OK, this is mindless, but I am on vacation.
How much does the soundtrack make the movie? I am a big fan of the sound track full of actual songs. Here is a quick list of movies that I enjoyed MORE because of the sound track.
Notting Hill
Forest Gump
O Brother Where Art Thou
Dan in Real Life
Juno
Others in your list?
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
New Milk Jugs
Below is an article from the NY Times that my good friend Carol sent me. I love this kind of thing. Here is a purely economic change that impacts the environment and my pocket book in a positive way.
Here are two observations.
1. People will HATE it. Regardless of the benefits, people will complain and complain. I hope that the economics of it drive all dairies to use these containers, but people will not care about the environment or the cost if they don't like the container and they will probably not be willing to 'get used to it'.
2. Organic milk doesn't come in these containers, so I will not be buying them. They come in the worst containers of all: the waxed paper carton. This is unrelated, but hugely annoying for me.
Solution, or Mess? A Milk Jug for a Green Earth
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
Published: June 30, 2008
Correction Appended
NORTH CANTON, Ohio — A simple change to the design of the gallon milk jug, adopted by Wal-Mart and Costco, seems made for the times. The jugs are cheaper to ship and better for the environment, the milk is fresher when it arrives in stores, and it costs less.
Greg Soehnlen, who helps run the company that designed the newfangled jugs, with a pallet at Superior Dairy in Canton, Ohio.
What’s not to like? Plenty, as it turns out.
The jugs have no real spout, and their unorthodox shape makes consumers feel like novices at the simple task of pouring a glass of milk.
“I hate it,” said Lisa DeHoff, a cafe owner shopping in a Sam’s Club here.
“It spills everywhere,” said Amy Wise, a homemaker.
“It’s very hard for kids to pour,” said Lee Morris, who was shopping for her grandchildren.
But retailers are undeterred by the prospect of upended bowls of Cheerios. The new jugs have many advantages from their point of view, and Sam’s Club intends to roll them out broadly, making them more prevalent.
The redesign of the gallon milk jug, experts say, is an example of the changes likely to play out in the American economy over the next two decades. In an era of soaring global demand and higher costs for energy and materials, virtually every aspect of the economy needs to be re-examined, they say, and many products must be redesigned for greater efficiency.
“This is a key strategy as a path forward,” said Anne Johnson, the director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a project of the nonprofit group GreenBlue. “Re-examining, ‘What are the materials we are using? How are we using them? And where do they go ultimately?’ ”
Wal-Mart Stores is already moving down this path. But if the milk jug is any indication, some of the changes will take getting used to on the part of consumers. Many spill milk when first using the new jugs.
“When we brought in the new milk, we were asking for feedback,” said Heather Mayo, vice president for merchandising at Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart. “And they’re saying, ‘Why’s it in a square jug? Why’s it different? I want the same milk. What happened to my old milk?’ ”
Mary Tilton tried to educate the public a few days ago as she stood at a Sam’s Club in North Canton, about 50 miles south of Cleveland, luring shoppers with chocolate chip cookies and milk as she showed them how to pour from the new jugs.
“Just tilt it slowly and pour slowly,” Ms. Tilton said to passing customers as she talked about the jugs’ environmental benefits and cost savings. Instead of picking up the jug, as most people tend to do, she kept it on a table and gently tipped it toward a cup.
Mike Compston, who owns a dairy in Yerington, Nev., described the pouring technique in a telephone interview as a “rock-and-pour instead of a lift-and-tip.”
Demonstrations are but one of several ways Sam’s Club is advocating the containers. Signs in the aisle laud their cost savings and “better fridge fit.”
And some customers have become converts.
“With the new refrigerators with the shelf in the door, these fit nice,” said April Buchanan, who was shopping at the Sam’s Club here. Others, even those who rue the day their tried-and-true jugs were replaced, praised the lower cost, from $2.18 to $2.58 a gallon. Sam’s Club said that was a savings of 10 to 20 cents a gallon compared with old jugs.
The new jug marks a sharp break with the way dairies and grocers have traditionally produced and stocked milk.
Early one recent morning, the creators and producers of the new tall rectangular jugs donned goggles and white coats to walk the noisy, chilly production lines at Superior Dairy in Canton, Ohio. It was founded in 1922 by a man who was forced to abandon the brandy business during Prohibition. Five generations of the founder’s family, the Soehnlens, have worked there.
Today, they bottle and ship two different ways. The old way is inefficient and labor-intensive, according to members of the family. The other day, a worker named Dennis Sickafoose was using a long hook to drag plastic crates loaded with jugs of milk onto a conveyor belt.
The crates are necessary because the shape of old-fashioned milk jugs prohibits stacking them atop one another. The crates take up a lot of room, they are unwieldy to move, and extra space must be left in delivery trucks to take empty ones back from stores to the dairy.
They also can be filthy. “Birds roost on them,” said Dan Soehnlen, president of Superior Dairy, which spun off a unit called Creative Edge to design and license new packaging of many kinds. He spoke while standing in pools of the soapy run-off from milk crates that had just been washed. About 100,000 gallons of water a day are used at his dairy clean the crates, Mr. Soehnlen said.
But with the new jugs, the milk crates are gone. Instead, a machine stacks the jugs, with cardboard sheets between layers. Then the entire pallet, four layers high, is shrink-wrapped and moved with a forklift.
The company estimates this kind of shipping has cut labor by half and water use by 60 to 70 percent. More gallons fit on a truck and in Sam’s Club coolers, and no empty crates need to be picked up, reducing trips to each Sam’s Club store to two a week, from five — a big fuel savings. Also, Sam’s Club can now store 224 gallons of milk in its coolers, in the same space that used to hold 80.
The whole operation is so much more efficient that milk coming out of a cow in the morning winds up at a Sam’s Club store by that afternoon, compared with several hours later or the next morning by the old method. “That’s our idea of fresh milk,” Greg Soehnlen, a vice president at Creative Edge, said.
Sam’s Club started using the boxy jugs in November, and they are now in 189 stores scattered around the country. They will appear soon in more Sam’s Club stores and perhaps in Wal-Marts.
The question now is whether customers will go along.
As Ms. Tilton gave her in-store demonstration the other day at the Sam’s Club here, customers stood around her, munching cookies and sipping milk. “Would you like to take some home today?” she asked.
A shopper named Jodi Kauffman gave the alien jugs a sidelong glance.
“Maybe,” she said.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: July 2, 2008 A chart on Monday with the continuation of a front-page article about a new milk jug design adopted by Wal-Mart and Costco used an incorrect unit of measure. The new containers store 4.5 gallons of milk in a cubic foot — not a square foot. The chart has been corrected.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Algae fuel?
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0806/gallery.plot_save_planet.fsb/4.html
I have started to be leary of these types of things as promising because the true costs are seldom disclosed. This one is the most interesting I have seen in a while.
I have started to be leary of these types of things as promising because the true costs are seldom disclosed. This one is the most interesting I have seen in a while.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Posts on Public New Stories
Sorry it has been so long.
I am going to rant a bit here. Who are these people who comment on news stories, especially political ones? I read the Fox News political pages occasionally and today I read a story speculating about who would be the vice presidential candidates. Then I noticed that there were 10 pages of comments. So were these long diatribes about why Romney or Clinton would be wrong, or who they would vote for if they were the VP, etc. My question is: Why do these people waste their time commenting? Do they really think we care that much? Or what about the guy who posts "I Agree"? Why take up bandwidth and storage with that? Are they in some contest about who can comment on the most stories? Maybe I am walking a thin line here, since here I am commenting about their comments, but at least you are reading this because you know me in some way. Maybe there are people I don't know out there reading this, if so, I'm sorry. Well anyway. To all you people I don't know out there who aren't reading this. Stop posting dumb stuff!
