CES’ volunteers went to Starhill Forest Arboretum to help fill up its greenhouse.
http://www.starhillforest.com/
Guy supervised us.
We started with stuff like this.
And ended with this.
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More tomorrow
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http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blog-5602-the-green-alternative-to-asphalt-roofs.html
In Section: Green Life Posted By: Kathleen Wills
For centuries, it hasn’t seemed like much of a problem to dig out the earth, erect structures and cap them with impervious asphalt roofs. But with population growth and ensuing urban development, it has become extremely problematic. Storm-water runoff, flooding, polluted watersheds, violent temperature contrasts, increased heating and cooling energy consumption and costs, gusting winds and stripped habitats are all by-products of the replacement of earth with concrete.
Of these complications, storm-water runoff has been the most challenging. When rain falls on our waterproof concrete jungles it picks up pollutants as it flows off roofs, walls and gutters and runs straight into storm drains and on to its final destination – our lakes, rivers and oceans. With nothing to slow down heavy downpours, wastewater systems flood, dumping raw sewage into local bodies of water.
The other major problem to contend with is the urban heat-island effect. Asphalt rooftops can reach 150oF, contributing to warmer temperatures in cities than their surrounding regions – a 10o difference in some areas. This translates to higher energy consumption and costs to cool buildings.
How to mitigate these environmental extremes is something city planners and architects worldwide have been grappling with for years. The solution? Green roofs!
Green roofs, also called living roofs, solve the flooding and water pollution problems by mimicking meadows. Soil composites and vegetation absorb water, filter and cleanse it, slow it down, and even store some of it for use during dry spells. They help the energy consumption quandary by acting as insulation thus reducing energy costs by as much as 20%. They even improve air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide. Water savings also come in to play in buildings where rainwater is collected and reused for watering exterior plants or flushing water for toilets.
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More next week.
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Travel Grrl, You know the superhero travel agent that flies faster then a speeding Concorde. Well she had a little help from CNN, but I am sure these places are clean. It is just a list however..from 2007 so some of them could have gotten dirty…
http://www.ranker.com/list/cleanest-cities-in-the-us/travelgrrl
Based on CNN and travelandleisure.com 2007 poll of over 60,000 Americans.
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Do NOT, and I repeat do not ask me to explain this last choice… I was totally with it up until number 10. More tomorrow.
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Funny I just saw a report on PBS that relates to this:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/latin_america/jan-june10/peru_03-31.html
The vast majority happen in remote areas, 99 percent of them in developing countries. In Peru, a new national strategy to turn those numbers around is taking shape. And the program is being seen as a model for Latin America and the developing world.
Here, in the remote region of Ayacucho, 12,000 feet above sea level, sits the village of Vilcashuaman. Many hours from the nearest airstrip, it’s a town so remote that even the impressive Inca ruins draw few tourists.
A casa materna, or birthing home, was built for women late in pregnancy to live in as their due date nears. And it’s a centerpiece in the government’s new strategy.
Dr. Oscar Ugarte Ubillus is Peru’s health minister.
DR. OSCAR UGARTE UBILLUS, Peruvian health minister (through translator): We detected that one of the critical problems is the amount of time and distance it takes to get attention when complications arise in childbirth. So, we have created 450 waiting homes throughout the country.
RAY SUAREZ: At the casa materna in Vilcashuaman, pregnant women bring their children. They make their own meals with ingredients from a hospital garden, and live as if at home.
Twenty-nine-year-old Eulalia Centro is here with her 1-year-old daughter. Eulalia had her first child at home without complications, before the birthing home existed. But she lives in an area with no roads. It takes a full day on horseback just to get to Vilcashuaman.
So, Eulalia chose to have her second, then her third child at the birthing home.
EULALIA CENTRO, mother (through translator): Pregnant women are always dying at home, so that is why we decided to come here.
RAY SUAREZ: The birthing home is occupied nearly every day of the year. Pregnancies in the region are tracked with a simple felt map. The circles represent each pregnant woman’s home and the number of hours it takes to reach them.
Red felt represents pregnant teenagers, at greater risk for death in childbirth because their bodies haven’t fully matured. Twenty-four-hour staff are trained to deal with obstetric emergencies, like breech babies, placenta blockage, and hemorrhaging.
