Easy Everyday Ways We Can Use Less Gas

I think everyone will agree that drive-thru convenience is here to stay. I see these used at fast food restaurants, banks, drug stores, grocery stores, even liquor stores. In inclement weather their value is immeasurable. If you cannot walk due to some disability, they are a god-send. No matter the reason you choose to use these conveniences, you can save a little gas by shutting your car engine off while waiting. Even better, if you park and walk into the store, you’ll not only save gas you’ll burn calories.

Park Further Away

Circling a parking lot looking for a ‘closer’ parking space is just being lazy. Plus, it’s a foolish and selfish way to use gas. Give up the quest for the perfect parking spot, and settle for one at the back of the lot. You may have to walk a bit further to get to the store, but when did that become a bad thing?

Park in the Shade

I realize there is very little shade in most parking lots, but when you have the option a cooler car means less need for air conditioning and less gas evaporating from your tank. To save even more, invest in a shade for your windshield and tinting for the rest of your windows.

Hang Up and Drive

Let’s face our driving habits suck. There simply is far too much unconscious driving taking place on our roads. Talking on your cell phone while you drive is a prime example. You are less aware of how you're driving and tend to ‘pace’ with everyone else who are pushing their vehicles harder than they need to, which uses more gas than is necessary.

Tighten the Gas Cap

A loose gas cap makes it easy for gas to evaporate from your car. Protect those precious gallons, by turning your cap until you hear it click three times.

Shop at Home

The internet is wonderful for keeping us up to date on the latest protests for personal freedoms in the Middle East or what so-and-so wore to the Grammy’s, but saving gas by not driving to the store is far more valuable. More and more companies are offering free shipping deals. Calculate how much you would spend on gas by running to the store and if you have to go consolidate your shopping to as few trips as possible. Find what you need online, and let your car spend more time in the driveway.

Check the Traffic Reports

Another great use of the internet. The less time you spend sitting in traffic, the less gas you'll need to get to your destination; so take a minute to check the traffic report before you head out.

Ditch the Attitude

This is an incredibly valuable habit to get into, both for fuel saving and for the safety of everyone around you. Check your bad day at the car door. When you're under the influence of a bad mood you're more likely drive faster and brake harder than you normally would.

Travel at Off-Peak Times

Idling in traffic is a big waste of gas and time. Bow out of the bumper to bumper madness by doing most of your running around before or after rush hour.

Streamline Your Vehicle

Engineers work hard to make cars as aerodynamic as possible, and then we do our best to undo their efforts. Bike racks, car top carriers, flags, giant wreaths – there's no end to the things we'll stick on our vehicles. Unfortunately, all those add-ons add to our wind resistance and our gas consumption. Keep your modifications to a minimum, and you could save big.

Ask for Directions

Don’t waste gas making a bunch of wrong turns because you don’t want to be embarrassed for asking directions or because you don’t want to take the time to stop and ask. If you don't have a GPS to get you on track, stop and ask for directions as soon as you can.

Don’t Tailgate

This one is one of my pet peeves. When you travel too close to the vehicle in front of you, you have to brake a lot more frequently, which means you press the accelerator more frequently to get back up to speed which sucks up even more gas. Plus, it adds to the stress level of the person in front of you.

Don’t Lane Hop

Relax when you drive (see Ditch the Attitude). Passing everything on the road is one of the leading causes of traffic accidents. It increases stress levels and it foolishly uses more gas than is necessary to get to where you are going. Honestly, you are not in a race with anyone. So, give all the lane changes a rest, and you won't need to apply your foot to the accelerator and brake nearly as often.

Final Word

It doesn’t matter that you may be wealthy enough that the cost of gas doesn’t bother you, or you think that gasoline will always be available, the real reason to save gas is to cut down on the added pollution you are subjecting everyone else to. The fossil fuel supply is not limitless. Using it up for lazy, selfish, unthinking reasons is just wrong. Please do your part to keep gas prices down by reducing demand. You not only help the gas supply last longer and cut down on pollution but you help those of us who are more financially strapped than you when gas prices go up.

How Much Are We Dependent on Oil?

While doing some research for an essay on the Industrial Revolution and its effects on our lives, I got to thinking about what would happen if we ran out of oil today. As it turns out it’s a scary thought. We are far more dependent on oil than any one of us cares to admit.

The following list is just some of the products that, without oil, we would not have. Nearly everything in our lives is made from oil, made by machinery and systems dependent on oil, and transported by oil as either gas or diesel fuel. Check off all the items you can do without if we ran out of oil.

Ammonia, Anesthetics, Antihistamines, Artificial limbs, Artificial Turf, Antiseptics, Aspirin, Auto Parts, Awnings, Balloons, Ballpoint pens, Bandages, Beach Umbrellas, Boats, Cameras, Candles, Car Battery Cases, Carpets, Caulking, Combs, Cortisones, Cosmetics, Crayons, Credit Cards, Curtains, Deodorants, Detergents, Dice, Disposable Diapers, Dolls, Dyes, Eye Glasses, Electrical Wiring Insulation, Faucet Washers, Fishing Rods, Fishing Line, Fishing Lures, Food Preservatives, Food Packaging, Garden Hose, Glue, Hair Coloring, Hair Curlers, Hand Lotion, Hearing Aids, Heart Valves, Ink, Insect Repellant, Insecticides, Linoleum, Lip Stick, Milk Jugs, Nail Polish, Oil Filters, Panty Hose, Perfume, Petroleum Jelly, Rubber Cement, Rubbing Alcohol,  Shampoo, Shaving Cream, Shoes, Toothpaste, Trash Bags, Upholstery, Vitamin Capsules, Water Pipes, Yarn

Living without oil would be, to me, a lot more traumatic to think about now.