I am going to rant a bit here. Who are these people who comment on news stories, especially political ones? I read the Fox News political pages occasionally and today I read a story speculating about who would be the vice presidential candidates. Then I noticed that there were 10 pages of comments. So were these long diatribes about why Romney or Clinton would be wrong, or who they would vote for if they were the VP, etc. My question is: Why do these people waste their time commenting? Do they really think we care that much? Or what about the guy who posts "I Agree"? Why take up bandwidth and storage with that? Are they in some contest about who can comment on the most stories? Maybe I am walking a thin line here, since here I am commenting about their comments, but at least you are reading this because you know me in some way. Maybe there are people I don't know out there reading this, if so, I'm sorry. Well anyway. To all you people I don't know out there who aren't reading this. Stop posting dumb stuff!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Flower Mound Reuse and Recycling
Packing peanuts - Mail & More - 200 South Mill Street in Lewisville (972) 221-7965; Post Net in Super Target shopping center in Flower Mound; National Mail Centers Located at 1301 FM 407, Suite 201, Highland Village - (972) 317-6254. (also accepts preformed styrofoam packaging materials.); Parcels Plus Located at 2250 FM 407, Suite 108, Highland Village - (972) 317-4966. (also accepts bubble wrap)
Packaging Foam (e.g. TV, VCR, stereo equipment, etc.). - Foam Fabricators Located at 900 E. FM 1709, Keller - (817) 379-6520.
Wire Hangers - One Hour Martinizing Located at 2250 FM 407, Suite 148, Highland Village - (972) 317-9171. (also accepts plastic dry cleaning bags ). Other emails were sent out with drycleaners that accept the hangers only but this one also takes the bags so I'm listing it here.
Plastic Grocery Bags - Tom Thumb & Wal-Mart have drop off boxes to return plastic grocery bags. Even if they have the recycle symbol on them they don't take them in the blue bins on recycle day. A friend emailed that it's because they clog the conveyors. Makes sense!
Plastic Pots and Plastic Flat Carriers - Hartwells Garden Center Located at 1570 N. Stemmons, Lewisville - (972) 436-3612.; Huggins Garden Center 1616 Arrowhead, Flower Mound - (972) 539-4011. one & five gallon pots and plastic flat carriers.
Aluminum, copper, brass, batteries, glass, plastics, aluminum/copper reefers, stainless steel. Almetco Recycling - RECYCLE FOR CASH!! Located at 709 North Cowan, Lewisville - (972) 221-7442.
Appliances, Scrap metal - Fulton Recycling and Supply Located at 1404 Ft. Worth Drive, Denton - (940) 383-1651.Usable Paint - Lewisville High School Drama Department Located at 1098 West Main, Lewisville - (972) 221-3535.
Car batteries, tires & motor oil - Auto Zone (5 gallons per visit), all locations - car batteries and motor oil; car batteries only - Ken Owens Battery Store Located at 275 S. Mill, Lewisville - (972) 436-3974. ; West-Tex Tire and Auto Located at 1425 FM 407, Lewisville - (972) 317-4599. Accepts motor oil, oil filters, car/boat/motorcycle batteries, used tires.
Small Batteries - Radio Shack All locations. Recycle Batteries Hotline - 1-800-8-BATTERY. Accepts Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries found in power tools, cell/cordless phones, camcorders, etc.
Used Children's and Adult's Athletic Shoes - 1st Serve Shoe Bank has a collection box at Bridlewood Elementary. The large red collection box is about 50 ft inside the front door on the left wall, just past the second set of security doors.
Used Cell Phones & Used Toner Cartridges - Bridlewood Elementary collects these items, turns them into a recycler and gets money back for the school! There are a few cardboard boxes to collect these items across from the red shoe collection bin on the opposite wall. If you don't see a box for these ask in the office.Used working, non-working or damaged stuff - see huge list - computers, cameras, office equipment, multimedia, entertainment electronics, portable electronics, home and garden, video games, sporting goods, nonfiction books, and musical instruments can be dropped off at Marcus High School's period recycling program. Marcus turns these items in to various groups for cash back to support the school! You can get more details about what can be dropped off by checking this link: http://mhs.lisd.net/news/worddocs/Recycling.pdf
E-waste - seems the Marcus program would be better since it provides money to the school but they may not take all the same stuff and the dates of this event may work better for you. Flower Mound Recycles Day is May 17, 2008 from 8:00am - 12:00pm at Geralt Park. Here's a link that describes what they take. It looks like the date on the flyer isn't updated but you can see the details of the event from the flyer. http://www.flower-mound.com/kfmb/flowermoundrecyclesday.pdf
Document Shredding - we can put regular copy paper that has been printed on in our recycle bins. I'm planning on getting a separate trash can for it to put next to my desk in my home office because this is something I always recycled in my office at work but for some reason I forget to recycle at home. Often however we are concerned about personal information on our documents. The town of Flower Mound is providing free shredding services at Flower Mound Recycles Day on May 17, 2008 from 8:00am- 12:00pm at Geralt Park. Each resident can bring up to three boxes of papers to be shredded and recycled. They ask that the boxes not contain binders. You should remove the paper from the binders for shredding.
Used prescription glasses - Lewisville Lions Club collects glasses for those in need at multiple locations a list of which can be found in this link: http://www.lewisvillelions.org/glasses.htm. Super Target in Flower Mound is one of the locations where glasses can be dropped off.
Grocery Bags - if we bring out own paper, plastic or cloth grocery bags to Kroger they will give a $.05 discount per bag they don't have to use. Whole Foods also offers a discount. This one isn't about giving stuff to others to reuse but about us not continue to consume grocery bags as a disposable. If you are interested in cloth bags folks recommended checking out the following: Costco 6 for 4 dollars; reusablebags.com; Tom Thumb has them for $.99/bag; Wal-Mart and Kroger sell them too.
Miscellaneous - You can donate goods to a number of charities. Two that have pickup service from your home are the Salvation Army 214-630-5611 and CCA 972-219-HELP. Goodwill and CCA have local drop off stores. Consult your tax professional. With an itemized list and a certified receipt from these registered charities you may be eligible for a tax deduction for the value of the goods you donate.Everything and anything including hard to get rid of stuff like mattresses, broken appliances, left over building supplies - Try freecycle.org. You can list your item and someone local who wants it will pick it up. Most pickups are driveway or porch pickup so you don't even necessarily have to set up a pick-up appt. It's very easy and even broken things surprisingly end up with a home with someone handy!
Christmas Tree and Turkey Oil Recycling - Annually by the town at Geralt park. Check the web site for details http://www.flower-mound.com/kfmb/index.php. This year until Jan 13 between 8:00am and 3:00pm
Hazardous Materials - periodically the town has hazardous material collection days. I don't know when the next one is but I think they have a couple a year so hang onto your hazardous stuff and wait to see when the next one is. They collect pesticides, paint, batteries, etc. If you want to get rid of this stuff prior to the collection day you can call the town and they will give you a voucher to pay for depositing the stuff in a hazardous landfill. I did this once and I can't remember exactly where the landfill was but it was pretty far away (an hour I think) so I decided going forward to just put a little bin in my garage to hold this stuff until the next hazardous collection in Flower Mound. For paint specifically, you can open the cans let them air dry until they are hard and then put them in the regular trash. There is a product sold at hardware stores that you mix into the the paint to dry it up faster if you are trying to do this. We had to do this once when we were moving and couldn't wait for a collection day.
Packaging Foam (e.g. TV, VCR, stereo equipment, etc.). - Foam Fabricators Located at 900 E. FM 1709, Keller - (817) 379-6520.
Wire Hangers - One Hour Martinizing Located at 2250 FM 407, Suite 148, Highland Village - (972) 317-9171. (also accepts plastic dry cleaning bags ). Other emails were sent out with drycleaners that accept the hangers only but this one also takes the bags so I'm listing it here.
Plastic Grocery Bags - Tom Thumb & Wal-Mart have drop off boxes to return plastic grocery bags. Even if they have the recycle symbol on them they don't take them in the blue bins on recycle day. A friend emailed that it's because they clog the conveyors. Makes sense!
Plastic Pots and Plastic Flat Carriers - Hartwells Garden Center Located at 1570 N. Stemmons, Lewisville - (972) 436-3612.; Huggins Garden Center 1616 Arrowhead, Flower Mound - (972) 539-4011. one & five gallon pots and plastic flat carriers.
Aluminum, copper, brass, batteries, glass, plastics, aluminum/copper reefers, stainless steel. Almetco Recycling - RECYCLE FOR CASH!! Located at 709 North Cowan, Lewisville - (972) 221-7442.
