Category Archives: scarcity

The Report Says We Can Be Done With Fossil Fuels In 80 Years – My question is do we have that much time?

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The answer is definitely NOT:

 http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn15043-2090-is-the-deadline-for-the-end-of-fossil-fuel-use.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

World can halt fossil fuel use by 2090

  • 12:13 27 October 2008
  • NewScientist.com news service
  • New Scientist staff and Reuters

The world could eliminate fossil fuel use by 2090, saving $18 trillion in future fuel costs and creating a $360 billion industry that provides half of the world’s electricity, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday.

The 210-page study [pdf] is one of few reports – even by lobby groups – to look in detail at how energy use would have to be overhauled to meet the toughest scenarios for curbing greenhouse gases outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“Renewable energy could provide all global energy needs by 2090,” according to the study, entitled “Energy (R)evolution.” EREC represents renewable energy industries and trade and research associations in Europe.

A more radical scenario could eliminate coal use by 2050 if new power generation plants shifted quickly to renewables.

Solar power, biomass such as biofuels or wood, geothermal energy and wind could be the leading energies by 2090 in a shift from fossil fuels blamed by the IPCC for stoking global warming.

The total energy investments until 2030, the main period studied, would come to $14.7 trillion, according to the study. By contrast, the International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises rich nations, foresees energy investments of just $11.3 trillion to 2030, with a bigger stress on fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with ex-US Vice President Al Gore, called Monday’s study “comprehensive and rigorous.”

Dangerous change

“Even those who may not agree with the analysis presented would, perhaps, benefit from a deep study of the underlying assumptions,” Pachauri wrote in a foreword to the report.

EREC and Greenpeace said a big energy shift was needed to avoid “dangerous” climate change, defined by the European Union and many environmental groups as a temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius since before the Industrial Revolution.

The report urged measures such as a phase-out of subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy, “cap and trade” systems for greenhouse gas emissions, legally binging targets for renewable energies and tough efficiency standards for buildings and vehicles.

The report said renewable energy markets were booming with turnover almost doubling in 2007 from 2006 to more than $70 billion. It said renewables could more than double their share of world energy supplies to 30% by 2030 and reach 50% by 2050.

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But it will only cost 17 trillion dollars:

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/21375/1066/

 Sven Teske, with Greenpeace and co-author of the report, stated, “Unlike other energy scenarios that promote energy futures at the cost of the climate, our energy revolution scenario shows how to save money and maintain global economic development without fuelling catastrophic climate change.”Teske added, “All we need to kick start this plan is bold energy policy from world leaders.” [EREC]Teske concluded, “Strict efficiency standards make sound economic sense and dramatically slow down rising global energy demand. The energy saved in industrialised countries will make space for increased energy use in developing economies. With renewable energy growing four-fold not only in the electricity sector, but also in the heating and transport sectors, we can still cut the average carbon emissions per person from today?s four tonnes to around one tonne by 2050.” [EREC]

In the foreword to the report, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri wrote, “Even those who may not agree with the analysis presented would, perhaps, benefit from a deep study of the underlying assumptions,” [EREC]

Dr. Pachauri, who is the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former-U.S. Vice President Al Gore,

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For more links:

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49Q2I820081027

Oil Dives Below 63$$ A Barrel – We are all going to die!

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Now we shall see how this game played by a few very wealthy Americans plays out. There was a reason Glass-Steagel was put in place in the 1930’s The belief was that some commodities were too important to ALL Americans.  Food, housing and fuel were deemed the “Basics of Life”.  So the market was regulated to make sure people could not gamble on those commodities futures. Well as we have seen with Housing. The genius of Wall Street came up with an unregulated way to get around the prohibitions in the housing market. When they got bored with that, and the US dollar plunged they decided to buy Long in the Futures Market (something prohibited until 1999) and prices skyrocketed. Well to every up THERE IS A DOWN. As the Saudi’s warned that DOWN could be way down. We could have oil fluctuating between 150$$ and 40$$ a barrel for the next few years. I think at some point in those wild swings Industry comes to a stop.

These people are just spoiled rotten filthy rich dummies. They all should be in jail.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081022/business/oil_prices 

Price of oil falls more than

$5 below US$67 on

US recession fears

Wed Oct 22, 3:26 PM

     

 

By Madlen Read, The Associated Press

NEW YORK – Oil prices tumbled below US$67 a barrel to 16-month lows Wednesday after the government reported big increases in U.S. fuel supplies – more evidence that the economic downturn is drying up energy demand.

The Energy Information Administration said crude inventories jumped by 3.2 million barrels last week, above the 2.9 million barrel increase expected by analysts surveyed by energy research firm Platts. Gasoline inventories rose by 2.7 million barrels last week, and inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, rose by 2.2 million barrels.

Over the last four weeks, the EIA said, motor gasoline demand was down 4.3 per cent from the same period last year. Distillate fuel demand was down 5.8 per cent, and jet fuel demand was down 9.2 per cent.

