Green Options

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By: Anthony J. Gerst:

What do we know today, if anything? As my father is fond of saying, ‘I know nothing, I can prove it, ask me anything.’ Recently it has been reported that at CO2 atmospheric concentration levels of 500 ppm, the oceans will stop calcification. It has been well documented that the planet’s southern ocean is no longer acting as a carbon sink. And of course, one million acres of ice disappeared from the Arctic and we discovered that Greenland melted at a rate of 25 percent over estimations during this past season.

For the Cro-Magnon in our mist, be they from the trailer parks or the intelligent design pews of humanistic debauchery, to the ten-thousand dollar suited board and CEO members who still can grunt out the response: “huh, I don’t care.” People fail to comprehend the baseline conceptions of what this foretells. People lament my forecast of an impending ecological disaster. They scream, I kid you not, ‘you can’t tell the future.’ I don’t have to tell the future, all I have to do is deduce the information presented yearly. ‘But, but the scientists say we have at least 100 years.’

In the first place, taking that attitude without committing to changing anything is dooming future generations. The deduction here is simply enough, you are not humane, you are narcissist, more animal than man, striving only to serve self. Do you know what humanity calls a completely self-indulged individual? One who justifies every action they do, a psychopath. Have you as an individual questioned your humane meter lately? If you still possess the ability to glance within the looking glass, you may be very surprised at what you find.

Enough of the free psychoanalysis, what does the above information tell a mind that is capable of independent thought? By now most people in the civilized world should know that the Arctic ice cap reflects the sunlight from the earth, helping to stabilize our optimum temperature. Further we know that the ice melting from Greenland affects the oceans circulatory system. This in effect, when slowed or stopped adds to the problem of the oceans acting as a carbon sink, under the currently defined harmonic balance for our species.

Ever year scientists make predications, at first things dropped by ten fold, than by fifty, than by 25 percent. One thing that is obvious is that the time to severe ramifications is knocking at the planet’s door. You know that little thing called Rapid Climate Change, that so many fail to acknowledge. Let us say that the annual growth rate of CO2 is 2 parts per million instead of the current 1.93. We are now at 381 ppm in the atmosphere. This means we have 119 parts per million to go before the now forecasted point of doom. At current growth rates we are looking at 60 years tops, to get everything under control.

BY: Max Lindberg

The California governor is at it again, this time telling a British magazine that he had never used drugs, this in the face of evidence he acknowledged using marijuana in the 1970’s, and we all remember the documentary of 1977, “Pumping Iron”, where he was shown smoking a joint.According to the article, Schwarzenegger told CQ marijuana, “That is not a drug, it’s a leaf.” He went on to say [...]

From Iowa to Gulf Restoration Network:

By: Anthony J. Gerst:

It is difficult for many urbanites to realize the significance of the Farm Bill. Grant it the United States is now a net importer of foodstuffs, how and why has this happened? The Farm Bill is crucial to this nation. It affects the aspects of all Americans daily. From environmental issues like fertilizing Iowa’s cornfields to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the Farm Bill affects you.

Hailing from Iowa, Senator Tom Harkin is the Chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee in Washington D.C. The good senator fights a noble battle for the people of this nation. I offer this quote from a recent communication with his office. “The senate Agriculture Committee heard testimony from Rhonda Stewart. . . her food stamp benefits run out toward the end of the month. . . It is simply unacceptable for American families to go hungry. So my farm bill will include overdue updates to the food stamp program.”

In a recent release from the Gulf Restoration Network, they express concerns over the upcoming Farm Bill legislation. They point out that the increased production of corn is having dire effects upon the Gulf Coast. Rest assured that these concerns are not unheeded by the Chairman of this distinguished committee. Tom Harkin however most work within the framework of governmental compromise to achieve anything. I quote, “But for this to happen, we need to make major investments in research. We need to ramp up production of new energy crop such as biomass… To do these things, we need new investments in the farm bill’s energy title.”

Today at Planetsave, we’ll let the BBC teach you how to run your vehicle on chip (that’s french fry to us) oil. Restaurants, bars and fast food joints normally send their oil to the landfill, now you can convert it to fuel your wheels. From the article:

Dan Purkis, a consultant engineer, puts home-brewed fuel into the tanks of his 4×4, even though he is based in Aberdeen - the oil capital of the UK.