Appliances, Scrap metal - Fulton Recycling and Supply Located at 1404 Ft. Worth Drive, Denton - (940) 383-1651.Usable Paint - Lewisville High School Drama Department Located at 1098 West Main, Lewisville - (972) 221-3535.
Car batteries, tires & motor oil - Auto Zone (5 gallons per visit), all locations - car batteries and motor oil; car batteries only - Ken Owens Battery Store Located at 275 S. Mill, Lewisville - (972) 436-3974. ; West-Tex Tire and Auto Located at 1425 FM 407, Lewisville - (972) 317-4599. Accepts motor oil, oil filters, car/boat/motorcycle batteries, used tires.
Small Batteries - Radio Shack All locations. Recycle Batteries Hotline - 1-800-8-BATTERY. Accepts Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries found in power tools, cell/cordless phones, camcorders, etc.
Used Children's and Adult's Athletic Shoes - 1st Serve Shoe Bank has a collection box at Bridlewood Elementary. The large red collection box is about 50 ft inside the front door on the left wall, just past the second set of security doors.
Used Cell Phones & Used Toner Cartridges - Bridlewood Elementary collects these items, turns them into a recycler and gets money back for the school! There are a few cardboard boxes to collect these items across from the red shoe collection bin on the opposite wall. If you don't see a box for these ask in the office.Used working, non-working or damaged stuff - see huge list - computers, cameras, office equipment, multimedia, entertainment electronics, portable electronics, home and garden, video games, sporting goods, nonfiction books, and musical instruments can be dropped off at Marcus High School's period recycling program. Marcus turns these items in to various groups for cash back to support the school! You can get more details about what can be dropped off by checking this link: http://mhs.lisd.net/news/worddocs/Recycling.pdf
E-waste - seems the Marcus program would be better since it provides money to the school but they may not take all the same stuff and the dates of this event may work better for you. Flower Mound Recycles Day is May 17, 2008 from 8:00am - 12:00pm at Geralt Park. Here's a link that describes what they take. It looks like the date on the flyer isn't updated but you can see the details of the event from the flyer. http://www.flower-mound.com/kfmb/flowermoundrecyclesday.pdf
Document Shredding - we can put regular copy paper that has been printed on in our recycle bins. I'm planning on getting a separate trash can for it to put next to my desk in my home office because this is something I always recycled in my office at work but for some reason I forget to recycle at home. Often however we are concerned about personal information on our documents. The town of Flower Mound is providing free shredding services at Flower Mound Recycles Day on May 17, 2008 from 8:00am- 12:00pm at Geralt Park. Each resident can bring up to three boxes of papers to be shredded and recycled. They ask that the boxes not contain binders. You should remove the paper from the binders for shredding.
Used prescription glasses - Lewisville Lions Club collects glasses for those in need at multiple locations a list of which can be found in this link: http://www.lewisvillelions.org/glasses.htm. Super Target in Flower Mound is one of the locations where glasses can be dropped off.
Grocery Bags - if we bring out own paper, plastic or cloth grocery bags to Kroger they will give a $.05 discount per bag they don't have to use. Whole Foods also offers a discount. This one isn't about giving stuff to others to reuse but about us not continue to consume grocery bags as a disposable. If you are interested in cloth bags folks recommended checking out the following: Costco 6 for 4 dollars; reusablebags.com; Tom Thumb has them for $.99/bag; Wal-Mart and Kroger sell them too.
Miscellaneous - You can donate goods to a number of charities. Two that have pickup service from your home are the Salvation Army 214-630-5611 and CCA 972-219-HELP. Goodwill and CCA have local drop off stores. Consult your tax professional. With an itemized list and a certified receipt from these registered charities you may be eligible for a tax deduction for the value of the goods you donate.Everything and anything including hard to get rid of stuff like mattresses, broken appliances, left over building supplies - Try freecycle.org. You can list your item and someone local who wants it will pick it up. Most pickups are driveway or porch pickup so you don't even necessarily have to set up a pick-up appt. It's very easy and even broken things surprisingly end up with a home with someone handy!
Christmas Tree and Turkey Oil Recycling - Annually by the town at Geralt park. Check the web site for details http://www.flower-mound.com/kfmb/index.php. This year until Jan 13 between 8:00am and 3:00pm
Hazardous Materials - periodically the town has hazardous material collection days. I don't know when the next one is but I think they have a couple a year so hang onto your hazardous stuff and wait to see when the next one is. They collect pesticides, paint, batteries, etc. If you want to get rid of this stuff prior to the collection day you can call the town and they will give you a voucher to pay for depositing the stuff in a hazardous landfill. I did this once and I can't remember exactly where the landfill was but it was pretty far away (an hour I think) so I decided going forward to just put a little bin in my garage to hold this stuff until the next hazardous collection in Flower Mound. For paint specifically, you can open the cans let them air dry until they are hard and then put them in the regular trash. There is a product sold at hardware stores that you mix into the the paint to dry it up faster if you are trying to do this. We had to do this once when we were moving and couldn't wait for a collection day.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Solar at Home?
OK this is what I have been looking for
Everybody wants a rooftop solar system. But nobody wants to pay for one. What would you do if you didn’t have to?That’s the idea behind a new strategy being put to the test by the solar power industry, and it could be the breakthrough we’ve all been waiting for.
The trailblazing concept is called a purchase power agreement (PPA), and it’s designed to address the key problem solar energy systems have historically had: an unaffordable initial cost that puts them out of reach of most homeowners. Depending on where in the country you live, for example, a typical four-bedroom home needing a four-kilowatt system could cost anywhere between $25,000 and $35,000 to outfit. Even when the rising costs of conventional electricity are factored in, that’s a budget-busting investment whose payback time is far too long for all but the wealthiest purchasers.
PPAs, also known as solar power service agreements, take a different approach. Here, the solar energy company pays for the installation of all the necessary equipment. In exchange for what’s essentially a free solar system, homeowners sign a long-term contract in which they agree to pay a set rate for the electricity their system generates. Much like their arrangement with their local electric company, there’s still a meter and monthly bill, but the amount due now goes to the solar provider and comes without an environmental price tag.
There are other benefits as well. PPA customers lock into a set rate for the power their system generates, which usually mirrors local electricity rates at the time of installation. Once the contract is signed, they’re insulated from future price increases in the open market. Over the course of a typical 15 to 20-year contract, those savings are significant. (Imagine paying 1988 rates for the power you use today!)
A PPA system also comes with no servicing worries. Because the solar company owns it, they handle all maintenance, replacing often costly broken or worn out parts for free. At the end of the lease, homeowners can renew or in some cases even purchase their system at a reduced price that reflects its depreciated value. For their part, solar PPA providers can claim any state and/or federal tax benefits that the installation would normally provide to the homeowner, and they get a guaranteed monthly income.
There are lots of variations on the basic PPA idea. Some companies will charge a relatively small upfront free of several thousand dollars for the installation. Others sell the power their systems generate at variable rates. In every case, however, the consumer wins because their electricity costs are stabilized at below-market rates and their carbon footprint is greatly reduced, an advantage whose importance can’t be understated.
PPAs aren’t the only new type of solar system financing to emerge recently in the marketplace. Solar companies have also begun leasing systems. Under this arrangement, customers make a one-time payment at installation and then a set monthly rental fee unconnected to the amount of power their system is generating. Unlike PPAs in which the solar company owns the power being generated, the energy that leased systems produce is the property of the homeowner. Under this arrangement, if their system generates power their home doesn’t use, the homeowner can sell it to their local utility by sending it out onto the electrical grid, an arrangement called reverse or net metering.
With average national electric rates expected to rise about 2.5% annually in the coming years and the cost of solar panels predicted to drop dramatically in the next 12-24 months, PPAs and solar leases are expected to combine with increasing amounts of low-rate financing being offered by financial institutions to create a solar boom. Here are some resources to help your family take advantage of it:
For more information about solar energy, visit the Solar Energy Industries Association and Renewable Energy World.
To learn about state and federal tax credits and other renewable energy incentives, visit DSIRE, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency.
For a state-by-state guide to renewable energy programs, services, and resources visit The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
For a handy solar estimator and more information about finding a solar installer, explore Find Solar.