“The main theme here that’s driving this market into new low ground is demand deterioration,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates. “As we begin to see evidence that demand is levelling – it doesn’t have to increase, just level – then we can start discussing a possible price bottom. But it appears premature at this point.”

In mid-afternoon trading, light, sweet crude for December delivery fell $5.52 to $66.66 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The last time a front-month contract traded below $67 a barrel was June 2007.

The energy markets have also been weighed down by the weak stock market, as investors grow more pessimistic about how long it will take the economy to recover from the current global financial turmoil.

On Tuesday, DuPont, Sun Microsystems and Texas Instruments reported disappointing earnings and bleak forecasts, sending the Dow Jones industrials average down 2.5 per cent. The Dow was down another four per cent by Wednesday afternoon following more gloomy reports from the soon-to-be acquired bank Wachovia Corp., drugmaker Merck & Co., and insurer Travelers Cos.

“Oil is now highly correlated with the stock market,” said Clarence Chu, a trader with market maker Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. 

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Americans are not the only one worried:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-10/17/content_10206571.htm 

Crude futures dip below $70 on demand concerns
www.chinaview.cn 2008-10-17 06:45:59   Print
    NEW YORK, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) — Crude futures dipped below 70 U.S. dollars a barrel on demand concerns Thursday after the U.S. government reported a unexpected rise in crude stockpile.    Light, sweet crude for November delivery plunged 4.69 dollars to settle at 69.85 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after hitting 68.57 dollars, a level not seen since June 27, 2007.    Crude prices have declined more than half its July record high of 147.27 dollars a barrel due to investors’ increasing concerns that a global economic recession could curd energy consumption.

    Demand concerns

    “The price of a barrel of oil continued to decline today as fears of declining demand among market participants persist,” Wall Street Strategies’ senior research analyst Conley Turner told Xinhua.

    The weakening global economy and turmoil in the credit markets have clouded the outlook for world oil consumption.

    The Philadelphia Federal Reserve said regional manufacturing conditions weakened in October. The bank’s regional index came in at a negative 37.5 compared with a positive 3.8 for September.

    On Monday, Goldman Sachs cut its year-end forecast of oil to 70dollars a barrel from 115 dollars and lowered its price outlook for the end of 2009 to 107 dollars from 125 dollars per barrel amid global financial crisis.

    “The fact of the matter is that demand destruction is taking place in the United States as for the rest of the G7, for that matter as these economies teeter on the brink of recession,” said Turner.

    “While there may be some ebbing in the demand pressures out of India and China, it not going to be as much as what is occurring in the Unite States,” he added.

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 Even the Saudis and the Russians are concerned:

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http://bh.heraldinteractive.com/business/general/view/2008_10_22_Oil_falls_below__70_on_US_recession_fears/

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about 40 percent of global oil supply, has signaled it plans to announce an output quota reduction at an emergency meeting Friday in Vienna.

But investors are skeptical about how much of the cut will be implemented, given the history of OPEC members exceeding their production quotas.

“There should be a short-term boost to prices when they announce a cut on Friday,” Chu said. “But OPEC production has always been above their quotas, so there’s a credibility problem.”

Crude oil is down 53 percent from its peak of $147.27 reached in mid-July.

A stronger dollar this week has also pushed oil prices lower. Investors often buy commodities like crude oil as an inflation hedge when the dollar weakens and sell those investments when the dollar rises.

The euro fell below $1.28 for the first time in nearly two years on Wednesday. The 15-nation euro dipped as low as $1.2736 in morning trading before rising slightly to $1.2873, down from $1.3003 late Tuesday in New York.

Investors are also watching for signs of slowing U.S. demand in the weekly oil inventories report to be released Wednesday from the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration. The petroleum supply report was expected to show that oil stocks rose 2.9 million barrels last week, according to the average of analysts’ estimates in a survey by energy information provider Platts.

The Platts survey also showed that analysts projected gasoline inventories rose 3.0 million barrels and distillates went up 600,000 barrels last week.

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The Russians are threatening to go along. What if they were actually to join OPEC! Way to go Wall Street geniuses. Bravo! 

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 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/oilprices/3252279/Opec-to-cut-oil-supply-by-1.5m-barrels-a-day.html

Members of the Opec oil producers’

cartel have decided to cut production

by 1.5m barrels a day from November

in a bid to stem a collapse in prices.

By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor
Last Updated: 4:14PM BST 24 Oct 2008

This latest Opec meeting, brought forward from next month because of the severity of the slide in prices, comes as Russia shows increasing interest in cooperating with the organisation.

Russia, the world’s second largest oil producer after Saudi, has traditionally had representatives at Opec meetings but has never publicly tracked the organisations cuts and increases in production quotas.

But on Wednesday Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said his country may build a margin of spare oil production capacity as a means of influencing prices. However, he said Russia would not join Opec.

