it was made, you almost feel guilty about using more. Think about all that bleached white paper in all of our machines. (Remember how the computer would do away with the need for paper? Aren't we using MORE!!!) They make newsprint photocopiers/office machines, and you can use recycled newsprint in them.
What kills me is, those little lights on all your stuff at home (TV, VCR, battery charger etc, use 10% of your total electiricty-- for no good reason-- unplug 'em when not needed. We need to tell manufacturers we don't want them.)
(I don't have a car and never have had. Public transit works for me.)
j @ 9:
I'm about 3/4 there. I don't buy or eat much meat at all. And I tend to use it like in Asian cooking-- small pieces mixed with other things. I can NOT eat a steak any more. I'd be sick. I must have cheese though!! MUST!!!! Tofu is really good if you get some good, interesting ways to cook it. I love the stuff.
yesyesyes @ 33:
Stop smoking!!!????!!!! Why?
(Tee hee. I just stoppped about 40 days ago. Now I'm fat-- boo hoo hoo. Oh well: a new project to get working on-- hello gym.)
greendawg @ 45:
BEST ONE!!!!
I recently had dinner with some friends from college (Stanford) that I hadn't seen in a few years. After catching up, we started lamenting the current state of affairs when my friend said the words scare me the most "peak oil." I don't like to talk about it because frankly who wants to come off as a loon so it was more than reassuring to have a friend, an engineer at HP Labs, come to the same conclusions as I have independently. I do read about peak oil and have recently joined the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (www.aspo.org). I'm a historian by profession and worked on Wall Street as an equity analyst and I'm not one prone to conspiracy theories or hoaxes. But as I look at the behaviour of oil, I cannot but help to realize something profound has either just happened or is about to happen. My grandfather was born in the Cauca River Valley in western Colombia in 1874 and he lived to see man land on the moon. He never traveled more than 200 miles from the place he has born and generally everything he consumed came from within 50 miles from where he lived. I was born in 1960 and I've been to 55 countries to date and most of what I consume comes from other continents. Together our lives will bridge most of the age of fossil fuels of humanity, a blip in time that can be dated 1859-20??. My grandfather's life was entirely on the rise of the oil bell curve, mine to date too has been on that meteoric rise, but it is increasingly evident that oil consumption is rapidly out-pacing the discovery of reserves and that those reserves are in harder to reach places or less productive qualitatively and quantitatively. As a historian who worked on the transition of pre-industrial societies into industrial societies, I find it rather ironic that my golden years will bear witness to a transition from an industrial society to a pre-industrial society. I have no faith in humanity to confront the challenges ahead of us. I do believe that the "landing" can be assuaged by rapid conversion to other forms of energy as well as conservation but no matter what a serious redress of lifestyle is on the horizon. In reality the problem is much more serious, it is peak natural resources of various kinds: uranium, platinum, and copper. Then there is the scientific problem of developing new technologies, to move the ball an inch now is extremely costly and we are facing diminishing returns. We have a sustainability problem. I have no idea where human population will top out at, my estimate is somewhere between 9 billion and 12 billion. But I have an idea where it will have to end up if peak oil is a reality: somewhere between 500 million and 3 billion with my estimate probably just shy of a billion, the carrying capacity of the planet in a world without industrial fertilizers or pesticides. It is akin to the collapse of the Maya only on a global stage. Nor am I sure as to when this will all start to play out with serious consequences because other factors such as global climatic change (something the Mayans contended with as well-much of their habitat become desert or scrub land) might skew the time line. But it seems that it is not a matter of if this will come to bear only when. Once you start looking at peak oil and you apply that world view to various policies of the various governments (trust me, governments are aware of the problem but are disinclined to admit the problem) you come away even less sanguine about our ultimate fate even those policies can be explained through the prism of peak oil. Two examples, the oil wars now going on in the Middle East (Iraq 1 and Iraq 2 and the coming war with Iran) and entitlement programs (there are govt. officials who are opposed to entitlement programs in general because they sooner or later they will have to reneged upon and this can lead to riots). While it was reassuring that a friend of mine who I had not seen in a few years had come to the same broad conclusions (people tend to think you insane when you discuss this subject), it was nonetheless rather disconcerting to admit that it is probable the decline will come within the next 30 to 100 years if we do nothing. Population control was something in vogue in my childhood, I lived all over the place as a child but mostly in the Third World, and