Three national companies currently offering creative solar installation arrangements for homeowners are Sun Run, SunPower, and Citizenre.
Food at what Cost?
My friend Carol sent me this. Very, very interesting. Key point: What you eat has more of an impact than where the food came from. Enjoy.
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/23/food.ethicalliving
How the myth of food miles hurts the planet Ethical shopping just got more complicated. The idea that only local produce is good is under attack. There is growing evidence to suggest that some air-freighted food is greener than food produced in the UK. Robin McKie and Caroline Davies report on how the concept of food miles became oversimplified - and is damaging the planet in the process Robin McKie Sunday March 23 2008 The Observer
Mike Small and his wife, Karen, sat down last Thursday to a dinner of smoked fish pie crusted with mashed potato and served with purple-sprouting broccoli, an unremarkable family meal except for one key factor: every ingredient came from sources close to their home in Burntisland, Fife. 'The fish was Fife-landed, while the potatoes and broccoli were grown on nearby farms,' he says.
Nor was this a one-off culinary event. For the past six months Mike and Karen and their two children, Sorley and Alex, have consumed only food and drink bought in their home district.
This is the Fife Diet, developed by Mike Small as a response to the environmental dangers posed by carbon-emitting imports of Peruvian avocados, Kenyan green beans, New Zealand lamb and all those other foreign foodstuffs that now fill the shelves of our supermarkets. Each of these imported products involves the emission of carbon dioxide from the planes and ships that brought them to our shores.
So Mike Small argues that we should eat local produce and save the planet, an idea that has obliged his family - and a growing number of adherents to his cause - to eat meals of local lamb, pork and a great many dishes based on parsnips, beetroots, kale, potatoes, leeks and all the other root vegetables that typify the agricultural output of this wind-swept corner of Scotland.
This is the future of ethical eating, insists Small: the consumption of local produce at all costs. It is an attitude now shared by thousands around the UK and overseas, individuals who have decided to reject foods that have been transported over long distances by road, air or sea to their dinner plates. They even have their own name for themselves - locavores - and insist that their way is the only one to save the planet.
But the idea that 'only local is good' has come under attack. For a start, food grown in areas where there is high use of fertilisers and tractors is likely to be anything but carbon-friendly, it is pointed out. At the same time the argument against food miles - which show how far a product has been shipped and therefore how much carbon has been emitted in its transport - has been savaged by experts. 'The concept of food miles is unhelpful and stupid. It doesn't inform about anything except the distance travelled,' Dr Adrian Williams, of the National Resources Management Centre at Cranfield University, told The Observer last week.
Given that the food miles cause was hailed only a few months ago as the means to empower the carbon-conscious consumer, such criticisms are striking, and suggest that some careful reassessment of the concept's usefulness has been going on.
Certainly the issues involved no longer seem clear-cut. Consider that supermarket stalwart: green beans from Kenya. These are air-freighted to stores to allow consumers to buy fresh beans when British varieties are out of season. Each packet has a little sticker with the image of a plane on it to indicate that carbon dioxide from aviation fuel was emitted in bringing them to this country. And that, surely, is bad, campaigners argue. Rising levels of carbon dioxide are trapping more and more sunlight and inexorably heating the planet, after all.
But a warning that beans have been air-freighted does not mean we should automatically switch to British varieties if we want to help the climate. Beans in Kenya are produced in a highly environmentally-friendly manner. 'Beans there are grown using manual labour - nothing is mechanised,' says Professor Gareth Edwards-Jones of Bangor University, an expert on African agriculture. 'They don't use tractors, they use cow muck as fertiliser; and they have low-tech irrigation systems in Kenya. They also provide employment to many people in the developing world. So you have to weigh that against the air miles used to get them to the supermarket.'
When you do that - and incorporate these different factors - you make the counter-intuitive discovery that air-transported green beans from Kenya could actually account for the emission of less carbon dioxide than British beans. The latter are grown in fields on which oil-based fertilisers have been sprayed and which are ploughed by tractors that burn diesel. In the words of Gareth Thomas, Minister for Trade and Development, speaking at a recent Department for International Development air-freight seminar: 'Driving 6.5 miles to buy your shopping emits more carbon than flying a pack of Kenyan green beans to the UK.'
'Half the people who boycott air-freighted beans think they are doing some good for the environment. Then they go on a budget airline holiday to Prague the next weekend,' adds Bill Vorley, head of sustainable markets for the International Institute for Environment and Development. 'They are just making gestures.'
It is not that the concept of food miles is wrong; it is just too simplistic, say experts. In fact, balancing your diet with its carbon costs turns out to be a fiendishly tricky business. Consider these two staples: apples and lettuce. The former are harvested in September and October. Some are sold fresh; the rest are chill stored. For most of the following year, they still represent good value - in terms of carbon emissions - for British shoppers. But by August those Coxs and Braeburns will have been in store for 10 months. The amount of energy used to keep them fresh for that length of time will then overtake the carbon cost of shipping them from New Zealand. It is therefore better for the environment if UK shoppers buy apples from New Zealand in July and August rather than those of British origin.
Then there is the example of lettuces. In Britain these are grown in winter, in greenhouses or polytunnels which require heating. At those times it is better - in terms of carbon emissions - to buy field-grown lettuce from Spain. But in summer, when no heating is required, British is best. Picking the right sources for your apples and lettuces depends on the time of year.
'Working out carbon footprints is horribly complicated,' says Edwards-Jones. 'It is not just where something is grown and how far it has to travel, but also how it is grown, how it is stored, how it is prepared.'
This uncertainty even extends to the Soil Association, which announced last year that it was considering halting its endorsement of air-freighted organic food because their emissions negated the benefits of growing it organically. But now the organisation has dropped the plan and is to continue to endorse air-freighted organic food, provided it is grown under conditions that meet its ethical trade standards.
In addition, the government has revealed that it is changing its stance on food miles, as was recently stressed by Gareth Thomas. 'Food miles alone are not the best way to judge whether the food we eat is sustainable. We need a better-informed food miles debate. Long term, the only fair option is to ensure the prices of the goods we consume, including organic produce, cover the environmental costs wherever the goods are from. We also need a labelling system that tells consumers about how the product is reducing poverty.'
Nor is this argument lost on the nation's supermarkets. 'An airplane sticker is of no environmental value whatsoever, as studies have shown air-freighted products are not necessarily less sustainable than local produce grown in heated greenhouses,' said a spokesman for Tesco. 'Thus we may remove those plane labels in future. What people are actually interested in is the amount of carbon that is emitted during a product's manufacture and import.' As a result, Tesco has promised to put carbon labels on 30 of its own-brand products in the near future: six types of potatoes, 11 types of tomatoes, five types of washing power and liquid capsules, four types of orange juice and six types of light bulbs. 'We want to see how customers react and find out how it affects their purchasing behaviour,' added the spokesman.
In fact, these carbon cost labels have already been tested on a small range of products, including Walkers crisps and Cadburys chocolates. Packets and wrappers have a small C with a downward arrow through it, beside a figure which represents the number of grams of carbon dioxide emitted during the manufacture of that product. In this way it is revealed that packets of Walker's Ready Salted and Salt and Vinegar crisps each generate 75g of carbon, while the cheese and onion variety produced only 74g.
Now this limited range of products is to be expanded and will appear in Tesco and other stores, says the Carbon Trust which - with the British Standards Institute - has been involved in calculating how a meaningful carbon inventory can be compiled for foodstuffs.
Not surprisingly, such exercises have proved to be extraordinarily tricky, says Graham Sinden of the Carbon Trust. 'You have to take into account emissions that occurred in the farmyard, for example. Cows and sheep produce methane, which is far more damaging a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Similarly, fertilisers produce nitrogen oxides that are also dangerous. Then you have the issue of transport and processing. Taking a sheep to the slaughterhouse produces carbon emissions, for instance. Cooking is another factor. That requires heat that in turn releases carbon dioxide. After that you need to store products. That often requires refrigeration, which requires electricity, which releases carbon dioxide. Estimating how long a product will be kept in a store and how efficient is its refrigeration is not easy to assess, but it has to be done.
'Then you have to work out how long your product will be kept at home once it has been purchased. You also have to estimate how efficiently it will be cooked. And finally you have to work out how much carbon is involved in its packaging and how much will be emitted in disposing of those wrappers and labels once discarded.'