Last year mankind was introduced to a new concept, “peak oil”. It envisions a future no one is prepared for. Yeah, we are researching alternative sources of energy but we are not under any deadline to replace our dependence on oil. We simply do not know when the oil wells will run dry. Without this knowledge, we do not feel the urgency to begin to earnestly replace oil as our major energy source.

Of course, life must go on and since mankind has conditioned itself to always move forward into a more powerful future, slowing down is not an option. Only when one of these alternative energy sources can at least equal the power we get from petroleum at the same or cheaper cost will we consider dropping oil from our list of ‘must haves’. The promise of potential fortunes must be real before investments will be shifted from oil to less-polluting, cleaner renewable energy sources. It’s just a fact of life.

The first step in any plan to replace oil is to know how much is left. It is one of the most challenging issues facing our future survival. That sounds a bit dire, I must admit, but there are very few people who wish to go back to pre-industrial days, no matter how successful of self-sufficient their home-grown lifestyle is.

Make no mistake, oil will run out. Will it happen in our life times? In our children’s life times or further on down the road. It truly does not matter what the answer is, we simply cannot burn through it as though we are the only generation who needs it.

How Much is Left?

The prevailing estimate is that, at our current rate of consumption, we will run out of oil around 2030 and natural gas in the year 2060. Switching all fossil-fuel dependent industries from oil to natural gas will only buy us another 30 years, if these estimates are accurate. What is they turn out to be overly optimistic? That’s the danger in guessing.

As we get closer to these target dates, the world powers are going to escalate their aggressive pursuit of it for themselves. Can we learn to play nice and share. Given the last performance over the last several thousand years I think we all know the answer to that question. But, who will ‘win’. And if there is a ‘winner’ how much more time or they truly winning?

I am painting a very frightening picture here. But I believe we are already experiencing a third World War. The energy war if you so choose to call it, but a world war just the same. Everyone is invited but clearly the vast majority of countries are far too powerless to participate on their own. And if oil should be found in the backyard of some small previously unnoticed country, woe be unto them. We only need to look at Iraq to see what the future would hold for them.

We are so deeply invested in the pursuit of more oil that the cost of extracting oil from sand and shale is considered ‘worth it’. Despite the proven side effects of water consumption (which is also running out) and waste production (the pollution of our water tables). Realistically, how much oil can be found in these two sources? The answer to this question alone should drive home the desperation we are experiencing in our need for fossil fuels.

What is being done to encourage research in renewable energy?

We need to replace our dependency on fossil fuels now. To ignore this plea is to condemn the world population to a very bleak future.

I am perplexed as to why this nation’s population so readily accepts higher gas prices while investing our dollars in vehicles that suck it up faster than at any time in our past. New vehicles have become only slightly more fuel efficient but more and more consumers are buying bigger and beefier vehicles than ever before. Do we really need these monster trucks? And car manufacturers are more than happy to assist in our blissful ignorance as we race towards the bottom of the well.

Whenever the driving public is asked if they are going to change their driving habits due to higher gas prices, they almost smugly say they are not and auto sales figures are sadly backing this up. I don’t understand, is this a show of bravado that says I can afford it so I will pay it?

What about the higher prices for everything that is made from petroleum? Is middle America so complacent and smug in their ability to pay the price that we just do so while they silently complain of the lower quality we are forced to accept?

Be it arrogance or hopelessness in our ability to change anything, paying higher prices without voicing our discontent about it is damaging all of us.

There are several private enterprises who are taking the lead in production of products that do not require non-renewable fossil fuel. These forward-thinking individuals should have the full backing of our federal government. They should be hindered in any way in reaching their goal.

What will happen if we don’t replace fossil fuel?

Industrialized nations who are most fully invested in fossil fuel usage will take over nations with fossil fuel reserves. We could soon see a polarizing effect where smaller nations will alignment themselves with the power elite. What will this balance look like? It is anyone’s guess. The United Nations has become ineffective in its peacekeeping role that they will most likely be disbanded out of sheer frustration.

As people the world over will be unable to pay higher prices for manufactured goods, employers will begin layoffs and unemployment will increase putting more of a strain on governments or the unemployed will simply be turned out into the streets. Protests, riots and crime will increase which will bring on martial law and the police state so many of us have been warning of for so long.

A repeat of the hysteria that gripped the nation during the cold war is likely to happen. Stockpiling of food, turning away of neighbors who are not taking this situation seriously, weapons being brandished in an attempt to protect yourself from predator scavengers. It will truly get this bad if we don’t initiate a plan to replace our dependency on fossile fuel.

We cannot afford to search for the one perfect replacement for fossil fuels. We need to begin encouraging the increased use of wind energy, solar power, and power storage batteries. Our water delivery system is of the utmost priority. We need to begin building new homes partially underground if not completely underground in order to cut down on energy usage. Keep in mind that natural gas, propane, fuel oil, coal, grid electricity, wood and wood pellets will no longer be available or will become so high priced that we simply will not be able to afford it.

