Category Archives: over population

Happy Labor Day Everyone! Remember when?

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I walked in the Labor Day Parade today and it brought back memories of the times when we did not try to burn up this planet and squandered every energy resource we have.

. Remember when we used to walk to go to the store to get groceries?

. Remember when we used to walk to church. It was great because we met people along the way who were going to the same church or different church and could talk?

. Remember when we made things ourselves and everyone had a job if they wanted one?

. Remember when kids played outside until dark or later?

. Remember when we threw the windows open in the spring and fall. The air never tasted so good?

. Remember when we had a snow storm every year before Thanksgiving?

. Remember when you could get cars that went furhter than 30 miles to the gallon?

. Remember when it was safe to swim in the creeks and streams?

. Remember when there were butchers in every town?

We have taken a wrong turn and need to change.

The Peak Oil People Sometimes Scare Themselves – Especially when they get together for a little soire

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I know this is dated but the conference was held at the middle of this speculative oil price spike that has gone on for at least 6 months. I wonder if the Peak Oil folks know how to tell a speculative spike, a real spike through scarcity of production facilities and true Peak Oil. All of them would shadow a simlar spike?

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-42/1212300955258630.xml&coll=6

What happens when oil runs out?

 

Sunday, June 01, 2008By Garret M. Ellison

The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — The collapse of cities, a return to rail transportation, famine and a worldwide depression are but a few outcomes predicted by energy industry insiders and believers in the peak oil theory who gathered this weekend at Calvin College.

“We will have a different civilization, to be sure,” said David Goodstein, a vice provost and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Goldstein wrote the book, “Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil.” He joined dozens of speakers at the International Conference on Peak Oil and Climate Change.

He was the kickoff speaker at the three-day event, which explored the double-pronged crises of peak oil and climate change by examining their effects on society, and offering sustainable solutions.

Peak oil is the point at which half of the world’s supply has been extracted and production levels off. This is expected to cause massive societal upheaval because the worldwide demand for oil is increasing rapidly.

It’s a controversial subject, and not all are convinced. Skeptics and some oil producers say a peak is years away and that new technologies will allow our energy appetite to be satisfied by tar sands and oil shale while renewable sources come online.

But those who believe in the peak oil scenario say we have reached that point already or will in a few years. New oil discoveries are slim. The last major discovery was in the 1960s.

They say that alternative energies cannot match the capacity of fossil fuels, and nuclear fusion — the one known silver bullet — is perpetually 25 years in the future.

Supply will be further constrained by aging infrastructure, they say. These arguments are fueled by the rising cost of food and oil, which recently topped $130 a barrel.

One point that everyone agrees on is that oil is a finite resource, and that nobody quite knows for sure how much is left.

 “We will see the effects of the peak very soon. How soon — I don’t know,” Goldstein said.

“It’s possible that it’ll be off another five, 10, or even 20 years.

“But 20 years is nothing on the scale of human history,” he said. “Our children, or our grandchildren are in for some very difficult times.”

That could mean civil unrest and famine, as petrol-based fertilizers become prohibitively expensive, driving up the cost of food — and everything else.

“The haves and the have-nots are going to be fighting for diminishing reserves,” said Steven F. Crower, an energy investment banker based in Denver.

“I think the price of oil will cause the collapse of the dollar,” he said. “The new gold standard is going to be energy.”

That’s somewhat less dire than the reality painted by Richard Heinberg, an author of eight books on peaking resources and a senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute.

All complex systems inevitably collapse, said Heinberg, and ours is no different. A local-based agrarian economy is his vision of the future. Rail will be the primary transportation mode.

For some conference attendees, the concept of peaking oil production seemed like a very stark reality.

“I think it was Hunter S. Thompson who said that sometimes the massive crime that takes place in front of everyone is the one that goes unnoticed,” said Jackson Carreras, 24, of Plymouth.

The conference was organized by Aaron Wissner, of Middleville, who heads-up the local nonprofit, Local Future. It runs through 5 p.m. today.

Send e-mail to the author: gellison@grpress.com

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Here are the people that brought you the above conference. They seem like nice enough young people

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http://localfuture.org/

Local Future
Paths to Sustainability

Michigan Conference – Nov. 2008

NEW!!!  Announcing “The Conference of Michigan’s Future: Energy, Economy & Environment” for Friday, Nov. 14 through Sunday, Nov. 16 at Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville, Michigan.  Click the link above for speakers, ticket, and other specifics.

International Conference – Online

Local Future hosts the International Conference on Peak Oil and Climate Change: Paths to Sustainability.  The inaugural conference features 50 presenters including Richard Heinberg, Julian Darley, Dr. David Goodstein, Megan Quinn Bachman, Stephanie Mills, and Pat Murphy.

