Sustaining Future

Aquaponics

2012-01-06T17:00:00.000+11:00

Aquaponics = Aqua culture + hydroponics. It is a combination of growing fish (aqua culture) and growing plants in a water media.

Simply put, the waste of the fish is used as fertilizer for the plants. Thus. the cleaned water can be reused for fish.

Fish excretes their waste mainly via the gills as ammonia (NH₄⁺). Since plants cannot utilize ammonia directly, we solicit the help of naturally occurring microbes to convert ammonia into nitrite (NO₂^-) and nitrate (NO₃^-). What we need is to allow a lot of surface area and good supply of oxygen.

In a typical design of aquaponics, a plant growth bed is built on top of a fish tank. The growth bed is typically a neutral media such as pebbles to provide support for the plant roots. Water from the fish tank is pumped up to the growth bed couple of times per day. The growth bed uses a flood-and-drain design. When the water level in the growth bed reaches a certain level, a siphon action will drain all the water back to the fish tank. As water is drained, air is sucked into the space between the pebbles providing oxygen to the microbes on the pebbles. At the same time, the water falling into the fish tank also helps to oxygenate the water.

There are many different siphon designs. The simplest is to put a bottle over an overflowing pipe. See here for some inspiration.

As the conversion of ammonia (NH₄⁺) into nitrite (NO₂^-) and nitrate (NO₃^-) releases H⁺, the water will become acidic and needs to be neutralized. Since plants do not use a lot of sodium, any non-sodium base can be used such as builder lime (calcium hydroxide) and caustic potash (potassium hydroxide). Both these bases are commonly available and inexpensive.

The input to aquaponics are fish feed (for the fish), sunlight (for plants) and energy to move the water, bases (see above) and regular topping up of water. Unlike aqua culture or hydroponics, there is no need to replace any water. This is truly a zero waste system.

The ratio of fish and plants depends on the amount of fish feed. Fish is cold-blooded and hence food is consumed for movement and growth. At low temperature, fish do not eat and hence there will be little excretion, the amount of nutrients available to plants will be reduced. Here is a calculator to determine the amount of plants and fish for backyard systems.

Aquaponics scale very well, from small system over an aquarium to commercial scale production.

The seawater farming in Eritrea is another commercial example. Seawater is ducted inland and then pumped up several meters. The seawater is first used to farm shrimps, then fish. After these two produces, the now nutrient-rich seawater is used to irrigate fields growing various Salicornia. Salicornia europaea is highly edible, either cooked or raw. The seeds of Salicornia bigelovii contain high levels of unsaturated oil (30 percent, mostly linoleic acid) and protein (35 percent),[7][8] it can be used to produce animal feedstuff and as a biofuel feedstock on coastal land where conventional crops cannot be grown. The seawater is discharged into a swamp of mangroves before reaching the sea finally. Mangroves can be harvested for fire wood and older mangroves for timber. Previously desert land at seashore can now be agricultural land for shrimps, fish, vegetables and timber.

Conversion of pool to green house (a mini farm)

2011-11-15T11:58:00.000+11:00

Thorium Nuclear Reactor

2011-11-11T12:17:00.000+11:00

I fundamentally object Uranium based nuclear reactors for the environment impact of their decay products and the potential for enriched uranium for nuclear bombs.

Scientists have long known that Thorium is a good substitute.

From wikipedia, Some benefits of thorium fuel when compared with uranium were summarized as follows:

* Weapons-grade fissionable material (233U) is harder to retrieve safely and clandestinely from a thorium reactor;
* Thorium produces 10 to 10,000 times less long-lived radioactive waste;
* Thorium comes out of the ground as a 100% pure, usable isotope, which does not require enrichment, whereas natural uranium contains only 0.7% fissionable U-235;
* Thorium cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming, so fission stops by default.

With Thorium, I may have to change my mind on nuclear reactor as an energy source for humanity.

Time is running, fast...

2011-11-10T13:09:00.000+11:00

If humanity is to keep the global rise of temperature to within 2 deg C, the atmospheric CO2 content needs to be kept at below 350 ppm. At this moment, it is at 390 ppm and still rising fast. Unless any new power plant using fossil fuel is stopped, the chances of humanity surviving this crisis is dangerously unacceptable.

Of course, we can only capture the current CO2 from the atmosphere using projects such as Greening the desert or Seawater farming (Eritrea). Unfortunately, due to political instability, Eritrea project has ended.

Is humanity really that dumb?

Honest reporting

2011-11-03T11:31:00.000+11:00

If we continue to see more honest reporting of the effect of climate change, humanity may survive the coming catastrophe by starting to reduce green house gases right now.

No such thing as waste

2011-11-01T19:44:00.002+11:00

Skeptic Scientist Richard Muller Reversed Position

2011-10-31T11:33:00.000+11:00

The ultimate judge on a scientific issue is the unbiased observational data and respecting objective data is a good thing. One of the leading global warming skeptic has reversed his position after his own data confirming what everyone else has been reporting. [source]

Human has been walking on the Earth surface for about 100,000 to 200,000 years. Here is a long term temperature graph [source]

During the whole course of our evolution history, we are lucky to be living in a relatively stable temperature range. Conversely, the world we know has not been through a dramatic climate change. The plants that we domesticated, the infra-structure that we have built are based on a relatively stable temperature range. We have dumped huge amount of green house gases into the atmosphere in a short period (last 150 years is short in the geological time scale). Modern species would not be able to cope with such sudden temperature change. Man-made infra-structure would not be able to cope as well. Imagine a sea level rise of a few meters (as predicted by climate models), how can the largest cities with the most population cope? How can container shipping ports be moved together with other infra-structure such as the connecting roads cope with the rising water level? How fast can these ports be moved inland? How fast can we move population inland? What are the implications of moving massive number of people inland - food production, water supply,...