Nick Day, chief executive of the risk management consultancy Diligence, warns that any move by Russia to cooperate with Opec is fraught with political dangers. “One of Russia’s objectives might be to counter America’s influence on Saudi Arabia’s control of Opec. You could see Russia driving a wedge between Opec, with support from Iran and Venezuela.” He believes that if Russia’s oil revenues are reduced, Moscow might try to recoup money by raising the price of gas it exports to Europe.

Opec comprises 12 members: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. The thirteenth, Indonesia, is due to leave the organisation at the end of 2008.

Vampire Power Drain – Why the world thinks we are Power Hogs

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I just unplugged the microwave, our coffee pot, a battery recharger for our Dewalt power tool kit and turned off the old timey record turntable/radio/tape player that was on “standby”. I just saved enough power in one day to power a hut in Africa or a Southern Asia for a month! Americans don’t get the fact that they waste, waste, waste. Worse then that we are role models for the world. The big 5 of the future – Brazil, South Africa, India, China and Australia all want to be like us. If they succeed humanity could cease to exist.

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_consumer/4/what-s-wasting-energy-in-your-home-right-now.html

 What’s wasting energy in your home right now?

By Lori Bongiorno Posted Thu Oct 9, 2008 9:34am PDT

   783 votes

Coffe maker (iStockPhoto)

Virtually all of your electronics are sucking up energy even if they’re turned off or not being used. Some of the biggest culprits include your TV, computer, and printer. Even your electric toothbrush is drawing energy when it’s plugged in and sitting idle. 

On its own, the “vampire power” used by one device might seem miniscule, but collectively it amounts to more than $4 billion a year of wasted energy here in the United States. What’s more, the Department of Energy says that about 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off.  

The easiest (and most obvious) thing you can do is get up right now and unplug whatever you’re not using. Candidates include:

  • Your hand-held vacuum in its charging station
  • Power drills
  • Automatic coffee makers
  • The VCR you haven’t used in nearly a decade
  • The TV that’s collecting dust in the guest room
  • The empty refrigerator in the garage

For the slightly more ambitious, buy a power strip at your local hardware store. Yes, it takes a little time up-front to plug everything into it, but you’ll more than make up the time when you can cut all power with just the flip of a switch.

Clamping down on vampire power is one of the easiest ways to save money on your electric bill (about 5 percent a month) and pump less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It may not seem like much, but it all adds up!

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life, is available on Yahoo! Shopping.

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

For systems that provide auxiliary power, see Emergency power system.

“Phantom load” redirects here. For microphone powering technique, see Phantom power.

Standby power, also called vampire power, phantom load, or leaking electricity, refers to the electric power consumed by electronic appliances while they are switched off or in a standby mode. A very common “electricity vampire” is a power adapter which has no power-off switch. Some such devices offer remote controls and digital clock features to the user, while other devices, such as power adapters for laptop computers and other electronic devices, consume power without offering any features.

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I love the leaking electricity phrase – what it falls on the ground and makes a puddle? 

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The British Government’s 2006 Energy Review found that standby modes on electronic devices account for 8% of all British domestic power consumption.  A similar study in France in 2000 found that standby power accounted for 7% of total residential consumption.  Further studies have since come to similar conclusions in other developed countries, including the Netherlands, Australia and Japan. Some estimates put the proportion of consumption due to standby power as high as 13%.

:]

To counter that is this little fellow. Unfortunately he doesn’t test anything with a CLOCK or LIGHT Display which do use power when turned off. Just think about the juice we use on clocks alone! Every house hold in America no matter how poor has an alarm clock that uses electricity. Is this necessary?

:]

http://theonda.org/articles/2008/03/09/mythbusting-vampire-power-suckers 

Fast on the heels of my energy-on-the-brain week in San Diego, I decided to run some experiments with my recently acquired Kill-a-Watt to debunk some myths about consumer electronics and power consumption. What follows is by no means exhaustive, but I figured I would write it up as it has frequently been the topic of lunchtime conversation at the office— with people arguing both sides of each argument as though it were politics and not simply electricity 101.

The basic statement that I was trying to confirm or disprove was that your computer/cellphone/ipod/etc. charger sucks electricity even when it is not connected to a device. Savvy environmental marketers have called this the “vampire effect” or the problem of “phantom power,” and truth be told, after I first heard the term, I could never look at one of those cuddly black bricks the same.

KillawattSo I went around the house looking for as many bricks as possible, putting my Kill-a-Watt between them and the wall source of power and then connecting and disconnecting their associated devices. An aside: For those that don’t know what a Kill-a-Watt is (pictured here), it’s one of several cheap gizmos you can buy to plug between a given appliance and the wall to measure how much power is being consumed. I’m not quite sure how it works, but quickly testing it on both 60 and 100 Watt lightbulbs convinced me that it worked as billed.

The result: for each of the 13 bricks that I tried, ranging from a wireless phone charger to a MacBook Pro power adapter, the vampire/phantom thing is complete BS. The moment you disconnect the associated device the Watts measured on the Kill-a-Watt go right down to zero. Interestingly enough, this is equally true for low wattage chargers like the iPhone one (~1-2W while charging). It makes sense— after all I’m fairly certain that a fairly cheap circuit on the power adapter can get a good sense of load and just cut the whole power supply off if nothing is connected. As a funny aside, it seems that there is a whole category of “smart powerstrips” that are sold to protect the user against this bunk phantom power thing.