We need to equip ourselves with hand tools and give up all power tools. We need to educate ourselves on building, gardening, food preservation, medical first aid, animal husbandry. Only those people who prepare their minds, bodies, spirit and lifestyle for the change that is becoming more inevitable are going to survive.  Take a look around you. The United States of America is not as united as it once was. Our nations leadership has a long range plan to always have access to fossil fuels and the only they are going to have it is to take it. We common people will truly be on our own.

Fracking for resources

The procedure used to extract natural gas out of shale rock deep within the ground is called hydrolic fracturing (fracking).

Several states around the country are using this controversial process even while the EPA is conducting studies to determine if this process is harmful to the environment.

So here we have the EPA doing studies to see if this procedure is too damaging to our environment to use, while companies are currently using the procedure and damaging the environment. Anyone else see any problem with this picture?

The EPA will undoubtedly wait until gas companies have extracted all they can out of the ground before ruling that this procedure is too damaging to the environment to continue. The gas companies will put up a token show of protest knowing they have already gotten what they want out of it, and then will go along with the ruling to show what good stewards of the land they are. Quite the cozy little arrangement.

Let’s examine how harmful this fracking is:

Fracking pumps millions of gallons of fluid into the ground. This fluid is composed of water, sand and toxic chemicals to help the sand in the fluid travel farther into the formation. More chemicals break down the mixture so it flows back easily, and biocides keep fungi and bacteria from growing in the passageways so they don’t block the gas.

A high percentage of the fluid that goes down into the well comes back up in the form of wastewater. This wastewater not only contains the toxic chemicals that are pumped down such as friction reducers, foaming agents, biocides, surfactants and scale inhibitors but also brings up Normally Occurring Radioactive material (NORMS), metals such as cadmium, arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury and copper, hydrocarbons and organic compounds like methanol, chlorinated phenols, formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene and acrylamide.

The wastewater is pumped into impoundments, or holding ponds, at the well site and then must be trucked across our roads and through our communities to get to one of only two treatment facilities in Auburn and Watertown that are treating it and releasing into nearby rivers.

At every step of the process there are multiple opportunities for contamination to our water supply, our air and our land through leaks, failures and the inevitable mechanical and human error. There is no way to expect that you can introduce this toxic cocktail into the environment and not have severe consequences.

Must we continue this charade of protecting the environment while corporations and the EPA continue their cozy profitable arrangement? They aren’t fooling any of us. But as usual those in power hold all the cards in preventing us from stopping them.

While gas drilling using fracking is currently threatening ecologically important areas such as the Catskills and the Upper Delaware, the practice is about to affect a huge swath from there west through the vineyards and farms of the Finger Lakes on down through Allegheny State Park and beyond the borders to West Virginia all while the EPA drags its feet convinced its working for the American people.

Related Stories:

Pennsylvania allows gas drillers to sump pollution into drinking water supplies

Cheaper More Efficient Solar Tech

clipped from www.popsci.com The next frontier in traditional solar panels is concentrators - devices, usually lenses, that concentrate solar power onto the most expensive part of a solar panel - the silicon. Skyline Solar's "solar trough" design concentrates sunlight without using expensive lenses or complicated robotic armatures for tracking the sun as it crosses the sky. The entire system is built from commodity parts in an effort to make it cheap and scalable – the ultimate goal being 'grid parity,' or a system that is competitive with fossil fuels as a means of generating electricity. That's why the Department of Energy gave Skyline a $3 million grant as part of its Solar Energy Technologies Program. (Investors have plunked down another $25 million.)

Next evolutionary step in solar panels. Anything that increases efficiency and lowers costs is alright in my book.

These things will be everywhere within the next couple of years.

Global Warming is Real, Mr. Klaus

The annual world economic forum of global leaders was held in Davos, Switzerland this past week, and Czech President Vaclav Klaus used this forum to verbally attack Al Gore over his stance on global warming.

"I don't think that there is any global warming," said the 67-year-old liberal, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. "I don't see the statistical data for that."

Referring to the former US vice president, who attended Davos this year, he added: "I'm very sorry that some people like Al Gore are not ready to listen to the competing theories. I do listen to them.

"Environmentalism and the global warming alarmism is challenging our freedom. Al Gore is an important person in this movement."

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, he said that he was more worried about the reaction to the perceived dangers than the consequences.

"I'm afraid that the current crisis will be misused for radically constraining the functioning of the markets and market economy all around the world," he said.

"I'm more afraid of the consequences of the crisis than the crisis itself."

I agree that people tend to become alarmed over perceived dangers, that is after all what warnings are meant to do, if they are taken seriously. This climate threat has been perceived by climatologists for many years and those early predictions are beginning to take shape. The non-scientific community needs only observe the changes in weather patterns and the resulting destruction of wildlife habitat to see this is true.

You cannot dismiss the fact that polar ice sheets are melting at a record pace. You cannot ignore the fact that navigable routes have opened through the arctic, about 30 years ahead of predictions.

Nor can you ignore the fact that the planets surface is warming up.

The greatest debate over causal factors is whether these changes are the result of a natural cycle or are they man-made.

The burning of fossil fuels has certainly taken its toll, not only on human health but also on the health of the atmosphere as a result of excavating earths resources, burning those resources and releasing the resulting gases into the atmosphere. The resultant greenhouse gases increase the planets temperature. Not alarmist theory, scientific fact.