The most urgent question is how much time human still have before we pass the tipping point?

Why wouldn't you live with nature and swim with nature?

2011-10-26T18:24:00.002+11:00

Climatologist James Hansen on InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse

2011-10-24T20:02:00.000+11:00

The undue influence of special interest is blocking human's chance in solving the problem and the lack of political leadership.

Climate Change

2011-10-24T19:50:00.000+11:00

This is one of the better explanation of the issues human are facing.

Climate change in USA politics

2011-10-20T14:33:00.001+11:00

Here is some sanity (I would have preferred he did not refer Nature as "God's Earth")

Greening the desert

2011-10-11T21:57:00.000+11:00

Seawater farming

2011-10-11T21:43:00.000+11:00

Greening Eritrea

Produce fresh water and plants in desert near sea.

2011-10-11T21:29:00.000+11:00

The seawater is used to humidify the air in the greenhouse. Together with the transpiration of plants, this humid air is drawn through a condenser (from the cool sea water drawn from deeper part of the sea.) The energy required is provided by wind turbine in the example.

An experimental setup was built in Australia.

We can recycle plastic

2011-10-07T18:14:00.002+11:00

Can you green a desert? Yes, you can.

2011-10-01T14:35:00.000+10:00

Words are worthless. See the result.

Climate Stabilization Targets

2011-09-07T21:23:00.000+10:00

From the book:

This report provides a scientific evaluation of the implications of various climate stabilization targets. The report concludes that certain levels of
warming associated with carbon dioxide emissions could lock Earth and
many future generations of humans into very large impacts; similarly, some
targets could avoid such changes. It makes clear the importance of 21st
century choices regarding long-term climate stabilization.

Get the Book here.

Big bus

2011-05-07T10:51:00.000+10:00

Future road train

2011-05-07T10:46:00.000+10:00

The driver of the first car drives, the following cars copy his/her actions and moves autonomously.

Is our world safer?

2011-05-07T10:38:00.000+10:00

Truck Farm

2011-04-11T19:31:00.002+10:00

Self heating lunch

2011-01-20T12:36:00.000+11:00

Interactive map to show the flooding in Queensland, Australia

2011-01-18T16:17:00.001+11:00

Click on the following figure to open NearMap.com at a new window. Change the date to see before and after flood images.
[larger image]

Global warming resources

2011-01-13T12:07:00.000+11:00

Taming flooding without a dam

2011-01-13T00:03:00.000+11:00

Flood has been a historical problem in China for thousands of year. The following two videos show how ancient Chinese solved the flooding problem and the solution has been working for the last 2000 years.

Basically instead of building a dam, the river's flow is divided into two sections. One section sends the water for irrigation while the other section is for transport. The key was the shallow bypass between the two sections. When the water level is high, most of the water will flow to the transport section via the bypass eliminating the potential flood in the irrigation. When the water flow is low, most of the water will go to the irrigation. The accumulated sand is at the bypass which has be regularly removed.

Queensland, Australia - flooding update 1

2011-01-12T10:02:00.000+11:00

Queensland, Australia - flooding after years of dry

2011-01-11T10:21:00.001+11:00

10th Jan, 2011

Season Greeting

2010-12-20T10:46:00.002+11:00

Automatic chicken feeder

2010-12-05T13:23:00.000+11:00

Hero rat

2010-12-03T17:13:00.000+11:00

Working with the environment, instead of against the environment, we gain efficiency and also protect the eco-system which we depend. Here is a TED presentation of using the sensitive smell ability of rats to find land mines and diagnose TB.

Global climate - a mind map view

2010-12-02T12:11:00.000+11:00

You can download Global Warming: A Mindmapper’s Guide to the Science and Solution (Jane Genovese) by clicking the book title or via the author's own link.

The recent increase of CO₂ undoubtedly is caused by human activities and the time for human to change our overall behaviour and take down the CO₂ is long overdued. If no decisive actions are taken within the next year or two, the civilisation as we know it may be destroyed forever.

New Kind of Uranium Could Power Your Car

2010-12-01T16:18:00.001+11:00

Jaqueline Kiplinger, a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, discovered a catalytic properties of Uranium Nitride for splitting the Carbon-hydrogen bond and hence would greatly improve the fuel efficient of petroleum. As it is not a nuclear process, radioactive insert Uranium can be used.

However using Uranium in this situation is NOT using nuclear power. It is chemical energy and Uranium nitride is only a catalysis. [Note: abcnews.go.com above seems to imply it is nuclear power and linked a video of Obama talking about nuclear power plant in the article. This is wrong!]

Our model of standards is ...

2010-11-30T17:47:00.000+11:00

How to use these walls?

2010-11-26T11:08:00.000+11:00

Hongkong has a lot of high rise buildings. Many of these has a high wall with almost no windows. (Examples, more and etc)

These walls are typically located in public housing. If these walls can be converted into tall hydroponic green houses, they can provide food for those living in these public housing and provide local jobs. Am I right?

Straddling Bus

2010-11-25T16:59:00.000+11:00

Think about it. A bus which allows other cars to pass under it and can be deployed relatively fast (as compare with building subway) and flexible enough to run on most roads. This is China's huge bus, 4.5 m wide and 6m high.

Do you still want to eat meat?

2010-10-17T12:46:00.002+11:00

Find out more at Meat.org.

Modern cooperative living

2010-03-12T10:33:00.000+11:00

Treehugger has a post about cooperative living in a small town in Victoria, Australia.

