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While it is refreshing to see our country going green with our energy sources what can you do now to reduce polution. See what you can do immediately to reduce your cars emissions up to 80% NOW.
www.LessEmissionsNow.com
Rob Nichols
www.LessEmissionsNow.com
Rob Nichols
I have done this year what I have done every year successively for the last few years; report on the global water crisis in an attempt to not only inform but to inspire and to move us to action. The need for that action has never been more necessary than it is now. The Earth now sits on a precipice, with man having the power to pull it back or push it off.
Around the world from North America to Africa and beyond, we see water scarcity and drought becoming more a part of daily life for more people. This does not bode well for the future as population continues to rise as the quality of life in the developing world decreases due to war, climate change, pollution, and poverty. Climate change continues to melt glaciers globally at a much more rapid pace than predicted, and man finds himself because of it at a crossroads in a world filled with war, disease, famine, injustice, poverty, and despair. It would be very easy to give up looking at the picture we have painted, but we cannot do so. Our own survival depends on how we treat this planet and our fellow man. How we react to these crises now will determine if the world falls off that precipice or is saved.
I firmly believe that even though we now live in a world of turmoil, this next year will be a year of awakening for many. There are many more organizations that are now bringing awareness and action to the parts of our world in need of potable water and sanitation. There are many more people becoming aware of not only their carbon footprint, but their water footprint as well. This past year saw a surge in activism against the bottled water industry with citizen groups across the world standing up to the corporations seeking to take our water for profit. These are good signs that point to a more intense activism in the year to come to hold political leaders accountable for policies that seek to fix water infrastructure, restore wetlands, reduce pollution, hold officials accountable for proper water management and efficient agriculture policies, and also hold them to signing a climate treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions that lead to drought and glacier melt this next year.
However, none of these things can happen without us. Without our voices, our hands, our perseverence, and our love for this planet and for the one resource we cannot live without. It is that love and perseverence that carries me into another year of water activism and of reporting the stories of our water, it's life, and our contributions to its preservation. May this coming year bring us closer to a world where water is truly appreciated for the beautiful life sustaining source and human right it is.
Water Is Life.
http://water-is-life.blogspot.com
Las Vegas ' newest and largest GREEN commercial building, The Molasky Center, nears its grand opening. The 265,000 square foot high-rise has been built to the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED Standards earning a Gold Certification.
Pamela Puppel, Media Director for the Molasky Group, was kind enough to give Greener Vegas a pre-opening tour.
From ground floor to rooftop the entire building has conservation built-in. The automated parking garage features "priority parking" for 24 bicycles for health-conscious employees, with showers and lockers available in the ground floor 24 Hour Fitness center that is now open. The uppermost floor of the 7 level parking deck incorporates solar photovoltaic panels on the roofs which contributes power back into the Las Vegas grid.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) has moved their corporate offices and now occupies 7 of the 16 floors. Speaking of water - The Molasky Center utilizes a state-of-the-art "Dolphin" water reclamation system that captures and filters the building's waste water and feeds it into the landscape. Even the toilets feature special "user selectable" low-flow plumbing to minimize water waste.
The theme of recycle/reuse is apparent on (and in) every floor. Special raised floor construction allows for pressurized air to be vented up from the floor. This has shown to be 30% more efficient than standard ceiling vented air conditioning. The building insulation is composed of shredded blue-jeans. Many rooms and public areas minimize electrical use of unnecessary lights by making use of motion or natural light sensors.
Planners at the Molasky Center also went green when choosing furnishings and décor. For example much of the cubicle furniture is covered with a fiber made from natural corn silk, many carpeted areas utilize recycled fiber carpet squares, Countertops are fabricated from shards of recycled glass, and bamboo (a highly renewable resource) was chosen for several wall and floor treatments
In addition to the previously mentioned, other tennents who are now, or soon will be open, include Jason's Deli, Bank of Nevada, The Java Detour, and Legal Copycats.
So as you drive along I95 and pass by the new Molasky Corporate Center with its gleaming green glass - know that its not just "green" on the outside…it's a whole new way of doing business in Las Vegas.
Webmaster note: "This site built using 80% recycled code "
Pamela Puppel, Media Director for the Molasky Group, was kind enough to give Greener Vegas a pre-opening tour.
From ground floor to rooftop the entire building has conservation built-in. The automated parking garage features "priority parking" for 24 bicycles for health-conscious employees, with showers and lockers available in the ground floor 24 Hour Fitness center that is now open. The uppermost floor of the 7 level parking deck incorporates solar photovoltaic panels on the roofs which contributes power back into the Las Vegas grid.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) has moved their corporate offices and now occupies 7 of the 16 floors. Speaking of water - The Molasky Center utilizes a state-of-the-art "Dolphin" water reclamation system that captures and filters the building's waste water and feeds it into the landscape. Even the toilets feature special "user selectable" low-flow plumbing to minimize water waste.
The theme of recycle/reuse is apparent on (and in) every floor. Special raised floor construction allows for pressurized air to be vented up from the floor. This has shown to be 30% more efficient than standard ceiling vented air conditioning. The building insulation is composed of shredded blue-jeans. Many rooms and public areas minimize electrical use of unnecessary lights by making use of motion or natural light sensors.
Planners at the Molasky Center also went green when choosing furnishings and décor. For example much of the cubicle furniture is covered with a fiber made from natural corn silk, many carpeted areas utilize recycled fiber carpet squares, Countertops are fabricated from shards of recycled glass, and bamboo (a highly renewable resource) was chosen for several wall and floor treatments
In addition to the previously mentioned, other tennents who are now, or soon will be open, include Jason's Deli, Bank of Nevada, The Java Detour, and Legal Copycats.
So as you drive along I95 and pass by the new Molasky Corporate Center with its gleaming green glass - know that its not just "green" on the outside…it's a whole new way of doing business in Las Vegas.
Webmaster note: "This site built using 80% recycled code "
Call to Action: Use hemp's ability as a low cost resource material to make 50,000 plus non toxic products that will help us solve our economic and environmental crisis.
Here's a paper written almost 20 years ago that explains how we can use hemp to help us save ourselves from the evil and stupidity that's been in charge for way to long.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
TOWARDS A GREEN ECONOMY
by Lynn Osburn
The nationwide popularity of Earth Week 1990 festivities seems to indicate the American People are concerned with the continuing degradation of the global environment. The twentieth anniversary celebration of the original Earth Day focused on ways the individual citizen can reduce waste and retard pollution.
The necessity of recycling used materials and lowering power consumption was demonstrated in a plethora of multi-media displays from coast to coast. It was indicated a change in lifestyle is needed to halt the poisoning of earth.
An environmentally conscious populace would prove to be a frugal one if those Earth Week programs were adopted.
Assuming Americans are willing to cut back on energy consumption and muster the effort to recycle their trash, are industrial corporations and energy producers willing to do the same?
Will corporate America drop the aggressive sales pitches wherein billions are spent encouraging people to buy impulsively? Will people be able to kick the mass consumption habit generations in the making? Will corporate America even entertain abstaining from the short term profit fix and consider what the consequences of quick return capitalism has done and will do to future generations of life on earth?