Earth’s climate is a closed system. Everything that exists in this system stays in this system. The melting of polar ice caps produces evaporation and the increased atmospheric moisture results in increased rainfall which then leads to increased severity of hurricanes. A side effect of this increased hurricane intensity is the associated low pressure sucks more moisture away from the drier climates of the world creating more severe droughts. As a result, agricultural patterns worldwide are being affected.

Polar ice cap melt also increases sea levels which could result in future category 2 and 3 storms causing much more severe flooding than anticipated otherwise, in low-lying coastal areas.

As the planet grows ever warmer, and former cold zones give way to rising temperatures, plant and animal species are loosing their habitat and dying off thereby decreasing biodiversity. This does not bode well for planets inhabitants, for man and beast.

Are these the ramblings of ‘alarmists’ for the purpose of “radically constraining the functioning of the markets and market economy”? It seems Mr. Klaus, and by association, all other naysayers, is more concerned with the health of the market system than with the health of our planet. And this perfectly illustrates the very reason why we are in this mess today.

We dismiss scientific findings at our own peril. This has proven itself many times throughout history. Taking heed of this lesson is of the utmost importance to prevent a predicted global calamity.

It is a widespread fact that species and their habitats are on the decrease while chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing. This cannot be merely brushed aside as ‘alarmist’.


Sources:
Science Daily, Sep 22, 2005

Global Issues, Jan 1, 2009

Climate Change Weather Patterns

Environmental Scorecard

My first post of the year, is it really the 15th already, is going to help me shed some light on how my family does the green thing.

A lot of big talk and good intentions are in the air about the need to save the planet from, well, us basically, so I figured I would throw out a few of the ways in which my family is helping to do our part.

Being environmentally responsible is a lot more than just recycling. It touches almost every aspect of our daily lives, from what we choose to eat, how the products we buy are packaged, how we clean our homes and how we get from point A to point B.

I grow some of the food we eat and put some of that up for the winter via the miracle of canning. I must admit that we could can more but we give a lot of it away to neighbors and family while it is still fresh.

We shred all of our junk mail, except the slick glossy stuff, who knows what goes into the inks on these things. I even shred my bills! Ha! In my dreams. I do pay most of them online but elect to receive the paper bill just in case I lose the use of the computer for whatever reason, like a seriously bad economic down turn. It is terribly satisfying to shred a credit card bill though.

The shredded paper, along with our newspapers get added to the compost pile.

Whatever bit of cardboard that does not find its way into a new planting bed goes into the recycle bin along with cans. But mostly I rip it up and place it on the compost as well.

Our neighborhood stopped collecting glass stating it was becoming too expensive to process it and even without that load our recycling bin is nearly over-flowing when they pick it up every two weeks.

I have canceled magazine subscriptions for insisting on stuffing way too many subscription forms in them as well as all manner of loose leaf ads. The really bad ones put the magazine in a plastic bag so they can throw more ads at us. I have written to these offending companies and told them how unhappy I am with the amount of landfill material they send out with each magazine. If I get a response at all it is nothing more than thanking me for writing. So I just cancel the subscription.

In the matter of those monthly bills that stuff fliers advertising their products and services, I stuff these back into the bill envelope with a note telling them to throw away their own trash.

We throw food scraps on the compost pile.

I collect compost from the city to use in the garden.

We adhere to shopping lists and go to the market once a week and then combine other destinations on the same trip so as not to waste gas.

I see to it that both of our cars are properly maintained in order to get the most fuel efficiency.

My wife works outside the home, I work at home and I have taken up cooking from recipes that use whole foods as opposed to processed foods.

One of the most difficult things to free ourselves of is plastic. We find it in a number of food packing, consumer packaging, even the bags we carry our consumer goods home in. We re-use almost all of the plastic food containers and plastic shopping bags. Anything that can be re-used is.

We take quick showers (baths are so wasteful) and do laundry only one day a week.

We have cut down a lot on eating beef. We mostly eat chicken.

We have installed compact fluorescent lights in every room and lamp in our house for energy efficiency and turn off lights when not in the room. My computer is on all day because that’s is my work tool.

Plastic milk jugs get re-used for a lot of purposes. I use them to start plants in until they are big enough to set out in the garden. I use them as cloches over the tender plants I set out until they are able to take nature on its own.

We feed our lawn and all garden plants (including houseplants) with organic material, i.e., the compost pile and supplement it with seaweed, fish emulsion, cottonseed meal, bone meal, blood meal, etc, instead of using synthetic fertilizer.

We turn the thermostat down to 64 at night and pile extra blankets on the bed. The thermostat itself has four time settings so that the house temperature can be customized for when we are in the house or away from home.

I do still use my gasoline powered lawn mower but use an electric edge trimmer. I prune everything else by hand.

I shovel snow with an actual snow shovel while many people around my neighborhood use a gas powered snow blower.

I am embarrassed to say that we still clean our home with chemical cleaners but I am trying to get my wife converted to using natural products such as vinegar, salt, lemon juice, baking soda, etc. It is a tough uphill battle.

One of the requirements to living a sustainable life is learning how others do it, because there always seems to be an easier or more ingenious way of doing something.

I find that the majority of the people I talk to about it say they would like to or actually do something with the environment in mind. But when I visit their houses I sometimes find recyclable items thrown in the trash can or see someway they do something that could be a little more earth friendly. I am mindful that I cannot be the self-appointed ‘environment police’ and just continually bark at everyone about the error of their ways, so I just have to realize that we are dealing with a lifestyle that cannot be easily unlearned.