Although the houses are placed quite close to each other, they don’t have boundary fences, so strategic design was employed to instil a sense of seclusion. “All living areas face onto the sleeping and bathing areas of the neighbouring house, so nobody’s living areas look into any others,” says Robyn. “Additionally, there are screens, earth mounds and plantings between houses to provide privacy.”

I will suggest planting Espalier fruit trees as fences [Cordon Training of Fruit Trees, Diagonal Vertical, Spiral, Horizontal.]. Then the demand of orientation of the houses would be reduced to let everyone has a better sun-orientation. This will make the boundary as co-operation between neighbours and enhance friendship.

The houses were built in traditional ways. Last year's bush fire is a vivid reminder of the need of better design for homes in the bush. I have been reading about geodesic domes [How to Design and Build Your Dome Home]. A sphere encloses the largest volume with the least surface. A dome will use less material to build then a traditional house making it less expense and more sustainable. Dome is also very strong - by nature of its structure. If the dome house are covered with soil, the "skin" of the house can be covered with vegetation too. In areas where bush fire is a threat, the skin can be made to upstand fire using earth as the main heat barrier.

Good food comes from extensive farming, not intensive farming

2010-03-11T22:05:00.004+11:00

Why don't we do this on a global scale?

2009-12-29T21:37:00.004+11:00

The following videos show how, by restoring local vegetation and the ecosystem, the livelihood of the people is vastly improved. China can do it. Uganda can do it. Everyone can do it. Why don't we do this on a global scale?

Green house gas and the race to renewable energy

2009-12-19T18:57:00.002+11:00

It strikes me as extremely short-sighted when climate deniers cannot see the great economic potential in adopting a renewable energy stance. Carbon cap and trade is an economic tool to jump start renewable energy sector. With it or without it, human civilisation needs to move to renewable energy. The question is not IF, just a simple WHEN. The earlier a country starts, the more the country will gain in the upcoming economic race.

The worry is human has passed the point of no return - when the climate will change so much that we cannot limit the average rise of temperature to within 2^oC. The science is telling us that we need to decrease the atmospheric CO₂. It is NOT limiting GHG, what is needed is to reduce GHG.

I am very disappointed at the result of at Copenhagen this week.

What is being destroyed by climate change?

2009-12-18T18:18:00.002+11:00

Yes, the current known civilisation and way of lifes, million of species which would not be able to adapt quick enough (including us), many land will be immersed,....

BUT nature will go on with or without us. Climate change is not going to destroy the earth. Planet earth is not going to explode. Human is destroying ourselves unless we act and act quickly.

Who is responsible for fixing the climate problem?

2009-12-18T17:53:00.004+11:00

Please spend 5 minutes to watch the video linked at the title of this post. Naomi Klein exposed the bullying tactics from USA. Denying global warming will be guilty of killing the current known human civilisation - that will only take a few more years to become so clear that we will have passed the point of no return. The global warming is caused by human economic activities - that should be no doubt. Just understand how the developed countries have burnt off all the stored fossil fuels. It does not take any deep reasoning to see how such a large amount of carbon dioxide would have contributed to the accumulation of green house gases. Of course, the clearing of forest is another main source of green house gases.

If the developed nations are not willing to take responsibility, the result will be a total collapse. That's MAD - mutually assured destruction. If anything needs to be done, it would need money. If that burden is shifted to the developing or undeveloped countries, there will be no funding. By definition, developing and undeveloped countries are poor countries!

Playing brinkmanship makes no sense here as well. Who is going to lose more, the developed or the undeveloped?

Yes, when the first wave of sea level rise comes, the low lying regions - many of the undeveloped countries, will be hit first. BUT, major cities like New York, London, Sydney will ALL be totally immersed too.

Please, PLEASE ask our "leaders' to lead - agree to binding cuts of green house gases before it is too late for everyone!

What makes me sleepless?

2009-12-17T16:11:00.003+11:00

Human civilisation is facing unprecedented challenge: over population, peak everything and climate change.

Over population, especially when the main growth will be coming from undeveloped and developing countries, is certainly a human tragedy. At the current population level, the hunger is caused mainly due to inequity. Just as an example, 5% of the world's population consumes 23% of world's energy. If that inequity is spread more equitably, many people would not have fallen under the poverty line. While a solution is not forthcoming any time soon, a reasonably effective solution is just a matter of political will.

Peak everything is a physical limitation which we should be aware of long time ago. Unfortunately, somehow, it has been under the radar for too long. The main economic driver was energy. In 2006, 36% of world's energy came from oil. As oil runs out, many traditional ways of life have to change. However, renewable sources will replace the portion currently supplied by oil. It is not a matter of "if", it is just a matter of "when". During the process, huge business opportunities are available. Imagine replacing all American's cars with electric cars. Imagine installing solar panels on every roof top in the world. Switching to renewable energy sources will NOT cost money. Switching to renewable energy actually helps to build a country's economy. Is there sufficient solar energy to meet the need? Yes, many many times over. It is estimated that the sun provides 8000 times the energy per year consumed in 2004. Even at a one percent conversion efficiency, the sun provides us with 80 times the energy we need (yearly averaged). [source]

Yes, oil is used to produce fertilizers. If we stop burning oil, it can be used to produce fertilizers. Better still, perma-culture has proven itself to be a more productive and sustainable technique - and in permaculture, the nature fertilises itself!

So, both over population and peak everything do not really make me sleepless. What has kept me awake at night is climate. The IPCC climate model has been too optimistic about the effect of the green house gases. In this fora.tv video, Dan Miller (chapter 2 in the video) shows the summer ice cover in the North pole. The IPCC model is way too optimistic. The satellite image indicates that the North pole will not be covered by ice in the summer as early as 2017. Do human still have sufficient time to prevent the run-away effect of global warming? Do we still have to argue whether human was responsible? What we need today is action. If we do not start removing CO₂ from the atmosphere, our grand children will not survive!