He admits that messing about with old chip fat is not for everyone but adds: “It’s interesting and fun and it reduces my impact on the environment?

“When I looked at my lifestyle I realised that fuel was the greatest energy user in my life.”

You can buy conversion kits from £700 but Mr Purkis has made his own.

He told the BBC’s You and Yours programme: “No special tools were required and nothing was beyond the ability of a typical DIY enthusiast. Most of the parts were bought second hand or salvaged from scrap yards.

“I recycle used vegetable oil from a local hotel. They throw away between 50 and 100 litres a week which would otherwise go to landfill.”

Once he gets it home, he puts the oil through a series of refinements:

• Allows sediment in the oil to settle to the bottom of the bottle
• Pumps and filters the top 70% of the oil; it is pure enough to put straight into his car
• Treats the remaining sludge and converts it into biodiesel by adding methanol and caustic soda
• Heats the oil, causing it to react with the caustic soda

The waste product from this process is glycerin, which has to be washed out of the biodiesel with soap and half-water to half-fuel. He then composts the glycerin. Mr Purkis says his car runs better on biodiesel: “It’s smoother - better lubricated.”

Even though he is a qualified engineer, he insists that it is not a difficult process.

The Earth has many issues, mainly because her occupants have a lot of baggage. We spend lifetimes on how to save the Earth from global warming, famine and disease. How do we save ourselves? We are a moralistic society, not a rational one; we preach dogma, not ethics. So what? Well, maybe it’s just not working.

Richard Brunstrom, the Chief Constable of North Wales, advocates an end to UK drug policy based on “prohibition”. Yes, he means making heroin, crack, cocaine and marijuana all legal and regulated. Is it crazy, preposterous or just plain logical?

From the article:

In his radical analysis, which he will present to the North Wales Police Authority today, Mr Brunstrom points out that illegal drugs are now cheaper and more plentiful than ever before.

The number of users has soared while drug-related crime is rising with narcotics now supporting a worldwide business empire second only in value to oil. “If policy on drugs is in future to be pragmatic not moralistic, driven by ethics not dogma, then the current prohibitionist stance will have to be swept away as both unworkable and immoral, to be replaced with an evidence-based unified system (specifically including tobacco and alcohol) aimed at minimisation of harms to society,” he will say.

Mr Brunstrom indicates that there is a growing mood for change. He cites the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology, which criticised the Government for failing to switch to an evidence-based policy approach. The report also includes quotes from former home secretary John Reid, admitting “prohibition” doesn’t work, and the Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, conceding “it drives the activity underground” . There is also supportive evidence from former Chief Inspector of Prisons Lord Ramsbotham, a retired High Court judge, and Scotland’s Drug Tsar, Tom Wood.

As well as hitting the country hard in economic terms – class A drug use in England and Wales costs the country up to £17bn a year, 90 per cent of which is due to crime – there are also a series of socially damaging knock-on effects, he says.

There’s a lot of innovation being done for the middle class, the rich, but what about the people who only make a few dollars a day? Shawn Frayne, a young inventor out of California, invented a cheap generator alternative that he hopes will power the third world. From the Popular Mechanics article:

Working in Haiti, Shawn Frayne, a 28-year-old inventor based in Mountain View, Calif., saw the need for small-scale wind power to juice LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Conventional wind turbines don’t scale down well—there’s too much friction in the gearbox and other components. “With rotary power, there’s nothing out there that generates under 50 watts,” Frayne says. So he took a new tack, studying the way vibrations caused by the wind led to the collapse in 1940 of Washington’s Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka Galloping Gertie).

Frayne’s device, which he calls a Windbelt, is a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils. Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines. Frayne envisions the Windbelt costing a few dollars and replacing kerosene lamps in Haitian homes. “Kerosene is smoky and it’s a fire hazard,” says Peter Haas, founder of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, which helps people in developing countries to get environmentally sound access to clean water, sanitation and energy. “If Shawn’s innovation breaks, locals can fix it. If a solar panel breaks, the family is out a panel.”