I would be tickled pink if a grow-your-own-food/gardening revolution would take place that would knock food prices down, discontinue the use of chemical based fertilizers and pesticides, finally win the war against obesity, and lower our healthcare costs because we would all be eating healthier and visiting the doctor les often. What a slice of paradise that would be.

But the major change is going to have to happen at the corporate level. We are going to have to be forced to stop using plastic bags only when companies stop making them. We are going to have to be taken by the hand to drive vehicles that get 50 mpg or more when the automobile industry stops making cars that get less.

Mass transit is only going to work when we are taxed out of driving our personal vehicles into corporate/commercial zones to work and shop everyday.

Coal-powered power plants are gong to stop fouling our air and water only when alternative energy sources are proven to be more cost effective and these fossil-fuel sucking behemoths are finally put to rest.

We as individuals can only do so much. And as long as we are given the less expensive more environmentally-damaging alternative to live our lives we will sadly do it.

If maybe I can inspire someone through this blog to change a little something about their behavior to stop taking this planet for granted then I feel my time spent has been worthwhile.

Ocean is Growing Acidic

New research by scientists at the University of Chicago have documented that the ocean is growing more acidic faster than previously thought.

These findings correlates with increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide generated by human activities.

Yet another reason to slow down our consumption of fossil fuels. But, other human activities produce carbon dioxide as well, such as by producing cement and by carrying out land clearing and forest combustion. These activities only result in approximately 22% of the current atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The process of generating electricity is the single largest source of CO2 emissions in the United States, representing 41% of all CO2 emissions.

Carbon dioxide is produced naturally through plant photosynthesis, animal respiration, plant and animal decay, volcanoes, and diffusion out of the oceans. Without this natural production of CO2, life on our planet would cease to exist. The balance of oxygen and carbon we need for life began to change with the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s. At that time humans began adding to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the rate of CO2 production has steadily increased to the point that global warming has become a critical issue.

Carbon dioxide emissions have risen from 280 ppm in 1850 to 364 ppm in the 1990s. This increase has caused about 50-60% of the global warming. Fossil fuel combustion for energy generation causes about 70-75% of the carbon dioxide emissions, being the main source of carbon dioxide emissions. The remaining 20-25% of the emissions are caused by land clearing and burning and by emission from motor vehicle exhausts. Most carbon dioxide emissions derive from industrial processes in developed countries, such as in the United States and in Europe. However, carbon dioxide emissions from developing countries are rising. In this century, carbon dioxide emissions are expected to double and they are expected to continue to rise and cause problems after that.

When fossil fuels are burned to produce energy the carbon stored in them is emitted almost entirely as CO2. The main fossil fuels burned by humans are petroleum (oil), natural gas and coal. CO2 is emitted by the burning of fossil fuels for electricity generation, industrial uses, transportation, as well as in homes and commercial buildings. In 2006, petroleum supplied the largest share of domestic energy demands, accounting for an average of 47 percent of total fossil-fuel-based energy consumption in 2006. Coal and natural gas followed in order of importance, accounting for 27 and 26 percent of total fossil fuel consumption, respectively. The figure below displays emissions for each of these sectors, by fuel type in 2006.


The first person who predicted that emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and other burning processes would cause global warming was Svante Arrhenius, who published the paper "On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground" in 1896. However, it wasn’t until the 1930’s that it was confirmed that atmospheric carbon dioxide was actually increasing. In the late 1950s when highly accurate measurement techniques were developed, even more confirmation was found. By the 1990s, the global warming theory was widely accepted, although not by everyone. Whether global warming is truly caused by increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is still debated.

The University of Chicago study is based on 24,519 measurements of ocean pH spanning eight years, which represents the first detailed dataset on variations of coastal pH at a temperate latitude, where the world's most productive fisheries live.

"Of the variables the study examined that are linked to changes in ocean acidity, only atmospheric carbon dioxide exhibited a corresponding steady change," said J. Timothy Wootton, the lead author of the study and Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago.

"The acidity increased more than 10 times faster than had been predicted by climate change models and other studies," Wootton said.

"This increase will have a severe impact on marine food webs and suggests that ocean acidification may be a more urgent issue than previously thought, at least in some areas of the ocean," he added.

"Many sea creatures have shells or skeletons made of calcium carbonate, which the acid can dissolve," said Catherine Pfister, associate professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago and a co-author of the study.

Climate alarmists are striving to convince us that we have a moral responsibility -- if not a religious duty -- to do all in our power to reduce our CO2 emissions and thereby "save the planet" from a catastrophic warming that they claim will otherwise lead to the extinctions of millions of species of plants and animals. If this unfortunate fate would indeed result from continued "business as usual" anthropogenic CO2 emissions, their "proselytizing" on this issue would be justified. But what if they are wrong? And, what if their policy prescriptions actually cause the very catastrophe they claim they will cure?

Only you can decide for yourself your position on this debate. But before you make that decision, please gather the facts and don’t bury your head in the sand and think someone else will take care of it. We are all contributing to the problem and will take all of us to do something to change it.

Whether you choose to follow the science or not, there is definitely a correlation between the increase of carbon dioxide and the warming of our planet. You cannot ask for more clearly defined proof than this.

Further reading:
CO2 Science
NASA maps shed light on Carbon Dioxide’s Global Nature
Climate Change – Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Ocean’s Carbon Balance
What is the Carbon Cycle?

Bio-based Butanol as an alternative fuel

Scientists have been feverishly studying many alternative fuels in an effort to break our tether to fossil fuels. Realistically, they are trying to find the next big money maker, but who can blame them.

