Water Our Thirsty World

Many do not believe there is global warming. Ok, the research may still out on that, personally I believe it is a combination of events both man-made and natural but you can not dismiss the fact that the world is suffering from the lack of clean fresh water. I suggest you take some time to read the April issue of National Geographic (click on the title above) to expand you knowledge of what is happening. It will affect you no matter where you live. Example, one major earthquake could destroy California's water supply. California grows over half of this countries vegetables, fruits and nuts. Can you imagine the effects? The Middle East is at constant war over the rights to the Jordan River. Poor decisions around the world affect you more than you will know.
We are spoiled, it magically comes from our taps, but when you look at the whole process you will find that we are just one step from disaster.
Farming utilizes 70% of our water. Recently many farmers have modified their systems and reduced their consumptions by over a third. And they continue to come up with ingenious ways of doing so. Help them out. I urge you to support the local farmers in your area, they will need to support you in the very near future; ration your use of water voluntarily, reuse and recycle water. Collect rain water, it can be filtered and will be safer than what you are currently getting from your tap and in your bottles. Change local laws and codes to allow the use of recycled water systems.
As I continue to research sustainable systems, I will, for those who are interested, post them so that you can make simple modifications to your own home. You will help the world and save money at the same time. This isn’t political or anything else. I am only becoming a realist; I have to change as well.

The Story of Bottled Water

Click the title to link to this short film....

The Story of Bottled Water, releasing March 22, 2010 on storyofbottledwater.org, employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over seven minutes, the film explores the bottled water industry’s attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to ‘take back the tap,’ not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.

Our production partners on the bottled water film include five leading sustainability groups:

• Corporate Accountability International
• Environmental Working Group
• Food & Water Watch
• Pacific Institute
• Polaris Institute

Join our team: Please consider a tax-deductible gift to support the distribution of the Story of Bottled Water.
You can make a secure contribution HERE.

The Story of Bottled Water
Year: 2010
Length: 8:04mins

Written by Annie Leonard
Jonah Sachs
Louis Fox
Produced by Free Range Studios
Executive Producer Erica Priggen
Director Louis Fox
Camera Tim Kerns
Gaffer Charles Griswold
Sound Dan Gleich
Best Girl Lauren Stocker
Teleprompter Bill Buck
Hair/Make-Up Kathleen Gorga
Production Coordinator Wen Lee
Production Assistant Juliet Unfried
Animation Script Louis Fox
Ruben DeLuna
Animators Ruben DeLuna
Sarah Dungan
Ben Johnson
Editor
Mike Farley
Sound Design Ray Sutton
Project Manager Ben Hester

Website Designer ARG Studios
Website Developer Exygy
Flash Developer Todd Madere
Content Developer Jeff Conant

Story of Stuff Project Annie Leonard
Michael O’Heaney
Christina M. Samala
Allison Cook
Renee Shade

Viral Outreach Heidi Quante


Support provided by
Park Foundation, Inc
11th Hour Project

Content Advisors
Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute, Author, Bottled and Sold (Island Press)
Nick Guroff, Corporate Accountability International
Richard Girard, Polaris Institute
Renee Sharp, Environmental Working Group
Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch

The next four years....

This is the reality, if we don’t change now it will only get worst. Many of us were thought how to farm, make do with what we had or create what we needed. Are we teaching our children the same or are we sending them into the world believing that he who has the most toys wins.
Our farm lands are disappearing, our dependency on fuel oil has made us reliant on other countries, our place in the global market is dwindling along with the respect we once had because we no longer create, we only destroy.
In just Four Years, we can change everything…

Please click on the title to view video or copy and paste this link to your browser.
It is well worth your time..........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_6iTCo5Ci8

Free Energy Is Here as it always has been.

What would you do if you had found the answer to all our energy needs? Would take the money they offer to keep it quiet or be stoned to death by the academics’ and corporations of the world for heresy against our energy dogma.