NEW! – Watch conference presentations & download podcasts for free.

 

Introduction

Unemployment, inflation, war, peak oil, climate change, biodiversity loss, overpopulation — global problems that need local solutions.

Local Future helps communities develop compassionate, sustainable, local, systems to provide jobs, food, energy, transportation, and essential services.

Local Future Network members develop these systems by helping their community to transition from dependent units of the failed global economy; to independent cultures of compassionate, sustainable, local economy.

Global Problems

The global economic system creates problems which threaten humanity and the planet:

  • peak oil
  • climate change
  • over population
  • resource depletion
  • widespread pollution
  • misallocation of power
  • institutional cruelty
  • economic instability
  • environmental destruction
  • geopolitical conflict & war

This unsustainable global economic system fails to protect humans, the environment, and the natural systems on which all life depends.  It does not meet the long term goals of civilization. 

When a system fails to such a catastrophic degree, it is time for change.

Local Solutions

New local systems must be developed that are grounded in a value system of truth, compassion, understanding, sustainability, renewal and community.  Developing new systems takes dedicated individuals who share the common value system, walk a common path, and move towards a common vision of the future.  Local systems are needed to provide:

  • jobs – that are challenging, safe and community oriented
  • money – community currency that creates jobs, motivates progress and reinforces values
  • food – that is nutritious, compassionate, sustainable, organic and available year-round
  • energy – heat, electricity and fuels from renewable sun, wind, water and biomass sources
  • transportation – utilizing ride sharing, mass transit, community vehicles and human power
  • homes – safe, comfortable and welcoming, zero energy new homes and retrofits
  • water – fresh, clean, free water that is owned and managed locally
  • waste management  – emphasizing reduce, reuse and recycling
  • health care – high quality, low cost, community based services and prevention
  • education – local teachers dedicated to providing continuing service
  • security – utilizing open communication, problem solving, education and dialogue
  • entertainment – opportunities for all to participate and enjoy
  • culture – celebrating diversity and history
  • spirituality – inviting all people to explore the deeper questions of life

Members of Local Future Network communicate and meet to learn, support, plan, and act.  They take the initiative to increase independence for themselves and their communities.  Their shared value system of truth, compassion, understanding, sustainability, renewal and community guides their actions toward a vision of a prosperous local future.

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People New To Environmentalism And The Energy Field Must State The Obvious

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Environmentalism really IS about saving the Earth. Not the rocks, the water and the oxygen some of its primary components, but the lifeforms that inhabit it. When we try to preserve the humpback whale it’s because it they are beautiful and important to us. It is also because to some extent they are sentient. We are in the midst of one of the largest die offs in terms of the number of species that were here a 1000 years ago. When we preserve a section of the planet as in a park we preserve those species but we also preserve their habitat for future generations to see.

Obviously we are one of those species. So saving the Earth means saving us too. But we are a special case because we have over populated the planet and we are one of the leading causes of the die off, so saving ourselves and the planet requires a population reduction and a change in behavior. Two huge issues that I do not see our species solving. No other top of the food chain species has solved it. I have written before about Science Fiction’s contribution to the myth of a disposable planet so it’s not a wonder that these guys come off as slightly clueless.

Still they have pretty pictures:

http://howyoucansavetheworld.com/2008/08/the-earth-will-be-just-fine-th.php

 the-earth-will-be-just-fine-thank-you.jpg

The grand myth of environmentalism is that it’s all about saving the Earth.

It’s not. The Earth will be just fine. Environmentalism is all about saving ourselves.

That may seem a bit counter-intuitive; after all, the Earth is certainly central to the rhetoric, the memetic of environmentalism. Most environmental discussions focus on ecological dynamics, with references to human beings typically limited to enumerations of the various insults we’ve visited upon the planet. Given the degree of culpability we bear for the current state of the planet, this is entirely appropriate.

But the rhetorical focus of environmentalism on the planet obscures the fact that what human beings have done to the Earth pales in comparison to past disasters hitting our world, from massive asteroid strikes to super-volcano eruptions killing off 90+% of the Earth’s species. And in every case, the Earth has recovered, and life has once again flourished.

We sometimes make the conceptual mistake of thinking that the way the Earth’s ecosystem is today is the way it will forever be, that we’ve somehow reached an ecological end-state. But even in an eco-conscious world, or one devoid of humans entirely, natural processes from evolution to geophysical and solar cycles would continue. The Earth’s been at this for a long time, literally billions of years; from a planetary perspective, a quadrupling of atmospheric carbon lasting 10,000 years (for example) is little more than a passing blip.