it something that has fallen out of favor. It is in reality our most pressing issue. When I was born there were less than 3.5 billion people, today we stand at nearly 7 billion. When my grandfather was born it was not quite 1 billion. I don't have children but my friend has two lovely boys, ages 14 and 9, the horror that awaits them is frightening. Famine, resource and religious wars, demagogues and dictators, global climate unpredictability, mass migrations and genocides. It is what is happening now only in pockets such as Darfur, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Central Asia. When we peak population say for argument's sake at 9 billion in 2060, oil will be on its last legs and there is nothing that can replace it in terms of food production. The dominoes will tumble quickly and within a hundred years from that in 2160, humanity will be largely living as it once did off the land subjected to a tyranny of distance. Our cities, like the Mayas', will disappear (suburbs will prove to be the Achilles heel of the American economy and way of life, if we were smart we would stop building out and start building up). And by 2160, we will number less than a billion. Now think about it, do you want to see a world that goes from 9 billion to less than one in a hundred years? That drop in percentage terms, apart from outright genocides, has happened once in recorded history: in the Andes between 1550 and 1650 in the wake of plagues caused by the Spanish Conquest. It was horrific but core institutions and practices survived intact (Andean religion was subverted by Catholicism but not entirely replaced). I would feel so much better if this weren't the case, the coming horror might be worth it if we finally removed the curse of human religion from our midst but the Andean experience showed a strengthening of beliefs, a rise in messianic movements, in brutal Spanish repression that combined led to a collapse of what little urban centers there were and life revolved around the latifundias where one was born, lived and died.
There is a SILVER LINING!
A Revolutionary Breakthrough!
http://www.cheniere.org/correspondence/091007a.htm
BEDINI’S ULTRACAPACITOR BATTERY CHARGER
See also: The Birth of Precursor Engineering
http://www.cheniere.org/correspondence/090807.htm
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“The beauty of an ultracapacitor, assuming they make it practical and get it into production and availability, is that enough power can be furnished from a much smaller ultracap to propel an electric car, i.e., by using a much smaller “EM potential energy accumulator” (instead of a normal very large battery set).
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Presently the ZPE-type energy researcher in the U.S. who is the closest to putting real overunity systems on the market is John Bedini, with his Idaho company Energenx, Inc. He already has developed “highly improved” battery chargers that have been through Underwriter Laboratory (UL) testing and have received formal UL approval for production and sales. Bedini will very shortly be producing and selling these UL-lab approved systems to initially a very limited battery charger market (battery powered materials handling equipment in large warehouses). His units have already been very successfully and independently tested in those warehouse locations and in that equipment, and he has an initial contract for purchase of his entire limited production of the units. After that, there will later be a larger production line created by a licensee under contract, who will then produce a greater range (and greater quantity) of battery chargers, to fill the golf cart market, the electric scooters for the handicapped, etc. And later, if all goes well, larger electric chargers etc. will be produced to go into electric automobiles etc.
You can see some details on the website http://www.energenx.com/ . Energenx is John’s company, and its stock is now openly traded on the stock exchange, as can be seen on the website. Additional information on some of John’s work is given on http://www.icehouse.net/john34/ and several other sites.
John – assisted by Rick Friedrich and others – also has a closely-moderated website for serious bench researchers only. Here none of the typical “blog” nonsense is tolerated; only serious bench researchers who wish to learn to build working overunity Bedini systems are accepted. There John assists these researchers in independently replicating some of his patented units. This (the independent replication) of course fulfills the final requirement of the scientific method: Independent replication. Some eight or ten independent replications of various Bedini overunity systems have already been achieved by various bench researchers in that group, and more are occurring. Rick Friedrich himself has replicated several Bedini systems, including a self-powering system taking all its energy directly from the vacuum. This group and the restricted researcher website is moderated and controlled by Rick Friedrich, assisted by Marcia Stockton and others.
To contact Rick Friedrich, his E-mail address is rickfriedrich@yahoo.com
With a little good fortune, Bedini will soon have real production “highly improved” battery-charging units coming off the production line and going directly into those big warehouses, to power the battery powered materials handling equipment.
