Quick Reality Check Articles

November 19, 2009

Quick Reality Check – Min Wage

Filed under: Energy — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Administrator @ 01:38

In 1960, the minimum wage was $1.00 and the average wage was about $2.32 per hour.
A 24 ounce loaf of bread costs $0.21 and requires 13 minutes of work to earn.
A pound of ground beef costs $0.33 and requires 20 minutes of work to earn.
10 pounds of potatoes cost $0.49 which requires 29 minutes of work to earn.

In 2009 the minimum wage is now $7.25.
A 24 ounce loaf of bread costs $1.49 and requires 12 minutes of work to earn.
A pound of ground beef costs $3.49 and requires 29 minutes of work to earn.
10 pounds of potatoes cost $4.99, which requires 41 minutes of work to purchase.

In 2009 more people earn minimum wage as the better paying factory jobs have disappeared and minimum wage now buys less than it ever has!

We must create more jobs which can pay higher wages. One way of doing this is outlined as follows:

Individual consumers must demand quality products which are durable and reliable and which can be repaired in locals depots and not thrown away and replaced.

This would enable communities to look at converting local natural resources into the finished products to create the products we need and to reduce the environmental and economic burdens of shipping natural resource materials around the world and then bringing back finished goods.

This would also create employment in repairing and maintaining the products made and sold in the community.

Individuals must demand locally grown food produced by sustainable means without the use of pesticides, herbicides, and oil intensive means. This will enable sustainable distributed agricultural production which may require more labor and create more jobs while reducing our dependence on oil.

Individuals must demand energy independence and embrace emerging new technologies such as solar and wind power which can offer paybacks of four years or less for products with an operating life of 20 years or more.

Future blogs will provide additional details on how individuals can enhance the sustainability of our society and our planet.

October 30, 2009

QRC – Wheat and birth defect production

Filed under: Energy — Tags: , , , , — Administrator @ 00:19

* Chlorophenoxy compounds are often mixed into commercial fertilizers to control the growth of broad leaf weeds.

* Several hundred commercial products contain chlorophenoxy herbicides in various forms and at various concentrations.

* Chlorophenoxy herbicides are heavily used in wheat production.

* An infant born in a rural, wheat-producing county in the United States has about twice the chance of suffering birth defects as one born in a rural place that doesn’t produce wheat.

* Scientific researchers blame chlorophenoxy herbicides for these birth defects.

October 25, 2009

Quick Reality Check – One step on the road to starvation

Filed under: Energy — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Administrator @ 22:24

* Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, just converted from one form to another, such as from sunlight to plant matter, and during this process energy is lost which is impractical to recover.

* Each day, the sun provides a finite amount of energy to the earth which creates our weather, causes the winds to blow, rains to fall, the plants to grow and shapes the face of our planet.

* All animals eat plants or eat animals that eat plants.

* Plants use photosynthesis to turn sunlight into stored energy in the form of carbohydrates, the basic fuel of all animals. There is no alternative to plant energy, just as there is no alternative to oxygen for animals including humans to live.

* Humans consume about 40 percent of Earth’s “primary productivity” which is the energy collected by plants each year, which may explain why the current extinction rate for other species is 1,000 times that it was before humans dominated the planet.

* The United States uses about half of the world’s primary productivity yet accounts for only about 6.3 percent of its population.

* This disparity is unsustainable. Therefore, in order to ensure a high quality of life for ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and future generations, we must learn to operate our society more energy efficiently.

* The “enhanced crop yields” which we are seeing are not a “scientific breakthrough” but are more like a “simple parlor trick of an amateur magician” wherein we now have crop yields 5 times higher per acre than the 1950s BUT we use 30-50 times more energy to produce these crops. We are actually “less efficient” than we were 60 years ago and our crops are more contaminated with herbicides and pesticides than before.

* We are using hundreds of “calories” of oil (plant energy stored over millions of years), to produce a few calories of food therefore when this oil runs out, we will all starve if current food production and distribution methods are not drastically changed and improved.

* This is only one of many issues facing our food supply which we will discuss in future articles.

