Glacial melting
April 16, 2008
There’s no question that Global Warming is a real thing. The question is : is there anything we can do to slow it down? What are the real impacts on the environment and on current and future world populations? 
There’s no question that Global Warming is a real thing.
These two images of Glacier bay, taken just over 60 years apart, show the effects dramatically.
In 1941. William Field photographed the Muir and Riggs Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park.
In 2004, USGS glaciologist Bruce Molnia photographed it from almost exactly the same place.
Going further back in history, in 1794, The glacier in Glacier Bay was more than 4000 ft. thick, up to 20 miles or more wide, and extended more than 100 miles to the St.Elias Range of mountains.
- If the current warming trend continues, all glaciers in Glacier National Park could be gone by 2030.
- Grinnell Glacier is already 90% gone.
- Bering Glacier-North America’s largest-has lost 7 miles of its length, while losing 20-25% of it’s volume.
- According to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report, average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average.
It’s not just the arctic glaciers that are melting either, and glaciers in mountain regions may have catastrophic impact on the population below them.
As the mountain glaciers melt huge lakes form in pockets of the glacier. These pocket expand until there is little more holding the water back than fragile ice dams.
When these dams finally give way, millions of tons of water cascade down the mountain, decimating everything in it’s path.
Himalayan glacier lakes are filling up with more and more melted ice and 24 of them are now poised to burst their banks in Bhutan, with a similar number at risk in Nepal.
It is estimated that by 2010 a glacial lake catastrophe will happen every year. The loss of life and property could be staggering.
The short-term danger is obvious, but the long term danger, that of having less and less runoff every year and the resulting water shortage could make living in these areas impossible in the fairly near future.
Paper or plastic?
April 16, 2008
The scourge of the plastic bag is slowly starting to slow. Cities like San Francisco have banned the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags at large grocery stores this year and at large pharmacies next year. These stores can use bio-degradble bags for just 2 cents more per bag.
Statistics vary, but the common figures are these:
- It takes approximately 430,000 gallons of oil to make 100 million non-degradeable bags.
- 4-5 trillion bags are used worldwide per year.
- According to the US Environmental protection agency, less than 1% of these bags get re-cycled per year.
- Plastic bags are estimated to take about 1000 years to decompose.
What about paper?
Greening your garden
April 14, 2008
- Get rid of the pesticides. Bring in beneficial insects or mulch
- Compost your kitchen scraps with worms
- Look for re-cycled planting containers, or use household containers that have seen better days
- Grow your own food. Vegetables from the garden taste SO much better, and they can be quite lovely to look at too
- Join a community garden and share your knowledge with others so they can get green too
- Glean the produce you don’t need from your garden and share it with local food shelters
- Use plants that are native to the area. They’ll grow better and need less coddling
- Add a rain barrel under your downspouts. put a screen over the top to keep out debris and insects and you’ve got water free for the taking
- Water in the early morning hours. The water will soak into the groud before it evaporates
- Mulch. Mulch keeps down insects and weeds and helps to retain moisture
- Plant for the world. Plant for the bees and the butterflies who help our farmers raise their crops.
- Lose the lawn. Lawns use up huge amounts of water for the value they return to the uniuverse. Think about planting sedges or low water plants. Even a vegetable garden uses less water than a lawn.
- Get a push mower. Get your workout and quit stinking up the planet
Houses of cards
April 13, 2008
Created for the Australian market, this house was designed to be economical to construct, can be be put together by two people in about 6 hours. The walls are held together with nylon fasteners, the roof is a lightweight fabric, and the floor contains a bladder for water storage, (which helps to hold the thing down!)
According to the website , this house is 85 percent recycled materials are used. By creating a home form cardboard it will save 12 cubic meters of landfill, 39 tress and over 30,000 liters of water. There is only a 12 volt battery or a small photovoltaic cell for a power generator. Which will cut on energy bills and save conserve energy.
Environmental features
- • Uses 85% recycled materials
- • All materials are 100% recycleable
- • Recycling the house saves 12 cubic metres of landfill, 39 trees and 30 000 litres of water
- • Extremely low cost, transportable, and flexible, this is a genuine
- housing option that could be used in a variety of temporary applications
- • Autonomous servicing: uses only 12-volt batteries or small photovoltaic cells for power generation
- • Composting system produces nutrient-rich water for gardening
About the Architects – Stutchbury and Pape
Recognised in Australia and abroad as an accomplished and inspired design firm, Stutchbury and Pape has built works ranging from residential to institutional and public buildings. The practice has received 24 RAIA awards since 1995, and a total of 57 local, state and national architecture and environment awards.
Stutchbury and Pape’s methods appear simple: the genesis of their designs are within each specific site. But they also have a reputation for innovation, an approach that marries the intellect of sustainable principles with the grace of architecture.
The elimination of waste in all its forms is a primary design guide for Stutchbury and Pape. They believe that materials require modelling to suit their use: particularly in the ease, cost and duration of replacement materials. They assemble buildings for flexibility, disassembly, reuse and predetermined lifecycles, so that a building is always seen as a resource.
Bio Beetles are here!
April 12, 2008
Going to Maui on your next vacation? Give the planet a rest and instead of renting a gas guzzler to travel around the island, rent a BIO BEETLE!.
You can get jeeps, VW bugs Golfs or Passats too and they all run on bio-diesel. What better way to preserve the beauty of the islands?
Green in death as in life?
April 12, 2008
We’re all gonna die, but why do we have to add more toxins to the body before we put it in the ground when you can have a natural burial?