For some products, such as crisps, a carbon number is easy to calculate. But for others, the process will be much more awkward. How can you accurately calculate a pizza's carbon footprint when it often comes with a variety of toppings?
Even if you could get a carbon label that accurately reflects a product's impact on the environment and identify products that have high footprints, would you be right in boycotting them? In many cases, such as brands of coffee, these products come from struggling third world nations. Using our Western concerns with the climate as an excuse to increase poverty there has dubious ethical consequences.
In short, the issue of trying to reduce the emissions produced by food is bedevilled by complexity. Even replacing food miles with a carbon footprint figure will only partly simplify the issues, a point stressed by Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network.
'There is only one way of being sure that you cut down on your carbon emissions when buying food: stop eating meat, milk, butter and cheese,' said Garnett. 'These come from ruminants - sheep and cattle - that produce a great deal of harmful methane. In other words, it is not the source of the food that matters but the kind of food you eat. Whether people are prepared to cut these from their shopping lists is a different issue, however.'The chickpea: A green dilemma
Chickpeas are sold in supermarkets in two versions: dried or cooked. The carbon footprint of the latter is far higher than the former. The only processing involved in drying chickpeas is to lay them out in the sun to drive off moisture. By contrast, heat is needed to cook chickpeas before they are tinned. Hence the carbon gram total for tins of cooked chickpeas would be far greater than those on packets of the dried variety.
'That seems straightforward,' says Graham Sinden, of the Carbon Trust. 'But you can't eat dried chickpeas. You have to cook them. And when you take them home you find the carbon you emitted when cooking those chickpeas exceeds the figure for the tinned variety - because cooking small portions at home is inefficient compared with that of large industrial kitchens.'
As a result, when the trust system is taken up and used widely, the gram measure on a packet of dried chickpeas will include an estimate of the heat that will be used in a customer's home to cook them. But that figure will be a guess, for it will depend on whether the customer uses gas or electricity for cooking. The former is more efficient and less prone to carbon emissions.
As for individuals who use renewable energy to heat their homes and kitchens, they would completely negate the point of carbon labels in many cases. 'That is why it is impossible to have accurate carbon labels on a lot of products,' says Gareth Edwards-Jones, of Bangor University.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
If you have any questions about this email, please contact the guardian.co.uk user help desk: userhelp@guardian.co.uk.
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/23/food.ethicalliving
How the myth of food miles hurts the planet Ethical shopping just got more complicated. The idea that only local produce is good is under attack. There is growing evidence to suggest that some air-freighted food is greener than food produced in the UK. Robin McKie and Caroline Davies report on how the concept of food miles became oversimplified - and is damaging the planet in the process Robin McKie Sunday March 23 2008 The Observer
Mike Small and his wife, Karen, sat down last Thursday to a dinner of smoked fish pie crusted with mashed potato and served with purple-sprouting broccoli, an unremarkable family meal except for one key factor: every ingredient came from sources close to their home in Burntisland, Fife. 'The fish was Fife-landed, while the potatoes and broccoli were grown on nearby farms,' he says.
Nor was this a one-off culinary event. For the past six months Mike and Karen and their two children, Sorley and Alex, have consumed only food and drink bought in their home district.
This is the Fife Diet, developed by Mike Small as a response to the environmental dangers posed by carbon-emitting imports of Peruvian avocados, Kenyan green beans, New Zealand lamb and all those other foreign foodstuffs that now fill the shelves of our supermarkets. Each of these imported products involves the emission of carbon dioxide from the planes and ships that brought them to our shores.
So Mike Small argues that we should eat local produce and save the planet, an idea that has obliged his family - and a growing number of adherents to his cause - to eat meals of local lamb, pork and a great many dishes based on parsnips, beetroots, kale, potatoes, leeks and all the other root vegetables that typify the agricultural output of this wind-swept corner of Scotland.
This is the future of ethical eating, insists Small: the consumption of local produce at all costs. It is an attitude now shared by thousands around the UK and overseas, individuals who have decided to reject foods that have been transported over long distances by road, air or sea to their dinner plates. They even have their own name for themselves - locavores - and insist that their way is the only one to save the planet.
But the idea that 'only local is good' has come under attack. For a start, food grown in areas where there is high use of fertilisers and tractors is likely to be anything but carbon-friendly, it is pointed out. At the same time the argument against food miles - which show how far a product has been shipped and therefore how much carbon has been emitted in its transport - has been savaged by experts. 'The concept of food miles is unhelpful and stupid. It doesn't inform about anything except the distance travelled,' Dr Adrian Williams, of the National Resources Management Centre at Cranfield University, told The Observer last week.
Given that the food miles cause was hailed only a few months ago as the means to empower the carbon-conscious consumer, such criticisms are striking, and suggest that some careful reassessment of the concept's usefulness has been going on.
Certainly the issues involved no longer seem clear-cut. Consider that supermarket stalwart: green beans from Kenya. These are air-freighted to stores to allow consumers to buy fresh beans when British varieties are out of season. Each packet has a little sticker with the image of a plane on it to indicate that carbon dioxide from aviation fuel was emitted in bringing them to this country. And that, surely, is bad, campaigners argue. Rising levels of carbon dioxide are trapping more and more sunlight and inexorably heating the planet, after all.
But a warning that beans have been air-freighted does not mean we should automatically switch to British varieties if we want to help the climate. Beans in Kenya are produced in a highly environmentally-friendly manner. 'Beans there are grown using manual labour - nothing is mechanised,' says Professor Gareth Edwards-Jones of Bangor University, an expert on African agriculture. 'They don't use tractors, they use cow muck as fertiliser; and they have low-tech irrigation systems in Kenya. They also provide employment to many people in the developing world. So you have to weigh that against the air miles used to get them to the supermarket.'
When you do that - and incorporate these different factors - you make the counter-intuitive discovery that air-transported green beans from Kenya could actually account for the emission of less carbon dioxide than British beans. The latter are grown in fields on which oil-based fertilisers have been sprayed and which are ploughed by tractors that burn diesel. In the words of Gareth Thomas, Minister for Trade and Development, speaking at a recent Department for International Development air-freight seminar: 'Driving 6.5 miles to buy your shopping emits more carbon than flying a pack of Kenyan green beans to the UK.'
'Half the people who boycott air-freighted beans think they are doing some good for the environment. Then they go on a budget airline holiday to Prague the next weekend,' adds Bill Vorley, head of sustainable markets for the International Institute for Environment and Development. 'They are just making gestures.'
It is not that the concept of food miles is wrong; it is just too simplistic, say experts. In fact, balancing your diet with its carbon costs turns out to be a fiendishly tricky business. Consider these two staples: apples and lettuce. The former are harvested in September and October. Some are sold fresh; the rest are chill stored. For most of the following year, they still represent good value - in terms of carbon emissions - for British shoppers. But by August those Coxs and Braeburns will have been in store for 10 months. The amount of energy used to keep them fresh for that length of time will then overtake the carbon cost of shipping them from New Zealand. It is therefore better for the environment if UK shoppers buy apples from New Zealand in July and August rather than those of British origin.
Then there is the example of lettuces. In Britain these are grown in winter, in greenhouses or polytunnels which require heating. At those times it is better - in terms of carbon emissions - to buy field-grown lettuce from Spain. But in summer, when no heating is required, British is best. Picking the right sources for your apples and lettuces depends on the time of year.
'Working out carbon footprints is horribly complicated,' says Edwards-Jones. 'It is not just where something is grown and how far it has to travel, but also how it is grown, how it is stored, how it is prepared.'
This uncertainty even extends to the Soil Association, which announced last year that it was considering halting its endorsement of air-freighted organic food because their emissions negated the benefits of growing it organically. But now the organisation has dropped the plan and is to continue to endorse air-freighted organic food, provided it is grown under conditions that meet its ethical trade standards.
In addition, the government has revealed that it is changing its stance on food miles, as was recently stressed by Gareth Thomas. 'Food miles alone are not the best way to judge whether the food we eat is sustainable. We need a better-informed food miles debate. Long term, the only fair option is to ensure the prices of the goods we consume, including organic produce, cover the environmental costs wherever the goods are from. We also need a labelling system that tells consumers about how the product is reducing poverty.'