President George Bush's speech, given just days after Earth Week 1990 at the 17 nation conference dealing with global pollution problems held in Washington D.C., drew criticism from European participants. He emphasized scientific and economic uncertainties in what was seen as a White House foot dragging effort on the environmental issue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Scientists throughout the world agree: the single most effective way to halt the greenhouse effect is to stop burning fossil fuels.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
A memo prepared by administration staffers for members of the U.S. delegation read, under the heading Debates to avoid: It is "not beneficial to discuss whether there is or is not warming, or how much or how little warming. In the eyes of the public we will lose this debate. A better approach is to raise the many uncertainties that need to be better understood on this issue." Bush repeatedly stressed the need to find policies that do not limit economic growth: Environmental policies that ignore the economic factor, the human factor, are destined to fail." [Science News, April 28, 1990]
President Bush is proud of the public image his career in the oil industry presents. He is, to say the least, an energy industry celebrity. And he has gone to great lengths to represent himself as the environmental president.
If the Bush administration believes, "in the eyes of the public," they will lose the debate questioning the scientific validity of the greenhouse effect; is it reasonable to conclude they don't believe the excessive accumulation of greenhouse gasses generated by burning fossil fuels is unbalancing the global carbon dioxide cycle? Or is it possible the corporate industrial energy complex that controls the trillion dollar per year energy industry fears profit loss, and unlike the American people, is in no way willing to make a sacrifice in corporate "lifestyle" to help heal the Earth?
President Bush is right about one thing: "Policies that ignore the economic factor, the human factor, are destined to fail." In this case the economic factor and the human factor converge in the dire strait: if we do not convert from a fossil fueled economy to a biomass fueled economy, the human factor will become fossil history on planet earth.
The corporate industrial energy complex is collectively holding its breath on the topic of biomass resource conversion to replace fossil fuels. The industrial energy giants spend millions in public relations explaining how they are environmentally responsible energy producers. Yet it is the fossil fuel resources they peddle that are endangering the fragile ecosphere. The majority of scientists throughout the world agree: the single most effective way to halt the greenhouse effect is to stop burning fossil fuels.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The only way to reduce the ever-thickening blanket of CO 2 warming the earth is to grow more plants to absorb it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It was proven in the 1970's that biomass, specifically plant mass, can be converted to fuels that will replace every type of fossil fuel currently produced by industry -- and these biomass fuels are essentially non-polluting.
Fossil fuel materials: coal, oil and natural gas were made by nature from earth biomass that lived over 160 million years ago. Crude fossil fuels contain hydrocarbon compounds that were made by plant life during the process of photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide and water were converted into hydrocarbon rich cellulose. Plants manufacture many other biochemicals in the complex and mysterious act of living, but cellulose and lignin are the compounds that give plants structure, body and strength. They are the main components of plant mass.
Nature took millions of years to concentrate the ancient plant mass into what we call fossil fuels. The eons long process that converted the once living biomass into hydro-carbon rich fossils also compressed sulfur into the fossil biomass. It is this sulfur that causes acid rain when belched out of power plant smoke stacks. According to Brookhaven National Laboratory 50,000 Americans and 10,000 Canadians die each year from exposure to acid rain.
Mankind through the science of chemical engineering can transform modern biomass into hydrocarbon fuels that contain no sulfur because the fresh plant mass contains no sulfur. And the scientific method of biomass conversion into hydrocarbon fuels requires mere hours instead of eons to accomplish.
The inherent problem with burning fossil fuels to power industrial energy systems and economies is the mega-ton release of CO 2 into the air. However biomass derived fuels are part of the present day global CO 2 cycle.
The quantity of CO 2 released into the air from burning biomass fuels is equal to the amount of CO 2 the biomass energy crop absorbed while it grew. If the energy crop is an annual plant then one years biomass fuel when burned will supply the CO 2 needed for the next year's fuel biomass growth. There will be no net increase in atmospheric CO 2.
For over 100 years industrialized nations have burned hydrocarbon fuels that are not part of the current ecosystem. The delicate balance between life and climatic cycles is being undone by injecting ancestral CO 2 into the atmosphere.
The only way to reduce the ever-thickening blanket of CO 2 warming the earth is to grow more plants to absorb it. Yet the Bush administration's plan to plant one billion trees a year will only reduce by 15% the amount of CO 2 predicted for the end of the century. However, U.S. CO 2 production (from burning fossil fuels) will rise by 35% during the same time period. [Science News, April 28, 1990]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hemp hurds are richer in cellulose and contain less lignin than wood pulp. Hemp paper will make better cardboard and paper bag products than wood paper.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bush Administration's plan is futile as long as fossil fuels remain America's major energy resource. And at the rate forests are being cut down to make the paper our society is wrapped up in, a billion saplings a year will barely compensate for that loss in CO 2 absorption.
Wood happens to be the government's chief biomass candidate to replace the dwindling fossil fuel supply. Officials claim U.S. yearly energy consumption can be met by harvesting one third of the trees in the National Forests on a rotating basis coupled with more intensive silvaculture (tree farming) techniques. Estimated yearly biomass production in the National Forests is one ton per acre. [Progress in Biomass Conversion Vol. 1 Kyosti V. Sarkanen & David Tillman, editors]
The U.S. Forestry Service is the government bureaucracy promoting this ludicrous forests-for-fuel idea. However private industry has been clear-cutting without conscience timber stands not protected in National Forests and Parks. And none of that wood goes into biomass fuel conversion.
The trees of the world are the biosphere's CO 2 cycle safety valve. Trees convert CO 2 into wood. Since a tree will live for centuries, forests can gradually pull the excess CO 2 out of the air. Trees are not only aesthetically pleasing -- they are the cure for our ailing atmosphere.
Is it realistic to halt construction to save trees or ask people to stop using paper? If wood resources cannot hope to meet the demand for lumber, paper and biomass fuels, can any plant be cultivated to meet these needs?
This problem is not new. Civilizations have been exhausting vital resources and dooming themselves for many centuries. Versatility, cleverness and common sense are the hallmark of the ones that survive.
About seventy-five years ago two dedicated USDA scientists projected that at the rate the U.S. was using paper we would deplete the forests in our lifetimes. Those government scientists were endowed with common sense -- something government officials are hopelessly lacking nowadays. So USDA scientists Dewey and Merrill looked for an alternate agricultural resource for paper products l to prevent the disaster we now face.
They found the ideal candidate to be the waste material left in the fields after the hemp harvest. The left over pulp, called hemp hurds, was traditionally burned in the fields when the hemp fiber had been removed after the time consuming retting (partially rotting the hemp stalk to separate the fiber from the hurds) process was completed.
Hemp hurds are richer in cellulose and contain less lignin than wood pulp. Dewey and Merrill found after much experimentation that harsh sulfur acids used to break down the lignin in wood pulp were not necessary when making paper from hemp hurds. Sulfur acid wastes from paper mills are known to be a major source of waterway pollution. The coarse paper they made from hemp hurds was stronger and had greater folding durability than course wood pulp paper. Hemp hurd paper would make better cardboard and paper bag products than wood paper. They found the fine print quality hemp hurd paper to be equal to writing quality wood pulp paper. [ Dewey and Merrill, Bulletin #404, Hemp Hurds As Paper-Making Material, U.S.D.A., Washington, D.C., October 14, 1916.]