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People Just Don’t Get Why We Have To Stop Burning The World Up – Stop please stop

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This is so sad it Makes The World Cry:

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn14976-arctic-air-temperatures-hit-record-highs.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news6_head_dn14976

Arctic air temperatures

hit record highs

  • 13:11 17 October 2008
  • NewScientist.com news service
  • New Scientist staff and Reuters

Autumn air temperatures have climbed to record levels in the Arctic due to major losses of sea ice as the region suffers more effects from a warming trend dating back decades, according to a new report.

The annual report issued by researchers at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other experts is the latest to paint a dire picture of the impact of climate change in the Arctic.

It found that autumn air temperatures are at a record 5 °C above normal in the Arctic because of the major loss of sea ice in recent years, which allows more solar heating of the ocean.

That warming of the air and ocean impacts land and marine life and cuts the amount of winter sea ice that lasts into the following summer, says the report.

The report adds that surface ice is melting in Greenland and that wild reindeer, or caribou, herds appear to be declining in numbers.

Domino effect

“Changes in the Arctic show a domino effect from multiple causes more clearly than in other regions,” says James Overland, an oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle and one of the authors of the report.

“It’s a sensitive system and often reflects changes in relatively fast and dramatic ways,” he says.

Researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, part of the University of Colorado, recently reported that, this summer, Arctic sea ice melted to its second-lowest level ever.

The 2008 season, those researchers said, strongly reinforces a 30-year downward trend in Arctic ice extent – 34% below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000, but 9% above the record low set in 2007.

Last year was the warmest on record in the Arctic, continuing a region-wide warming trend dating to the mid-1960s. Most experts blame climate change on human activities spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

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Then there is this longer piece in The Independent;

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http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/record-22c-temperatures-in-arctic-heatwave-394196.html 

Record 22C temperatures in Arctic heatwave

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Wednesday, 3 October 2007

The high temperatures on the island caused catastrophic mudslides as the permafrost on hillsides melted, Professor Lamoureux said. “The landscape was being torn to pieces, literally before our eyes.”

Other parts of the Arctic also experienced higher-than-normal temperatures, which indicate that the wider polar region may have experienced its hottest summer on record, according to Walt Meir of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

“It’s been warm, with temperatures about 3C or 4C above normal for June, July and August, particularly to the north of Siberia where the temperatures have reached between 4C and 5C above average,” Dr Meir said.

Unusually clear skies over the Arctic this summer have caused temperatures to rise. More sunlight has exacerbated the loss of sea ice, which fell to a record low of 4.28 million square kilometres (1.65 million square miles), some 39 per cent below the long-term average for the period 1979 to 2000. Dr Meir said: “While the decline of the ice started out fairly slowly in spring and early summer, it accelerated rapidly in July. By mid-August, we had already shattered all previous records for ice extent.”

An international team of scientists on board the Polar Stern, a research ship operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, also felt the effects of an exceptionally warm Arctic summer. The scientists had anticipated that large areas of the Arctic would be covered by ice with a thickness of about two metres, but found that it had thinned to just one metre.

Instead of breaking through thicker ice at an expected speed of between 1 and 2 knots, the Polar Stern managed to cruise at 6 knots through thin ice and sometimes open water.

“We are in the midst of a phase of dramatic change in the Arctic,” said Ursula Schauer, the chief scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, who was on board the Polar Stern expedition. “The ice cover of the North Polar Sea is dwindling, the ocean and the atmosphere are becoming steadily warmer, the ocean currents are changing,” she said.

One scientist came back from the North Pole and reported that it was raining there, said David Carlson, the director of International Polar Year, the effort to highlight the climate issues of the Arctic and Antarctic. “It makes you wonder whether anyone has ever reported rain at the North Pole before.”

Another team of scientists monitoring the movements of Ayles Ice Island off northern Canada reported that it had broken in two far earlier than expected, a further indication of warmer temperatures. And this summer, for the first time, an American sailing boat managed to traverse the North-west Passage from Nova Scotia to Alaska, a voyage usually made by icebreakers. Never before has a sail-powered vessel managed to get straight through the usually ice-blocked sea passage.

Inhabitants of the region are also noticing a significant change as a result of warmer summers, according to Shari Gearheard, a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre. “People who live in the region are noticing changes in sea ice. The earlier break-up and later freeze-up affect when and where people can go hunting, as well as safety for travel,” she said.

Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, said: “We may see an ice-free Arctic Ocean in summer within our lifetimes. The implications… are disturbing.”