Josefina Montes Perez is an OB-GYN at the casa.
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They did not try to build an air conditioned hospital, with a helicopter pad filled with 1.5 million $$$ a year doctors. They made it a place where they grow their own food, heat water with the sun, use natural herbs for labor and have an an ambulance, with blood and someone who knows how to control the bleeding if there is a problem. They cut the mortality rate by 50%. You can supply healthcare to people cheap. You can not supply industrial healthcare cheap…what got me to thinking about this?
MISSION
The mission of Green Medicine™ is to investigate and support research efforts on medicinal substances and medical foods from Peru.
ABOUT GREEN MEDICINE
GREEN MEDICINE is the website for information on Dr. Williams’ research in the upper Amazon under the Institute for Amazonian Studies (IAS), which he founded in 1996, and the Pino Center for Traditional Healing in 2004. His intention is to advance the mission of Green Medicine by working closely with Peruvian research organizations, individual investigators, universities, socially and environmentally responsible businesses, and traditional tribes of the upper Amazon and Andes for the purpose of exploring the following areas of study:
Evolutionary Biology in Tropical Rainforests:
Basic Research in the Therapeutic Value of Natural Compounds from Plants and Other Biological Substances
Healing Methods and Medicines of Traditional Tribal Peoples
Dr. Williams has been working in Latin American since 1969 and in Peru since 1996.
For information on his books and integrative medicine practice, visit www.drjewilliams.com.
To view his site on shamanic healing, go to www.andeancodex.com.
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This pains me almost as much as Mary Landrieu. I never worked for Dick but he was always good on so many issues. C’est la vie…sigh
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091019/jones
This article appeared in the October 19, 2009 edition of The Nation.
In March, months after the government gave an unprecedented $85 billion to AIG, the insurance giant released a list of counterparties, exposing some of the world’s top financial institutions as the real recipients of the bailout. First among its peers, Goldman Sachs got a whopping $12.9 billion, despite having claimed in September to be insulated from AIG’s troubles. Based on these revelations, Maryland Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings, who had dogged the financial industry since the crisis began, told his staff to prepare a letter calling for an investigation.
Two Congressional staffers familiar with the matter told The Nation that a draft was circulated to House members on March 23. Within hours, Cummings’s office had received a phone call from a lobbying firm hired by Goldman Sachs, making an “insistent but polite” request for a meeting. Cummings, intending to send the letter regardless, granted the audience, and so it was that top Goldman executives like president Gary Cohn and CFO David Viniar arrived the next day. They brought someone else too, a big-name Democratic politician with serious populist credibility: Dick Gephardt.
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But the real issue here is pollution.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31633524/the_climate_killers/9
The Arm Twister
Dick Gephardt
CEO, Gephardt Group
The former House majority leader now uses his considerable political clout as a lobbyist for Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal company. Working behind the scenes on Capitol Hill, Gephardt has emerged as the most credible proponent of “clean coal” — an imaginary technology being touted by the industry as an alternative to limits on carbon pollution. (“Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes,” says Al Gore. “It does not exist.”) In July, Gephardt was the keynote speaker at the Clean Coal Technology Conference, an honor bestowed after he helped win $1 billion in stimulus funding for FutureGen, a “clean coal” boondoggle promoted by Peabody. That’s a significant return on the $1.7 million that Peabody and the FutureGen Industrial Alliance have invested in Gephardt Group’s services since 2007. His firm also lobbies for Ameren, the nation’s fourth-dirtiest utility, as well as for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The head of Peabody’s Washington office, Fred Palmer, marvels at the access the ex-congressman still enjoys on Capitol Hill: “I can meet with a lot of people, but I’m Fred Palmer. He’s Dick Gephardt.”
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So to Dick we must say – Smoke gets in our eyes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTxZOEdEE8I
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Global Warming has turned the midwest into a group of handicapped old ladies. I mean I can remember when we would get at least 2 or 3 inches before Thanksgiving, go through a warm period and then get 6-8 inches right before Christmas. It would be considered a light year if we got a couple of feet for the whole season. Now we get 4 inches and the WHOLE WORLD shuts down. But first I gotta say:
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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.