The only problem to implementing the paper industry resource change from wood to hemp hurds was machinery to separate hemp fiber from the hurds needed to be developed. Separation was still done by hand after the machine breaks had softened the hemp stalks. The "decorticating" machine that separated the fiber and hurds wasn't developed until the early 1930's. Even Popular Mechanics declared in 1937 that hemp would be a billion dollar a year crop because of this new machinery. And their predictions did not consider hemp's potential as a biomass fuel resource. Unfortunately, hemp was maligned. Its flower tops were condemned as marijuana and subsequently outlawed just when the fiber-hurd separating machinery was perfected.
If America had not been infected with marijuana hysteria, hemp could be solving our energy problems today. When marijuana was outlawed most people did not know "marijuana" was Mexican slang for cannabis hemp. The American people, including doctors who routinely prescribed cannabis extract medicines, thought hemp and marijuana were two different plants. Otherwise hemp prohibition would never have happened.
Eastern Europeans were not subjected to the hysterical anti-marijuana syndrome plaguing the West. Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia among others, continued to make clothing from hemp fibers and medicines from hemp flowers. They pressed the versatile and edible oil from the seeds and used the left over high protein seed mash to make breakfast cereal and livestock feed. And they used surplus hemp for building insulation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GREEN ECONOMY based on a hemp multi-industry complex will provide income for farmers in every state. . . . thousands of new products generating tens of thousands of sustainable new jobs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Currently in the U.S.A. a private firm, Mansion Industries, has pioneered the use of agricultural fibers to make sturdy light weight construction paneling to replace plywood. Mansion Industries uses straw to make their Environcore(TM) panels. Based on Dewey and Merrill test results, if hemp was an available resource, Environcore(TM) construction paneling would be even stronger.
It's not too late to save our environment, but it is absolutely essential that we start now. Restoring the balance to the biosphere's ecosystem will require courage and determination, but not self-denial. We need not give up our comforts or quality of life.
America stands at the cross roads of greatness and decline. The might of weaponry will not sustain us anymore. Our chance to again lead the world will require the same kind of determination we once initiated to convert our peace time economy into war production during the 1940's. But now the "war mentality" won't help. This time we must be innovative and change the very way we produce our energy resources.
Hemp prohibition must end at once in order to inaugurate a nationwide green economy. To save the world that gives us life we must begin immediately to grow our own energy.
Hemp is the only plant capable of becoming the American biomass energy standard. Hemp grows well everywhere on earth except the polar regions. Hemp will out produce wood at a rate greater than four to one per acre in cellulose/pulp. And by analyzing pre-prohibition hemp crop reports from various States, ten tons per acre becomes a reasonable biomass production figure. Hemp will make ten times more biomass per acre than forest wood.
Wood is not a viable fuel resource. The forests are essential to scrub the excess CO 2 from the air. Soft wood forests should not be harvested for paper products or biomass -- their only economic value. Hemp can supply that need. Hardwood trees should be harvested, utilizing sustainable yield ecology, for board and finishing lumber only. Hemp will make pressed board lighter in weight and more durable than plywood.
Hemp can be grown for: crude biomass fuels on energy farms; fiber/hurds for textiles, pressed board and hurd cellulose products; seed for oil and high protein foods; flowers for pharmaceutical grade extract medicine and recreational herbal products for adults.
The Green Economy based on a hemp multi-industry complex will provide income for farmers in every state. Regions for each hemp agricultural industry application will be established through open free market competition. The historical and traditional hemp fiber growing areas in the eastern U.S. will re-emerge creating new jobs in an old industry. The economically devastated northern plains will see a boom as the nation's energy farming states. Medicinal and intoxicant grade hemp will be grown on less productive higher elevation lands. Mountainous areas have traditionally produced intoxicant quality hemp.
Ironically, the hemp medicine and intoxicant industry will generate the least amount of capital, though it is the target of prohibitionist "reefer" propaganda. The hemp seed oil and food resource industries, and the hemp textile and cellulose industries will develop thousands of new products generating tens of thousands of sustainable new jobs. Hemp energy farming will become the backbone of a trillion dollar a year non-polluting energy production industry. And the petroleum corporations need not fear this for their expertise, hardware and manpower are vital to turn the farmers' raw biomass into refined fuels.
These projections represent a tremendous boon to our flagging economy that can be realized as a by-product of saving our world from human induced biocide. If we as a society have the courage and determination to set upon this bold path to planetary restoration, we can, in our life times, leave a healthier world to our children; and a lifestyle based on renewable resources in a balanced ecosystem that our children can leave to their children for generations to come.
Burning fossil fuels is the major cause of the greenhouse effect. The forests of the world can reverse it, if the trees are allowed to grow.
Hemp is a renewable natural resource capable of providing biomass alternatives to fossil fuels. Hemp cellulose and fibers can supply the demand for all products derived from wood.
Renewable resources mean economic growth and stability.
Please copy. Produced as a public service by:
Access Unlimited
P.O. Box 1900
Frazier Park, CA 93225
805/632-2644
A web search for "hemp economy"
The paper is posted: http://www.ratical.org/renewables/greenEcon.html
For more information on how hemp can help us save ourselves please visit the USA Hemp Museum, www.hempmuseum.org , a private museum with a virtual wing. Read More »
Here's a paper written almost 20 years ago that explains how we can use hemp to help us save ourselves from the evil and stupidity that's been in charge for way to long.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
TOWARDS A GREEN ECONOMY
by Lynn Osburn
The nationwide popularity of Earth Week 1990 festivities seems to indicate the American People are concerned with the continuing degradation of the global environment. The twentieth anniversary celebration of the original Earth Day focused on ways the individual citizen can reduce waste and retard pollution.
The necessity of recycling used materials and lowering power consumption was demonstrated in a plethora of multi-media displays from coast to coast. It was indicated a change in lifestyle is needed to halt the poisoning of earth.
An environmentally conscious populace would prove to be a frugal one if those Earth Week programs were adopted.
Assuming Americans are willing to cut back on energy consumption and muster the effort to recycle their trash, are industrial corporations and energy producers willing to do the same?
Will corporate America drop the aggressive sales pitches wherein billions are spent encouraging people to buy impulsively? Will people be able to kick the mass consumption habit generations in the making? Will corporate America even entertain abstaining from the short term profit fix and consider what the consequences of quick return capitalism has done and will do to future generations of life on earth?
President George Bush's speech, given just days after Earth Week 1990 at the 17 nation conference dealing with global pollution problems held in Washington D.C., drew criticism from European participants. He emphasized scientific and economic uncertainties in what was seen as a White House foot dragging effort on the environmental issue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Scientists throughout the world agree: the single most effective way to halt the greenhouse effect is to stop burning fossil fuels.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
A memo prepared by administration staffers for members of the U.S. delegation read, under the heading Debates to avoid: It is "not beneficial to discuss whether there is or is not warming, or how much or how little warming. In the eyes of the public we will lose this debate. A better approach is to raise the many uncertainties that need to be better understood on this issue." Bush repeatedly stressed the need to find policies that do not limit economic growth: Environmental policies that ignore the economic factor, the human factor, are destined to fail." [Science News, April 28, 1990]
President Bush is proud of the public image his career in the oil industry presents. He is, to say the least, an energy industry celebrity. And he has gone to great lengths to represent himself as the environmental president.
