Cap & Trade-smoke and mirrors?
By Brian Skeele, on March 19th, 2011
I’ve read a couple of articles about cap and trade, and the authors seem to think it’s bogus. Way too complicated. A boondoggle to make the same clever people who brought us the foreclosure bummer even richer.
Here’s Anne Leonard’s take on it.
The idea I like is to tax carbon, and lift taxes on income. In this way, folks will be encouraged to take their savings and invest in renewable energy. I cannot believe how happy newspaper stories report on increase fossil fuel production, or the good news about nuclear energy…What planet are these people living on???… READ MORE >>
Recycling… because trash isn’t really trash!
By Brian Skeele, on March 19th, 2011
I just moved all my stuff out of my office, as we had a broken water pipe next door and my flooring warped. All my stuff is boxed and stacked under the front portal (porch). As I was packing up all the books and collected cool stuff, I started feeling oppressed by all my stuff. It’s like my stuff has me, rather than I have stuff.
I have a lot of good books and magazines about sustainability. I want to start a library, a sustainability center reading room; share all my good stuff. Well, maybe I’ll keep my cool collected stuff. It’s amazing how much stuff we have….I bet all the storage units in the US combined would cover Texas!
Have you seen The Story of Stuff? It’s a real eye opener, it’s incredible at how much waste is created as our stuff gets mined, manufactured, and transported. Something like 6% stuff, 94% waste!!!!
Enough about stuff… what about recycling?… READ MORE >>
Fuels-pick your poison!
By Brian Skeele, on March 19th, 2011
Nuclear, coal, natural gas, methane, biochar oil, ethanol, algae bio-diesel, the sun, the tides, the wind, or good old gasoline…each comes with its costs. As we innovate toward a sustainable lifestyle, the refining processes and embedded energy, the delivery system, and all the other externalities come into play.
Currently 60% of the US’s primary electricity comes from coal fired plants. The burning of coal releases mercury into the air. The fish in New Mexico have quite a bit of mercury in them, especially those located downwind from the Four Corners Generating Plants. Fish in the Pacific Ocean have high levels of mercury as well, as the mercury bio-accumulates in the bigger fish, like tuna. The Chinese coal fired plants are the mercury source for our sushi and salmon!
Agricultural crops converted to fuels come with GMOs, fertilizer run off, soil degradation, and embodied production and delivery costs. Local production and supply keeps dollars in the community, building wealth and cutting transportation costs. Talk about complicated…. READ MORE >>
Turning Trash into Gold!
By Brian Skeele, on March 19th, 2011
Red Wigglers Rock!
They thrive in rotting vegetation, compost, and manure; They are rarely found in soil, preferring conditions where others cannot survive. I am, of course, referring to the earthworm also called manure worms, or as their friends call em Eisenia foetida. But whatever you call em, Red Wigglers rock!
Over the years I’ve had several “defining moments” with earthworms. Early on, I found I wasn’t that enthusiastic about growing food, but I loved building compost piles. Maybe it was all the effort that double digging required, or the book by Ruth Stout about just building a compost pile on the driveway and things will grow. Somehow I got the message earthworms and compost piles are where it’s at…. READ MORE >>
WANTED: Killer Modeling Tool to Sell Sustainable Urban Villages! Part 3
By Brian Skeele, on March 16th, 2011
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — New construction of U.S. housing units plunged in February, erasing a sharp gain in January and coming close to an all-time-low level. March 16,2011
Bed ZED is different. We’re not in Suburbia anymore, Todo!
If we want to revitalize the US Economy, we have to do things differently.…
If we work with the 1/3 of the Boomers, and 88% of the Millennials that want to move into vibrant, alive, pedestrian friendly walkable neighborhoods, we can resurrect the construction industry and send us on a path to a prosperous, positive future! What is required is using a whole systems approach and designing for an exponentially more efficient way of life… READ MORE >>