In my search for sustainable systems I have come across the principals of free energy many times. It is out there, though many will deny it, defending their PhD’s because they can’t bear to have been wrong all these years. I have enclosed links below because seeing is believing. Look these inventors up on you tube and you will be surprised at how many people have built these motors at home from junk based on the knowledge the men below have offered up for free. The principal is simple so don’t get lost in the technical details and circuitry or the arguments for and against. Just be aware that it is available to everyone. Several of the inventors have been told to keep quiet and refused, so they were debunked at every opportunity (Google; John Bedini or Tom Bearden). But magnetic motors have been around since 1269 AD.
Now, Steorn Orbo Technology (see; http://www.healthsalon.org/482/orbo-steorn-free-energy-electromagnetic-energy-is-here/ ) has put their own version out there for anyone to test and prove them wrong. If they can not find fault, and I don’t believe they can, everything we have known before will change. Imagine, cars, electricity for home and office, motors of all shapes and sizes that require no fuel. This is where we should be investing our money. And this is where we should have been years ago.

Remember the names Peter Peregrius (1269AD), Lee Bowmen (1954), John Bedini, Tom Bearden, David Hamel and now Steorn Orbo Technology. They have all built knowledge off of their predecessors and each other, they have stood in the forefront, taking their shots to the point of being called frauds but they will survive and you will benefit from their stubbornness.

To see for yourself visit the links below and the many others that will pop up.

http://www.healthsalon.org/482/orbo-steorn-free-energy-electromagnetic-energy-is-here/


http://www.icehouse.net/john1/bearden.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JikYfmEdF8&feature=related

Baby steps & a lot of but...A conservative look into sustainable housing

click the title to see
The Oscar the Grouch of architecture - earthship.com
earthship.com
Stephen Colbert sits down to talk trash with "Garbage Warrior" Michael Reynolds. Fri, Mar 27 2009 at 9:19 AM EST



Michael Reynolds aka ‘The Garbage Warrior’ is a person with great conviction. He has led the way for many of us to get what would be known as ‘non standard’ or ‘those crazy self sustaining designs’ through our local building departments. Many of who don’t want to make their job more difficult by dealing with the unknown and some, in my experience, even make codes up on the fly due to their personal opinion or lack of understanding. For the most part local governments are made up of very conservative people. Mr. Reynolds has broken through a number of these barriers and he has some great ideas. His homes are built with rammed earth in tires, old bottles and cans as bricks; sewage recycled and rain collection systems which are all excellent. However, there is always a however or a but, even with all of this, most of his designs are more related to an artist rather than a conventional family. Only the bravest want to brag or even admit their home is built from junk, it is a new way of thinking and a smart one I have to say. So for anyone who is willing, as I am, I appalled you.

Here comes the but again,

To get the average person to change their way of thinking, we must take baby steps. Most environmentalist believe there is no time for that but when you consider that many people still believe that there is no global warming at all, that it is just a hoax, then saving the environment as an argument is out of the question. They want their old economy back where convenience is everything. Even so, they can not argue with saving money. Even if they were right, there is still something in it for them, that’s $$$ and money talks. Now the ones who have been hit hard by that very same economy, have learned they want nothing more than to be able to live comfortably without the fear of losing their heat, electric or their homes entirely due to natural disasters or lose of income. They will easily change their way of thinking if we make it a little more, let’s say acceptable in design.
I differ from Mr. Reynolds’ ideas in several areas. The first is design; if we make it more conventional, a standard floor plan is easily accomplished with the use of concrete or block or any material that can be formed in straight or curved lines and carries a good thermal mass. You can argue that the energy involved in creating and transporting these materials is high, but, there it is again, if you consider that by using them in the short run you are eliminating the energy the home owner would have used over the lifetime of the home and that lifetime could be thousands of years. Remember we are looking at thermal mass and I am not recommending we cut down trees, if we do for design or necessity we need to replace them three fold. What I am saying is we are not going to get the majority of this country to change their vision of what a home can be, to utilize waste or even consider these ideas unless we take baby steps. Energy efficient housing is acceptable now, but there is little acceptance of underground or berm type housing. Caves, darkness and fear of collapse are the first thought that comes to the average persons mind when in reality these are the safest and can have more natural lighting than what is now standard in other dwellings. Not to mention they will save huge amounts of money on their utilities if you do nothing more than the simplest earth tubes and natural ventilation.

Second, as a nation we have become germiphobes. Although I am all for it, many people, especially those who want their economy back, as a general rule are not willing to have their waste systems or greywater running through their homes and growing their food in those systems. Remember, baby steps are the key. Maybe we take the waste outside first, process it and then bring it back through the system, or process it more efficiently so that is does not infect our ground water. I can guarantee that the average people in this country is not going to have any desire to sit on a toilet flushed with greywater no matter how clean it is, it is the thought. The thing they don’t realize is what they are drinking from their current taps can be and is probably worst, it is just a matter of out of sight, out of mind. My own municipal water system has failed miserably for the last 5 years running. Cancer causing agents etc….but the cost keeps going up to pump this crap into our home.