The fact of the matter is that, no matter how much greenhouse gas we pump into the atmosphere or how many toxins we dump into the soil and oceans, given enough time the Earth — and its ecological systems — will recover.

But human civilization is far more fragile.

Human civilization could not withstand and recover from the same kinds of assaults the planet itself has shrugged off in eons past. We remain entirely dependent upon myriad Earth services and systems, from topsoil and clean water to carbon cycles and biodiversity. Activities that undermine those critical services and systems quite literally threaten the survival of human civilization. The fundamental resilience of the Earth’s geophysical systems simply means that, when we ignore our effects on the planet, we’re simply making ourselves disposable, just another passing blip in the planet’s long history.

In trying to minimize the harmful impacts of human activities upon the global ecosystem, environmentalism supports the continued healthy existence of humankind.

To me, this too is entirely appropriate. Despite its many flaws, I’m a big fan of human civilization. I marvel at our capacity to organize matter and information, at our ability to learn from mistakes and pass that learning down to subsequent generations. Civilization — writing, cities, trade, the whole lot of it — makes us unique on this planet and, as far as we can tell so far, in our part of the universe. Destroying that through malice or negligence is the worst form of crime, and the height of tragedy.

Part of a focus upon civilization, however, is the recognition that we do not exist in isolation, that we are dependent upon an enormous variety of complex systems. As a result, our continued existence requires the continued success of those systems. In order to save ourselves, we have to minimize actions which damage and disrupt the environment.

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They spent their whole history telling us we could leave this planet so nothing here matters. Now they want to turn around and Say WOW everything here matters. We ain’t going anywhere anytime soon. HMMMM 

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The Ultimate Peak Oil Site – While I know that speculators caused this price spike

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The Peak Oil People are so focused on the inevitable that you have to admire them: 

http://postcarbon.org/

Post Carbon Institute

Reduce Consumption : Produce Locally

New: Post Carbon Institute Issues A Call For Action
and releases Ten Steps For Individuals To Get Off Fossil Fuels

Commentaries

 

Airline industry backpedaling on expansion?

After my presentation to the Anchorage (Alaska) Municipal Assembly last week, I chatted with a…

Daniel Lerch · August 15, 2008 ·

 

Losing Control

August 15, 2008

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Humankind has control issues, and they’re about to get a lot worse. As a species, we’ve…

Richard Heinberg · August 15, 2008 ·

 

How students get around

August 14, 2008

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The USA Today headline was “Schools move to eject cars from campuses.” The article gave…

laurel · August 14, 2008 ·

 

The Disappearing Lake

August 13, 2008

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As the subtitle of Richard Heinberg’s book Peak Everything says, the world is waking up…

asher · August 13, 2008 ·

Media Appearances

 

Al Jazeera

Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg was interviewed by Al Jazeera English TV. Richard…

Aug 4 2008 ·

Press Democrat

Kiss Your Gas Goodbye! was covered in this in-depth article in the Sunday Edition of…

Aug 3 2008 ·

 

Featured Articles

 

A Call to Action

August 02, 2008

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A call to action for each of us to respond to the joint challenge of peak oil and climate change.

August 02, 2008 ·

 

Peak VMT – Are Americans Kissing Their Gas Goodbye?

Here’s an interesting question: if you gaze for a moment at this fine piece of art…

July 31, 2008 ·

 

IEA Still Misleading On Future Oil Supply

The IEA is still saying there is no real problem with oil…

July 31, 2008 ·

 

100 Percent Renewable Power

July 22, 2008

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Post Carbon Institute’s Plan to reach Al Gore’s ambitious goal of 100% Renewable Electricity in ten years.

July 22, 2008 ·

Help The Environment – Join The Sierra Club Today

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Sierra Club Insider

April 15, 2008: Earth Day: Save Money and Solve Global Warming Green Your World Victory for the Grand Canyon “Green” Nobel Prize Winner Introducing Green Works

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Earth Day: Save Money and Solve Global Warming
This Earth Day (April 22), we know money is tight, and that energy prices are part of the squeeze so many of us are feeling. And also this Earth Day the challenge of reversing climate change looms large. The good news: We can make progress on both fronts by being more energy efficient and investing in renewables. Even better, shifting from oil and coal to wind and solar and energy efficient technologies will help us build a clean-energy economy, create and keep jobs, end the control the oil companies and other countries have over us and ease global warming. We can do it — and you can help.Step one is to check out our energy-efficiency quiz and chart to see how much money you can save. Then watch our how-to videos and learn to install a low-flow showerhead or wrap a water heater. Do even more by installing solar equipment (for less than $1,000! ) or buying wind and solar power.Time to roll up your sleeves!