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This is what I woke up to:
So I got out the old metal snow shovel and proceeded to clear the sidewalk, my car and the back porch. Snow shovels however have gotten a whole lot better over the years:
From this to all of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Suncast-SF1850-22-Inch-Scoop-Shovel/dp/B000A1CENK
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Other products by Suncast
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60 Reviews
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Order it in the next 3 hours and 25 minutes, and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.
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http://www.nextag.com/snow-shovel/shop-html
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This snow shovel’s extra-wide 26-1/2″ blade acts like a plow, allowing you to push snow out of the way without lifting. + Add to Shopping List | See More Like This
Find Other Outdoor Patio Furniture… Related Searches: |
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Yo-ho Polartuff Snoblade Snow Blade Shovel W/ Wheels
+ Add to Shopping List | See More Like This
Find Other Sports & Outdoors… Related Searches: |
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The Telescoping Snow Shovel is just the right size to dig out the snow that builds up around your tires during a heavy snowfall. + Add to Shopping List | See More Like This
Find Other Outdoor Patio Furniture… Related Searches: |
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Dakota Snoblade Snow Blade Removal Shovel W/ Wheels
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http://www.uline.com/BL_7052/Snow-Shovels?pricode=wm605&gclid=CKHPu_Tfkp8CFRQeDQodWF0vBg
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Clears Away Snow 3 Times Faster Than Shoveling… The new Folding Frame Sno Wovel™ and Sno Wolf™ are the only snow removal devices, performing equal to or better than a snow blower, that are recognized by Co-op America and National Green Pages™ for its positive, pollution-free environmental standards and zero carbon footprint in usage. Univ. of Mass. indpendent study confirms the wheeled snow shovel clears snow with a fraction of the effort and safer on the back: “comparable to simply walking.” |
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No fuel, fumes and deafening noise to harm the environment or the operator.
THE NEW FOLDING FRAME SNO WOVEL™:}
http://www.rei.com/category/4500674
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Picture of ergonomic snow shovel.
David Beaulieu
More Images (3)
Find a Snow RemoverFind Top Rated Snow Removers. Compare Up to 4 Quotes Now.www.ServiceMagic.com
Snow Shovels guideLooking to find Snow Shovels? See our Snow Shovels guide.HomeGardenDream.com
Two Stage Snow Blowers Ergonomic Snow Shovels John Deere Snow Blower Snow Ice Snow Tools
When George Bailey first appears in the Christmas classic, It's a Wonderful Life, he and a bunch of other boys are sliding down a snowy hill on their snow shovels (I guess their parents couldn't afford sleds or toboggans). That's about the only fun use to which snow shovels have ever been put, as far as I know.
For with that one exception, snow shovels signify nothing but drudgery. Worse yet, to those who suffer from bad backs, snow shovels are nothing less than instruments of torture. The human frame simply isn't designed for extended periods of snow shoveling. It was with these thoughts in mind that I recently tested three different Ames True Temper snow shovels:
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Make sure you take a break and drink a hot drink...
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It’s true. Through laziness and a lack of preparation, we have ice on the driveway. As I was getting out of the car and walking to the house, I slipped on the ice and dumped coffee on my down coat. I did not fall to the ground, but it was close. So why didn’t I just go out and toss salt around to melt it off. Well for one thing it is bad for the plants around the area that you salt. But first I must say:
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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.
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Here are some of the problems with “salting” and some alternatives.
http://extensionhorticulture.unl.edu/Articles/SJB/DeIcer.shtml
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Good morning! It’s Monday January 4, 2010 at 10:20 AM CT |
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| Articles, Publications and Other Resources | ||
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Here is a video that shows how to properly sand your drive…
http://www.ehow.com/video_4427061_using-sand-deice-driveway.html
http://www.ehow.com/video_4427062_using-sand-melt-black-ice.html?pid=1&cp=1
http://www.ehow.com/video_4427063_remove-ice-from-steps.html?cp=1&pid=1
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I included that last video to make a point. Notice all that hammering he is doing to the ice. Well that does damage to the surface below it. We have an old three car asphalt and concrete drive way that has seen better days. Last year we let a local guy clear it with a small tractor and a blade. Man, you talk about damage. It took a couple hundred $$$ of asphalt products to stabilize the situation. So part of what I am trying to do is to see if not scooping out the drive will cut down on that damage. Unfortunately the other source of damage is freezing water in cracks on the surface of the driveway. So we are probably going to see as much damage to the driveway from the freezing. Still it will be interesting in the spring to see what it looks like.