Nasib Qureshi, chemical engineer, has been trying to perfect a modified method of producing biobutanol from wheat straw since 2003. he reasons that wheat straw is present in abundance and its cost would be lower than corn-glucose dependent feedstock.

Another reason for the interest in using biobutanol as fuel is its several advantages over ethanol. New pipelines are not required for transportation of biobutanol – existing pipelines will do. Biobutanol is less corrosive compared to ethanol. Biobutanol is less prone to water contamination. Biobutanol can be used alone in internal combustion engines or it can be mixed with gasoline. Biobutanol provides more energy per gallon than ethanol.

Biobutanol can also be produced from fermented sugars drawn from corn glucose. But large scale commercial production of such biofuels was not possible due to high recovery costs, low yields and easy availability of conventional fuels. But conditions are different now. Our environment is more polluted, reserves of conventional fuels are not going to last forever and gasoline prices keep fluctuating alarmingly.

Clostridium bacteria is one of scientists favorite means of stimulating fermentation. Preparation of biofuels mainly involves four preparatory steps such as pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation and recovery. These steps have to be carried out separately and sequentially. But Qureshi and his team members deviated from this traditional method and combined three of the four steps. They employed a procedure known as “gas stripping” to extract the biobutanol. First the wheat straw has been pretreated with dilute sulphuric acid or other chemicals. Next the material is fermented in a bioreactor containing three different types of commercial enzymes and a culture of C. beijerinckii P260, a strain Qureshi obtained from Professor David Jones of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Here Qureshi has combined the two steps.

The bacteria and enzymes do their jobs simultaneously. First the enzymes hydrolyze the straw and release simple sugars then the bacterias start fermenting those sugars into acetone, butanol and ethanol. Butanol is produced in greatest quantity but other two are also valuable components. “Feb batch feeding” method increased the butanol production. Qureshi says he is planning to scale up production levels in 2009. “Then, we’ll look at the economics of using hydrolyzed wheat straw to see how we’re doing and move this process forward.”

Permaculture: A Revolution in Food Security

A new term has entered our lexicon, peak oil. What the everyday consumer is supposed to envision upon hearing this term is that the world has already extracted half of the planet’s natural oil resources and from this moment on the rate of production has entered a terminal decline. What this means to us of course is that the price of oil will only go higher due to its increasing scarcity and our ever increasing population size and our continued dependence on fossil-fuel-burning industry. British Petroleum (BP) claims we have not reached this ‘peak’ point while other oil companies say we have. And the debate continues without any clear way of knowing if we have reached peak oil because no one knows exactly how much oil is available under the planets surface.

Personally, I don’t know who to believe because I am not an expert, so I, like the rest of us, am at the mercy of those who are, or claim to be, experts. I do, however, believe we should aggressively research alternative energy sources no matter how much oil remains to be extracted. The longer we wait to actually adopt an alternative energy source(s) the more money we are throwing at big oil who clearly have no real interest in pursuing an alternative to using their product and the more environmental damage we are doing to the planets surface, air and water.

In the meantime, while we watch our government drag its feet in setting token and ineffective attempts at environmental policy while agribusiness and oil executives suck every dollar out of our pockets, there is a movement underway that has, unwittingly, been developing for years by individuals covering a wide spectrum of people who call themselves home gardeners, urban farmers, weekend garden ‘hobbyists’, and lately, locavores.

Permaculture and the increasing desire to become self-sufficient and sustainable is a lifestyle whose time has returned. Farming communities survived quite well for many, many years before we became industrialized and traded our independence for the convenience of having such things as: out-of-season fruits and vegetables every day of the year, and someone else to grow and can our foods.

With the emergence of recent issues concerning food safety, food and gas prices, genetically modified food, greenhouse gas emissions, transportation of food over great distances, and food freshness and quality, more and more people are becoming painfully aware of the dangerously vulnerable position we are being forced into. The continued reliance on agribusiness, government, big oil and even financial organizations to provide for our daily necessities is in jeopardy.

I am convinced that communities everywhere need to create local, sustainable, community gardens to supplement each individuals home gardens for the purpose of creating community food surplus in case of national emergency. I realize I may sound alarmist, but our nations cupboard is bare.

I recently discovered a group based in Nevada City, California, called Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy. APPLE is a grassroots group striving for a more self-reliant, sustainable local economy (as opposed to global economy that the world’s money changers are pushing for). They produce locally what they consume locally, as much as possible. It is an intuitive idea that I believe many people have been craving as an answer to our need for food safety and community activism. It is a means of re-establishing our own control over what we eat and how it is grown.

They have produced over 100 videos, they call them conversations, featuring everyday individuals who adopted permaculture and have taken the step towards sustainability in their own yards. Be sure to watch #51 “An Experiment in Back Yard Sustainability” and #100 “Suburban Permaculture with Janet Barocco and Richard Heinberg”.

One such video, entitled “How Much Food Can You Grow in Your Yard?”, shows an urban lot, measuring 75’ by 125’, in Port Townsend, Washington. The home owner, Judy Alexander, takes us through her self-sustained property re-educating us on how it is possible to grow enough food to sustain your family and have excess for neighbors, friends, or community storage.

Whether you agree or disagree with the narrators assessment that we have reached a peak of human innovation, information, wealth and health, check out the many other videos for some very educational insight to what it can be like to regain our independence and get back the satisfaction that being in touch with land brings.