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Now How About the Rest of Your World?
You can have an even bigger impact when you help your office, local hospital, schools, or place of worship make better use of efficiency and renewables. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel!We’ve got inspirational success stories and guides (like the “Guide for Congregations “) to get you started. If you’d rather get your city greener, join our Cool Cities campaign where you’ll find great materials and a community of folks who are doing the same thing. Or buy some popcorn and host an Energy Film Festival in your community. And on Earth Day itself, why not volunteer with the Sierra Club in your town?

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Hey Mr. Green

A Grand Canyon Victory
On April 4, a federal judge issued a restraining order against a mining company and the Kaibab National Forest, halting uranium exploration on public lands within a few miles of Grand Canyon National Park. “We’re pleased that the judge recognized the importance of protecting the Canyon and the possible significant impacts this exploration could have,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter.In December, the Kaibab National Forest had approved exploratory uranium drilling at up to 39 locations just south of the canyon. The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Grand Canyon Trust took the Forest Service to court in early March for violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and failing to conduct a rigorous analysis of the cumulative impacts of drilling so close to a national treasure.Read more about the victory here.

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Winning the Gold(man) in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican grandmother and homemaker Rosa Hilda Ramos has been awarded this year’s prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, often called “the green Nobel.” In the shadow of polluting factories in Catano, a city across the bay from San Juan, Ramos led her community to successfully defeat a major polluter in court.She then helped direct the funds from the pollution fine to the permanent protection of Las Cucharillas Marsh, one of the last open spaces in the area and one of the largest wetlands ecosystems in the region. Ramos was nominated by the Sierra Club. Read more about her.

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Powerful Cleaning, Done Naturally
The Sierra Club would like to introduce Green Works, a breakthrough line of natural cleaning products that work as well as traditional cleaners without the harsh chemical fumes or residue. Made from plant- and mineral-based ingredients, Green Works products are a practical way for consumers to live a greener lifestyle without compromising performance.Learn more about Green Works and download a coupon for a discount on any Green Works product.

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Know someone who might be interested in the Sierra Club Insider? Help spread the word by using our online form to tell your friends, family, and co-workers about the Insider or simply forward this Insider on. (Some email clients strip the links out of emails when forwarded. If your email does this, you can also direct friends, family, and co-workers to our online version.)

EXPLORE

Get your Green Karma Here
Earth Day is next Tuesday — What have YOU done for Mother Nature lately? Score some major brownie points (or should we say “greenie” points?) with a week of building trails, restoring wildlife habitats, or digging in the dirt for archaeological remains on a Sierra Club Outings volunteer trip.

Not sure it’s for you? Read what Sunset magazine had to say about us.

Browse volunteer trips.

ENJOY

Calling Sierra Club Radio
Got some extra phone minutes? Dial (509) 895-2537 and you can listen to the latest episode of Sierra Club Radio wherever you are.

This week’s show features Australian pop star Missy Higgins talking about cutting back on carbon.

PROTECT

Spend to Save: Take the Pledge
This Earth Day, why not commit to spending some or all of your economic stimulus check on energy efficiency or renewables like solar and wind energy?By purchasing energy-efficient products, you can cut your energy use — and your energy bills. You’ll also reduce your carbon footprint and help fight global warming.

Take the pledge and join a discussion with others who have made that commitment.

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Children’s Environmental Health Risk – That is if they live long enough to confront Mean No Green

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Their is no such thing as profit, from an environmental perspective. When you take into account the human and environmental damage from industrial waste and product transportation the “extra money” simply and magically disappears. Right into our children. Did we think that if DDT was killing Eagle Babies it wasn’t killing ours? 

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children1.bmp

http://www.childenvironment.org/

Protecting Children Against

Environmental

 Threats to Health

We need to find definitive answers about the relationship between toxic chemicals and health so we can protect our children, now and in the future.


Philip Landrigan, M.D.
Chairman of Mount Sinai’s Department of Community and Preventive Medicine

Why are children now suffering from diseases that were virtually

unheard of a generation ago?