In many of his battery charging systems John uses negative EM energy, which was discovered by Tesla long ago before the more modern term “negative energy” had even been born. To differentiate its characteristics and behavior from normal positive energy, Tesla called it “radiant” energy. That is also the term that Bedini uses out of respect for Tesla’s primacy.
Note that negative energy has been deliberately and arbitrarily removed from present quantum field theory (by decree and preference), by tampering with the Dirac Sea hole (which is actually a negative mass energy electron producing negative energy EM fields) and erroneously calling it a positive mass energy positron producing positive energy EM fields. As a source charge, the “Dirac sea hole” outputs real photons of (minus delta E)x(delta t), which negative energy photons form and continually replenish its associated negative EM energy fields. The “negative mass-energy” Dirac sea holes produced in sharp gradient processes (in suns, stars, planets, etc.) are in fact the “dark matter” that our astrophysicists are so desperately seeking, while the negative energy EM fields from them are the “dark energy” the astrophysicists are also so desperately seeking. Unknown to them, both dark matter and dark energy can readily be evoked (and used and studied) in actual EM circuits and systems on the lab bench; Bedini has been doing it now for about 20 years.
Bonkers @ 15:
It's going vegan that makes that huge difference.
What you need is a range of fabulous vegan cookbooks (anything by Donna Klein, Bryanna Clark Grogan, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, or Joanne Stepaniak is brilliant - and Ellen Abrams' 'Simple Treats' is the best book on vegan baking ever) and the willingness to just let go of the idea of meat or dairy "substitutes" tasting like the "originals" - just be open to the tastes as they are. Also, joining a CSA or getting a veg box delivered means you're getting lots of fresh, locally grown fruit and veg, thereby saving even more fuel and boosting local businesses.
In the US, you could press for energy efficiency caps like we have in (the much-maligned) EU; press for the repeal of local housing laws that make hanging your washing out to dry illegal (I spent 12 years in the US, and never got my head around it), and buy airers to dry laundry indoors. We could all do with supporting local farmers (buy into CSAs or veg box delivery schemes by local farmers) - we've saved lots of cash this way, too, and found that our non-compostable waste is really minimised this way. Turn lights off when you're not in the room, and turn the damn TV off if you're not sitting down to watch it, and turn appliances off at the plug when they're not in use. Look for the most energy efficient appliances. Don't turn the heating up until you've tried using more layers; and hot water bottles are your friends. If you can't move to a place where you can walk/cycle/take public transport, please do bombard your local politicos with demands for pedestrian/cyclist accommodations, and for public transport systems in the area. Being able to just get out and walk makes life so much better (where your weather permits - I'm an all-year-round walker in the UK, but living through those hot, humid NJ summers was terrifically hard on me). Use energy saving devices on your fridge/freezers - the SavaPlug is great. Use a pressure cooker - it saves so much energy in cooking. Buy second-hand items, including clothes. Buy less. Use your library for books, dvds, and cds.
These are some of the things we've done, and I know we've got a long, long way to go. We've been told that we're "ascetic", which is a little scary, as - even though I'm unemployed and my partner's on a fairly low wage - we have a very comfortable lifestyle. We just don't need all the crap we're told we do.
There is no such thing as peak oil. It's just a way for the oil companies to charge more for the oil.
I'm not saying we shouldn't be eco-friendly, but I dont want to give my cash to some money hungry corp. that tries to scare me either.
As far as the global warming b.s.... again Im not saying to not be eco friendly or that global warming DOESN'T exist.. but the reasons are bunk. Just another way for corporations to sell us something we dont need through fear mongering. I just read a report in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (2007) from the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine authored by Arthur B. Robinson, Hoah E. Robinson, and Willie Soon, spelling out that global warming is NOT caused by CO2. We are currently coming out of, what is called, a little ice age. ... I could go on and on, but people should research it and find the truth.
The fact is the same corps make the money if we are green or not.
Oh, I wanted to add that the real issues we SHOULD be facing are eliminating the use of trees for paper. Using a quickly renewable source, such as Hemp, which helps eliminate the polution put into our rivers and streams. How about finding better ways to light our home (New fiber optics are REALLY cool) instead of using mercury laced high efficency bulbs which seem good but are even MORE damaging. How about stopping the practive of clear cutting rain forrests so they can feed the cattle they use for fast food burgers. I can go on and on about better things we need to be concentrating on instead of the global warming myth.