Stop the desert

2009-12-08T22:50:00.002+11:00

Desert is growing, stopping it is not easy. Here is a scheme which may work:

Living biblically for year

2009-12-06T16:04:00.000+11:00

Water harvesting - wisdom from hundred years ago

2009-12-06T15:44:00.001+11:00

How to harvest water with only 6cm of rain fall per year and for use the whole year?

Climate skeptics take note...

2009-11-15T22:13:00.002+11:00

This TED video shows you the amount of effort behind each paragraph in the IPCC report.

Architecture that repairs itself or that grows

2009-10-28T23:03:00.001+11:00

Arctic Melt Time Lapse - Nature's Great Events: The Great Melt - BBC One

2009-10-28T13:26:00.001+11:00

Towards Permaculture Centres Worldwide

2009-10-19T11:55:00.003+11:00

Only three year funding for each site is needed. Then it will be sustainable for the future indefinitely employing local people and improving local food supply!

Solving Africa's Food Problem

2009-10-19T11:42:00.002+11:00

The first "green revolution" called for by the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2004 has been producing good result.

Countries, such as Malawi, have transformed their food production using relatively simple means: With the help of government subsidies, farmers can now obtain two bags of fertilizer and five kilograms of hybrid maize seed at just 25 percent of the actual price. And, whereas the World Bank and other donors have refrained from such agricultural subsidies over the past few decades due to concerns about corruption, they are now supporting them and refocusing on agriculture as a priority. "It's a 180-degree turn for the better," Sanchez says. "You can avoid corruption by keeping it on a small scale."

Bill Gate is now charging for a second green revolution

"The charge is clear—we have to develop crops that can grow in a drought; that can survive in a flood; that can resist pests and disease," Gates added. "We need higher yields on the same land in harsher weather." The answer, at least in part? Sustainability paired with genetic modification.

Gates also called for a more environmentally focused effort this time around. "The next Green Revolution has to be greener than the first," Gates said. It "must be guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and the environment. The last thing anyone should do is create short-term gains for poor farmers that have long-term costs for their children.

Basing on fossil fuel based fertiliser will make these farmers continuously is not sustainable in the long run as we know that fossil fuel is a limited natural resource which is not renewable. A better solution would be to adapt/adopt a permacultural path. Here is a video showing how permaculture is applied to green the desert in the middle east. [source]

Cross posted to Atheist Bible Reading and Forum

The Great Global Warming Swindle

2009-10-18T22:46:00.002+11:00

A re-watch of The Great Global Warming Swindle prompted me to look at the evidence again. [I am not a practising Scientist. I am just trying to apply a rational mind on this important issue.] The skeptics pointed at the correlation between atmospheric CO₂ with the earth temperature and said that the earth temperature led the atmospheric CO₂ by about 800 years. They claimed that solar activities have much bigger impact on earth's temperature than atmospheric CO₂.

BBC weather presenter, Paul Hudson has written article on the issue: research published by the Royal Society two years ago seemed to rule out solar influences. Its approach was to look at solar output and cosmic ray intensity over the last 30-40 years, and compare them with changing global temperatures. The results were clear. "Warming in the last 20 to 40 years can't have been caused by solar activity," said Dr Piers Forster from Leeds University, a leading contributor to this year's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Beside climate change, there is the issue of exhausting the available fossil fuel. Fossil fuel is a limited resource. While according to wikipedia using 2005 estimates, there is 4x10²⁴J of remaining fossil fuels which at the rate of 2005 consumption may last up to 800 years. I believe cheap, easily extracted fossil fuel will be exhausted within no more than another 100 years because there has been no significant discovery of large reserve since the sixties.

The energy falling on Earth's surface from the Sun is about 120PW which is 8000 times the usage at 2004.

The Great Global Warming Swindle did point out an important equity issue - we should not be barring the developing countries from using cheap fossil fuel to drive their development.

On one hand, I believe human is causing the current climate crisis. On the other, we should respect the wish of people in the undeveloped or developing countries to pursuit a better life.

It only took about 150 years for the developed countries to switch from the traditional renewable biomass fuel to fossil fuel. With the rapid technology development, it is possible to switch to renewable energy in much shorter period. The technological capability of the developed countries was developed based on exhausting fossil fuel. On the basis of equity, the technology of renewable energy should be shared with the developing and undeveloped countries to provide energy source for these countries. China and India have a proposal on the table:
"Developed countries should pay at least 0.5 percent of their economic output to help less wealthy nations build wind turbines, solar plants and use other clean technologies," and "industrialized nations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2020, such cuts would make room for the developing countries to 'modernize their economies'".

What is it?

2009-10-15T16:48:00.002+11:00

The answer is this is a fan. Watch James Dyson's explanation:

also posted at Random Walk in Learning

Can we survive?

2009-10-03T20:55:00.002+10:00

I believe we, as current human civilisation, are hanging by a thread. If we continue on the current path of consumption and depletion of natural resources, this civilisation will end. May be my daughter will witness the ending of the known civilisation. I don't want this happen. Can human be smart enough to save ourselves?

How to remove CO2 from atomsphere?

2009-09-11T11:14:00.001+10:00

FORA.tv

Among all the methods described, I believe the Biochar would be the most safe approach without long term consequence if somehow some thing goes broken.

Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss

2009-09-10T10:52:00.000+10:00

from TED

Safe drinking water

2009-08-16T14:40:00.004+10:00

In a recent post, the comments evolved to a discussion of the world's problem. One of them is safe drinking water, over 1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water! Here is a video from TED describing how lifesaver drinking bottles can help to solve this problem. He estimated that with 20B UK pounds, all the world could have safe drinking water.