Today’s children are subject to a whole host of diseases that come from toxic environments. These can include some of the following:

  • Asthma
  • Autism
  • Allergies
  • Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Leukemia
  • Pediatric Brain Cancer
  • Birth Defects
  • Obesity
  • Diabetes

Our Mission

The mission of the Children’s Environmental Health Center is to protect children against environmental threats to health.The CEH Center accomplishes this by guiding, supporting, and building the programs of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine of Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Our Goals

  • To support scientific research on the preventable environmental hazards that cause disease in children
  • To design and carry out cost-effective programs to prevent environmental disease
  • To educate medical students, pediatric residents, fellows, pediatricians, obstetricians, and other practicing physicians to become the next generation of leaders in environmental pediatrics and preventive medicine
  • To communicate widely and credibly to policy makers, elected officials, government agencies, and the public the health risks to children and adults from environmental threats
  • To provide credible scientific information to parents, grandparents, teachers and the general public on how to make better personal choices to protect our children

About the CEH Center

Mount Sinai’s Department of Community and Preventive Medicine is renowned for its work in children’s environmental health, occupational medicine, epidemiologic research, and disease prevention. Department Chair Dr. Philip Landrigan and his team of medical researchers are uniquely qualified to identify environmental hazards and protect the health of our children.

Dr. Landrigan is an international leader in public health and preventive medicine. His research helped catalyze the U.S. government’s phase-out of lead from gasoline and paint beginning in 1976. Dr. Landrigan chaired a National Academy of Sciences Committee on Pesticides and Children’s Health, whose report secured passage of the major federal pesticide law in the United States, the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. This is the first federal environmental law to contain specific protections for infants and children. His work as Senior Advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency was instrumental in helping to establish the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection.

For more information, please contact us at (212) 241-6145.

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 http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/cceh/

MISSION

The Center for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention is a multi-disciplinary collaborative research organization established to examine how toxic chemicals may influence the development of autism in children. The Center’s goal is to contribute knowledge about autism that will lead to new strategies for the prevention and treatment of this mysterious condition.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that typically affects a person’s ability to communicate, form relationships with others, and respond appropriately to their environment. Autistic children are limited in their social interactions, often locking into repetitive behaviors and rigid patterns of thinking.Parents and health professionals have raised concerns about how environmental factors such as pesticides, a variety of chemicals, or even some ingredients included in vaccines may effect the development of the disorder. We are the first center to examine the roles of a wide range of toxic chemicals, genetic predisposition, and the interplay between these two in altering brain development during early life and leading to abnormal social behavior in childrenTo learn more about the NIEHS/EPA Centers for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research program, please click on the following links: U.S. EPA Children’s Centers website (http://www.epa.gov/cehc) and NIEHS Children’s Center website: (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/translat/children/children.htm).

Center Directors

Isaac Pessah, Ph.D., Director – Center for Children’s Environmental Health
Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D., Deputy Director – Center for Children’s Environmental Health
David Amaral, Ph.D., Research Director – UC Davis MIND Institute :} http://www.who.int/ceh/en/

Children are our future, numbering over 2.3 billion worldwide (aged 0-19) and representing boundless potential. Child survival and development hinge on basic needs to support life; among these, a safe, healthy and clean environment is fundamental.

Children are exposed to serious health risks from environmental hazards. Over 40% of the global burden of disease attributed to environmental factors falls on children below five years of age, who account for only about 10% of the world’s population. Environmental risk factors often act in concert, and their effects are exacerbated by adverse social and economic conditions, particularly conflict, poverty and malnutrition. There is new knowledge about the special susceptibility of children to environmental risks: action needs to be taken to allow them to grow up and develop in good health, and to contribute to economic and social development.

  • Each year, at least three million children under the age of five die due to environment-related diseases.
  • Acute respiratory infections annually kill an estimated two million children under the age of five. As much as 60 percent of acute respiratory infections worldwide are related to environmental conditions.
  • Diarrhoeal diseases claim the lives of nearly two million children every year. Eighty to 90 percent of these diarrhoea cases are related to environmental conditions, in particular, contaminated water and inadequate sanitation.
  • Nearly one million children under the age of five died of malaria in 1998. Up to 90 percent of malaria cases are attributed to environmental factors

Our work on children’s environmental health is carried out in the following activity areas:

  • National profiles
  • CEH indicators
  • Capacity building
  • Guidelines, good practice and tools
  • Research

In addition, this web site provides access to a large number of publications, statistics, indicators, fact sheets on children’s environmental health, as well as links to other related WHO and non-WHO sites.

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We are creating a whole medical institution to treated our for the TOXICS we give them. What kind of sense does that make?

Screw The Environment – Humans were meant to pollute and they have the right to pollute

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I never thought I would be citing Kathryn Rem at the SJ-R for an environmental article. Don’t get me wrong she is a dandy writer, in the same league with Tim Landis (whom I regularly “borrow from”), but she usually writes a food column. I read it faithfully because I am a minor foodie, and she usually has cool things to say. In her Seeing Red About Green, she broke a story that I might have missed. Thanks Ms. Rem!

www.sj-r.com/features/x379998865/Kathryn–Rem-Seeing-red-about-the-green-movement

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This is the article that I think she based her article on:

http://industry.bnet.com/retail/2008/07/14/one-quarter-of-consumers-say-screw-the-environment/ 

 Retail Industry

Industry news and insights by Lisa EverittOne-Quarter of Consumers Say ‘Screw The Environment’Two new studies say 10-26 percent of shoppers are “Never Greens,” whose reactions to environmental claims ranges from apathy to outright anger.