OR you could reach for the molasses
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123084701287847257.html
DOT dot DOT
Many towns are testing new methods to make their ice-fighting more efficient. Officials in Indiana and other states are equipping salt trucks with computers that, based on current air and ground temperatures and other metrics, tell drivers how much salt to drop and for how long.
This past summer, engineers in Ohio’s Hamilton County sought bids to supply about 15,000 tons of salt. The county rejected the first set of bids, which were about 50% higher than the $40 a ton the county paid last year. Two more rounds resulted in quotes of as much as $157 a ton, which would have exceeded the county’s entire $1.5 million budget for snow and ice removal, said Ted Hubbard, the chief deputy county engineer.
The county decided to try to make the 11,000 tons of salt it had on hand last for a winter of de-icing 1,500 miles of road lanes. To stretch it, Mr. Hubbard’s department has been mixing its salt with gritty, non-toxic ash left over from coal-fired power plants.
“When the sun shines on it, it helps attract radiation, therefore it helps melt the snow,” Mr. Hubbard said. “We’re sort of experimenting.” Mr. Hubbard said the ash mixture doesn’t melt the snow as fast, but it does add traction to the roads.
Ankeny, Iowa, a Des Moines suburb, sprinkled garlic salt mixed with road salt on its streets last month after a local spice maker gave the town nine tons destined for a landfill. Public Works Director Paul Moritz said some residents complained the fragrant topping would sicken their cats and dogs. He says he checked with a veterinarian, who told him the pets would have to swallow huge quantities to become ill.
“I don’t mean to be too flippant about it,” said Mr. Moritz, “but I don’t think any dog went out and licked up three blocks of streets.” He says the garlic salt has been effective in clearing roadways.
Paul Simonsen, a maintenance superintendent for the Washington state department of transportation, has been mixing de-sugared molasses into saltwater, creating a gooey mixture that can keep roadways clear for three or four wintry days, he said.
The mix consists of molasses from a local supplier, calcium chloride and brine donated by a local dairy company. Mr. Simonsen had been experimenting with the right proportions and ingredients for several years, blending them in a 1,000-gallon vat and dispersing the liquid with the same salt trucks. He first used it last year on a busy mountain pass in southwest Washington.
dot dot dot
It also for the first time paid $3.50 a gallon for 4,200 gallons of Magic Minus Zero, a de-icing compound made by Sears Ecological Applications Co., of Rome, N.Y.
The liquid, which is formulated from the leftovers of rum-making, is such an effective additive that Pat Doherty, Pingree’s director of public works, said the town has used less than half as much salt as it would have under similar weather conditions.
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Garlic Salt…gona be a fragrant spring.
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Yes it is true. It will take most of next week probably to get to 50 environmental blogs out of the 1000s of environmental blogs out there but we shall prevail. Notice I have not said anything about this blogs focus which is energy and its misuse which is damaging the planet. These are just eco blogs, some technical some not, that purport to reuse, recycle, repair, replenish, reincarnate, and my personal favorite (to protect my girlish figure) reduce. Excuse me I must
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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.
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Speaking of being reduced by a Blog. I made mild fun of a Blog yesterday called, Gardening Naked. The woman that writes that Blog is amazing. She sent me an email yesterday and I have been reduce to kneeling before her in surrender:
We live in an increasingly materialistic society in the United States, and often take all the “stuff” we have for granted. With our communities surviving a very difficult economic time, it seems important to pull back on the gift giving and push forward with giving from the heart. It is not about how many gifts we give; it is about the love in our hearts when we give them.
When you do give a gift, consider giving a good-for-the-earth-gift. Green and sustainable gifts are the best gifts because they keep on giving even after the holidays are over. Try gifting your friends and family with green and sustainable presents this season and make a difference for our world. Below are a few of the best green gift giving guides online; great resources for you and your family to tap into this holiday season.