Natural burial adds no formalehyde or embalming fluids and either cremates or buries the body in a shroud or plain box so your body returns to the soil naturally rather than having to be placed in a sealed coffin so thetoxins don’t leach into the water table.
Oh, and if you’re buried at Fernwood your loved ones even get your GPS location in case they need to find you again someday (humor, don’t castigate).
For more info go to:Forever Fernwood, 301 Tennessee Valley Rd., Mill Valley, ca (415-383-7100). Natural burial pricing varies.
Treated wood warning
April 8, 2008
Building a deck, a fence or other outdoor project with wood? You might want to know more about treated wood before you make your buying decisions.
The leading treated wood product, chromated copper arsenate (CCA), recognized by the greenish tint it imparts to the wood, was taken off the market at the beginning of 2004. The problem is the arsenic in the compound, which leaches into the soil over time, a particular concern in wildlife areas as well as children’s playgrounds. Although the arsenic contamination level is fairly low in soil, it is more readily released by fire, such as open pit fires or barbecues and using this type of wood in the home fireplace is discouraged. Disposal of large quantities of CCA-treated wastes or spent timber at the end of its lifecycle has been traditionally through controlled landfill sites.
Another problem is the mainly copper-based replacements for CCA corrode fasteners faster than CCA did, which could increase the speed at which structures deteriorate. This could have an impact on property liability (decks collapsing from structural failure before the wood degrades)
Some alternatives to copper are being developed:
Cooee Biosciences has developed and patented non-toxic, environmentally-friendly options, which specialize in the control and management of water content in natural and man-made materials.
Envirosafe Wood Treatment Products has a process that utilizes a mixture of boron, silicates and a patented “binder formulation.
Hardwick Distributing claims that a product they represent, Permasil WB will “prevent the CCA in treated wood from leaching out and with the borate additive will stop termites as well as the growth of fungi”.
The EPA offers a host of information on CCA and alternative options.
Green insulation
April 7, 2008
Thinking of getting your home insulated? There are a ton of options out there now to the old standard fiberglass batting or foam. Take a look at a few of the new high performance alternatives.
Aerogel.
Aerogel uses nanotechnology to produce a thin sheet of insulation with a lot less space, it’s mold resistant and has excellent moisture resistance as well. a 1/4 inch sheet of Aerogel adds R3 to your home, which would require as much as 1 inch of foam or fiberglass. Nasa uses it for space suits and on the Mars rover. It has many other applications as well, from paits and cosmetics to catching space dust on the Stardust spaceecraft…
Blown incellulose.
There’s a growing trend for using recycled paper, treated with fire retardents and anti-fungals. Many of these products are easy to install yourself. You can rent the spraying equipment and do an average attic in a day. That siad, the process is quite messy and you’ll need to wear a mask and protective clothing. Once the product dries there is limited off-gassing, these products tend not contain formaldehyde, and commonly used borate flame retardants are not bio-accumulative.
Cotton Batting
Several products have come out now that are made in large part of re-cycled denim apparel. The denim is chopped and treated with anti-fungals and fire retardants (borate) and come in the same familiar form as fiberglass, but without the itchy glass fibers. It’s relatively in-expensive, a breeze to install and has better acoustic and vapor transmission ratings than fiberglass.
Soy-based polyurethane
The advantages of blown in foam in an older house are easy to see, but foam has often been seen as environmentally unfriendly. This soy based version is made of re-cycled plastic, vegetable oil and soy, and fills the gaps with green (literally) foam that is mold and fire retardant with no VOC’s.
Banning Flame Retardants
April 5, 2008
Flame retardants may be making you, your kids and, especially, your cat, sick.
A few years ago a study on flameretardents found in a host of common materials were causing illness.
polybrominated diphenyl ether ( or PBDE) compounds are turning up at tremendously high levels in cats. Apparently due to ol puss lyining on the couch, the carpets, on top of you monitor and then grooming the stuff right into their system.
PBDEs are determined by the EPA to impair thyroid functioning. They’ve been used s as flame retardants in household products like furniture, carpet padding, and electronics since the 70’s.
While it may be incidental that thyroid problems ( feline hyperthyroidism) has dramatically increased since then, a study by the American Chemical Society thinks it may be no co-incidence.
Pead the study summary) PBDEs are known to impair thyroid functioning. They have been used since the late 1970s as flame retardants in household products, including upholstered furniture, carpet padding, and electronics. During that same time period, the incidence of a cat thyroid ailment, known as feline hyperthyroidism, has risen dramatically.
Read the study summary here:
The study says” We hypothesized that increases in FH were, in part, related to increased PBDE exposure, with key routes of exposure being diet and ingestion of house dust.” In part, and the study leads us to think that maybe our cats are serving as the proverbial canary in the coal mine?
Oh and of course it’s not just the cats. What about junior who puts everything in his mouth and spends the day crawling in the dust bunnies?
Again from the study “young children are exposed to far more dust than older people. Cats’ meticulous and continuous grooming habits could conceivably result in PBDE uptake similar to what toddlers are exposed to through their increased contact with floors and “mouthing” behaviors”.
So what to do what to do?
the European Union banned the use of PBDEs in 2003. California’s ban goes into effect in 2008, and Washington state has banned it too.
See what the David Suzuki Foundation is recommending.
Dowload this PDF of smart shoppers guide to non-PBDE products and get the PDBE’s out of your house.
Alternative to plastic water bottles
April 2, 2008
Finally somebody’s come up with an answer to the plastic water bottle conundrum.
A British company, Belu is producing bottles out of corn.
-
Subscribe
Currently Reading