Nor is this argument lost on the nation's supermarkets. 'An airplane sticker is of no environmental value whatsoever, as studies have shown air-freighted products are not necessarily less sustainable than local produce grown in heated greenhouses,' said a spokesman for Tesco. 'Thus we may remove those plane labels in future. What people are actually interested in is the amount of carbon that is emitted during a product's manufacture and import.' As a result, Tesco has promised to put carbon labels on 30 of its own-brand products in the near future: six types of potatoes, 11 types of tomatoes, five types of washing power and liquid capsules, four types of orange juice and six types of light bulbs. 'We want to see how customers react and find out how it affects their purchasing behaviour,' added the spokesman.
In fact, these carbon cost labels have already been tested on a small range of products, including Walkers crisps and Cadburys chocolates. Packets and wrappers have a small C with a downward arrow through it, beside a figure which represents the number of grams of carbon dioxide emitted during the manufacture of that product. In this way it is revealed that packets of Walker's Ready Salted and Salt and Vinegar crisps each generate 75g of carbon, while the cheese and onion variety produced only 74g.
Now this limited range of products is to be expanded and will appear in Tesco and other stores, says the Carbon Trust which - with the British Standards Institute - has been involved in calculating how a meaningful carbon inventory can be compiled for foodstuffs.
Not surprisingly, such exercises have proved to be extraordinarily tricky, says Graham Sinden of the Carbon Trust. 'You have to take into account emissions that occurred in the farmyard, for example. Cows and sheep produce methane, which is far more damaging a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Similarly, fertilisers produce nitrogen oxides that are also dangerous. Then you have the issue of transport and processing. Taking a sheep to the slaughterhouse produces carbon emissions, for instance. Cooking is another factor. That requires heat that in turn releases carbon dioxide. After that you need to store products. That often requires refrigeration, which requires electricity, which releases carbon dioxide. Estimating how long a product will be kept in a store and how efficient is its refrigeration is not easy to assess, but it has to be done.
'Then you have to work out how long your product will be kept at home once it has been purchased. You also have to estimate how efficiently it will be cooked. And finally you have to work out how much carbon is involved in its packaging and how much will be emitted in disposing of those wrappers and labels once discarded.'
For some products, such as crisps, a carbon number is easy to calculate. But for others, the process will be much more awkward. How can you accurately calculate a pizza's carbon footprint when it often comes with a variety of toppings?
Even if you could get a carbon label that accurately reflects a product's impact on the environment and identify products that have high footprints, would you be right in boycotting them? In many cases, such as brands of coffee, these products come from struggling third world nations. Using our Western concerns with the climate as an excuse to increase poverty there has dubious ethical consequences.
In short, the issue of trying to reduce the emissions produced by food is bedevilled by complexity. Even replacing food miles with a carbon footprint figure will only partly simplify the issues, a point stressed by Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network.
'There is only one way of being sure that you cut down on your carbon emissions when buying food: stop eating meat, milk, butter and cheese,' said Garnett. 'These come from ruminants - sheep and cattle - that produce a great deal of harmful methane. In other words, it is not the source of the food that matters but the kind of food you eat. Whether people are prepared to cut these from their shopping lists is a different issue, however.'The chickpea: A green dilemma
Chickpeas are sold in supermarkets in two versions: dried or cooked. The carbon footprint of the latter is far higher than the former. The only processing involved in drying chickpeas is to lay them out in the sun to drive off moisture. By contrast, heat is needed to cook chickpeas before they are tinned. Hence the carbon gram total for tins of cooked chickpeas would be far greater than those on packets of the dried variety.
'That seems straightforward,' says Graham Sinden, of the Carbon Trust. 'But you can't eat dried chickpeas. You have to cook them. And when you take them home you find the carbon you emitted when cooking those chickpeas exceeds the figure for the tinned variety - because cooking small portions at home is inefficient compared with that of large industrial kitchens.'
As a result, when the trust system is taken up and used widely, the gram measure on a packet of dried chickpeas will include an estimate of the heat that will be used in a customer's home to cook them. But that figure will be a guess, for it will depend on whether the customer uses gas or electricity for cooking. The former is more efficient and less prone to carbon emissions.
As for individuals who use renewable energy to heat their homes and kitchens, they would completely negate the point of carbon labels in many cases. 'That is why it is impossible to have accurate carbon labels on a lot of products,' says Gareth Edwards-Jones, of Bangor University.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
If you have any questions about this email, please contact the guardian.co.uk user help desk: userhelp@guardian.co.uk.
Friday, March 28, 2008
You've got to be kidding me....
OK, remember this is the safe place, so you don't have to agree with me, but this is just silly. Listen to this guy try and justify this.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Cleaning your recycling....
Here is a great tip from this email subscription I get.
http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/lime_aid_bust_a_myth_week
Need help getting the lime wedge out of your beer bottle?
The Bite
Don't bother - you can recycle it with the lime still inside. In fact, none of your recyclables need to be spotless, since most "contaminants" get cleaned out or burned away during remanufacturing. We'll drink to that.
The Benefits
· Recycling's even easier. What will the waste management people think up next?
· Cheers for less water waste. It takes about two glasses of water to clean out a glass jar; you'll save a lotta water by not rinsing your recyclables until they're spick-and-span.
Personally Speaking
Bite team member Hilary used to suck the limes out of her Corona bottles before recycling them until we researched this tip and set her straight.
Wanna Try?
· Don't chuck a container full of moldy cream cheese into the bin - but you don't have to scrape and rinse it 'til it's totally clean either.
http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/lime_aid_bust_a_myth_week
Need help getting the lime wedge out of your beer bottle?
The Bite
Don't bother - you can recycle it with the lime still inside. In fact, none of your recyclables need to be spotless, since most "contaminants" get cleaned out or burned away during remanufacturing. We'll drink to that.
The Benefits
· Recycling's even easier. What will the waste management people think up next?
· Cheers for less water waste. It takes about two glasses of water to clean out a glass jar; you'll save a lotta water by not rinsing your recyclables until they're spick-and-span.
Personally Speaking
Bite team member Hilary used to suck the limes out of her Corona bottles before recycling them until we researched this tip and set her straight.
Wanna Try?
· Don't chuck a container full of moldy cream cheese into the bin - but you don't have to scrape and rinse it 'til it's totally clean either.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Compact Fluorscent and Mercury
NPR did an article on CFLs and Mercury here is the article:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198
This is just something to be aware of, as you shouldn't just throw them away when the burn out. Also there are precautions to take when they break.
The EnergyStar FAQ linked in the article was good and brief.
Thanks to Jim Wilkin for this link.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7431198
This is just something to be aware of, as you shouldn't just throw them away when the burn out. Also there are precautions to take when they break.
The EnergyStar FAQ linked in the article was good and brief.
Thanks to Jim Wilkin for this link.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
What to Eat?
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Hope you are still out there.
What should we eat? We have become so accustomed to having what we want, when we want it. The thought of oranges, broccoli, peppers, onions or tomatos not being available at the store is completely unimaginable in our time. This is all great, but at what cost? If I have to get my pears from Peru or some other country across the world, what impact is that having on the environment.
I am sure some of you remember what this type of access wasn't available. Was it horrible? Let us know.
So again I as what should we eat? Here is a link to 'sustainable table' and their eating seasonable page. http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/ Here you will find links to every state, lists of seasonable vegatables and local farmers markets.
Buy seasonable, buy local.
What should we eat? We have become so accustomed to having what we want, when we want it. The thought of oranges, broccoli, peppers, onions or tomatos not being available at the store is completely unimaginable in our time. This is all great, but at what cost? If I have to get my pears from Peru or some other country across the world, what impact is that having on the environment.
I am sure some of you remember what this type of access wasn't available. Was it horrible? Let us know.
So again I as what should we eat? Here is a link to 'sustainable table' and their eating seasonable page. http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/ Here you will find links to every state, lists of seasonable vegatables and local farmers markets.
Buy seasonable, buy local.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
What's in your stomach?
The World: Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler
Carol Fox sent me this and it is so interesting. We have started have veggie night once a week to cut down our meat intake, though we eat mostly chicken. We call it save a chicken night.