The North-west Passage: an ominous sign

The idea of a North-west Passage was born in 1493, when Pope Alexander VI divided the discovered world between Spain and Portugal, blocking England, France and Holland from a sea route to Asia. As it became clear a passage across Europe was impossible, the ambitious plan was hatched to seek out a route through north-western waters, and nations sent out explorers. When, in the 18th century, James Cook reported that Antarctic icebergs produced fresh water, the view that northern waters were not impossibly frozen was encouraged. In 1776 Cook himself was dispatched by the Admiralty with an Act promising a £20,000 prize, but he failed to push through a route north of Canada. His attempt preceded several British expeditions including a famous Victorian one by Sir John Franklin in 1845. Finally, in 1906 Roald Amundsen led the first trip across the passage to Alaska, and since then a number of fortified ships have followed. On 21 August this year, the North-west Passage was opened to ships not armed with icebreakers for the first time since records began.

John McCain’s Energy Policies – The “drill here, drill now” crowd looks pretty foolish right about now

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Even Bill O’Reilly agrees with me:

www.billoreilly.com

The rapid rise in Oil Prices and the concurrent rise in gasoline prices was caused by speculators in the oil market, reductions in gas refinement, the drop in the dollar value because of speculators, and China stock piling diesel fuel for the Olympics. There is no way that it was remotely related to supply and demand. Demand fell as the price climbed. Even conservative estimates say that so far this year Americans have driven 50 billion miles fewer than just last year.

Even worse than that is the fact that the Congress conceded the point to an angry electorate and passed a bill expanding drilling. That inspite of the fact that there is no oil in ANWR or along most of the continental shelf, there will be no bids on the leases if they are ever put up for sale, and we don’t have any oil rigs to drill there anyway. Every last rigg in the WORLD is spoken for right now.

So given all of that why is John McCain still touting the policy below?:

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/17671aa4-2fe8-4008-859f-0ef1468e96f4.htm

John McCain Will Commit Our Country To Expanding Domestic Oil Exploration. The current federal moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf stands in the way of energy exploration and production. John McCain believes it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use. There is no easier or more direct way to prove to the world that we will no longer be subject to the whims of others than to expand our production capabilities. We have trillions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves in the U.S. at a time we are exporting hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas to buy energy. This is the largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind. We should keep more of our dollars here in the U.S., lessen our foreign dependency, increase our domestic supplies, and reduce our trade deficit – 41% of which is due to oil imports. John McCain proposes to cooperate with the states and the Department of Defense in the decisions to develop these resources.

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Shouldn’t we be saying “anywhere but here, anytime but now”? Like New Orleanians say about hurricanes.
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Rammed Earth Homes – Simple ways that people used in the past to build their house that are being revived today

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If folks just used their common snse and the materials around them the USA could have low energy consuming elegant housing:

http://www.rammedearthhomes.com/

 rotator.jpg

Offering:

  • Passive-solar design/build
  • Rammed earth wall construction for homes, businesses, gardens, art projects.
  • Passive-solar-design and rammed-earth-technical consultation with architects, engineers and owner-builders.
  • Rammit Yourself workshops. 

 Work continues on our home in 2008. If you would like to participate in a workshop format during this process, please, in an email to Julie@RammedEarthHomes.com 

state your first, second and third choices for workshop dates. We will try to compile workshops that accommodate dates within those choices.

If you would like to discuss possible dates, please call Julie at 520.896.3393. Reservations for chosen dates may be made by phone.

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This site is so huge. It contains 12s of books. If you want to build a house, this site is a must visit.

 http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/rammedearth.htm

 buildtodaylogo.jpg

Rammed Earth

Ramming earth to create walls is at least as old as the Great Wall of China. It is really quite similar to adobe and cob techniques, in that the soil is mostly clay and sand. The difference is that the material is compressed or tamped into place, usually with forms that create very flat vertical surfaces. Modern rammed earth typically utilizes heavy mechanized equipment to move and compress the material . The walls are normally at least a foot thick to give enough bulk to be stable and provide the thermal mass for comfort. It is best to apply insulating material to the outside of the building to keep the interior temperature constant. The interior surface can be finished in a variety of ways, from natural oil to more standard surfaces. Rammed earth houses tend to have a very solid, quiet feeling inside.

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This site is also extremely helpful:

http://www.diyrammedearth.com/

Do It Yourself


Rammed Earth

We are Bill & Stephen Betzen, a father and son team who started the planning process in 2004 to build a rammed earth home in Dallas, Texas by 2009.  We are on schedule. We want to share research we have done and make connections with similarly interested Do It Yourself (DIY) people also interested in rammed earth construction and benefits.

Our home is planned to be a 2400 sq ft, 2 story home with a covered balcony and porch surrounding the home. The ground floor earthen walls will be 2 ft thick with 18″ thick walls above the second floor. The goal is a home that will be as cool as possible in the hottest Dallas summer. With a home fully surrounded by both a shaded porch and a shaded balcony, as well as many trees, we hope the worst Dallas summer sun will never heat the thermal mass of the rammed earth walls. Combined with a ventilated, reflective metal roof over insulation, we hope that annual air-conditioning needs will be greatly reduced if not totally eliminated.