If the Bush administration believes, "in the eyes of the public," they will lose the debate questioning the scientific validity of the greenhouse effect; is it reasonable to conclude they don't believe the excessive accumulation of greenhouse gasses generated by burning fossil fuels is unbalancing the global carbon dioxide cycle? Or is it possible the corporate industrial energy complex that controls the trillion dollar per year energy industry fears profit loss, and unlike the American people, is in no way willing to make a sacrifice in corporate "lifestyle" to help heal the Earth?
President Bush is right about one thing: "Policies that ignore the economic factor, the human factor, are destined to fail." In this case the economic factor and the human factor converge in the dire strait: if we do not convert from a fossil fueled economy to a biomass fueled economy, the human factor will become fossil history on planet earth.
The corporate industrial energy complex is collectively holding its breath on the topic of biomass resource conversion to replace fossil fuels. The industrial energy giants spend millions in public relations explaining how they are environmentally responsible energy producers. Yet it is the fossil fuel resources they peddle that are endangering the fragile ecosphere. The majority of scientists throughout the world agree: the single most effective way to halt the greenhouse effect is to stop burning fossil fuels.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The only way to reduce the ever-thickening blanket of CO 2 warming the earth is to grow more plants to absorb it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It was proven in the 1970's that biomass, specifically plant mass, can be converted to fuels that will replace every type of fossil fuel currently produced by industry -- and these biomass fuels are essentially non-polluting.
Fossil fuel materials: coal, oil and natural gas were made by nature from earth biomass that lived over 160 million years ago. Crude fossil fuels contain hydrocarbon compounds that were made by plant life during the process of photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide and water were converted into hydrocarbon rich cellulose. Plants manufacture many other biochemicals in the complex and mysterious act of living, but cellulose and lignin are the compounds that give plants structure, body and strength. They are the main components of plant mass.
Nature took millions of years to concentrate the ancient plant mass into what we call fossil fuels. The eons long process that converted the once living biomass into hydro-carbon rich fossils also compressed sulfur into the fossil biomass. It is this sulfur that causes acid rain when belched out of power plant smoke stacks. According to Brookhaven National Laboratory 50,000 Americans and 10,000 Canadians die each year from exposure to acid rain.
Mankind through the science of chemical engineering can transform modern biomass into hydrocarbon fuels that contain no sulfur because the fresh plant mass contains no sulfur. And the scientific method of biomass conversion into hydrocarbon fuels requires mere hours instead of eons to accomplish.
The inherent problem with burning fossil fuels to power industrial energy systems and economies is the mega-ton release of CO 2 into the air. However biomass derived fuels are part of the present day global CO 2 cycle.
The quantity of CO 2 released into the air from burning biomass fuels is equal to the amount of CO 2 the biomass energy crop absorbed while it grew. If the energy crop is an annual plant then one years biomass fuel when burned will supply the CO 2 needed for the next year's fuel biomass growth. There will be no net increase in atmospheric CO 2.
For over 100 years industrialized nations have burned hydrocarbon fuels that are not part of the current ecosystem. The delicate balance between life and climatic cycles is being undone by injecting ancestral CO 2 into the atmosphere.
The only way to reduce the ever-thickening blanket of CO 2 warming the earth is to grow more plants to absorb it. Yet the Bush administration's plan to plant one billion trees a year will only reduce by 15% the amount of CO 2 predicted for the end of the century. However, U.S. CO 2 production (from burning fossil fuels) will rise by 35% during the same time period. [Science News, April 28, 1990]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hemp hurds are richer in cellulose and contain less lignin than wood pulp. Hemp paper will make better cardboard and paper bag products than wood paper.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bush Administration's plan is futile as long as fossil fuels remain America's major energy resource. And at the rate forests are being cut down to make the paper our society is wrapped up in, a billion saplings a year will barely compensate for that loss in CO 2 absorption.
Wood happens to be the government's chief biomass candidate to replace the dwindling fossil fuel supply. Officials claim U.S. yearly energy consumption can be met by harvesting one third of the trees in the National Forests on a rotating basis coupled with more intensive silvaculture (tree farming) techniques. Estimated yearly biomass production in the National Forests is one ton per acre. [Progress in Biomass Conversion Vol. 1 Kyosti V. Sarkanen & David Tillman, editors]
The U.S. Forestry Service is the government bureaucracy promoting this ludicrous forests-for-fuel idea. However private industry has been clear-cutting without conscience timber stands not protected in National Forests and Parks. And none of that wood goes into biomass fuel conversion.
The trees of the world are the biosphere's CO 2 cycle safety valve. Trees convert CO 2 into wood. Since a tree will live for centuries, forests can gradually pull the excess CO 2 out of the air. Trees are not only aesthetically pleasing -- they are the cure for our ailing atmosphere.
Is it realistic to halt construction to save trees or ask people to stop using paper? If wood resources cannot hope to meet the demand for lumber, paper and biomass fuels, can any plant be cultivated to meet these needs?
This problem is not new. Civilizations have been exhausting vital resources and dooming themselves for many centuries. Versatility, cleverness and common sense are the hallmark of the ones that survive.
About seventy-five years ago two dedicated USDA scientists projected that at the rate the U.S. was using paper we would deplete the forests in our lifetimes. Those government scientists were endowed with common sense -- something government officials are hopelessly lacking nowadays. So USDA scientists Dewey and Merrill looked for an alternate agricultural resource for paper products l to prevent the disaster we now face.
They found the ideal candidate to be the waste material left in the fields after the hemp harvest. The left over pulp, called hemp hurds, was traditionally burned in the fields when the hemp fiber had been removed after the time consuming retting (partially rotting the hemp stalk to separate the fiber from the hurds) process was completed.
Hemp hurds are richer in cellulose and contain less lignin than wood pulp. Dewey and Merrill found after much experimentation that harsh sulfur acids used to break down the lignin in wood pulp were not necessary when making paper from hemp hurds. Sulfur acid wastes from paper mills are known to be a major source of waterway pollution. The coarse paper they made from hemp hurds was stronger and had greater folding durability than course wood pulp paper. Hemp hurd paper would make better cardboard and paper bag products than wood paper. They found the fine print quality hemp hurd paper to be equal to writing quality wood pulp paper. [ Dewey and Merrill, Bulletin #404, Hemp Hurds As Paper-Making Material, U.S.D.A., Washington, D.C., October 14, 1916.]
The only problem to implementing the paper industry resource change from wood to hemp hurds was machinery to separate hemp fiber from the hurds needed to be developed. Separation was still done by hand after the machine breaks had softened the hemp stalks. The "decorticating" machine that separated the fiber and hurds wasn't developed until the early 1930's. Even Popular Mechanics declared in 1937 that hemp would be a billion dollar a year crop because of this new machinery. And their predictions did not consider hemp's potential as a biomass fuel resource. Unfortunately, hemp was maligned. Its flower tops were condemned as marijuana and subsequently outlawed just when the fiber-hurd separating machinery was perfected.