Mintel International in Chicago coined the term “Never Green” to describe 10 percent of the shopper universe. A second study by The Shelton Group of Knoxville, Tenn., found that 26 percent of respondents were “hardcore skeptics,” mostly upper middle-class, conservative, middle-aged men.

 reporter Jim Edwards profiles William Coverley, a retired investment banker from Ohio, who just bought his 10th vehicle, a 2008 GMC Yukon XL that gets 14 miles per gallon.

“I don’t care about the environmental reasons and I’ll tell you why,” Coverley said. “All this stuff about carbon emissions, no one really knows about the output of the sun and yet it’s the single most important input behind global warming . . . Are the Chinese going to be environmentalists? Are the Indians going to be environmentalists? Are the Russians? I don’t think so.”

Edwards suggests studying your market carefully before launching green marketing, because emphasizing environmental claims may cost you the business of people like Coverley or Washington accountant Sally Herigstad. She bought organic produce by mistake at Fred Meyer and was dismayed to discover a recently deceased two-inch caterpillar in her steamed broccoli.

Shelton Group CEO Suzanne Shelton found that 46 percent of respondents felt “guilty, skeptical, irritated or unaffected by green issues,” and the same percentage put their comfort ahead of convenience and environmental concerns. The study was commissioned by Shelton Group client BP Solar.

Lisa Everitt

A Denver-based business writer, Lisa Everitt is a veteran of daily and weekly newspapers and trade magazines, including The Natural Foods Merchandiser, Rocky Mountain News, Inter@ctive Week, San Francisco Business Times, and the Peninsula Times Tribune. 

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So in the end that is what the environmental movement is up against.  The environmental Rape Crowd, proud that they are stealing from their grandchildren because their grandparents stole from them. If you think they aren’t vocal, you would be wrong.

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www.screw-the-environment.imgwebdesign.co.uk

www.deadbabyseals.gather.com

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2041643/posts

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODDDu25OG6M

http://screwtheenvironment.blogspot.com/

www.iammamahearmeroar.blogspot.com/2007/09/screw–environment.html

 http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/4/8/214522/1724

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Oil Falls to 121$$ A Barrel – We are all going to die, but it will take awhile and be mildly uncomfortable

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This is the last time I am going to post about nasty icky oil (that we should stop burning anyway) until it falls below 100$$ a barrel. We need the stuff for pharmecuticals, and parts for our satellites/space craft. Stuff that only oil can be used to make. Transportation ain’t one of them and we need to quit using it for that. Oil will be below 100$$ a barrel by the end of August. All of the oil people should be freaking out because we used some 800,000 fewer barrels in May the USA and those kind of changes usually are permanent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices;_ylt=AshIG6iZs_taqFegOtxj5tOs0NUE

Oil hits 7-week low on demand worries, dollar gain 

By4 STEVENSON JACOBS, AP Business Writer 

NEW YORK – Oil prices tumbled to their lowest level in seven weeks Tuesday as a stronger dollar and beliefs that record prices are eroding the world’s thirst for energy sparked another dramatic sell-off

The drop — as much as $4 a barrel during the day — was a throwback to oil’s nosedive over the past two weeks and outweighed supply concerns touched off by a militant attack Monday on two Nigerian crude pipelines. It was oil’s seventh decline in the last 10 sessions.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell $1.89, or 1.52 percent, to $122.84 a barrel in early afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, prices fell to $120.42, the lowest level for a front-month contract since June 10; they have now fallen more than $25 from their trading high of $147.27, reached July 11.

More concerns that crude’s run-up over the past year has pushed prices to unsustainable levels fed Monday’s decline. The U.S. Transportation Department said Monday that U.S. drivers logged 9.6 billion fewer vehicle miles in May — or 3.7 percent — compared to the same period last year, the biggest drop ever for the historically busy summer driving month.

And demand for oil in the U.S. — the world’s thirstiest consumer — continues to fall, dropping by 891,000 barrels per day in May compared the same month a year ago, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said Monday.

“We’re seeing both statistical and anecdotal evidence of very rapidly weakening demand picture,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill.

The declines accelerated after oil briefly dipped below $122, a key resistance level that triggered technical selling by computers programed to dump oil contracts once prices fall below a certain threshold. The next technical level traders are watching is $117.