Other approaches: LifeStraw, rapid sand filter system, or clay pot water filters (step by step guide of making clay pot water filters, a process which the inventor has declined to patent!)

Reader suggestion please

2009-06-18T15:04:00.001+10:00

I will be moving into new home in two weeks. We plan to repaint the inside of the house, rip off the old carpet and polish the floor boards.

Can you suggest some way of using the carpet instead of sending them to a landfill?

At the moment, I am thinking using some of them as the base for a raised vegie bed. But I won't be able to use all the carpet for this purpose. Any other suggestion will be highly appreciated.

Lawn

2009-06-18T14:52:00.004+10:00

Some of the numbers related to lawn in USA are really troubling. [source]

20 millions Acres of lawn in the U.S., — more land than any single crop takes up
3 Estimated pounds of pesticides per application for an acre of farmland
7 Estimated pounds of pesticides per application for an acre of lawn
100 miles a late model car would have to drive to produce as much pollution as a lawnmower emits in one hour
1984 Year that the U.S.’s use of synthetic fertilizer on lawns surpassed the amount used on all of India’s food crops

I have been mistaken to think that lawn can at least produce some Oxygen. I did not know that the pesticide used in lawn is linked to health adversely. In the part of world where I live, (Melbourne Australia) water is a scarce resource. I never water my lawn nor I put any fertiliser or pesticide on my lawn. But I will be converting my lawn to raised vegie beds. The above info just make me more absolute to do the conversion.

Worrying times

2009-06-17T13:38:00.000+10:00

It is a no brainer. Fossil fuels are stored carbon that lived up to 300 million years ago. Burning almost half^* of these fuel in the last 50 years (releasing 21.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere each year) released all these stored carbon in a very short period (50 years is nothing compared with 300 million years) obviously will have a tremendous effect on the environment. You don't need a PhD in Climatology to figure out how bad it would be.

Unfortunately, very unfortunate indeed, one of the independent senator, Steve Fielding, was still "unconvinced* after a 2-hour meeting with our Australia's Chief Scientist that human activity is the main cause of climate change. [source]

I echo strongly with Orion77 the concern of such attitude from our politician. Here is a little background of Senator Steve Fielding (from his own website): He has 15 siblings, an engineering degree from RMIT and has worked mostly in management. Here is the interview from Lateline:
Part 1:

Part 2:

It sounds GOOD for him to say that he was trying to listen to both sides of the argument - including the skeptics. However, as a politician, he should not be so naive to ignore efforts of vested interests to discharge a large volume of mis-information and pseudo-science.

^*Everyone has a different opinion on how much of the stored fossil fuel has been burnt. The last major oil field discovered is in 2006 which would supply 2 year worth of consumption for USA alone. I may be over optimistic already!

cross-posted to Atheist Bible Reading and Forum

British supermarket chain powers store checkouts with modified speed bumps

2009-06-17T11:14:00.002+10:00

This is absurd and demonstrates the lack of basic Science from the administration of the supermarket. I urge the Brits to boycott this particular supermarket. Here is my reason.

Energy conserves. That's call the law of conservation of energy in secondary school Physics textbooks. The so called "ambient energy technology" is ripping energy from the moving vehicles. If they are really serious about harnessing energy, install solar PV on the roof, install heat pump to move the absorbed heat from the parking lot for some other use.

Simply put, this supermarket is STEALING its customers' energy!

DIY Fuel Briquette

2009-05-20T12:37:00.003+10:00

Most suburban families has a lawn. How can you use the grass clipping? Composting is one answer. Other is to use them for fuel by making it into a fuel briquette. Here is a video on how to do that. Just store your homemade fuel briquette for winter heating. This is a carbon neutral way.

Carbon Sink

2009-04-29T20:40:00.004+10:00

I am progressively getting convinced that planting tree is NOT a good carbon sink, nor is sequestration in deep well or ocean bottom. Carbon captured in trees is liable to be released back into atmosphere when it is harvested. Deep well and ocean carbon sequestration are subject to earth quarks and untested in sufficient scale.

Do I have a solution? I think I have.

It is biochar. Terra preta has been around for thousands of years and remain stable as carbon. It was estimated that only 2mm thick layer covering all the earth surface with biochar would revert the CO₂ back to the pre-industrial level. If all the “excess” carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were converted into carbon and spread across all the earth’s arable lands, there would be 17kg of charcoal per square metre, in a layer 8cm thick. That’s not an unfeasible notion. The Gardening with Biochar FAQ mentions biochar application rates of around 5kg/m². On the other hand, photos of Terra Preta soils show black layers that are many centimetres thick, so they must contain far more than 17 kg/m² of carbon. [source]

The task is to develop a business model to make producing biochar and burying into soil economically attractive to investor. Anyone?

How to make the super thin spring roll skin

2009-04-27T17:21:00.001+10:00

Instruction:

and really they are created like this:

Charcoal production in Pennsylvania

2009-04-25T23:46:00.003+10:00

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Solar powered lights using plastic 2-L soda bottles

2009-04-23T08:41:00.001+10:00

Solar powered lights using plastic 2-L soda bottles

Will it leak on rainy days? Apparently not!

Refrigerator: the worse white good in our homes

2009-04-10T12:15:00.004+10:00

The current design of refrigerators in our homes is the worse possible. Every time we open the door, almost ALL the cold air in the box will flow out. Simple physics really. Cold air is denser than warm air. With the door occupying almost the whole height of the refrigerator, cold air just flow out, naturally. Once you close the door, the machine kicks in to cool the air inside again. No wonder refrigeration is typically the largest energy usage in our home.