Sustainability expert and landfill rescuer, Kay McKeen, runs a School & Community Assistance for Recycling & Composting Education center in Illinois, also known as “SCARCE”. This organization has rescued millions of books from the landfills for free donation to local and international schools. SCARCE staff spends hundreds of hours educating locals on the benefits of living green and this year have built a terrific online green gift guide. To view SCARCE’s local-to-Chicagoland Green Gift Guide online, visit their web site – http://s-c-a-r-c-e.org or telephone (630) 545-9710.
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So she would be what number 21 or 22 on the list. I lost count. Also while on the “catalog” of environmental blogs yesterday, I found another catalog. This is beginning to sound a little like green porn or something.
Anyway that “catalogue” (pardon my British) is:
http://www.bestgreenblogs.com/
Going through their list I came upon a site that raised a question in my head. I did a series last year about environmental groups around the world which was fascinating to me but until I saw this Blog I did not think “how hard must it be to be environmentally conscious in a third world country”? So we go from taking stuff home from a landfill to living in a land fill.
http://greenbitch.wordpress.com/
What is Malaysia Day ? Why isn’t it on the 31st August but instead 16 September ? 31st August 1957 is the day Malaya or better known than as the Federation of Malaya got their independence from British colonial rule.
Malaysia Day is held on September 16 every year to commemorate the establishment of the Malaysian federation on the same date in 1963, the joining together of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore to form Malaysia.
Malaysia Day is not a public holiday.
I personally think that Malaysia Day should be given equal if not more importance, since it is the day our beloved nation came together as ONE. In order to get the whole nation to rally in the 1Malaysia concept, everyone should be make aware of the formation of MALAYSIA. It is a day every Malaysia should be proud of, and shout it out loud ” Saya anak bangsa Malaysia.”
To all fellow Malaysian wherever you are, HAPPY MALAYSIA DAY.
green bitch/witch 
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Or From a Bus in Northern Scotland (Brrrrrrr)
http://theblackbuscompany.blogspot.com/
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Or even in the wilds of France where they make great French Fries:
http://www.smileandsavetheplanet.com/
3 décembre 2009
On a plissé des yeux devant la violence de « Lord of War ». On s’est repassé en boucle « Blood Diamond » (pas que pour Léo, on préfère Nicolas Cage d’abord) et on a bien décrypté le processus : le diamant, c’est définitivement pas du propre côté social, pas plus qu’environnemental d’ailleurs. La puissante De Beers a dû plier sous la pression des associations et la filière diamantaire, gouvernements et industriels réunis, a mis un peu d’ordre dans ses tablettes même si tout n’est pas encore brillant-brillant.
Qu’en est-il de nos gourmettes, alliance, collier, piercing (il en faut pour tous les goûts) ? D’où provient l’or qui pend à mon cou ? Une autre responsabilité me pend-t-elle au nez ?
Hyperconsommatrice de mercure et de cyanure, l’extraction de l’or génère des tonnes de déchets toxiques. L’exploitation minière artisanale contribue au déboisement, à la dégradation des sols, à la pollution de l’air par le monoxyde de carbone, du sol et de l’eau… N’en jetez plus ?!!! Ben si : sur le plan sanitaire, elle peut engendrer des maladies respiratoires par l’inhalation de gaz et poussière…
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Excuse my French as they say.
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It’s Jam Band Friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmuIkJtL42g
It really is something that some people suggest you do.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/8357134.stm
The “pee bale” is only in use out of visitor hours |
Gardeners at a National Trust property in Cambridgeshire are urging people to relieve themselves outdoors to help gardens grow greener.
A three-metre long “pee bale” has been installed at Wimpole Hall.
Head gardener Philip Whaites is urging his male colleagues to pee on the straw bale to activate the composting process on the estate’s compost heap.
He said the “pee bale” is only in use out of visitor hours, since “we don’t want to scare the public”.
He said: “For eight weeks now, male members of our garden and estate teams have been using the outdoor straw bale when nature calls.