* We MUST develop new technologies to use ONLY the energy available from the sun each year, the planet’s “primary productivity” to feed and power our civilization if we are to enjoy a sustainable future for ourselves and future generations.

October 16, 2009

QRC – Breakfast Cereal – 2 pounds of food made with the energy from 4 pounds of gasoline

Filed under: Energy, Food, Quick Reality Check — Tags: , , , , — Administrator @ 00:46

cereal* Breakfast cereals are made of grains and are recommended by he Canada food guide and the USDA as part of a balanced diet.

* The problem for society is that the grinding, milling, wetting, drying, and baking of a breakfast cereal requires about four calories of energy for every calorie of food energy it produces.

* The manufacture of a two-pound bag of breakfast cereal requires the energy equivalent of a half-gallon of gasoline.

* In general, processed food in North America and Europe uses about ten calories of fossil-fuel energy for every calorie of food energy it produces.

* In addition to the energy to make the processed foods, fuel is also used in transporting the food from the factory to a store near you, and more fuel is used by millions of people driving to thousands of super discount stores on the edge of town, where the land is cheap.

* It is obvious that this model for feeding society is not sustainable. We must develop alternatives.

September 29, 2009

Quick Realty Check – Unsustainable Health Care versus sustainable living

Filed under: Energy, Quick Reality Check — Tags: , — Administrator @ 23:11

* All human activities consume resources including energy and materials.

* All human activities produce waste byproducts.

* If we consume energy and resources within what the sun and earth can provide in each year and we reuse and recycle our waste products, we can create a sustainable society.

* In 2007, the U.S. spent $2.26 trillion on health care, $7,439 per person, which represents approximately 15% of the Gross domestic product of the country.

* In the United States in 2007, 31% of medical costs were spent on hospital care, 21% spent on physician services, 10% spent on pharmaceuticals, 8% spent on nursing homes, 7% spent on administrative costs, and 23% spent on diagnostic laboratory services, pharmacies, medical devices etc.

* Health care activities represented one of the most significant uses of energy and materials in the United States.

* Therefore, we must focus significant efforts on simple sustainable ways that individuals can preventing the leading causes of illness and death thereby avoiding the huge resources associated with treating illnesses.

* The leading causes of death in the United States as of 2008 included heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, diabetes, and Alzheimers.

* We will be creating a spin-off blog for those interested in ideas on sustainability through healthy living to prevent and treat illness.

QRC – Energy Use 2002

Filed under: Energy, Quick Reality Check — Tags: , , , , — Administrator @ 22:45

A BTU or British thermal unit is defined as the energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water degree Fahrenheit.

A quad is 1,000,000,000,000,000 BTU (1015 BTU)

In 2002, the total energy used in the world was 446 quads.

In 2002 the total energy used in the United States of America was 97 quads.

In 2002 the population of the United States of America was approximately 289 million.

In 2002 the population of the world was 6.2 billion.

In 2002 the population of the Unites States was 4.66% of the population of the world and consumed 21.7% of the total energy on earth.

In 2002, every person in the United States of America used the equivalent energy of 2,687 gallons of gasoline or 98,366 kWh

The energy used in the Unit States alone exceeds the total amount of solar energy captured by the entire world in a year!

Our entire world is running a MAJOR energy DEFICIT versus the available energy from the sun.

This “DEFICIT” which is being “FUNDED” by using oil which is actually solar energy stored over millions of years.

Our energy use is obviously unsustainable.

August 28, 2008

More solar – less oil drilling – a short term and long term sustainability plan

Filed under: Energy — Administrator @ 00:29

We do not need more oil drilling and exploration to secure our energy future.

Currently available, low cost, low maintenance solar hot water and space heating systems could eliminate our need to import oil!
We need to reduce our dependence on oil while maintaining our high standards of living.
In 2002, the United States imported 24.3 quads of energy in the form of oil.

This is approximately 4,137,931,034 barrels of oil.

If you install a mid sized 25 square meter simple, low maintenance, integrated solar hot water and space heating array in New York State for instance, you will collect about 54,812,780 btu per year with a low cost 80% efficient system costing about $2,900. This will reduce you energy bills for heating and hot water by about 75%, or $1,417 per year at current oil prices and will reduce your use of oil by 9.45 barrels of oil.