Look at the cold chests in supermarkets. They can afford to have the cold chests top open (no top actually) simply because the cold air in the chest is kept within the chest.

Governments are banning the light bulbs in favour of compact florescence bulb. The energy saved is good, but compared with improving/changing the side door refrigerator to a top open, that would be small.

Someone should come out and design a user friendly top-open refrigerator!

Banana tree in aquaponic

2009-04-03T15:57:00.001+11:00

For those who can read Chinese, this website is worth visiting.

Experiments on geo-scale? No! No! NO!

2009-03-30T10:26:00.002+11:00

For solution to world's problems, I generally take two fair fairly conservative views:
no long term unknown impact and no large scale changes.

Throwing iron into the ocean in the hope of causing phytoplankton growth in order to sequester carbon is one of them. Treehugger reported on a failed experiment. The phytoplankton biomass doubled after the iron source being added. However, the kind of phytoplankton was not what the scientists have predicted.

A failed experiment on a small scale is OK. That's part of the spirit of science. Wholesale adoption of an untested idea is a No No.

The other two ideas I have strong reservations are carbon sequestration in 1. deep sea and 2. deep old mine. Both are untested and long term effects unknown.

Carbonscape

2009-03-14T22:14:00.002+11:00

Is that another scheme similar to corn ethanol? Sequestration of carbon by putting more carbon into the atmosphere?

Yes, biochar is a stable form of carbon which can be stored for long period of time AND is produced from biomass. If Treehugger's title (Carbonscape: Microwaved Biochar for Massive Carbon Sequestration) suggests how it would be done, I would totally object it. There are much better way of converting biomass into biochar AND energy, see Carbon Negative Energy Source.

A very Efficient Ocean-going vessel - unlike anything you have seen before

2009-03-06T07:52:00.001+11:00

The title says it all.

Distributed Power

2009-02-12T10:27:00.003+11:00

Green Peace has been advocating decentralised power co-generation for quite some time, especially in the cooler region of the world. A small power station among cities where the 'waste' heat can also be used as a heating sources for buildings nearby and the electric power generated is used locally as well.

It is great to see support coming to USA too. As noted, the original centralised power system was designed for costly generators and cheap grid network. The problem has reversed as the reliability of the generators are better than the grid. There are 207 benefits of small generators.

Fire Resistant Homes

2009-02-10T20:18:00.003+11:00

Many people, who has just escaped from the devastating Victoria Bush Fire, are determined to rebuild. This poses an interesting question; what kind of home will be safe in such environment? Building with fire resistant material certainly helps a long way. Here are some information from source:

Sand stone with fine grains can moderate fire successfully without having serious cracks. Most of other stones will disintegrate into small pieces when heated during fire and cooled afterwards and hence unsuitable.

Bricks are bad conductor of heat. They have no serious effect of heat until the temperature during fire rises above 1200 degrees to 1300 degrees. At the time of construction if good quality mortar is used and brick work constructed by skilled mason, brick masonry offers good resistance to fire. See the brick wall still standing here in this photo

Concrete is a bad conductor of heat and an effective material for fire resistant construction. It offers higher resistance to fire than any other material. The actual behavior of concrete in case of fire depends on quality of cement and type of aggregate which form concrete. In case of reinforced and pre-stressed structures, it also depends on the position of steel in concrete. Unfortunately, concrete production emits a lot of green house gas.

Using special designed barrier, such as Pyrotite Technology for the external walls. Or apply fire retardant and fire resistant coatings that can withstand extreme temperatures (up to 2000° Fahrenheit) for an extended time (over two hours) [source]. May be you may consider adding a fire-proof tent at the highest point of your home, see this patent.

Surprisingly, straw bale which has super insulating properties and excellent flame resistance due to lack of internal air channels is also a green and effective choice.

Metal roofs with two layers of fire resistant barrier which withstand burning embers or 'living' roofs [remember to reduce fuel before fire season!].

Victoria Bush Fire

2009-02-10T20:10:00.000+11:00

Last weekend's bush fire in Victoria turned out to be one of the worse bush fire we have ever faced. The week before, we have the record-breaking 4 consecutive days of temperature over 44C which basically fried every thing dry. On the day, we have a record breaking 46.6C with strong northern wind and single digit humidity. While some fires were spontaneous, unfortunately, the authority has identified cases where arsenic may be involved.

The damage and destruction was widespread. As shown in the photo above, whole towns were wiped out. At this point, there were 181 people confirmed dead, over 4000 people homeless, hundreds were in emergency units with burn, over 700 homes totally lost.

On a slightly brighter side, the Bush Fire Relief Fund set up by the Victoria Government together with Red Cross has already reached 28M and several fund raising efforts will be coming in next few days. Record number of people donated blood in the last few days.

Could this bush fire be avoided in the first place?

Scientists are now pointing the fingers towards the worsening weather pattern. While the southern part of Australia is extremely dry (drought for the last couple of years, Melbourne's water storage is at record low), there are flooding in the northern part of the continent (one month's worth of rain was dumped within days in Queensland). Extreme temperatures (two hot weather records were broken within two weeks) are expected to continue.

If we are to put a value to climate change, we now have a vivid case.

cross-posted to Random Walk in Learning

Happy New Year 2009

2008-12-31T11:45:00.003+11:00

Energy theft

2008-12-28T15:57:00.002+11:00

Well, why I did not think of this term?

Piezoelectric Roadways is highway Robbery, Stop Thief.

2008-12-23T11:50:00.001+11:00

This year is coolest since 2000

2008-12-19T10:53:00.003+11:00

That's right, BBC reported that 2008 is the coolest year since the turn of the century.

However, 2008 is the 9th warmest year since 1880.