There are of course many other groups out there creating their own sustainable Eden. One of my personal favorite experiments in permaculture is taking place at the “Little Homestead in the City”. They call themselves eco-pioneers living a homegrown revolution on a sustainable, real-life original urban homestead. They have set an excellent example of how anyone can create an environment that reaches out to the community at large and can therefore inspire others fulfill their own need for independence. It truly is a revolution.

Our dependence on oil is becoming more and more expensive in terms of cost of extraction and production which gets passed on to the consumer, and in the cost of damage to the environment in terms of exploration, extraction and burning of oil which is felt by everyone. We are being forced to accept higher food prices as the result of short-sighted use of food crops for the production of bio-fuels instead of using non-food crops. In our rush to sever ties to foreign oil we are made to believe that the only immediate answer is to damage the environment further by increasing the number of offshore oil wells.

Through the use of the internet and our increased access to each others gardens and skills, through blogs and websites as educational tools, we are all becoming more empowered to take the course of our future into our own hands, to grow our own food, and share the excess with neighbors in an attempt to get this food revolution off the ground.





Further reading:
Instant Permaculture for the Suburbs

Are we running out of oil?

Why peak oil is probably about now

Permaculture Institute

Homesteading Today

Drive Faster or Save Nature?

Why destroy natural habitat and bleed our bank accounts just so we don’t have to change our ways?

According to the Alliance to Save Energy the best way to deal with rising gas prices is to:
- drive 5% less
- slow down
- inflate your tires

Sounds simple enough.

If everyone followed these simple steps U.S. oil consumption would decrease by 1.3 million barrels a day, immediately.

If we do this then we would not need to search for more oil. Oil companies could not say they have to rip out nature to feed our unquenchable thirst for more oil.

We are still using plastic bags and plastic water containers by the billions. We are still driving like there is no shortage. I get passed by people on the freeway every day. Somebody out there is not slowing down. Somebody out there is still buying water in plastic bottles.

Figures claim that we are driving less, and mass transit ridership is up. Let’s don’t just rely on them to reduce our dependence on oil let’s all jump in and help.

We all complain about being forced to pay more for gasoline and instead of following these simple common sense steps that would save us money and cut down on the amount of oil we consume the U.S. wants to drill for more oil. When George W Bush wants to drill for more oil it should send up a red flag that we should not drill for more oil. He is only going to help his ‘big oil’ friends bottom line. Face it people we have reached maximum capacity without destroying more natural habitat. And we can do something about it.

Please, slow down, quit accelerating so hard, and maintain your vehicle. Think about what your personal habits are costing every one. If you don’t care about what it is costing everyone else then think about how much money you personally could save if you just followed these simple, very reasonable, steps.

Where are you going in such a hurry?

According to Julius Pretterebner, a vehicles and alternative-fuels expert at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consultancy that does a lot of work for the oil companies, how fast people drive and how quickly they accelerate is responsible for 10% to 30% of fuel consumption.

Are Americans so unyielding to reason that we refuse to follow simple, common sense steps that will save us money.

We can’t slow down those fools who think they have to pass everyone on the road but we certainly have the power not to be one of them.

Solar-Hydrogen House

This guy has the right idea on how to get off the grid, and is actually acting on it.

Mike Strizki, a civil engineer, living in East Amwell New Jersey, has discovered a method of making fuel out of sunlight and water. He generates enough electricity and hydrogen to heat and cool his home, and power his hydrogen-powered and electric-powered cars.

Imagine never having to stop at a gas station again, or paying a utility bill. Or being able to power your house from your car.

More details here.

He offers a great alternative to batteries for storing electricity by using hydrogen.

It might take a few years to make the cost of this system affordable, but it shows great promise for a new hydrogen-electric economy, one that eliminates or sharply reduces the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.

This is the type of ingenuity we need to get us away from fossil fuels and pollution.

Biomass energy cubes: alternative to coal

A biomass briquette that could become to coal what ethanol has been to gasoline, is being made from a mix of plant materials that include wood, corn stalks and switch grass. Unlike raw biomass, the cubes can be blended with or substituted for coal in existing burners with little or no modifications. This advantage might enable fuel cubes to enable companies to use biomass without building new facilities.

Burning these fuel cubes creates far less pollution than fossil fuels and producing them has potential to boost rural economies. As with ethanol, there are concerns about whether harvesting material for the cubes will generate side effects that outweigh their value as an alternative.

The aggregate is not limited to wood, corn stalks and switchgrass, which is what makes this idea so versatile. Other grains (such as alfalfa), grasses, agricultural residues or even municipal solid waste can also be used as substitutes or in addition to these items. The process compresses the substances into dense, coal-like briquettes and processes them until just the right moisture content is achieved much like the process used to make BBQ grill briquettes.

They generate nearly twice as much energy as other biomass, putting it on par with coal from the western United States. The cost is competitive with coal in some markets.

When burned, the cubes emit 90% less sulfur dioxides, 35% less particulate matter and 30% less acid gases compared to coal. That’s based on testing at the University of Iowa with supervision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Burning coal and gas releases carbon into the atmosphere that has been stored underground for centuries and was therefore not part of the natural balance. Using prairie grasses or grains won’t contribute because the carbon emitted was only recently stored in the plant material. Harvesting trees as a raw material would release carbon that had been stored there for decades as well as increasing pressure to clear forests. So the claim that using these briquettes instead of coal won’t contribute to global warming is true, depending on the raw material used.