Carol Fox sent me this and it is so interesting. We have started have veggie night once a week to cut down our meat intake, though we eat mostly chicken. We call it save a chicken night.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Now this is alternative energy!
BioGas
I think this is so interesting. Using methane created from waste to generate electricity or power stoves is not new. There is a dairy farm somewhere that I saw that went from spending $1000 a day on electricity to selling $400/day back to the grid.
Now I read a book called A Fine Balance that was about India and the caste system. These people live/lived in some pretty unsanitary conditions. Check out this article.
Waste Not, Want Not
By Jeremy Kahn
(Fortune Magazine) -- Sintex Industries, a plastics and textiles manufacturer in Gujarat, India, is betting it can find profit in human waste. Its new biogas digester turns human excrement, cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity, simultaneously addressing two of India's major needs: energy and sanitation.
Sintex's digester uses bacteria to break down waste into sludge, much like a septic tank. In the process, the bacteria emit gases, mostly methane. But instead of being vented into the air, they are piped into a storage canister.
A one-cubic-meter digester, primed with cow dung to provide bacteria, can convert the waste generated by a four-person family into enough gas to cook all its meals and provide sludge for fertilizer. A model this size costs about $425 but will pay for itself in energy savings in less than two years. That's still a high price for most Indians, even though the government recently agreed to subsidize about a third of the cost for these family-sized units. "We want to create a new industry for portable sanitation in India that's not available now," says S.B. Dangayach, Sintex's managing director.
Government officials plan to end open defecation by 2012 (hundreds of millions of Indians use railroad tracks or other outdoor locales instead of toilets) and say biogas plants are part of the solution. A.R. Shukla, a scientific advisor in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, says India could support 12 million such plants, but only 3.9 million - mostly pricier models big enough to accommodate entire villages - have been installed to date. And last year the government fell far short of its target for new installations.
The future can be glimpsed on a dusty, rutted road in a poor South Delhi neighborhood. Here 1,000 people use an immaculately clean public toilet constructed by a nonprofit foundation, the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. The biogas digester attached to toilets provides cooking gas for a 600-student school and vocational-training program the foundation runs. In the past, nongovernmental organizations like Sulabh were the only ones offering biogas digesters.
But Sintex is hoping cities, real estate developers, building managers, and hospitals will jump at a ready-made way to harness the same energy.
Biogas digesters are just a small fraction of Sintex's business. The company has installed only about 100 of them. But it plans to increase investment and production tenfold in the coming year. That growth potential has helped Sintex stock more than double this past year. Human waste may be a stinky business, but to investors it smells like money.
I think this is so interesting. Using methane created from waste to generate electricity or power stoves is not new. There is a dairy farm somewhere that I saw that went from spending $1000 a day on electricity to selling $400/day back to the grid.
Now I read a book called A Fine Balance that was about India and the caste system. These people live/lived in some pretty unsanitary conditions. Check out this article.
Waste Not, Want Not
By Jeremy Kahn
(Fortune Magazine) -- Sintex Industries, a plastics and textiles manufacturer in Gujarat, India, is betting it can find profit in human waste. Its new biogas digester turns human excrement, cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity, simultaneously addressing two of India's major needs: energy and sanitation.
Sintex's digester uses bacteria to break down waste into sludge, much like a septic tank. In the process, the bacteria emit gases, mostly methane. But instead of being vented into the air, they are piped into a storage canister.
A one-cubic-meter digester, primed with cow dung to provide bacteria, can convert the waste generated by a four-person family into enough gas to cook all its meals and provide sludge for fertilizer. A model this size costs about $425 but will pay for itself in energy savings in less than two years. That's still a high price for most Indians, even though the government recently agreed to subsidize about a third of the cost for these family-sized units. "We want to create a new industry for portable sanitation in India that's not available now," says S.B. Dangayach, Sintex's managing director.
Government officials plan to end open defecation by 2012 (hundreds of millions of Indians use railroad tracks or other outdoor locales instead of toilets) and say biogas plants are part of the solution. A.R. Shukla, a scientific advisor in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, says India could support 12 million such plants, but only 3.9 million - mostly pricier models big enough to accommodate entire villages - have been installed to date. And last year the government fell far short of its target for new installations.
The future can be glimpsed on a dusty, rutted road in a poor South Delhi neighborhood. Here 1,000 people use an immaculately clean public toilet constructed by a nonprofit foundation, the Sulabh Sanitation Movement. The biogas digester attached to toilets provides cooking gas for a 600-student school and vocational-training program the foundation runs. In the past, nongovernmental organizations like Sulabh were the only ones offering biogas digesters.
But Sintex is hoping cities, real estate developers, building managers, and hospitals will jump at a ready-made way to harness the same energy.
Biogas digesters are just a small fraction of Sintex's business. The company has installed only about 100 of them. But it plans to increase investment and production tenfold in the coming year. That growth potential has helped Sintex stock more than double this past year. Human waste may be a stinky business, but to investors it smells like money.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Managing the risk of Global Warming
Jim Maloney sent me this. This argument isn't perfect, but pretty interesting. Take a look...
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Do vs. Done
OK, on a more serious note. I can't take credit for this, I listen to a podcast for a program called 'The White Horse Inn'. It's 2 presbyterians, a lutheran and a baptist talking about the church. It's interesting if your into that stuff, and I am.
Anyway, I listen while I jog (aren't I healthy). Today I was struck by this quote.
"The law is what God commands. The gospel is what God gives. God gives in the gospel what he commands in the law."
We as Christians tell people to 'love your neighbor' and the world will be a better place, or if we just vote a certain way or pray a certain prayer then our lives will be better. If we will just have more faith or be more obedient then we will be happier. When we say these thing we miss the point complete. We are telling ourselves to DO and when we do that we are not different from any religion. All religions have good advice about what to DO to be better, happier, etc.
When we talk like this we are just reiterating the old testament law. Jesus told us that the law was summarized in two points "Love God, Love Your Neighbor." But it's still the law, and you know what we can't DO it very well.
The Gospel is the story of Jesus. It is already DONE. He came and obeyed the law in our place, then took the punishment for our sin, and gives us the reward He earned by his obedience. What a gift! That is truely good news.
Stop trying to DO and embrace what He has DONE.
Here is the program if you want to listen.
Good News vs. Good Advice
Anyway, I listen while I jog (aren't I healthy). Today I was struck by this quote.
"The law is what God commands. The gospel is what God gives. God gives in the gospel what he commands in the law."
We as Christians tell people to 'love your neighbor' and the world will be a better place, or if we just vote a certain way or pray a certain prayer then our lives will be better. If we will just have more faith or be more obedient then we will be happier. When we say these thing we miss the point complete. We are telling ourselves to DO and when we do that we are not different from any religion. All religions have good advice about what to DO to be better, happier, etc.
When we talk like this we are just reiterating the old testament law. Jesus told us that the law was summarized in two points "Love God, Love Your Neighbor." But it's still the law, and you know what we can't DO it very well.
The Gospel is the story of Jesus. It is already DONE. He came and obeyed the law in our place, then took the punishment for our sin, and gives us the reward He earned by his obedience. What a gift! That is truely good news.
Stop trying to DO and embrace what He has DONE.
Here is the program if you want to listen.
Good News vs. Good Advice
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Coming to a sports team near you....
You can bet money these will be parked at Reliant and Texas Stadiums when traning camp starts this summer!
Chicago Auto Show XUV
Alton F-650 XUV
Based on a Ford Super Duty truck, the F-650 is powered by a 7.2-liter Caterpillar diesel engine.
Inside, it's got hardwood floors, custom captain's chairs, a 42-speaker sound system, two 16-inch TVs that drop down from the ceiling and another 42-inch plasma screen TV. It also has four computer workstations and, in case someone doesn't see you coming, a train horn.
The total price is about $200,000.
Chicago Auto Show XUV
Alton F-650 XUV
Based on a Ford Super Duty truck, the F-650 is powered by a 7.2-liter Caterpillar diesel engine.
Inside, it's got hardwood floors, custom captain's chairs, a 42-speaker sound system, two 16-inch TVs that drop down from the ceiling and another 42-inch plasma screen TV. It also has four computer workstations and, in case someone doesn't see you coming, a train horn.