If America had not been infected with marijuana hysteria, hemp could be solving our energy problems today. When marijuana was outlawed most people did not know "marijuana" was Mexican slang for cannabis hemp. The American people, including doctors who routinely prescribed cannabis extract medicines, thought hemp and marijuana were two different plants. Otherwise hemp prohibition would never have happened.
Eastern Europeans were not subjected to the hysterical anti-marijuana syndrome plaguing the West. Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia among others, continued to make clothing from hemp fibers and medicines from hemp flowers. They pressed the versatile and edible oil from the seeds and used the left over high protein seed mash to make breakfast cereal and livestock feed. And they used surplus hemp for building insulation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GREEN ECONOMY based on a hemp multi-industry complex will provide income for farmers in every state. . . . thousands of new products generating tens of thousands of sustainable new jobs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Currently in the U.S.A. a private firm, Mansion Industries, has pioneered the use of agricultural fibers to make sturdy light weight construction paneling to replace plywood. Mansion Industries uses straw to make their Environcore(TM) panels. Based on Dewey and Merrill test results, if hemp was an available resource, Environcore(TM) construction paneling would be even stronger.
It's not too late to save our environment, but it is absolutely essential that we start now. Restoring the balance to the biosphere's ecosystem will require courage and determination, but not self-denial. We need not give up our comforts or quality of life.
America stands at the cross roads of greatness and decline. The might of weaponry will not sustain us anymore. Our chance to again lead the world will require the same kind of determination we once initiated to convert our peace time economy into war production during the 1940's. But now the "war mentality" won't help. This time we must be innovative and change the very way we produce our energy resources.
Hemp prohibition must end at once in order to inaugurate a nationwide green economy. To save the world that gives us life we must begin immediately to grow our own energy.
Hemp is the only plant capable of becoming the American biomass energy standard. Hemp grows well everywhere on earth except the polar regions. Hemp will out produce wood at a rate greater than four to one per acre in cellulose/pulp. And by analyzing pre-prohibition hemp crop reports from various States, ten tons per acre becomes a reasonable biomass production figure. Hemp will make ten times more biomass per acre than forest wood.
Wood is not a viable fuel resource. The forests are essential to scrub the excess CO 2 from the air. Soft wood forests should not be harvested for paper products or biomass -- their only economic value. Hemp can supply that need. Hardwood trees should be harvested, utilizing sustainable yield ecology, for board and finishing lumber only. Hemp will make pressed board lighter in weight and more durable than plywood.
Hemp can be grown for: crude biomass fuels on energy farms; fiber/hurds for textiles, pressed board and hurd cellulose products; seed for oil and high protein foods; flowers for pharmaceutical grade extract medicine and recreational herbal products for adults.
The Green Economy based on a hemp multi-industry complex will provide income for farmers in every state. Regions for each hemp agricultural industry application will be established through open free market competition. The historical and traditional hemp fiber growing areas in the eastern U.S. will re-emerge creating new jobs in an old industry. The economically devastated northern plains will see a boom as the nation's energy farming states. Medicinal and intoxicant grade hemp will be grown on less productive higher elevation lands. Mountainous areas have traditionally produced intoxicant quality hemp.
Ironically, the hemp medicine and intoxicant industry will generate the least amount of capital, though it is the target of prohibitionist "reefer" propaganda. The hemp seed oil and food resource industries, and the hemp textile and cellulose industries will develop thousands of new products generating tens of thousands of sustainable new jobs. Hemp energy farming will become the backbone of a trillion dollar a year non-polluting energy production industry. And the petroleum corporations need not fear this for their expertise, hardware and manpower are vital to turn the farmers' raw biomass into refined fuels.
These projections represent a tremendous boon to our flagging economy that can be realized as a by-product of saving our world from human induced biocide. If we as a society have the courage and determination to set upon this bold path to planetary restoration, we can, in our life times, leave a healthier world to our children; and a lifestyle based on renewable resources in a balanced ecosystem that our children can leave to their children for generations to come.
Burning fossil fuels is the major cause of the greenhouse effect. The forests of the world can reverse it, if the trees are allowed to grow.
Hemp is a renewable natural resource capable of providing biomass alternatives to fossil fuels. Hemp cellulose and fibers can supply the demand for all products derived from wood.
Renewable resources mean economic growth and stability.
Please copy. Produced as a public service by:
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P.O. Box 1900
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A web search for "hemp economy"
The paper is posted: http://www.ratical.org/renewables/greenEcon.html
For more information on how hemp can help us save ourselves please visit the USA Hemp Museum, www.hempmuseum.org , a private museum with a virtual wing. Read More »
Call to action: Develop a new energy policy that does not include toxic energy. Use hemp biofuel, solar, magnetic, hydro, wind and other clean, non toxic sources of power.
With hemp biofuel as the foundation of a clean energy policy, we can grow our way out of our global warming and energy crisis. A wise energy policy includes non toxic energy, of which there is an abundance.
Hemp can help solve both the energy and environmental crisis we are in. The cause of global warming is too much CO2 in the atmosphere and much of it got there because of how we produce energy. Rather than taking the oil from the soil using natural means like the hemp plant, we've put what looks like rape machines, oil drills, and take as much as we want without consideration of if the earth needs her oil to operate the planet like we need oil for our bodies.
There is a webeo from the early 90's that is posted on Youtube, the link is below that gives the math on how we can grow hemp on unused farm land (not mentioning the government owned unused land) to solve our energy crisis. Since hemp scrubs the air of excess CO2 as it grows, it will help with the environmental crisis we are in too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPxcLnpgX8w
Hemp 4 Fuel - a roll-in from 'Time 4 Hemp'
Artist Statement From Youtube:
Added: October 11, 2006
"This is a segment from the film, 'The Billion Dollar Crop' created by John Birrenbach. It was used as a roll-in on the television series, 'Time 4 Hemp' hosted by Casper Leitch. To find out more about the first television series to ever focus on the topic of marijuana, check out http://www.Time4Hemp.com where you can find over 80 free video and 100 free audio downloads. Time 4 Hempcable access © Casper Leitch - 1991 "
Text of webeo:
"Fuel. Hemp can also be used for the production of methanol.
According to World War II production rates of hemp per acre, we can produce the equivalent of 10 - 15 barrels of oil from one acre of hemp.
If we use the production rates that are in evidence in countries currently producing hemp, we could produce the equivalents of 20-30 barrels of oil per acre of hemp.
Can we fuel the nation with hemp?
The answer is YES!
According to United States Agricultural statistics, in the United States we have an excess of 950 million acres of farm land.
Of that land we planted in 1987 some 450 million acres.
This leaves some 450 to 500 million acres un-planted.
In order to produce the amount of methanol to fuel all of our transportation needs, we would need to plant some 12-34 million acres of hemp.
This would produce the biomass necessary to fuel our country."
Yes we can use hemp to grow our way out of our energy crisis. Though the piece above was from the early to mid 90's and the size of the nation has grown, we still have enough unused land to grow the hemp needed to both scrub the air of excess CO2 and provide a clean, easily renewable energy source.
Tell the politicians, we don't need no toxic energy. What we need is hemp to solve our energy crisis.