“I think we could see $117 a barrel in a one-week time frame, and this market could eventually get to $100,” Ritterbusch said.

Also weighing on prices was a sharply stronger dollar compared to the euro, which made commodities less attractive to investors who have bought oil futures as a hedge against inflation and weakness in the U.S. currency.

The euro bought $1.5557 compared with $1.5752 late Monday in New York.

“It looks like oil is selling off today with the very, very strong dollar and nothing to drive it higher. Quiet seems to be bearish these days,” said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.

In a further sign high prices are curbing Americans’ consumption for fuel, retail gas prices fell further below the $4-a-gallon mark. The average price of a regular gas fell 1.7 cents to $3.941, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Prices Information Service and Wright Express.

Monday’s attack in Nigeria targeted two pipelines believed to be owned by a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and was the latest in a two-year campaign of attacks on the country’s oil industry. Shell said a pipeline had been damaged in attacks and that some crude production had been shut down to prevent the oil from spilling into the environment.

The oil company said Tuesday it may not be able to fulfill some oil-export contracts because of the damage. Shell didn’t specify how much oil production was cut by the attack or how long repairs would take.
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 http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-34728620080729

‘Abnormal’ oil prices could fall to$80-OPEC pres

 By Muklis Ali

JAKARTA (Reuters) – OPEC should not consider cutting production after oil’s steep two-week decline as markets are now balanced, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said on Tuesday, adding that prices could yet fall another $50 a barrel.

Khelil, who is also Algeria’s oil minister, said oil prices could fall to $70 to $80 in the long-term, if the U.S. dollar continued to strengthen and geopolitical anxieties eased.

“The price today is abnormal at $123 a barrel,” said Khelil, speaking to reporters on a visit to Jakarta to meet Indonesia’s energy minister.

He did not elaborate, but OPEC ministers have said repeatedly that they believe the surge in oil prices is not being driven by a shortage of supply.

Asked if OPEC members should cut supply if oil prices continue to decline, he said: “No, I don’t think so, why should they cut production? They always want to make sure there is good supply and demand and to satisfy the demand.”

U.S. oil prices have fallen by $22 from a record high above $147 a barrel earlier this month amid growing concerns that high prices and slowing economic growth are causing a decline in demand, but prices are still up 30 percent on the year.

“We are not worried about any price, because we don’t decide the price. We just meet the demand,” he said.

Khelil said he did not see any signs of demand destruction from high prices. 
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Solar Water Heaters – Why not it’s free

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Not the system the Sun. There are so many Solar Water Heaters available now that it is embarressing. Anyone who owns their own home and doesn’t install one is an Energy Hog. Tankless water heater owners are given a pass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_hot_water

Solar hot water

 Solar Hot Water refers to water heated by solar energy. Solar heating systems are generally composed of solar thermal collectors, a fluid system to move the heat from the collector to its point of usage, and a reservoir or tank for heat storage and subsequent use. The systems may be used to heat water for home or business use, for swimming pools, underfloor heating or as an energy input for space heating and cooling and industrial applications.

In many climates, a solar heating system can provide a very high percentage (50% to 75%) of domestic hot water energy. In many northern European countries, combined hot water and space heating systems (solar combisystems) are used to provide 15 to 25% of home heating energy.

In the southern regions of Africa like Zimbabwe, solar water heaters have been gaining popularity, thanks to the Austrian and other EU funded projects that are promoting more environmentally friendly water heating solutions.

Residential solar thermal installations can be subdivided into two kinds of systems: compact and pumped systems. Both typically include an auxiliary energy source (electric heating element or connection to a gas or fuel oil central heating system) that is activated when the water in the tank falls below a minimum temperature setting such as 50 °C. Hence, hot water is always available. The combination of solar hot water heating and using the back-up heat from a wood stove chimney to heat water[2] can enable a hot water system to work all year round in northern climates without the supplemental heat requirement of a solar hot water system being met with fossil fuels or electricity.

Evacuated tube collector

Evacuated tube collectors are made of a series of modular tubes, mounted in parallel, whose number can be added to or reduced as hot water delivery needs change. This type of collector consists of rows of parallel transparent glass tubes, each of which contains an absorber tube (in place of the absorber plate to which metal tubes are attached in a flat-plate collector). The tubes are covered with a special light-modulating coating. In an evacuated tube collector, sunlight passing through an outer glass tube heats the absorber tube contained within it. The absorber can either consist of copper (glass-metal) or specially-coated glass tubing (glass-glass). The glass-metal evacuated tubes are typically sealed at the manifold end, and the absorber is actually sealed in the vacuum, thus the fact that the absorber and heat pipe are dissimilar metals creates no corrosion problems. The better quality systems use foam insulation in the manifold. low iron glass is used in the higher quality evacuated tubes manufacture.