The total price is about $200,000.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Speaking of Composting...
Terra Cycle is a really cool company that makes organic fertilizer. The really cool think is that they store their product in recycled soda bottles. Check it out. http://www.terracycle.net/. See what they are doing with other waste products like yogurt containers.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Earth friendly investments
I am having fun with this, I hope some of you subscribed so we can continue to dialog.
Here's one for you. What 'obligation' do we have to invest in green? Economically it doesn't makes sense to do some of this stuff. Do I get a hybrid car? That is more expensive. Do I drop 10K for wind or solar at the house?
I think there is an argument that we should be investing for the future and this is part of it. I don't have an extra 10K sitting around, but I wouldn't be opposed to having a 5-7 year pay back if the initial investment was just a little more reasonable.
The other thing I worry about is how my home owner's association would react. It would probably increase the value of my house, so maybe they wouldn't mind.
On a related note. Have you driven a Toyota Prius? That has the most unusually controls of any car I have seen. I had to sit in it for a while and figure everything out. Check out the interior controls: http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/photo-gallery.html. Especially the gear shifter. Park is a button! It was a little strange pressing a button to park. I was afraid to take my foot off the brake.
Here's one for you. What 'obligation' do we have to invest in green? Economically it doesn't makes sense to do some of this stuff. Do I get a hybrid car? That is more expensive. Do I drop 10K for wind or solar at the house?
I think there is an argument that we should be investing for the future and this is part of it. I don't have an extra 10K sitting around, but I wouldn't be opposed to having a 5-7 year pay back if the initial investment was just a little more reasonable.
The other thing I worry about is how my home owner's association would react. It would probably increase the value of my house, so maybe they wouldn't mind.
On a related note. Have you driven a Toyota Prius? That has the most unusually controls of any car I have seen. I had to sit in it for a while and figure everything out. Check out the interior controls: http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/photo-gallery.html. Especially the gear shifter. Park is a button! It was a little strange pressing a button to park. I was afraid to take my foot off the brake.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Recycling Plant Tour
Last week Jennifer and I went on a tour of the Plano recycling plant operated by Allied Waste. I guess there are multiple processes for sorting recycling, but this plant used a 'single line' process (I think that is what they called it). Our recycling is picked up in one bin. We don't sort it or anything. The truck that picks it up looks like a regular garbage truck (in Sugar Land the truck driver would sort the recycling into bins in the truck) and all the recycling is packed in together. When it comes in it is literally dumped on the floor and loaded into this HUGE hopper, where it is sifted up a conveyer belt into the sorters. There are several stages where cardboard, glass paper and plastic are all sifted. It was pretty crude and TONS of trash was in the recycling. Diapers, bicycles, food, shoes. It goes through the process and most is either sorted or manually picked out by workers on the line. What isn't sorted get dumped at the end of the line. There were a lot of recyclables at the end. The tour guide said that is was all re-processed to remove any more recycling. I don't know. They then load all the garbage and take it to the land fill.
The plastics are sorted basically in colored and clear. Paper goes one way and cardboard is baled. Glass pretty much sits in the back until someone wants it. Different mills have contracts to pick up the sorted stuff to be recycled.
The tour guide said that their site was 'pretty good' but apparently New York and California are way ahead of the curve. It was also pretty clear that it was still all about the economics. The focus is to get the most processed with the least amount of manual labor. The glass is a loser. Nobody wants it. They had some processes in the past that would crush it and make floors, etc out of it, but it never took off and the equipment sits and rusts while the glass pile gets bigger. Someone figure out what to do with the glass!
So what should you recycle?
ALL paper. Unless it has a wax coating or food on it. This includes newspaper, white, colored, receipts, junk mail (the windows are ok), everything.
ALL Cardboard. This includes cereal box like cardboard packaging
All Glass. As long as the take it.
All Plastic. If it is plastic, we put it in the bin. Only NO Bags! The clog the sorters. You can sort those separately and take them to the grocery stores where they usually have a place to take it.
The tour guide said, "If you think it might be recycleable put it in the bin" They do so much sorting there that it at least has a chance if you send it. If it isn't recyclable it will still just go to the land fill.
It has been much easier than I thought to really increase our recycling and decrease our garbage. I am about to add a recycle bin and remove a trash can!
OK, well I have a lot to say on this subject. I'm enjoying the blogging on it.
The plastics are sorted basically in colored and clear. Paper goes one way and cardboard is baled. Glass pretty much sits in the back until someone wants it. Different mills have contracts to pick up the sorted stuff to be recycled.
The tour guide said that their site was 'pretty good' but apparently New York and California are way ahead of the curve. It was also pretty clear that it was still all about the economics. The focus is to get the most processed with the least amount of manual labor. The glass is a loser. Nobody wants it. They had some processes in the past that would crush it and make floors, etc out of it, but it never took off and the equipment sits and rusts while the glass pile gets bigger. Someone figure out what to do with the glass!
So what should you recycle?
ALL paper. Unless it has a wax coating or food on it. This includes newspaper, white, colored, receipts, junk mail (the windows are ok), everything.
ALL Cardboard. This includes cereal box like cardboard packaging
All Glass. As long as the take it.
All Plastic. If it is plastic, we put it in the bin. Only NO Bags! The clog the sorters. You can sort those separately and take them to the grocery stores where they usually have a place to take it.
The tour guide said, "If you think it might be recycleable put it in the bin" They do so much sorting there that it at least has a chance if you send it. If it isn't recyclable it will still just go to the land fill.
It has been much easier than I thought to really increase our recycling and decrease our garbage. I am about to add a recycle bin and remove a trash can!
OK, well I have a lot to say on this subject. I'm enjoying the blogging on it.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Going Green
I started 'going green' as an effort to save money. I changed out some light bulbs, basically. I live in north Texas with a pool, so there is plenty of electricity being consumed. Historically I had seen going green as a reaction to global warming and big 'save the planet' talk. As a conservative, you are conditioned to doubt that global warming is caused by humans and you think of the green movement as 'tree hugger' crazy stuff. I started thinking that maybe there were other reasons to be a good steward of the world where we live. How does what you do on a daily basis impact others? Where does aluminum come from? How is paper made? What happens to all those plastic bags? What is the impact to my health from the coal burning to create electricity? I read "Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action" (Paperback)by J. Matthew, M.D. Sleeth . While it wasnt' the 'best book' I have ever read, and he wandered beyond the environmental question some, the book did help see how the decisions I make impact those around me and if I do simple things I can improve life for everyone. Here are some of the things we have done:
Changed to compact fluorscent light bulbs
Stop getting plastic bags at the grocery
Compost house hold waste
Increase the amount we recycle (at least 5 times as much, you would be amazed at what you can recycle. I'll save it for the next post)
Shut off my network equipment at night
These are just a few easy things.
OK, that's all for now. Maybe i'll inspire you.
Changed to compact fluorscent light bulbs
Stop getting plastic bags at the grocery
Compost house hold waste
Increase the amount we recycle (at least 5 times as much, you would be amazed at what you can recycle. I'll save it for the next post)
Shut off my network equipment at night
These are just a few easy things.
OK, that's all for now. Maybe i'll inspire you.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Grieving vs Griping over Moral Decline
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1003/
This is a link to Desiring God, John Piper's ministry. They post a lot of interesting things, many of which I like to comment on. So here is my first.
This talks about grieving rather than griping and gives some great old testament scripture references, but how does this equate to Christians living in America? We talk about having a Christian Nation, but I don't think we really do. It is probably worth discussing whether the founding fathers could even envision the world we live in, and what they would say about it (more on this in another post). I guess where I am going is that the scripture is about grieving about Israel, God's chosen nation. Not for the world in general. In one sense we can grieve that God is not honored, but can we grieve for our nation? Can we expect otherwise from our society? Surely we don't want a Christian nation dictated by the government. If we had that then maybe we could grieve about our nation. Just thoughts here.
With the elections so close we start hearing this kind of talk from some Christian candidates, and frankly it makes me nervous. Let's pray earnestly for our country, but for individual revival that transforms society because the people have changed, not because the government has changed. Big social issues become less important if individuals all agree and honor God in their viewpoints.
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