Rain water collection is probably the most acceptable change we can make now. Many a gardener will brag about how big their system is. But to use it even filtered completely for drinking (potable) water will take time to it get into people and our local government heads as safe. These days many people on the outskirts of town will abandon their wells completely as soon as municipal water reaches them. The convenience of having water under a steady pressure even if cold when power is out is enough to convince many a family. It is also the thought what well water has in it and we have all heard stories of local governments coming through and condemning wells as a rule by telling people they don’t pass their health standards or have a higher then recommended nitrate levels which will damage a baby’s liver. We don’t want blue babies now do we, they say? All this just to get as many people hooked up as possible. Even if their tests are actuate, many times over the government will set the accepted levels much lower than recommended to save itself from lawsuit or just to guarantee the customer base it needs to provide the profitable service. How much pressure from the city and local jurisdiction are on these departments and inspectors? Does, what is good for all, outweigh the good of an individual. Sorry I drifted, back to it, in my case a properly filtered, gravity fed rainwater system plumbing throughout my home would have to be far superior to what I am getting now.

So how do we change the minds of our local and national government? We keep pushing, pushing for acceptance of new and ancient designs as a norm rather then the opinion ‘it is just some hippie’s hobbit home fantasy.’ And we have to make it cheaper in cost so that there is more attention brought to it. Currently it will cost you about $200 per sq ft. (unless you do most of the labor yourself) for a self sufficient underground or berm style home, which is far less costly than what you are paying now in a conventional home, when you consider the savings in utilities over the years. It also has to be sociably acceptable by today’s standards, which means a little more conservative. Everybody loves to say they know someone who lives in a unique home but few are willing to try it themselves. We need to make the systems (i.e. rainwater, solar, geothermal) cheaper, simpler & easier to retro fit older homes so that it become the norm rather than the exception. Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps….

By the way Earthship Biotecture (http://earthship.net/) is currently attempting this. But the systems need to be cheaper and you can build them yourself. Over the last winter here in the northeast, many people who had lost their income or retirement went without heat. I have studied simplifying systems for 3 years now and the simplicity of earth tubes and proper ventilation can prevent this. Even retro fitting to an older homes could be as cheap as a one day rental of a backhoe and 100’ of 6 “ PVC along with modifying ventilation at the top of the structure which can be as simple as an open window in some cases, you could have a self sustaining heating and cooling system that shy of the install would be free, forever.

So why aren’t we doing this? Because most people don’t know they can. So again, I thank Michael Reynolds for leading the way along with many other designers, architects and builders out there. I hope that you will consider this so called alternate way of life, because it really isn’t. It is just a common sense, simpler and less costly way of living.

The 'sticker shock' of the new LEDs remains

I have worked as an electrician and a technical manager in electronics over the years and in my opinion, LED lighting will be the way to go. So much so, I am configuring it into most of my designs for sustainable living, but there is reason for that (keep reading).
The problem is how long it will take the manufacturers to get the retail price to a point where most people can afford to cash in on the savings. As it stands now, most people get sticker shock from the prices on LED's (approx $36.00 each)and revert back to incandescents or CFL's. If you can bite the bullet and switch over you will see the amount electricity you use for your lighting fall to 10% of what incandescents use. There is a drop of 43% of CFL's currently offer. In the long run, we are talking 25 years worth of lighting here, the difference between LED's and CFL's gets down to only a 1.1% difference in savings due to the high cost of the LED's.
As it stands right now, CFL's are the greatest value for you buck in the short term but keep watching for a reduction in LED pricing. Once it gets to under $20 per bulb start replacing them. If you are utilizing solar for electricity, which now. The LED's will free up well over half of the electricity you are getting from CFL's and 90% from incandescents resulting in smaller systems, less batteries and lower cost.

Click on the title link above and see a great cost comparison chart.

Definitions
The incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is a source of electric light that works by incandescence (a general term for heat-driven light emissions, which includes the simple case of black body radiation). An electric current passes through a thin filament, heating it so that it produces light. The enclosing glass bulb contains either a vacuum or an inert gas to prevent oxidation of the hot filament. Incandescent bulbs are also sometimes called electric lamps, a term also applied to the original arc lamps.
A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), also known as a compact fluorescent light or energy saving light (or less commonly as a compact fluorescent tube [CFT]), is a type of fluorescent lamp. Many CFLs are designed to replace an incandescent lamp and can fit into most existing light fixtures formerly used for incandescents.
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices, and are increasingly used for lighting. Introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962,[2] early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light, but modern versions are available across the visible, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths, with very high brightness.