Our research shows rammed earth construction to be the most simple, environmentally responsible method for building the thermal shell of a home.  It will be a strong, quiet, healthy, termite-free, fire-resistant, comfortable home, one weighing 300+ tons and lasting many generations. It will save thousands of dollars annually in utility and maintenance costs along the way. 

Stephen’s mother and maternal Hungarian ancestors were born in, built, and lived in rammed earth homes for hundreds, if not thousands of years. They speak fondly of the quiet, year-around comfort of their rammed earth homes. We will simply add about 3-5% cement to the mixture, with a reflective, ventilated roof, and extra shade for the Dallas heat.

Continue to explore what is already online about rammed earth with www.google.com or with some of the following links, including the web ring at the bottom of the page linking with similar web pages.

  1. At http://www.rammedearthhomes.com/ you will find Quentin Branch’s pages describing the work he does in Arizona with rammed earth.

  2. You can find research done in 2004 in Del Rio Texas relating to the cooling qualities of rammed earth in an article linked online at http://www.toolbase.org/techinv/techResources.aspx?technologyID=144. It is the research by John J. Morony titled “Logged Data for Heat Wave, Del Rio, Texas, 31 May – 2 June 2004.”  It shows the superior ability of rammed earth to stay cool, even in direct sun in a heat wave, when compared to cement brick or adobe construction.  With our plans we need to know what happens when you keep these walls in the shade.

  3. How To Build a Rammed Earth House is a 1973 article published in Mother Earth, written by John O McMeekin about the home he had build 25 years earlier of rammed earth, and continued to live in at that time.  It appears he still lives there now but we are attempting to verify that at this time. His utility bills would be very interesting to compare with his neighbors in similar sized homes.

  4. Introduction to rammed earth is a web site from the UK and covers the basic facts about rammed earth.

  5. Steve Davis’ rammed earth house web pages with FAQ’s.

  6. Rogers Rammed Earth, a DIY home with photos.

  7. Green Home Building: Rammed Earth Questions and Answers by Leonard Jones, P.E.

  8. Contemporary Rammed Earth Homes Benefits

  9. Australia’s guide to environmentally sustainable homes – Passive Cooling – the basics!

  10. National Association of Home Builders Research Center web site

If you know of rammed earth building resources near Dallas please let us know.  We are searching

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San Antonio Makes Money Off Human Waste – That’s right TX city makes cash off doodoo

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http://cleantechnica.com/2008/09/11/san-antonio-generating-gas-from-sewage/

 San Antonio Generating Gas from Sewage

Written by Ariel Schwartz

Published on September 11th, 2008


san antonio

San Antonio, Texas is making use of its 140,000 tons of sewage generated each year to capture methane gas. The city’s utility board of trustees approved a contract this week to sell 900,000 cubic feet of natural gas derived from the sewage each day to Ameresco, a Massachusetts energy services company.

Though methane is a potent greenhouse gas, it has a variety of uses. The substance can be used for fuel in gas turbines or steam boilers, and it is also used as vehicle fuel in the form of compressed natural gas. Additionally, NASA is researching methane as a potential rocket fuel.

According to Steve Claus, the chief operating officer of the water system, San Antonio’s sewage generates 1.5 million cubic feet of gas each day—enough to fill seven commercial blimps or 1,250 tanker trucks. The facilities needed for the project will be ready in about two years.

San Antonio will get $250,000 a year for the methane—a sum that I hope will go towards more renewable energy efforts in the area.

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 http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0937395520080909

San Antonio residents produce about 140,000 tons a year of a substance gently referred to as “biosolids,” which can be reprocessed into natural gas, said Steve Clouse, chief operating officer of the city’s water system.

“You may call it something else,” Clouse said, but for area utilities, the main byproduct of human waste – methane gas – will soon be converted into natural gas to burn in their power plants.

 The private vendor will come onto the facility, construct some gas cleaning systems, remove the moisture, remove the carbon dioxide content, and then sell that gas on the open market,” Clouse said.

The gas will be sold to power generators, he said.

Some communities are using methane gas harvested from solid waste to power smaller facilities like sewage treatment plants, but San Antonio is the first to see large-scale conversion of methane gas from sewage into fuel for power generation, he said.

Following the agreement, more than 90 percent of materials flushed down the toilets and sinks of San Antonio will be recycled, he said. Liquid is now used for irrigation, many of the solids are made into compost, and now the methane gas will be recycled for power generation.

(Reporting by Jim Forsyth, Editing by Chris Baltimore and Lisa Shumaker)

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 http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/900732.html

The utility already sells for reuse a portion of the water that’s cleaned up at its wastewater treatment plants. It also has contracts to turn up to 80 percent of biosolids into compost that’s sold for use in yards and gardens.

“As far as we know, SAWS is the only city in the United States that has completed the renewable recyclable trifecta,” Clouse”.

Clouse said it will take 18 to 24 months for construction of facilities needed for the contract.