You are on the money Mike!
Peak oil is a LIE!
Read Greg Palast Armed Madhouse. BLOOD FOR NO OIL
And to “Don’t vote Republican.” Yes the DEM’s are SO much BETTER….
Dianne Feinstein, While acting as head chairperson for the Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee, known as "MILCON" funnelled HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars worth of contracts to companies which her HUSBAND had controlling interests in. When this was brought to her attention she merely STEPPED DOWN and RESIGNED HER SEAT QUIETLY AFTER SIX DAMNED YEARS ! Now, tell me something, If this was all a little misunderstanding WHY would she do that? Hmmm??? Guilty is as guilty acts. If she were a "He" and a republican, HE'D be investigated, charged and IMPRISONED for his crimes!
Dianne Feinstein's net worth jumped from a mere 26 Million Dolllars in 2001 to an ASTONISHING 99 Million Dollars in 2007.
I'd have to say she's enriched her own marital estate by quite a bit, wouldn't you agree?
Wake up SEE this
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7007109937779036019&pr=goog-sl
And this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3505348655137118430&hl=en
Ron Paul.
I read the Dark one and thought it sounded almost wonderful. I've always thought I would have liked it 100 years ago. Now I''ll go read the bright one.
Yankee and Mike. The oil won't last forever, no matter what. And look at the costs to get it-- (see: Iraq just for starters.) We make far too much pollution too. And we're raping the planet's resources, renewable and non-renewable, at shocking rates. Whether you believe in all the "theories" or not, I say it's time to cut back, conserve, and think about tomorrow. I'm sick of all the garbage/pollution everywhere.
Personally, I'll be dead, and I have no chidren to worry about, so I could just say, "Ah f#$k it: enjoy" But I won't, becasue I have a heart and a brain.
As always folks...it pays to do your homework...and FIND OUT YOUR SOURCES FOR YOUR POSITIONS ...AHEM...Mike
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Oregon_Institute_of_Science_a...
The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM) describes itself as "a small research institute" that studies "biochemistry, diagnostic medicine, nutrition, preventive medicine and the molecular biology of aging." It is headed by Arthur B. Robinson, an eccentric scientist who has a long history of controversial entanglements with figures on the fringe of accepted research. OISM also markets a home-schooling kit for "parents concerned about socialism in the public schools" and publishes books on how to survive nuclear war.
In reality, neither Robinson's paper nor OISM's petition drive had anything to do with the National Academy of Sciences, which first heard about the petition when its members began calling to ask if the NAS had taken a stand against the Kyoto treaty. Robinson was not even a climate scientist. He was a biochemist with no published research in the field of climatology, and his paper had never been subjected to peer review by anyone with training in the field. In fact, the paper had never been accepted for publication anywhere, let alone in the NAS Proceedings. It was self-published by Robinson, who did the typesetting himself on his own computer. (It was subsequently published as a "review" in Climate Research, which contributed to an editorial scandal at that publication.) None of the coauthors of "Environmental Effects of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide" had any more standing than Robinson himself as a climate change researcher.
Funded by a number of right-wing foundations, including Scaife and Bradley, the George C. Marshall Institute does not conduct any original research. It is a conservative think tank that was initially founded during the years of the Reagan administration to advocate funding for Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative--the "Star Wars" weapons program. Today, the Marshall Institute is still a big fan of high-tech weapons. In 1999, its website gave prominent placement to an essay by Col. Simon P. Worden titled "Why We Need the Air-Borne Laser," along with an essay titled "Missile Defense for Populations--What Does It Take? Why Are We Not Doing It?" Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, the Marshall Institute has adapted to the times by devoting much of its firepower to the war against environmentalism, and in particular against the "scaremongers" who raise warnings about global warming.
So anyone else....have any 'sources of information' they'd like to pass off as 'research'???
We are currently coming out of, what is called, a little ice age. … I could go on and on, but people should research it and find the truth.
Yes...Mike...I agree...people should do research...however, they should go to the source...the real climate scientists that have dedicated their lives to the study of the planet/biosphere: http://www.realclimate.org/ Climate Science from climate scientists (don't worry....they have people that speak in laymans terms...)