Hemp is nature's way to remove the oil from the land and change it into useful items like energy. Our greed got the best of us and we pulled the oil at a rate faster than natural. The result, global warming.
Hemp is a biomass champion that is 4 times more efficient than corn as biofuel.
Hemp energy pellets burn clean as biomass to fuel the nation's electric plants.
For more information on hemp please visit the USA Hemp Museum, www.hempmuseum.org, a private museum with a virtual wing. Richard M. Davis is the museum's founder and curator and he has a book called HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION. Read More »
With hemp biofuel as the foundation of a clean energy policy, we can grow our way out of our global warming and energy crisis. A wise energy policy includes non toxic energy, of which there is an abundance.
Hemp can help solve both the energy and environmental crisis we are in. The cause of global warming is too much CO2 in the atmosphere and much of it got there because of how we produce energy. Rather than taking the oil from the soil using natural means like the hemp plant, we've put what looks like rape machines, oil drills, and take as much as we want without consideration of if the earth needs her oil to operate the planet like we need oil for our bodies.
There is a webeo from the early 90's that is posted on Youtube, the link is below that gives the math on how we can grow hemp on unused farm land (not mentioning the government owned unused land) to solve our energy crisis. Since hemp scrubs the air of excess CO2 as it grows, it will help with the environmental crisis we are in too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPxcLnpgX8w
Hemp 4 Fuel - a roll-in from 'Time 4 Hemp'
Artist Statement From Youtube:
Added: October 11, 2006
"This is a segment from the film, 'The Billion Dollar Crop' created by John Birrenbach. It was used as a roll-in on the television series, 'Time 4 Hemp' hosted by Casper Leitch. To find out more about the first television series to ever focus on the topic of marijuana, check out http://www.Time4Hemp.com where you can find over 80 free video and 100 free audio downloads. Time 4 Hempcable access © Casper Leitch - 1991 "
Text of webeo:
"Fuel. Hemp can also be used for the production of methanol.
According to World War II production rates of hemp per acre, we can produce the equivalent of 10 - 15 barrels of oil from one acre of hemp.
If we use the production rates that are in evidence in countries currently producing hemp, we could produce the equivalents of 20-30 barrels of oil per acre of hemp.
Can we fuel the nation with hemp?
The answer is YES!
According to United States Agricultural statistics, in the United States we have an excess of 950 million acres of farm land.
Of that land we planted in 1987 some 450 million acres.
This leaves some 450 to 500 million acres un-planted.
In order to produce the amount of methanol to fuel all of our transportation needs, we would need to plant some 12-34 million acres of hemp.
This would produce the biomass necessary to fuel our country."
Yes we can use hemp to grow our way out of our energy crisis. Though the piece above was from the early to mid 90's and the size of the nation has grown, we still have enough unused land to grow the hemp needed to both scrub the air of excess CO2 and provide a clean, easily renewable energy source.
Tell the politicians, we don't need no toxic energy. What we need is hemp to solve our energy crisis.
Hemp is nature's way to remove the oil from the land and change it into useful items like energy. Our greed got the best of us and we pulled the oil at a rate faster than natural. The result, global warming.
Hemp is a biomass champion that is 4 times more efficient than corn as biofuel.
Hemp energy pellets burn clean as biomass to fuel the nation's electric plants.
For more information on hemp please visit the USA Hemp Museum, www.hempmuseum.org, a private museum with a virtual wing. Richard M. Davis is the museum's founder and curator and he has a book called HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION. Read More »
Hi everyone. Thanks for checking out my latest blog. This is a great place for everyone to get involved in the community and environment issues. If you would like to start a group let me know. I also have a blog at hermosaman.wordpress.com. This has articles of interest on the environment and other related issues. Please take a moment to check it out. I am sure you will find something of interest. Aslo don't forget to sign up at Wecansolveit.org and make your voice heard. Thanks for stopping by, Hermosaman
I read the info on Make Your Utility Carbon Free and decided to contact my utility provider, Relient Energy.
I sent them an email advocating selling more electricity from renewable sources and also providing a breakdown for current and potential customer on how much of their electricity is from renewables. This last point is important, because it empowers people to make a more informed choice.
I also contacted them via online chat and asked if there was any information available on what % of their electricity sold is from renewables. The representative started to tell me about thier Wind offering. I put it a different way and they finally said 'no', such information is not available.
Do your part and contact your local utility provider. With enough inquiries they may take some positive action.
Anyone know if there's any such information available on the net that provides a breakdown of the source of energy? Even if it is by state (and not utility) it would be useful.
As gas prices keep rising, even tasks like mowing the lawn is becoming more expensive. Sick of paying more to get the job done? Even if the gas was cheap, who likes mowing the lawn anyway? Well, there's a solution: edible estates!!
Yes, it's what it sounds like. People participating in the "Edible Estates" project transform their lawns from green, grassy plots, to areas filled with organic fruits and vegetables. This project was started in 2004 by a man named Fritz Haeg. He has designed the gardens very well, producing an attractive and useful yard area. The gardens feature produce such as blueberries, strawberries, beets, lettuce, and herbs.
Imagine walking along the sidewalk and instead of coming across yet another well-manicured greener-than-green lawn practically drowned in pesticides, you see beautiful organic blueberry bushes! You can't help but pluck off a few luscious berries as you pass by.
What better time than this to transform your own yard into an edible paradise? Not only would you trim down your mowing costs, but you would also save money on buying produce. The environment will also thank you for reducing your gasoline and water use, and ending your lawn's dependence on pesticides and herbicides (if you currently use them). I'm willing to bet you could also become quite popular with the neighbors, especially after offering them some of your fresh fruits and veggies.
For more info, check out http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html
Yes, it's what it sounds like. People participating in the "Edible Estates" project transform their lawns from green, grassy plots, to areas filled with organic fruits and vegetables. This project was started in 2004 by a man named Fritz Haeg. He has designed the gardens very well, producing an attractive and useful yard area. The gardens feature produce such as blueberries, strawberries, beets, lettuce, and herbs.
Imagine walking along the sidewalk and instead of coming across yet another well-manicured greener-than-green lawn practically drowned in pesticides, you see beautiful organic blueberry bushes! You can't help but pluck off a few luscious berries as you pass by.
What better time than this to transform your own yard into an edible paradise? Not only would you trim down your mowing costs, but you would also save money on buying produce. The environment will also thank you for reducing your gasoline and water use, and ending your lawn's dependence on pesticides and herbicides (if you currently use them). I'm willing to bet you could also become quite popular with the neighbors, especially after offering them some of your fresh fruits and veggies.
For more info, check out http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html
Ok everybody, the ball is now rolling on getting our presidential candidates on the bandwagon for change! Demands for the Candidates has opened up shop as a group on WeCanSolveIt.org. I am very excited about the possibilities here.
So far there have been over 1.4 million members sign up on the We Campaign, all of them calling for change in our energy policies. Imagine now if we got some of those people calling for Obama and McCain to ramp up their energy policies or risk losing votes. Do you see what I see? I see both candidates scrambling to try and gain votes by doing exactly what I suggest and trying as hard as they can not to lose any votes by ignoring the issue.
We need to make this election revolve around one thing... climate change! And the only way we are possibly going to be able to do this is by using our power as individuals in a democracy, the power of the VOTE!