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Not so delicate post

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http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/12/in-praise-of-poop-3-san-antonio-harnesses-power-from-sewage-methane/

For this the third entry in the annals of excellent excrement (after cow and E. coli poop), we will have to travel deep down into the heart of Texas…and then even farther down into the sewers of San Antonio. So don your rubber body suit, gas mask, and sense of humor, for sewage is no longer just stuff to be dumped and forgotten.

No, San Antonio is out to prove that sewage, and specifically the methane that it gives off oh so (i.e., too) naturally without any bother or cost to us, can be used as a source of alternative fuel…I mean it is natural gas, after all.

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Green Transportation Conference – Who knew?

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Actually todays post is the result of the Feeling Lucky button  at Google. Even though this conference happened in the Bay Area on the Left Coast over 4 months ago. It still qualifies as a real cool site and a real cool idea.

http://greentransportation2008.com/

Green Transportation 2008

Choices for The Future

 Click here to see photos of the April 12, 2008 event!

Want to see the latest alternatives for getting around? Join us Saturday, April 12 for a day of education and entertainment. Featuring major manufacturers, innovators and nonprofits, all on one site.

Hosted by the Green Building Exchange in collaboration with Green Seed Radio (KTRB AM860).

Hosted by the Green Building Exchange in collaboration with Green Seed Radio (KTRB AM860).

www.greenbuildingexchange.com
Operating in Redwood City, the Green Building Exchange was created as a one-stop green business marketplace by founder Michael Schaeffer, who wanted to make the information and the process for sustainable building as accessible and affordable to consumers as conventional building. The Green Building Exchange facility offers products, services, education, networking and media, though a permanent tradeshow exhibit, a retail store for green design products, on-going classes and symposia, and state-of-the-art office and conference spaces. 

 Green Transportation 2008: Choices for the Future
Saturday, April 12th
9AM-5PM
Free tickets

Located at:
Green Building Exchange
305 Main Street
Redwood City, CA 94063

Green Transportation 2008: Choices for the Future is the first show of its kind in San Mateo County. Dedicated to accelerating the transition to a sustainable transportation.

 April 11th
Horizons in Transportation 10AM-2PM
Policymakers, fleet managers, transportation and planning experts and advocates, are invited to attend an educational event and show preview. Please contact Lindsay Germain for details.

April 17th
Vehicle Retrofit Workshop 7-8:30PM
Learn about high-efficiency plug-in hybrids and what it takes to convert your vehicle to plug-in electric. In this workshop, you will compare vehicle options and learn the basics of plug-in conversion. The workshop also outlines financial incentives and other alternative vehicle options. Co-instructed by the Electric Auto Association of Silicon Valley. For details and to register, visit http://plugIn.eventbrite.com.

Come learn what it takes to convert your vehicle. This multimedia workshop overviews the process of converting a gasoline car to an electric vehicle. You will hear tips on selecting a conversion-ready vehicle, compare many of the trade-offs of different conversion options, and receive links to resources and information. The workshop also outlines financial incentives and other alternative vehicle options.

Instructors:

Jerry Pohorsky is a Test Engineer at General Electric and President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Electric Auto Association.

Jerry found a shortcut and saved money by buying a used electric vehicle that needed new batteries. You can see the car here: http://www.evalbum.com/692. He now drives a factory built Toyota RAV 4 electric vehicle that is “head and shoulders” above most home conversions, though more expensive.

Doug Brentlinger is a retired machinist, formerly of Electro Automotive, a company that sells kits and parts for electric conversion projects. Doug also worked in the Quality Assurance department of Network General (now McAfee).

Doug has converted a small Dodge Rampage pickup truck from gasoline to electric power using readily available components.

His converted pickup is freeway-ready and the low-cost batteries can be recharged from any 120 volt outlet.

April 15th 

Vehicle Retrofit Workshop 

Learn what it takes to convert your vehicle to biofuel or electric. In this workshop, you will compare conversion options and learn the basics of vehicle conversion. The workshop also outlines financial incentives and other alternative vehicle options. For details and to register, visit www.greenbuildingexchange.com or RSVP to Lindsay Germain. 

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Sounds like a great time was had by all. I wonder if they will do it again in 2009? But when I click the Green Building Exchange I got this:  

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The Green Building Exchange is proud to announce that we are opening 2 new locations on the San Francisco Peninsula. We are opening a new massive facility in South San Francisco which will be our new headquarters. Our Redwood City location is moving down the street.

1 Chestnut Street
South San Francisco, CA 94080		 936 Main Street
Redwood City, CA 94063
Opening September 15th Opening October 6th

You can still contact us during this transition period by phone or email:

Main Office: 650-369-6200

Eco Design Resources: 650-369-5001

info@greenbuildingexchange.com

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So guess I’ll email to find out. I’ll will let you know if they tell me. 

Natural Gas Powered Cars Come To Springfield – Well not exactly..but T. Bone Picken’s commercials have.