Watch the video demo

Renegade White House:

By: Anthony J. Gerst.

The clock is running out on Bush-Cheney’s global reign of terror. One of their primary objectives still eludes them, an attack on Iran. With all the saber rattling and posturing, not to mention all the ink being run about what may very well become this administration’s biggest bungle, nothing can be found related to the Chinese impact. China and Iran have negotiated extensive trade agreements and a pipeline deal for oil shipments. For that matter, the Chinese, Russia, and Iran have been working on energy related deals that tie in directly to the pipelines and oil reserves of Iran and Russia.

Unless this administration has discussed the proposed carpet bombing of Iran with China, such an attack could result in grave repercussions to the US economy.As China can bring incredible pressures upon the US, not to mention with the weakened dollar, this is the best time for the international community to act together, to establish a new corner stone for international finance.

Bush-Cheney fail to think beyond the pocket books of the oil cartel, with Israeli and Gordon Brown backing a US led strategic carpet-bombing. The White House has been actively pursuing this goal for at least six months. Despite pleas from the Republican leadership, it appears if Cheney can find a way, Iran will be attacked. Cheney’s office this past summer pushed the Joint Chief’s of Staff to redraw plans for an attack on Iran. The focus now is on a strategical strike against the Revolutionary Guards. The administration believes they can defend this, as a response to the invasive activities of Iran inside Iraq. They can site President Clinton’s strategic attacks in the Sudan and Afghanistan to quell the Democrats uproar.

From a former senior intelligence official, according to Seymour M. Hersh’s article ‘Shifting Targets: The Administration’s Plan for Iran:’ “There is a desperate effort by Cheney et al. to bring military action to Iran as soon as possible. . . But Cheney doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the Republican worries, and neither does the President.”

If you checked out the nasty world clock yesterday, you may be feeling down. After all, the population is rising exponentially, the earth is sizzling, our ‘leaders’ far from intelligent and our waistlines adding inches. We need help! (cue Beatles Help)

Apparently, NASA thinks so too. Today, they unveiled their first step using radio telescopes to widen their search for intelligent life in the universe (because we can’t find it at home). Thank you, NASA.

From the New York Times article:

Call it a small step for E.T., a leap for radio astronomy.

Astronomers in Hat Creek, Calif., are planning today to switch on the first elements of a giant new array of radio telescopes that they say will greatly extend the investigation of natural and unnatural phenomena in the universe.

When the Allen Telescope Array, as it is known, is complete, it will consist of 350 antennas, each 20 feet in diameter. Using the separate antennas as if they were one giant dish, radio astronomers will be able to map vast swaths of the sky cheaply and efficiently.

There are some 200 billion stars in the galaxy, and a significant fraction of them have planets. Estimates of the number of intelligent civilizations in the galaxy have ranged from one (or none, if you are particularly discouraged about human affairs) into the millions.

What’s time is it? If you’re not looking for simply the time, then maybe this world clock is your cup of tea.

How far would you go to stop Global Warming? Or does that question not make sense — for one would go to the ends of the earth to save…the earth. It’s for the future generations, right? Our children’s children we proclaim and thus we compost and recycle and wear organic hoodies. However, there is a point where technology may go too far, as it is bound to do. The future we seek to protect could be a horrible one at best. Enter artificial life to protect the environment, move to designer babies and Gattaca becomes a reality. The technological imperative: if we can do it, we will.

From the article:

Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.

The announcement, which is expected within weeks and could come as early as Monday at the annual meeting of his scientific institute in San Diego, California, will herald a giant leap forward in the development of designer genomes. It is certain to provoke heated debate about the ethics of creating new species and could unlock the door to new energy sources and techniques to combat global warming.

Mr Venter told the Guardian he thought this landmark would be “a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before”.

The Dream of Today’s Youth, Faith in Obama:

By: Anthony J. Gerst. In the timeless words spoken by men everywhere and throughout time, I say to the reading audience “oops.” The Grand Opening for the new Obama office in Iowa was at Keokuk, not Fort Madison. A little background information on this, Iowa has 99 counties, currently there are 45 offices in [...]