Green home creates energy, conserves as much as possible
Photo: Ferrier Custom Homes
Ferrier Custom Homes in Ft. Worth, Texas, built a home from reclaimed materials that is a “zero energy home.” The home has a wind turbine to create its own electricity. The builder used a highly-insulated material for the exterior walls and roof, which keeps heat inside during the winter and helps keep the AC inside during the summer. The home has an efficient air conditioning system too, and other green features.
Women’s health risks from cleaning products
E-The Environmental Magazine has an article today detailing a recent study that researched the health risks posed by household cleaners for women, who do “about 70% of housework.”
The report looked at 37 scientific studies in order to determine the chemicals that pose the greatest risks. The data focuses on phthalates or synthetic musks and allergens that are common in most cleaning products. Phthalates have been linked to a number of health concerns such as allergies and reproductive malformations in baby boys. Other health risks include increased cancer risk and an increased vulnerability to other toxic chemicals.
You can download and read the full report here.
Stevia, anyone?
Photo by bitzcelt on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzcelt/)
I’ve always been a fan of Equal sweetener, which I use in my coffee, iced tea and fruit smoothies. My fiance Aaron hates it though, because he says it will cause cancer. I’d always heard Saccarhin has been linked to cancer, but I thought that Aspartame (the sweetener in Equal) was safe. However, Natural Home has an article today about food additives with a note on aspartame:
Aspartame, known as NutraSweet, Equal and Spoonful, accounts for 75 percent of adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA and has been linked to cancer in rats.
I have never had any adverse food reactions to Equal, which probably means I’m not allergic like the people who have reported problems to the Food and Drug Administration. Not too worried on that account. On the cancer danger — Toxicity is all about the dose a person consumes and the length of time she consumes that amount. I seriously doubt I’m consuming enough Equal to cause cancer.
However, I had a roommate in college who would put like 20 packets of equal in each cup of coffee. And she was a coffee adict, drinking the caffiene juice throughout the entire day and evening. If she keeps up that dose for 15 to 20 years, I bet she could be at risk for cancer from aspartame.
Capturing wasted heat, turning to power
Photo by Roger Smith on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogersmith/)
OnEarth Magazine has an interesting article about thermoelectrics, a new technology that seeks to capture wasted heat from electronics, processing facilities and other devices and turning the heat into usable energy.
Along with wind turbines and solar panels, the next clean energy frontier could take the form of an array of tiny semiconductor chips wrapped around anything from a smokestack to a computer server, turning heat into usable energy. Imagine a laptop that runs twice as long, powered in part by the heat generated by the microprocessor. Researchers envision cell phones with double the talk time and cars that go farther on a gallon of gas — all powered in part by heat that would otherwise be wasted.
Pretty cool. According to the article, if researchers can harness this technology, it could make a huge impact on the amount of electricity we use on a daily basis.
… today scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimate that nearly two-thirds of the energy generated in the world is lost as heat. If we could reclaim just 3 percent of our waste on a daily basis, they say, we could offset half the nation’s electricity needs.
Oysters running out “by end of the month”
Photo by avlxyz on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/)
With oyster populations already down because of Hurricane Ike in 2008, Texas fisherman say the BP oil spill may wipe out oyster harvesting entirely.
Usually, Texas and Louisiana both have summer seasons, during which fishermen dredge for oysters on state-owned leases, but the BP spill has halted much of the Louisiana summer harvest. Texas’ bays have been fished especially hard to make up the difference.
“We’re going to be out of oysters by the end of the month,” said Lisa Halili, vice president of Prestige Oyster. “We were just seeing a comeback from Ike. Now we’re being attacked by BP.”
Haitians want to rebuild with food sovereignty
Farmers in Haiti, 1977. Photo by Grand Venice on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/grandvenice/)
Yes! Magazine has an article today about a Hatian group that is pushing for the country to rebuild from the earthquake with a system of food sovereignty instead of relying on other countries for imported food.
We were almost self-sufficient until the 1980s. We have to fight and pressure the state so that it prioritizes agriculture. Otherwise, we’ll always have to depend on multinationals and non-governmental organizations for our food. The government has to take responsibility for that.
We’re not in favor just of food security, which is a neoliberal idea. With food security, as long as you eat, it’s good. But we only produce 43 percent of our food. 57 percent is imported. We need food sovereignty, which means that for everyone to eat, we produce it here at home. We could produce here at least 80 percent of what we eat.
They want families to own local farms and produce organic food for the country. They want local, natural, non-genetically-modified seeds. They want to prioritize land use for food production instead of the farming of biodiesel crops. Haitians want their government to create support programs that help local, native small farmers.
U.S. veterans fighting against climate change
Photo by click on morgueFile (http://morguefile.com/creative/click)
OnEarth has a great article about a group of U.S. military veterans who are touring the country talking to groups about how important it is for the U.S. to make drastic moves towards using green energy to combat climate change. America’s dependence on oil compromises the country’s national security, they say.
At each stop the veterans get off the bus and share their stories, eyewitness accounts of the ways in which America’s dependence on oil affects not only which wars we fight but also our ability to wage war. In their own words, the vets say what many people have said before: America must become energy-independent, invest in renewables, and commit to a future that eradicates the threat of climate change — not because it’s the feel-good thing to do but because this nation’s security may depend on it.
PolitiFact weighs in on Texas air quality debate
Photo by click on morgueFile (http://morguefile.com/creative/click)
PolitiFact Texas gives Gov. Rick Perry a grade of “half true” for statements about reductions in ozone and nitrogen oxide emissions in Texas. The site graded a statement Perry made in a press release earlier this week: “Since 2000, ‘the Texas clean air program achieved a 22 percent reduction in ozone and a 46 percent decrease in NOx emissions.’”
Read the article for a full explanation. But in a nutshell, PolitiFact says it’s true that ozone and NOx emissions decreased in Texas, but Perry’s statement only stated numbers for industrial sources of pollution although they only make up about 1/4 of total emissions–Cars and trucks are the largest source. Also, the site says it’s unclear whether the reduction in ozone and NOx in Texas can really be chalked up to the state’s actions, or whether federal government regulations should take the credit.
Even Green energy uses scarce resources
Photo by kevinthoule on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevint/)
Clean energy sources like solar power rely on limited natural resource supplies of minerals that a recent report shows are in scarce supply. Nothing is perfect, I guess. These minerals are also used in cell phones and other high-tech gadgets.
Of 41 minerals and metals it analyzed, the commission identified these 14 as short in supply: antimony, beryllium, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite, indium, magnesium, niobium, platinum group metals, rare earths, tantalum and tungsten.
The study found that a crucial factor behind the shortages was that production of the materials was concentrated in just four countries: Brazil, China, Congo and Russia.
Time to start composting for your fall garden
Photo by wisemandarine on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisemandarine/)
For anyone in the Austin area, this event on Saturday sounds like a good way to learn about composting in time to start your fall garden. “Gardening and permaculture teacher Dick Pierce shows how to turn home waste into compost to nourish fresh veggies,” according to the event listing. The talk starts at 2 p.m. on June 19 at the Austin Museum of Art, 823 Congress Avenue.
Aaron and I recently constructed our own composter from reclaimed wood and nails. I’m going to write a separate post about that later.
Next Page »