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Iran is currently converting its entire surface transportation fleet to natural Gas so it can sell its oil and gasoline to the rest of the world. In a Theocracy and in an authoritarian country like Iran it is pretty easy to do. About half of Brazil’s much vaunted enthanol economy is actually run by natural gas as well. The stuff is cheap (in some parts of the world free) and relatively clean. Is Pickens trying to get richer. Heck yah. Anyway if they were serious about the idea they would quit jawin and make it happen. They would:

1. Put a natural gas dispenser in at least one gas station in everytown in America that has one.

2. Offer conversion kits for cars at a reasonable price, at a location with installation included. They could even offer your first tank of natural gas for free.

3. Begin the phase out of gasoline despensers at gas stations one at a time and replace them with natural gas dispensers until they are gone.

4. They damn well better recycle all the gasoline pump parts and plan on the removal of the gasoline storage tanks.

There would still be a small gasoline market and some people would refuse to convert. There would be some explosions and other mishaps along the way. Humans are primates after all. But as long as everyone looks at the ground and rubs their big toe in the dirt…Well lawdedah.

If they were really serious they would come to your house, install a fueling station and leave. Something akin to, “Go ahead, I dare you to use natural gas”!

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/ngv.htm

How Natural-gas Vehicles Work

by William Harris

Kermit the Frog once said, “It’s not that easy bein’ green.” Although he wasn’t referring to cars, his observation seems particularly appropriate for the auto industry today: Designing, developing and marketing “green” cars has not been an easy task, which is why gasoline-powered vehicles still rule the road and fossil fuels still account for almost 75 percent of the world’s energy consumption. As gasoline prices soar and concern over harmful emission mounts, however, cars that run on alternate fuel sources will become increasingly important. A natural-gas vehicle, or NGV, is the perfect example of such a car — it’s fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly and offers a relatively low cost of ownership.

ORIGINS OF NATURAL GAS 

Most modern wells extract both crude oil and natural gas at the same time. Some natural gas can be used as it comes from the well without any refining, but most requires processing. Natural gas processing consists of separating all the various hydrocarbons and fluids from the “wet” natural gas until it is “dry.” Dry natural gas is pure methane, which is the fuel of choice for many consumer applications, including natural-gas vehicles

Natural gas is not the only source of methane. Methane can also be obtained by fermenting organic matter, such as manure, in low levels of oxygen. In such conditions, bacteria will use the nutrients in manure as a food source and will release methane and carbon dioxide as waste products. This methane, known as bio-gas, can be collected and used as a fuel source.

The oil shortages of the late 1960s and early 1970s brought renewed interest in natural gas as a fuel source, especially for automobiles.

Today, owners of natural-gas vehicles can fill up their cars at one of 1,300 fueling stations located in the United States. Honda also offers a personal natural gas pump to people who purchase its natural-gas-powered Civic. The pump uses a home’s existing natural gas lines and can be installed for $500 to $1500.

In the next section we’ll discuss how natural-gas vehicles are designed.

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While there are differences in the fuel tank (hint: you get rid of the old one and put in three natural gas tanks), and the chassey with a natural gas vehicle, the biggest difference is at the engine.

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Engine Modifications
When the engine in an NGV is started, natural gas flows from the storage cylinders into a fuel line. Near the engine, the natural gas enters a regulator to reduce the pressure. Then the gas feeds through a multipoint gaseous fuel-injection system, which introduces the fuel into the cylinders. Sensors and computers adjust the fuel-air mixture so that when a spark plug ignites the gas, it burns efficiently. A natural-gas engine also includes forged aluminum, high-compression pistons, hardened nickel-tungsten exhaust valve seats and a methane-specific catalytic converter.

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Are they popular? Well it depends on who you listen too. 

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http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_10379094

Article Last Updated: 09/04/2008 07:20:35 AM MDT

State and federal tax credits. Cheap fuel. Free parking at meters in Salt Lake City. A ticket to the high­occupancy- vehicle lane, even if you’re driving solo.
    Plus that warm, smug feeling that comes from knowing that you’re polluting less than the other guy.
    It’s no wonder that more and more Utahns – the nonprofit Utah Clean Cities Coalition, using statistics from fueling sta­tions, estimates 20,000 – are driving vehicles powered by clean-burning compressed natural gas. Considering that it costs a mere 87 cents for enough CNG to equal the energy in a $4 gallon of gasoline, what’s surprising is that even more mo­torists have not made the switch.
    Some CNG converts are piloting the Honda Civic GX NGV, the only compressed natural gas production vehicle cur­rently on the market. Others have bought used cars that were either built or professionally converted to use CNG. Still more are taking their gasoline-powered cars to certified me­chanics and having them rigged to run exclusively on CNG, or to burn both natural gas and gasoline. Kudos. The environ­ment thanks you. Future generations will thank you. And your wallet thanks you.

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Here is a couple of places you can buy natural gas automotive products.
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 http://www.google.com/products?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2006-03,RNWE:en&q=natural+gas+cars&um=1&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329287,00.asp

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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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