House plants are back

Back in the 70's we would all have house plants, it was in style then. It may be time to bring it back. The following is from a NASA study that list the best oxygen producing house plants.
Please Note: The following three plants from on this list should be avoided if there are cats in the home:
Rubber Plant (Ficus robusta), Dracaena “Janet Craig”, Philodendron.
For photos of these plants and the original site, please click the title link.

Top ten plants for removing formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide from the air:
1. Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens)
Also called the “Butterfly Palm”. An upright houseplant that is somewhat vase shaped. Specimen plants can reach 10 to 12 foot in height. Prefers a humid area to avoid tip damage. Requires pruning. When selecting an Areca palm look for plants with larger caliber trunks at the base of the plant. Plants that have pencil thin stems tend to topple over and are quite difficult to maintain.

2. Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa)
Also called the “Lady Palm”, this durable palm species adapts well to most interiors. The Rhapis are some of the easiest palms to grow, but each species has its own particular environment and culture requirements. The “Lady Palm” grows slowly, but can grow to more than 14′ in height with broad clumps often having a diameter as wide as their height.

3. Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii)
Also called the “reed palm”, this palm prefers bright indirect light. New plants will lose of some interior foliage as they acclimate to indoor settings. This plant likes to stay uniformly moist, but does not like to be over-watered or to sit in standing water. Indoor palms may attract spider mites which can be controlled by spraying with a soapy solution.

4. Rubber Plant (Ficus robusta)
Grows very well indoors, preferring semi-sun lighting. Avoid direct sunlight, especially in summer. Young plants may need to be supported by a stake. The Ficus grows to 8’ with a spread of 5’. Wear gloves when pruning, as the milky sap may irritate the skin. Water thoroughly when in active growth, then allow the soil to become fairly dry before watering again. In winter keep slightly moist.

5. Dracaena “Janet Craig” (Dracaena deremensis)
The Dracaena grows to 10’ with a spread of 3’. Easy to grow, these plants do best in bright indirect sunlight coming from the east/west. They can adapt to lower light levels if the watering is reduced. Keep the soil evenly moist and mist frequently with warm water. Remove any dead leaves. Leaf tips will go brown if the plant is under watered but this browning may be trimmed.

6. Philodendron (Philodendron sp.)
One of the most durable of all house plants. Philodendrons prefer medium intensity light but will tolerate low light. Direct sun will burn the leaves and stunt plant growth. This plant is available in climbing and non-climbing varieties. When grown indoors, they need to be misted regularly and the leaves kept free of dust. Soil should be evenly moist, but allowed to dry between watering.

7. Dwarf Date Palm (Phoenix roebelenii)
A hardy, drought-tolerant and long-lived plant, the Dwarf Date Palm needs a bright spot which is free of drafts. It grows slowly, reaching heights of 8-10’. The Dwarf Date Palm should not be placed near children’s play areas because it has sharp needle-like spines arranged near the base of the leaf stem. These can easily penetrate skin and even protective clothing.

8. Ficus Alii (Ficus macleilandii “Alii”)
The Ficus Alii grows easily indoors, and resists insects. It prefers a humid environment and low to medium light when grown indoors. The Ficus Aliii should not be placed near heating or air conditioning vents, or near drafts because this could cause leaf loss. Soil should be kept moist but allowed to dry between watering.

9. Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata “Bostoniensis”)
The Boston fern grows to 4’ in height with a spread up to 5’. It has feathery ferns which are best displayed as a hanging plant. It prefers bright indirect sunlight. Keep the soil barely moist and mist frequently with warm water. This plant is prone to spider mites and whitefly which can be controlled using a soapy water spray. Inspect new plants for bugs before bringing them home.

10. Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum “Mauna Loa”)
The Peace Lily is a compact plant which grows to a height of 3’ with a 2’ spread. This hardy plant tolerates neglect. It prefers indirect sunlight and high humidity, but needs to be placed out of drafts. For best results, the Peace Lily should be thoroughly watered, then allowed to go moderately dry between waterings. The leaves should be misted frequently with warm water.