Lower quality evacuated tube systems use the glass coated absorber. Due to the extreme temperature difference of the glass under stagnation temperatures, the glass sometimes shatters. The glass is a lower quality boron silicate material and the aluminum absorber and copper heat pipe are slid down inside the open top end of the tube. Moisture entering the manifold around the sheet metal casing is eventually absorbed by the glass fibre insulation and then finds its way down into the tubes. This leads to corrosion at the absorber/heat pipe interface area, also freeze ruptures of the tube itself if the tube fills sufficiently with water.

Two types of tube collectors are distinguished by their heat transfer method: the simplest pumps a heat transfer fluid (water or antifreeze) through a U-shaped copper tube placed in each of the glass collector tubes. The second type uses a sealed heat pipe that contains a liquid that vapourises as it is heated. The vapour rises to a heat-transfer bulb that is positioned outside the collector tube in a pipe through which a second heat transfer liquid (the water or antifreeze) is pumped. For both types, the heated liquid then circulates through a heat exchanger and gives off its heat to water that is stored in a storage tank (which itself may be kept warm partially by sunlight). Evacuated tube collectors heat to higher temperatures, with some models providing considerably more solar yield per square metre than flat panels. However, they are more expensive and fragile than flat panels. The high stagnation temperatures can cause antifreeze to break down, so careful consideration must be used if selecting this type of system in temperate climates.

For a given absorber area, evacuated tubes can maintain their efficiency over a wide range of ambient temperatures and heating requirements. The absorber area only occupied about 50% of the collector panel on early designs, however this has changed as the technology has advanced to maximize the absorption area. In extremely hot climates, flat-plate collectors will generally be a more cost-effective solution than evacuated tubes. When employed in arrays of 20 to 30 or more, the efficient but costly evacuated tube collectors have net benefit in winter and also give real advantage in the summer months. They are well suited to extremely cold ambient temperatures and work well in situations of consistently low-light. They are also used in industrial applications, where high water temperatures or steam need to be generated. Properly designed evacuated tubes have a life expectancy of over 25 years which greatly adds to their value.

200px-evacuated_tube_collector.gif

Or you could make your own:

www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/1979-09-01/A-Homemade-Solar–Water–Heater.asp

This is what the Chinese buy:

 http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/cninterma/product-detailxoHJaYFbJrhW/China-Solar-Collector-SCS-.html

Or you could Pay Alot for it:

http://solarroofs.com/

There is a lot out there:

 www.firemountainsolar.com/solarhotwater.html

www.honglesolar.com/SolarWaterHeater.htm

www.sunheat.com

http://talensun.com/procuct.asp

www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/Plumbing/solar–water–heaters

www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm

www.solarpanelsplus.com

www.solarenergy.com

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Energy Independence Day – Stop burning things up.

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Community Energy Systems’ mission is to educate the public regarding energy conservation, energy efficiency, and the prudent and fair operation of utility companies. We believe that mission requires both intellectual and practical applications.

Energy Independence
Every July 4rth it is long over due that the people of Illinois declare their Energy Independence from the utility companies that prey on them and from the green house gases they emit.Everyday the Earth is bombarded by in excess of 27 gigawatts of power by the sun. This is after the Earth captures enough to grow all of the food to feed everyone on the planet. This is after the earth captures enough to warm the oceans. Yet the 27 gigawatts that we allow to be reflected away everyday is 7 gigawatts more than we humans consume in a single day. Instead the utility companies burn coal more desperately everyday.Everyday the Earth is orbited by the moon, which generates untold gigawatts of tidal power. These sources are so powerful that the first attempts to harness them in the Hudson River crumpled the turbines steel fins like so many sheets of tissue paper. This tidal power causes a drop in water levels in some extreme cases as much as 26 feet everyday. This generates more than enough power for a state like Illinois for an entire day. Instead the utility companies burn uranium more desperately everyday.

Everyday the Earth itself generates enough energy to power the state of Illinois. The Earth generates enough rain to power Illinois using smart hydroelectric systems. The Earth generates enough wind power to feed Illinois’ thirst for electricity everyday. Indeed when harvested properly the Earth generates enough geothermal energy to power Illinois everyday. And yet everyday the utility companies burn natural gas more desperately. So desperately that they are proposing huge Liquid Natural Gas ports up and down our coasts which will put peoples lives in jeopardy.

It is time for Illinois to stand up for its Energy Independence Day. Dig and Burn is no longer an earth acceptable way to generate energy. Burning the planet up is not the answer for Illinois’ future.