Also while we're at it with checking 'sources'...heres a good one for the 'Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons'.... http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2005/medicine.html
"The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons seems to be little more than a conservative publication gussied up with a medical spin. A look at the references in the illegal-alien report, written by Madeleine Pelner Cosman -- a "medical lawyer" whose previous claim to fame appears to be a book on medieval cooking but who has also written an article for a group called Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership -- is chock full of hardline conservative cites, including books by Michelle Malkin and former WND writer (and Slantie winner) Jon Dougherty and articles by Phyllis Schlafly and Tom DeWeese."
In 2003, the journal changed its name from the Medical Sentinel. The change was made, according to a press release, because it "more accurately represents the organization as a non-partisan professional association." (Certainly it's no coincidence that the new sounds a lot more highfalutin in the manner of the Journal of the American Medical Association.) Problem is, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), publisher of the journal, appears to be quite partisan.
AAPS members include Ron Paul, the libertarian Texas congressman, and Michael Arnold Glueck and Robert J. Cihak, who write the "Medicine Men" column for NewsMax (and used to write it for WorldNetDaily). Another NewsMax writer, Miguel A. Faria Jr., is a former editor of the journal. Andrew Schlafly, mentioned above, is AAPS' general counsel.
AAPS has done its share of Clinton-bashing. It was one of the groups that sued to force the release the names of those who advised Hillary Clinton's health care task force, and in 2003, it filed an amicus brief pressing for the public release of photos of former Clinton deputy counsel Vincent Foster taken following his 1993 suicide, something WND and NewsMax have agitated for to prove their theory that Foster was murdered, presumably at the direction of the Clintons, despite the fact that no less an a authority than conservative independent counsel Kenneth Starr ruled the death a suicide. (NewsMax's Christopher Ruddy, if you'll recall, wrote a conspiracy-theory book about Foster that even Ann Coulter dismissed as a "conservative hoax book.") An AAPS article argues no medical reason for doing so, just a vague statement that "[g]overnment needs to be held accountable."
Do what you can, when you can.
As with any lifestyle change, make the small changes first, and prepare yourself for the large changes. I started by swapping lightbulbs, and turning my central air down.
In 2002, I was ready to make a large change, but living in Dearborn, MI, solar and wind were pretty much out and geotherm and fuel cells were not realistic for home use yet, but then I stopped by a clean energy fair in the parking lot of a local mall and found out about these new hybrid cars. I checked them out, decided on a Toyota Prius gas/electric hybrid, and its the best investment I've made. I've driven back and forth from MI to DC to New York to Minnesota and its still going today. For me, it was the best choice and its paid off enormously.
My point is that no solution is right for everyone, so do your research, find what will fit into your life and make the most difference and work towards that first.
Debunking the 26 myths of right wing on Global Warming
Climate change: A guide for the perplexed
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462
Do what you can, read about what you can do (google it), and then take action
In Georgia...there's a 3 month supply of water left...and yet, the con-servatives down here blindly hop & skip around without a care in the world except for brown people and 'islamo-fascists'....and yep you guessed it, no action or calls to action from the state, city, or county leglislators to conserve this resource....they're too busy flying to the carribbean for agreeing to build nuclear plants and coal buring plants in the backyards of low income areas (remember kids it their fault, their life decisions caused it)...
Edwin
I Too am “sick of all the garbage/pollution everywhere”
I have been green for a long time. My 45 year old car gets 30+mpg my house is solar
I heat and cool with solar.. I do my part BUT there is a lot going on that most don’t know. Man made Global warming is a LIE!
How is it that there is Global warming on Neptune?
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3A...
Global warming or Global Governance?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4860344067427439443&q=Global+war...
Please take the time to see the links I put up as I do for your links. For you may see thing in a NEW light. Or I may by your links.
We ALL need to read more than we do. So a very good book to read/see:
Chalmers Johnson: Nemesis.
1. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people4/CJohnson/cjohnson-con0.html
2. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people7/CJohnson/cjohnson07-con0.html
3. The Colbert Report: Naomi Wolf on Fascism in America
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/20/the-colbert-report-naomi-wolf-o...
It’s Man made Global Pollution that will get us.
Mike @ 56:
I have to disagree with Mike's Peak oil assessment. A couple years ago I received an email from the captain of an oil rig in the gulf. He told me they were rus