“The pee bale is excellent matter to add to our compost heap to stimulate the composting process; and with over 400 acres of gardens and parkland to utilise compost, we need all the help we can get.
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FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME
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“There are obvious logistical benefits to limiting it to male members of the team, but also male pee is preferable to women’s, as the male stuff is apparently less acidic.”
By the end of the year, it was calculated that the 10 men from the 70-strong garden and estates team will make more 1,000 individual trips to the pee bale, contributing towards the compost for the estate.
The estate said it will have saved up to 30% of its daily water use by not having to flush the loo so many times.
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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12b-VH1yahE )
People like to talk about it too. GardenWeb a huge web site devoted to all things about gardening has a question and answer section. A person posted “To Pee Or Not To Pee” question and go hundreds of answers. I can not give you a true sense of the size of the post. You must go see it. But it was started on April 5th 2008 and stretttttched all the way to September 21, 2009! Some of the responses:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg042142151191.html
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clip this post email this post what is this? |
right, you’ve heard of the carbon to nitrogen ratio, i’m sure.
it’s controversial but most of the time it’s listed as 30 parts carbon to one part nitrogen.a lot of poeple do not make a big fuss about the proper ratio, they just mix until it heats up the way they like it.
why don’t you try mixing the grass clippings into a larger amount of shredded dead leaves, staw, or even sawdust.
As for the morals….you’re recycling, saving water, lightening septic stress, and helping your yard or garden out all in the same by using urine.
one word of advice…..if you make a hot compost pile out of urine, make sure your friend doesn’t try to touch it after you tell him about how warm the pile gets……(yes my friend came over and almost did, i was like whoa whoa!!!)
I pee in a bottle that I keep in a room which i have seedlings started in, and the next day i take it outside and pour it into the center of my pile, the thing i like about using pee is that you’re also helping to keep the pile moist as you add nitrogen, and it does work.
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clip this post email this post what is this? |
Sun, Apr 6, 08 at 2:05
| I keep a kitchen compost barrel outside the back door. It gets kitchen waste and shredded office paper. I give it a golden shower (at night when the wife is asleep) to keep it moist. Happily, the compost bin has no aroma at all. It seem that the office paper absorbs the moisture and puts it to work immediately.Today’s brainstorm; I have a 40 gal. tub sunk into the ground for the ducks to take a dip in. They ‘fertilize’ the water and algae starts to grow. It finally occurred to me that the algae makes an ideal ‘green’ for compost. |
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RE: compost – to pee or not to pee |
clip this post email this post what is this? |
Sun, Apr 6, 08 at 17:23
| Agatha Christie said in her autobiography that her grandmother had the most beautiful roses in the neighborhood; she used the “nightwater” (this must have been in about the 1890’s, when people had chamber pots under the beds) on them! |
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clip this post email this post what is this? |
Sun, Apr 6, 08 at 23:42
| Unless you have something like a bladder infection or leptospirosis, urine tends to be sterile.For all the people who say “Eeeeewww!”, just keep in mind that septic and sewer systems are mostly ‘eyewash’. The fact that a couple of gallons of good clean drinking water are used to flush away half a cup of urine so it’s out of your sight and out of your mind isn’t exactly being environmentally responsible.All that nitrogen that is produce doesn’t just evaporate, you know. Like DDT, it all goes somewhere, either into the groundwater or into the ocean. Have you ever gone down to your favorite little creek and wondered where all that green algae came from? Have you passed by the marsh on your way to the ocean and it didn’t smell so great and had quite a lot of algae growing there? Between ‘modern’ farming methods and ‘modern’ waste dumping, we’re contaminating a lot of the world.Sue |
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clip this post email this post what is this? |
| Urine specimens are not sterile. Moreover, even sterile urine will grow bacteria at room temperature. I have examined results of urine tests, thousands and thousands of them, in my professional life, for 30 years. I do this as part of my anesthesia evaluation prior to anesthetizing people for surgery.As I said above, the only way to obtain a sterile urine specimen is sterile catheterization of the bladder or clean catch technique. I doubt that most of you are following these techniques in obtaining urine for your compost or garden.Karen |
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clip this post email this post what is this? |
| My old house was in the city. I’m positive that rats, and other animals got into the compost pile. Can I safely assume they have been exposed to E coli? Can I assume that my own urine is more sterile than the rats and other animals that dig, poop, and pee in the pile? You are at a greater risk of exposure every time you use a public restroom. How confident are you that the last person that touched the door knob, phone, elevator button properly washed their hands after going to the bathroom? What about the fridge at work? How many people touch it? How many of those people properly wash? Are you sure they didn’t touch your food? What about the water cooler? Did the last person that used it pick his nose before he held the water open? |
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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn90uvj9Pgw&feature=related )
You think it is just weirdo gardeners? Think again…But “liquid gold” oh man come on.