Let's send a message to the candidates telling them we demand, not want, but DEMAND that they pay attention to the millions of people out there wanting a shift in the way America works.
Join Demands for the Candidates and help me put some real pressure on those who want the White House.
Thanks,
Michael
So far there have been over 1.4 million members sign up on the We Campaign, all of them calling for change in our energy policies. Imagine now if we got some of those people calling for Obama and McCain to ramp up their energy policies or risk losing votes. Do you see what I see? I see both candidates scrambling to try and gain votes by doing exactly what I suggest and trying as hard as they can not to lose any votes by ignoring the issue.
We need to make this election revolve around one thing... climate change! And the only way we are possibly going to be able to do this is by using our power as individuals in a democracy, the power of the VOTE!
Let's send a message to the candidates telling them we demand, not want, but DEMAND that they pay attention to the millions of people out there wanting a shift in the way America works.
Join Demands for the Candidates and help me put some real pressure on those who want the White House.
Thanks,
Michael
I've been writing a "green" blog since early 2007 called GreenValhalla. In it I focus on Technology, Energy, Business and the Environment. I blogged a bit about the start-up I worked on for a while and my involvement in the 2007 California Clean Tech Open. I also have an ongoing series on alternative energy called "What's the Alternative?" I plan to use this outlet to cross-post my blogs which are relevant to the We Campaign. My most recent post was a response to Vice President Gore's challenge to America.
More homeschooling and Internet-based education can help solve energy problems
--Think about it - we drive our kids back and forth to school.
--If we don't drive them, the busdrivers do.
--Teachers and other staff must also drive back and forth to school.
--Furthermore, are the kids really receiving a high-quality education once they get there? Doubtful.
--The present system is ANTIQUATED and is a HUGE WASTE OF ENERGY and is BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. (This is a meme that could help tie together our movement with other movements - the greens, the environmentalists, the religious right, etc)
--What if kids homeschooled 3-4 days a week, and traveled to the physical school just 1-2 days a week for in-class science/lab study?
And I'm not sure what is currently available in terms of K-12 homeschooling/Internet-based education, but check out this initiative by MIT for what is taught at the college level.
MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm
All free of charge - granted, you don't get a degree for studying this material. But for those that can't afford college or won't be able to get a loan (thanks to tight credit conditions) - this could be a blessing and could prepare them for the point in time when they ARE ready for the official degree.
How would we keep our air and water clean? - Mary J. Ruwart, Ph.D.
Pollution Solution (Part 1) explored two steps that libertarians would take to save the environment. First, libertarians would eliminate sovereign immunity so that victims of the country's greatest polluter-government--would have recourse. Second, libertarians would privatize land and beast to save endangered species, preserve our parks, protect our national forests, and improve our vast cattle ranges. In addition, libertarians would couple these powerful reforms with restitution, to prevent pollution before it starts.
Libertarians reject the initiation of physical force as a means to their ends. Restitution is the remedy when someone harms another, takes their property, or damages it. While punishment is intended to hurt the aggressor, restitution restores the victim to the fullest extent possible. Restitution is "punishment" that fits the crime and therefore provides a more effective deterrent. Read More »Isn't government the best protector of the environment and our national parks?
Who's the greatest polluter of all? The oil companies? The chemical companies? The nuclear power plants?
If you guessed "none of the above" you'd be correct. Our government, at the federal, state, and local levels, is the single greatest polluter in the land. In addition, our government doesn't even clean up its own garbage!
In 1988, for example, the EPA demanded that the Departments of Energy and Defense clean up 17 of their weapons plants which were leaking radioactive and toxic chemicals-enough contamination to cost $100 billion dollars in clean-up costs over 50 years! The EPA was simply ignored. No bureaucrats went to jail or were sued for damages. Government departments have sovereign immunity.
Read More »Dear WE members from all over the world,
I hope you are all doing very well during this beautiful spring season and also I think that most students are enjoying the vacation period now. So, congrats !
I am posting this blog in order to encourage you to visit an EDUCATIVE AND ENVIRONMENTAL WEBSITE that I made recently so as to incite all citizens especially youth to become environmentaly-friendly because climate change requires urgent actions and solutions for businesses, individuals and municipalities.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR ? VISIT: http://faisonsnotrepart.webou.net/ AND DON'T FORGET TO SIGN THE GUESTBOOK !!
Yassir
I hope you are all doing very well during this beautiful spring season and also I think that most students are enjoying the vacation period now. So, congrats !
I am posting this blog in order to encourage you to visit an EDUCATIVE AND ENVIRONMENTAL WEBSITE that I made recently so as to incite all citizens especially youth to become environmentaly-friendly because climate change requires urgent actions and solutions for businesses, individuals and municipalities.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR ? VISIT: http://faisonsnotrepart.webou.net/ AND DON'T FORGET TO SIGN THE GUESTBOOK !!
Yassir
What if you could bake your favorite bread, cook up an awesome stir fry with rice, and make some apple-cobbler to die for without using any electricity, and without having to cook over a fire? That opportunity may be here, with the recent invention of a solar cooking device. An inventor in Hawaii has designed a solar stove/oven that could offer a solution to some global problems.
The design of his solar oven/stove looks almost like a children's slide. The cooking area is on a stand at one end, and the "slide" part is a metal half-pipe with a tube of vegetable oil at the center. This tube of oil is cool to the touch on the outside, but inside heats up to 400 degrees F on a sunny day, and 300 degrees on a cloudy day. The stove/oven can bake bread, cook any sort of stovetop dish, and can sterilize water.
Another great thing about this cooker is that it is cheap to make. None of the materials are expensive, and they are all easy-to-find. It is also light and portable. The only source of power for the cooker is the sun - a truly renewable resource.
The inventor of this contraption hopes countries like China can use it to solve some of the third world's problems such as lack of clean water and renewable energy.
Check out a video about this solar cooker at cnn.com:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/05/06/allgire.hi.sun.cooker.kitv
The design of his solar oven/stove looks almost like a children's slide. The cooking area is on a stand at one end, and the "slide" part is a metal half-pipe with a tube of vegetable oil at the center. This tube of oil is cool to the touch on the outside, but inside heats up to 400 degrees F on a sunny day, and 300 degrees on a cloudy day. The stove/oven can bake bread, cook any sort of stovetop dish, and can sterilize water.
Another great thing about this cooker is that it is cheap to make. None of the materials are expensive, and they are all easy-to-find. It is also light and portable. The only source of power for the cooker is the sun - a truly renewable resource.
The inventor of this contraption hopes countries like China can use it to solve some of the third world's problems such as lack of clean water and renewable energy.
Check out a video about this solar cooker at cnn.com:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/05/06/allgire.hi.sun.cooker.kitv
Through all the excitement about nominees, and superdelegates, and Clinton (who, by the way, I had thrown my lot in for, but there we go) not conceding until she had to be pushed out the door rather than leave gently (I would expect nothing less!), there has been something grating at me during this entire election process.