Here is the list:

THE 10 WARMEST YEARS
1998 - 14.52C
2005 - 14.48C
2003 - 14.46C
2002 - 14.46C
2004 - 14.43C
2006 - 14.42C
2007 - 14.40C
2001 - 14.40C
1997 - 14.36C
2008 - 14.31C
Data: Met Office Hadley Centre

Food production in Cities

2008-12-18T17:28:00.003+11:00

I have pointed out the lack of sun light deep inside a high rise building is one of the major problems with the concept of vertical farms.

Adam Stein, in Corn on the 8th floor, turnips on level 23… pointed out correctly another important limitation of such a development - the prices of real estates in cities are high. In his words,"[t]here’s a reason that farms and factories decamped to more suitable locations."

But is this concept totally without its merit?

This is a photograph of public housing in Hong Kong [photo by Michael Wolf]

Can you see the two white vertical walls on either side of the photograph? Depending on direction, this wall is constantly exposed to sunlight, the main requirement for capturing the sun's energy for growing. Assisted by the existing wall, the scaffolding needed to farm vertically will be very significantly reduced. If vegetables are grown, for example using hanging grow beds, they can be locally distributed economically.

Instead of a large high building as a vertical farm, what about a high hydroponic system attached to an existing tall building?

Researchers Roll Out Energy Generating Roads

2008-12-18T16:42:00.004+11:00

via inhabitat

Engineers at Innowattech in Israel recently created a new type of road that generates electricity as vehicles pass over it! The supercharged surface is embedded with piezoelectric crystals, which transform kinetic energy from passing vehicles into an electrical current.

Physics tells us that energy is conserved. So my question is where does the energy come from? OK, I know the answer, the energy comes from the cars traveling on the road.

Before committing to such a project, one must ask if the additional energy used by cars traveling on such road are energy that would have been lost anyway, or it is an additional load. If it is the latter, I would say it is not a project worth continuing. Thermodynamic laws dictate that there will be energy lost in transformation!

Human-power Argmented Hybrid Car

2008-12-16T10:57:00.005+11:00

Yesterday, I blogged about an ugly human-power argmented Solar Hybrid car. Today, I can show you a beautiful rendering. While this is not a solar car (why not?), inside this concept car, is

an array of exercise equipment, which includes a stepping machine, rowing machine, bench press, pull up simulator and arm weights!

The battery of the car can be charged by these exercise equipments, cool!

More here.

Very disappointed with Kelvin Rudd

2008-12-16T10:31:00.002+11:00

Australia to cut greenhouse gas emissions by five percent by 2020. Not good enough!

This is the time the world should start reversing the carbon emission, ie start getting the CO₂ back from atmosphere, not just SLOWING the current emission.

The current global recession is NOT an excuse to slow the emission control. It is the CHANCE to create millions of green jobs! Think outside the square!

Kombucha

2008-12-15T10:13:00.003+11:00

From Wikipedia,

Kombucha is the Western name for sweetened tea or tisane that has been fermented using a macroscopic solid mass of microorganisms called a "kombucha colony".

The main health claim of Kombucha is that it can help detoxification and/or cancer prevention.

The alternativeConsumer has an article on how to prepare Kombucha at home economically

The prototype is ugly, but the concept is great

2008-12-15T09:59:00.002+11:00

Human-power argmented solar hybrid car:

How will that compare with an electric-assisted bike, I wonder?

Expandable Hydroponics System from Junk

2008-09-24T08:29:00.001+10:00

Hydroponics is growing without using soil. The DIY system in this Instructable is so simple that everyone should give it a go.

The Future for Australia: Selling our Sunshine

2008-08-04T11:53:00.003+10:00

There are many ways to make a living. The following products all depend, in a way, the sunshine falling on the ground:

1. Farming - selling produce

2. Tourism - selling good sunshine and good hospitality

3. Energy - Hey, that's new.

Listen to this podcast together with the presentation where Keith Lovegrove talked about a possible sustainable future for zero emission energy product.

Vertical Farm

2008-07-16T15:14:00.002+10:00

Since New York Times' article on vertical farm which I have blogged before, there is a bit of interest on the blog sphere on that.

Saving valuable land space for food production in City is a great idea, but there is one important consideration which seems to be missing in all the reporting.

Plant grows by photosynthesis. Photosynthesis needs light. In a high rise structure, which would be quite wide and deep, there will be the issue of getting light into the centre of the building.

At the end of the day, all the energy we have come from the Sun. If we are going to use renewable energy, that will be dependent on the amount of sun light (and wind which is caused by the Sun shining on nearby land mass) available to the building. I am afraid in reality, vertical farm, without additional energy input, would only be a good idea on paper.

Alternative Energy: The Pressure Wheel

2008-07-15T21:08:00.003+10:00

This is a simple and cheap system for increasing the pressure of water. However, it is NOT the same as increasing the power.

Just like electrical power, if the current is held constant, the power increases with voltage. However the system's power performance will depend on the available current output as well.

For the water wheel to generate higher power, it is NOT enough just by increasing the pressure of the available water. The volume at that pressure is a factor as well.

This is just simple Physics.

Mopping Up the CO2 Deluge

2008-07-06T11:30:00.002+10:00

To battle global warming, it's not enough to reduce emissions. We need to soak up what's already there.

Dude, when you mess up something, don't you just walk away!

Well beside this common moral stance, there is also a good reason behind it. The Earth will take care of that if you don't. It just takes about 100,000 years. If our life span is like that of the Earth, it won't matter. Unfortunately, because the Earth do the job for us, we shall all suffer the consequence of our past actions if we don't act to clean up now.

Reduce green house emission is NOT enough! We need to clean up the mess we did in the last 100 years.

