Green Options » disaster relief

“Photovoltaic Cruiser” Provides Portable Solar Power

Becky Striepe — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:00:28 +0000

[a child in rural Pucallpa, Peru; Creative Commons photo by sdpuckett]

What started as a dinnertime conversation could revolutionize disaster relief. Chuck Cooper and his friend Jim Shamp were chatting about a neighbor’s free-standing home photovoltaic system. What if, they wondered, you built something like this on a truck that could help out areas in need to electricity? Cooper, a North Carolina environmental entrepreneur, took that idea and ran with it.

More Bad News from a Lame Duck President: Bush Wants to Steal Money from Salmon Fishermen for 2010 Census

Jennifer Lance — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:08:32 +0000

I was appalled and shocked to read that President Bush is proposing to take $70 million from the $180 million salmon disaster relief funds included in the farm bill to pay for the census. My family is supported by commercial fishing, and following a poor dungeness crab season, fisherman along the West Coast are really hurting financially. Many captains can’t afford to make their boat payments, let alone their mortgages and skyrocketing fuel prices. Taking money from salmon fisherman equates to taking money from food stamps programs to fund the census. People’s livelihoods are at stake, and West Coast representatives and governors are reeling at Bush’s suggestion.

Why do we need more money for the census? The money is needed because of a failed contract with the Harris Corporation for the 2010 counts. The Census Bureau had planned to use handheld computers, but the Florida-based contractor went over budget. Now, we have to return to a paper-based census, which will cost taxpayers more money. Instead of trying to take money from fisherman to pay for a failed contract, shouldn’t we reevaluate the census itself? Is it really necessary to complete this population count every ten years? Could we modify the count to every 15 or 20 years?

West Coast governors and congress men/women are upset at Bush’s proposal. In an angry letter to the president, Democrats Mike Thompson, Peter DeFazio, Darlene Hooley, Anna Eshoo, Jim McDermott, Brian Baird, Doris Matsui, Lois Capps, Lynn Woolsey, Earl Blumenauer, David Wu, Rick Larson, Sam Farr and Jay Inslee wrote:

This proposal is especially egregious when you consider that your administration’s water policies on all of the Pacific Northwest’s major salmon rivers are the reason this disaster funding is needed in the first place. These failed policies have resulted in over 80,000 dead adult salmon in the Klamath River, record low returns to the Sacramento and Columbia/Snake River systems, two fishery disaster declarations issued by the Secretary of Commerce and two years of fishing closures impacting thousands of families and small business.
Read more of this story »

The Clean Hub: Green Design Solving Real-World Problems

Megan Prusynski — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:34:31 +0000

Green Hub Concept by Shelter ArchitectureGreen design at its finest is not only sustainable, but low-cost, beautiful, useful, and maybe even life-saving. Combining urban renewal, social action, and green architecture is the Clean Hub.

This portable, self-powered water and sanitation station has many sustainable features, including a composting toilet, rainwater collection and filtration system, and solar panels that, along with a battery, provide all the power the Clean Hub needs and then some. The idea came from folks at Shelter Architecture, but thanks to architecture and design students at the University of Minnesota, it will soon be put to use in New Orleans, where it will be the centerpiece of a community that will foster sustainable growth.

John Dwyer from Shelter Architecture, who also led the students in designing a prototype of the Clean Hub, describes the project:

Shelter developed the idea through a 2 year research and development process. We then brought it in to a studio to allow students to design and build a real world application of it.

The hub is totally off-grid, generating its own water through rain water collection, it's own electricity through photovoltaics, and its own sanitation through composting toilets and gray water irrigation.

The first prototype heads to a learning garden in the hardest hit area of New Orleans on June 21st, the summer solstice.

The architecture students at the University of Minnesota took the concept and ran with it, creating a low-cost solution based on a used storage container that can be easily transported to disaster-stricken areas to provide necessary infrastructure. It was built using recycled and donated parts, lots of elbow grease, and a green vision. The Clean Hub is a simple solution to a complex and common problem that is certainly more practical and sustainable than what FEMA currently uses!

The Clean Hub will be sent to the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, and will serve as a building block to a sustainable rebuilding effort supported by many local organizations. A community garden, farmer's market, and public gathering space will eventually surround it, leading to urban renewal with sustainability in mind.

Hopefully with the success of the Clean Hub in New Orleans, the idea can be continued to help provide water, sanitation, and renewable energy wherever it is needed around the globe. The design was created with urban slums and refugee camps in mind, both possible future homes of the Clean Hub.

This design encompasses cradle-to-cradle thinking, sustainable development, poverty relief, and community building as well as green design. It's not every day that architecture is used to save the planet and help the poor, but the Clean Hub was an opportunity for architecture professionals and students to do just that.