http://www.homegrownevolution.com/2007/01/pee-on-your-compost.html
Judging from comments and our web statistics you people out there love discussing poo. So it’s about time that we move on to pee. Why waste your perfectly good urine? Indeed, both Ghandi and Jim Morrison drank their own urine for it’s reputed health benefits. But we ain’t gonna go there.
Our suggestion for the day is to save that piss for your plants. Urine is a fantastic source of nitrogen and it’s estimated that we all produce enough urine to fertilize all the wheat and corn that we as individuals consume. And urine is sterile and safe unless you’ve got a bladder infection.
Urine should be diluted before applying directly to plants since salts in your pee can build up in the soil. Dilution should be at least 10 parts water to one part urine. Peeing directly on plants can burn them as anyone who owns a dog already knows about. Urine is easiest to apply to non-food crops, though it’s perfectly safe to use on fruit trees and bushes. Applying it to root crops is more controversial, and frankly seems like a practice best left to hippies, so if you try this at least cease application at a respectable interval before harvesting.
There is even a book called Liquid Gold on the subject of pee as fertilizer and the ever more resourceful Europeans have developed a number of urine diverting flush toilets similar to the one we profiled earlier to take the labor out of urine saving.
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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW5_hqNcj74&feature=related )
I know, I know…I keep this post going because it is hysterical, I get to keep posting great Paul Butterfield tunes and because I can..Still everything good must come to end:
http://www.english-gardening.com/green_up_your_thumb/compost_3.htm
Q. I’ve heard that urinating on a compost heap helps, is this true, or is it a joke?
A. Urine contains nitrogen that will help feed the microbes and speed up their break-down of the brown carbon-rich material. Also, the water content will help keep the heap moist. I regularly pee on my compost heap – but only when no-ones looking.
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Everybody does it when no one is looking or at night…why not pee in a pitcher, keep it cold (and well labeled) in the fridge and just dump it when you have the time? HAHAHAHA
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqa6tMwvgFA&feature=related )
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If everyone did this the world would be a better place.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-green-schools-03-nov03,0,5196889.story
November 3, 2009
When they’re done with lunch, students at an Oak Park school sort uneaten morsels into bins — empty milk cartons and juice boxes into one receptacle, orange rinds and banana peels into another, and anything non-recyclable into a third, that one clearly labeled “landfill” to drive home the point.
Hatch Elementary this year joined a national movement to reduce waste headed for landfills. Not only are students and teachers composting leftover fruits and vegetables, but they’re also promoting zero-waste lunches and moving away from plastic spoons, straws and biodegradable trays. Instead, the school is installing dishwashers and buying reusable trays and silverware.
After mastering — and then teaching their parents — how to recycle pop cans and paper, elementary school students are moving beyond Recycling 101 and into more sophisticated terrain.
Zero-waste initiatives at schools across the Chicago area have students aggressively reducing the garbage they produce and trying to avoid anything not biodegradable. Now they’re separating food, determining what can and can’t be composted. They do the composting themselves in outdoor bins or with worm composting in the classroom. They’re learning how to reuse paper towels and use fewer of them. And they’re no longer taking home endless fliers — many schools now post announcements online with “virtual backpacks.”
When a new state law goes into effect in January, expect some of these measures to become more mainstream. The law, passed in August, designates food scraps as organic — not waste — and will lead to widespread efforts to compost food waste.
It’s a skill the little ones have already adopted. At a recent lunch at Hatch, parent volunteers asked a question: “If you don’t eat all your broccoli, what do you do with it?”
“Compost” came the resounding answer.
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