As a good friend of mine who works at the Royal Society in London was saying the other day, both candidates (and by that, I refer, now, to Obama and McCain) have failed to talk about the issue that, for me, provides the most concern and the one of the most urgent needs for attention -- the climate crisis. Read More »
As a good friend of mine who works at the Royal Society in London was saying the other day, both candidates (and by that, I refer, now, to Obama and McCain) have failed to talk about the issue that, for me, provides the most concern and the one of the most urgent needs for attention -- the climate crisis. Read More »
Bill Richardson brings some powerful qualifications to the race for sanity in the White house. An Obama/Richardson ticket would open the doors wide to solving the problem of global warming.
Both men have a history of standing for clean alternative energy.
Bill Richardson as Vice President offers a wide range of skills and wisdom.
Richardson's United Nations experience will help him work for World Peace as someone known as a friend.
http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/about_bill?id=0007
His energy experience has him deeply prepared to institute an intelligent energy policy based on what's best for the earth.
http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/about_bill?id=0008
He has done an outstanding job as governor of New Mexico
http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/about_bill?id=0009
Governor Richardson's progressive views on how hemp can help us solve our problems,
http://h4v.blogspot.com/2008/01/presidential-candidate-bill-richardson.html
along with those expressed by Senator Obama
http://h4v.blogspot.com/2008/01/barack-obama-on-hemp-marijuana.html
give us a unique opportunity to use hemp to solve our problems now, an opportunity to throw off the chains of stupidity and focus on what works to remove the excess CO2 from the air, the cause of global warming. It's a simple cause and effect thing.
For more information on how hemp can help us solve our problems, visit the USA Hemp Museum, www.hempmuseum.org, a private museum with a virtual wing.
The museum was founded and is run by Richard M. Davis, a multi decade hempologist who is the author of HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION. The free ebook edition is still posted http://www.hempmuseum.org/H4V/H4VAGWS.pdf Read More »
Both men have a history of standing for clean alternative energy.
Bill Richardson as Vice President offers a wide range of skills and wisdom.
Richardson's United Nations experience will help him work for World Peace as someone known as a friend.
http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/about_bill?id=0007
His energy experience has him deeply prepared to institute an intelligent energy policy based on what's best for the earth.
http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/about_bill?id=0008
He has done an outstanding job as governor of New Mexico
http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/about_bill?id=0009
Governor Richardson's progressive views on how hemp can help us solve our problems,
http://h4v.blogspot.com/2008/01/presidential-candidate-bill-richardson.html
along with those expressed by Senator Obama
http://h4v.blogspot.com/2008/01/barack-obama-on-hemp-marijuana.html
give us a unique opportunity to use hemp to solve our problems now, an opportunity to throw off the chains of stupidity and focus on what works to remove the excess CO2 from the air, the cause of global warming. It's a simple cause and effect thing.
For more information on how hemp can help us solve our problems, visit the USA Hemp Museum, www.hempmuseum.org, a private museum with a virtual wing.
The museum was founded and is run by Richard M. Davis, a multi decade hempologist who is the author of HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION. The free ebook edition is still posted http://www.hempmuseum.org/H4V/H4VAGWS.pdf Read More »
There's a growing trend in the United States, a trend that has been popular in the UK, but is only now starting to gain awareness and popularity in America. What is it?
Green funerals!
There are a growing number of companies and cemeteries, especially in California, Texas, New York, and Florida, offering biodegradable caskets and other environmentally friendly burial options.
Natural embalming services at these cemeteries do not include the use of formaldehyde, cement vaults, laminated caskets, or chemical treatments normally used in conventional burials. Instead, options include natural-fiber shrouds and fair-trade bamboo caskets lined with cotton (unbleached). If bamboo isn't your style, there are also other hand crafted natural wood choices. These biodegradable caskets run anywhere from $100 (basic cardboard) to $3,000 for a custom-painted wooden model.
Supporters of "green" burials say that these choices are far more environmentally friendly than traditional burials, or even cremation (because of the fossil fuels needed for cremation). Everything used for a natural burial is fully biodegradable.
So is this a fad, or is here to stay? With the funeral industry generating $11 billion each year in the USA, the market is potentially gigantic. Perhaps natural burials will continue to spread across America and stick around as yet another great personalization option for burials.
Natural burials are another example of how we're moving forward by adopting methods of yesterday. After all, people were buried without chemicals and steel for ages. These days, more and more people are becoming more environmentally minded throughout their lives. Now it's time for us to embrace nature in our deaths as well.
For more information on natural funerals and burials, visit these websites:
http://www.naturalendings.co.uk/index.asp
http://naturalburial.org/
http://www.naturalburialcompany.com/
Green funerals!
There are a growing number of companies and cemeteries, especially in California, Texas, New York, and Florida, offering biodegradable caskets and other environmentally friendly burial options.
Natural embalming services at these cemeteries do not include the use of formaldehyde, cement vaults, laminated caskets, or chemical treatments normally used in conventional burials. Instead, options include natural-fiber shrouds and fair-trade bamboo caskets lined with cotton (unbleached). If bamboo isn't your style, there are also other hand crafted natural wood choices. These biodegradable caskets run anywhere from $100 (basic cardboard) to $3,000 for a custom-painted wooden model.
Supporters of "green" burials say that these choices are far more environmentally friendly than traditional burials, or even cremation (because of the fossil fuels needed for cremation). Everything used for a natural burial is fully biodegradable.
So is this a fad, or is here to stay? With the funeral industry generating $11 billion each year in the USA, the market is potentially gigantic. Perhaps natural burials will continue to spread across America and stick around as yet another great personalization option for burials.
Natural burials are another example of how we're moving forward by adopting methods of yesterday. After all, people were buried without chemicals and steel for ages. These days, more and more people are becoming more environmentally minded throughout their lives. Now it's time for us to embrace nature in our deaths as well.
For more information on natural funerals and burials, visit these websites:
http://www.naturalendings.co.uk/index.asp
http://naturalburial.org/
http://www.naturalburialcompany.com/
On Monday, the Senate will debate the Lieberman-Warner bill, surprisingly bold legislation from the two senators which, if passed, would be 'one giant leap for mankind' towards stopping our addiction to carbon-based fuel supplies and placing a price on carbon. The bill, which would cap greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2050 (still not nearly enough if you ask me, but certainly on the way), would also create much needed revenue for the government through selling licenses that allow companies to emit controlled amounts of certain pollutants. Read More »
It is nice to know that, in this climate of financial change - where markets are tumbling, shares are crumbling, and currencies are stumbling - some things carry on as they always have done.
Well, I say 'nice'.
The annual meeting of shareholders of Exxon Mobil occurred Wednesday, and they seemingly have promised to change their ways. Yet through all their announcements and past their public statements about their intentions and hopes, they continue to pursue policies that damage our environment and kill our planet. They have been canny in being able to shield it from us - funding research into 'green options', making the short-term PR problem go away, and creating a façade that 'they want to change how they operate'. Read More »
Well, I say 'nice'.
The annual meeting of shareholders of Exxon Mobil occurred Wednesday, and they seemingly have promised to change their ways. Yet through all their announcements and past their public statements about their intentions and hopes, they continue to pursue policies that damage our environment and kill our planet. They have been canny in being able to shield it from us - funding research into 'green options', making the short-term PR problem go away, and creating a façade that 'they want to change how they operate'. Read More »
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