A push is underway by a subgroup of Clean Energy Minnesota that is trying to come up with a system for scoring biomass fuels based on things like how much net energy they produce, how much carbon they divert from the atmosphere, and how else they affect the economy and environment.

Just as with the debate over using food products for ethanol based fuel, there is likely to be disagreements over using wood for biomass energy which could result in higher material prices for other industries.

The briquettes, cubes or pellets need to be produced close to the point at which they are grown in order to realize a transportation cost savings, because shipping costs for unprocessed biomass are far greater than for fossil fuels as they contain less energy per unit volume than fossil fuels.

For further reading:

Twin Cities Daily Planet

Biomass Energy

Role of Native Grasses in Wisconsin’s Bio-Energy Economy

Maple Syrup for Packaging

Maple trees, long treasured for their delicious maple syrup to pour over our pancakes, is now being tapped for a new use. Researchers have discovered that the sap can be used as a base for a natural, biodegradable polymer that could help us take another small step away from our dependence on fossil fuel-based plastics.

A range of new biodegradable products will be possible, such as packaging material, and medical applications like drug delivery systems and surgical sutures, the National Research Council said.

Canadian producers accounted for 86% - over 34,000 tons - of the world's maple syrup production last year, with the United States accounting for the remainder. This production led to sales of $178 million in 2006, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

After reading a report in a Quebec newspaper about a 27 million kilogram surplus of maple sap, due to slipping domestic sales, NRC scientist Jalal Hawari decided to see if the substance might help him with a project he was working on to create natural polymers. Hawari said the secret behind this new technology is bacteria called Alcaligenes latus, known for transforming sucrose into a group of naturally occurring polymers called polyhydroxyalkannoates, or PHAs. Before turning to maple sap, Hawari's group had been feeding the bacteria liquid waste from the apple juice manufacturing process.

The bacteria find the syrup an excellent food source. While the bacteria feed on the sap, they process the sugars and store much of what they cannot eat in the form of PHAs, which can then be extracted and used as a biodegradable material. This is done much more efficiently in maple sap than in other sucrose solutions. While corn and sugar cane can be used in a similar manner to feed the bacteria, Hawari said breaking them down into a sugary solution palatable to the bacteria adds to the cost.

Unlike fossil fuel-based polymers, natural polymers biodegrade over time more readily, but are still stable enough to perform their functions. They are also biologically inert, meaning they won't adversely affect humans if used for medical applications or wild animals who will ingest the substances once they are thrown away.

Since currently only one-third of the potential reserves of maple trees are tapped, using this food source for other than food purposes may not increase the retail price of syrup, unlike what has happened in using corn for ethanol.

Biofuel Update: ALGAE

One of the latest attempts at creating a biofuel source has been with algae. Algae are among the fastest growing plants in the world, and about 50 percent of their weight is oil. That lipid oil can be used to make biodiesel for cars, trucks, and airplanes.

A company in Texas, Valcent Products, has created an algae greenhouse to harvest this green fuel that many believe will help ease our dependence on fossil fuel.

Instead of growing algae in ponds, Vlacent uses a closed loop bioreactor system that can produce algae over an extended period. Using long rows of moving plastics bags exposes a larger surface area to the suns rays thereby growing more algae in less space. The system is expected to produce about 100,000 gallons of algae oil a year per acre, compared to about 30 gallons per acre from corn; 50 gallons from soybeans.

More than one type of algae

There are currently 65,000 known algae species, with perhaps hundreds of thousands more still to be identified and researchers are convinced they will be able to target the exact species of algae most perfectly suited to whatever end product is desired. One species may be best suited for jet fuel, while the oil content of another may be more efficient for truck diesel.

Algae as a food source

Seaweeds, e.g., the kelps (kombu) and the red algae Porphyra (nori), have long been used as a source of food, especially in Asia. Both cultivated and naturally growing seaweeds have been harvested in the Pacific Basin for hundreds of years. Kelp are also much used as fertilizer, and kelp ash is used industrially for its potassium and sodium salts. Other useful algae products are agar and carrageen, which is used as a stabilizer in foods, cosmetics, and paints.

Another commercial use is as a health food drink, usually sold as "Spirulina" which claims to increase natural cancer fighting substances in the body.

Algae as a filtering agent

Locating algae facilities next to carbon producing power plants, or manufacturing plants could sequester the C02 they create and use those emissions to help grow the algae, which need the C02 for photosynthesis. An bioreactor built in just the right way can have the added benefit of preventing carbon dioxide emissions, nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide, from entering the atmosphere.

A Sonoma State University biology professor and his graduate student have teamed up with the City of Santa Rosa to investigate the potential use of algae to remove excess nutrients and other contaminants from municipal wastewater effluent.

Algae is considered a better alternative to using corn and soybeans as a biofuel due to three factors, one: algae generates more fuel using less acreage, two: the diversion of corn and soybean from food to biofuel use increases the cost of food products, and three: the high agricultural use of nitrogen based fertilizers for corn and soybeans contaminates the water table and eventually runs off into the oceans adding to the already huge Dead Zone.

A decade ago, the U.S. Department of Energy said that after 18 years of study algae oil could never compete economically with fossil fuels. But that was when the price of oil was about $20. With the cost of a barrel of oil over $100 I think its high time we use plants like algae and switchgrass for biofuel sources and keep food crops out of the gas tank.