Growing algae vertically, high yield and low water consumption

2008-07-03T23:14:00.004+10:00

All explained in the video.

18 gallon of oils per acre per year if you grow corn. However, using this technique, you can produce more than 20,000 gallon on the same land the same time.

Why produce biofuel from corn and starve the world at the same time?

Plastic Bags, to ban or not?

2008-07-03T09:53:00.003+10:00

Treehugger is running a story on the success of plastic bag ban in China is working. A debate is also brewing in Australia here on a trial in Melbourne to charge shopper AUD0.10 per plastic bag at supermarket check out - as a mean of reducing the use of plastic bags.

The argument is that the "green" alternative bag is also non-biodegradable. As they reach their useful life cycle, they will be posing an environment issue as well. Are are replacing one evil with another?

Biodegradable plastic bags are now available.

Th ban should be on "non-biodegradable" bags, not the bags themselves.

Dumping carbon at sea

2008-06-28T11:19:00.003+10:00

TreeHugger is running a story on the debate Is ocean storage a viable option or merely a "dangerous distraction"?

Personally, I will oppose any solution which leaves a problem for the next generation. I also support diversity - multiple solutions to a problem.

In terms of global warming, we need to act fast to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere before it is too late. This urgency obviously gives support to experiments for possible/potential solutions. By experiment, we mean small scale tests which if run into problem will not produce devastating consequences. Deep water injection of CO₂ belongs to the same category of carbon Sequestration at deep geological holes. Once we go down that path, any mishap will have globally devastating effect. It is too high a risk to take.

Peak Oil will not happen - thanks to a bug

2008-06-15T11:22:00.003+10:00

Using genetically modified E. coli, these small biological wonders eat biomass (such as woodchips) and excrete crude oil. From the article Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol [The Times]:

“Our plan is to have a demonstration-scale plant operational by 2010 and, in parallel, we’ll be working on the design and construction of a commercial-scale facility to open in 2011,” says Mr Pal, adding that if LS9 used Brazilian sugar cane as its feedstock, its fuel would probably cost about $50 a barrel.

If these scientists are successful, peak oil may never need to occur.

By the way, "this “Oil 2.0” will not only be renewable but also carbon negative – meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made."

Aquaponics Art

2008-06-15T09:43:00.002+10:00

Here is the step by step DIY for this wonderful art.

Micro Wind Turbine Utilizing Chimney effect of tall building

2008-06-11T09:34:00.004+10:00

We all know that a large buildings create upward air drafts. By installing wind turbines on the parapets of buildings, this natural energy is put to great use.

See Architectural Wind

Local and distributed power generation reduces the waste in distribution of electricity, a win win solution!

FutureScenarios.org

2008-06-02T21:36:00.001+10:00

from a recent Permablitz newsletter

Come gaze with us now, into the future. For that is where we are heading, inexorably, the future. Will it be robot housemaids, or ruthless scavengers living on the arctic fringe in a post-oil climate-change nightmare?

Or not quite like either?

Indeed there is little in the world of futurology which looks between these extremes, which looks towards low energy futures with a nuanced vision.

Permaculture co-originator David Holmgren weighs in to fill this gap, drawing on 30 years of permaculture thinking. He envisions four possible post oil peak futures.

Aquaponics

2008-05-31T13:30:00.002+10:00

Just a few more words on bacteria. The main purpose of the bacteria is to convert the excretion (ammonia etc) of the fish into plant's food (nitrate). To remove the nitrate, plant is used. These nitrate and nitrite converting bacteria is very sensitive to Chlorine. So it is better to use rain water. If tap water is used, make sure they are left for a while before introduction of fish. If you have a friend who has a running fish tank, get some gravels from she/him will help a lot.

Carbon Sequestration:Forest

2008-05-15T10:07:00.000+10:00

Yes, we need to remove carbon from atmosphere. We have already pumped too much already. The question is of course HOW.

Fritz Scholz and Ulrich Hasse from the University of Greifswald introduce a possible approach to a solution: deliberately planted forests bind the CO2 through photosynthesis and are then removed from the global CO2 cycle by burial.

Here is some numbers:
1. Current world carbon emission is 32 gigatons of CO₂.
2. Fritz and Ulrich estimated that the world needs about 1 sq km of forest [my notes: world's Irrigated land in 2003 is 2,770,980 sq km]
3. "This project could be financed by an additional tax of 0.11 € per liter of gasoline or 0.003 € per kilowatt-hour of electricity." I don't know how this figure is arrived. From Wikipedia, the 2004 worldwidth energy consumption is 5x10²⁰ Joules or 1.4x10¹⁴kilowatt-hour. That would represent a value of US$644B.

"The forests should be planted in countries that are suitable for growing forest and also have the necessary sites for burial of the wood," stresses Scholz. "Other countries, the primary consumers of fossil fuels, can pay them for it. This would produce a global trade that would benefit everyone involved."

This is a market a lot of big companies will be interested in.

This is how it should be done

2008-05-13T09:57:00.000+10:00

These two videos from ClimateCare have several common themes. Watch first and then see if you agree with me.

High tech low tech
Using high tech to discover area of improvement and then implement the solution in low tech.

Local
The solution is implemented locally using local resources and local labour, including local skill development to maintain the solution.

Micro finance
for rapid deployment to those who can afford.

Bushfire & Charcoal

2008-05-12T14:29:00.000+10:00

CSIRO scientists in Australia discovered that the pollutant (such as benzene and toluene, as a result of industrial pollution) absorption ability of charcoal depends more critically to the combustion temperature at which the charcoal was found. The critical temperature was within the scope of temperatures as observed for bush fire.

Nature's initiation of bush fire is a way of generating filters to eliminate pollutants.