If 10,000 homes in your town install a simple solar hot water and space heating system that pays for itself in about 2 years in Northern states, 94,500 barrels of oil do not need to be imported.

If 1,000,000 homes in your state or province install a simple solar hot water and space heating system 94,500,000 barrels of oil do not need to be imported. This represents a 2.28% REDUCTION in total oil imports.
 
If all the homes, businesses and government facilities in the United States installed a simple, low cost, low maintenance solar hot water and space heating system, the energy saved in terms of natural gas, oil, and coal could eliminate the need for foreign oil.

August 9, 2008

Things to do to save the world …

Filed under: Energy, Environment — Tags: , , , — Administrator @ 01:08

Reduce Your Energy Use and Carbon Emissions by 2-6 tons per year for under $300 without changing your life style

The simplest thing that you can PERSONALLY do to save money, help the environment, and create a more sustainable lifestyle is to take a series of simple actions to save energy.

1.Go through you home and feel for drafts around windows and doors when there is a wind outside or a big temperature difference. Caulk around the frames of windows and doors. Also feel for drafts around electrical boxes on exterior walls as these are often improperly sealed and can be major sources of heat loss or heat gain. Replace weather stripping around your door if you feel any draft and consider installing a heavy curtain to cover your door as this can help insulate it and save energy. Caulking costs less than $1 per window, and weather stripping is under $10 per door. These steps can save up to 1100 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home. Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. This service may be provided free or at low cost. Make sure it includes a check of your furnace and air conditioning.

2.Plant trees around your home. Each tree also directly absorbs about 25 pounds of CO2 from the air annually. Many government departments will give you small trees for free!!!

3.Check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly. Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature to approximately 37 degrees Fahrenheit and your freezer approximately 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Half of electricity in North America is generated by coal and every kilowatt hour used contributes over 2 pounds of carbon dioxide to the environment.

4.Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting rather than the hot setting. Using warm or cold water versus hot water for two loads of laundry per week can save approximately 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds of carbon dioxide for a gas water heater. Even better, look into a solar hot water heater such as the low cost models from Omachron available in January 2009. Investing in such solar water heater can save 4.9 tons of CO2 annually and can pay for itself in only 2-3 years.

5.Ensure that your dishwasher is full when you run it. Use the energy saving setting if you have it to allow the dishes to air dry. Allowing you dishes to air dry can save 20 percent of your dishwasher’s total electricity use.

6.Turn down your water heater thermostat from 140 degrees F to 120 degrees F. this will save 1,20 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 880 pounds for a gas heater. If every household in the United States turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions.

7.In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78. Lowering your thermostat two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That’s a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home.

8. Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year.

9.Buy low cost, energy-efficient, mercury free LED light bulbs such as those from Omachron Lighting Corporation for your most-used lights. Although they cost more initially, they save money in the long run by using only ¼ to the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting 50x+ times longer. LED lighting can provide better lighting with a better color and an attractive light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light. The rest just makes the bulb hot. If every American household replaced one of its standard light bulbs with an energy efficient LED light bulb, we would save the same amount of energy as a large nuclear power plant produces in one year. In a typical home, one LED light bulb can save 520 pounds of CO2 per year.

10.Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket, which costs just $10 to $20. It can save 1100 lbs. of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 220 pounds for a gas heater.

August 4, 2008

Ammonia for Energy Storage

Filed under: Energy, Solar & Wind — Tags: , , , — Administrator @ 23:46

Fossil fuels, hydrogen, and ammonia are all just energy transport means. These materials are not a “source” of energy… they are all made from available energy sources and represent a viable means of transporting energy which I will refer to as a “fuel”.

For applications such as transportation, a high energy density fuel is required which can easily be handled. While hydrogen may be employed by society as a means of storing and transporting energy, the technology is in its infancy and is not yet commercially viable.

One alternative “fuel” which is immediately available is ammonia, NH3. Ammonia is normally a gas with a characteristically pungent odor. Ammonia is commonly used as fertilizer. Although in wide use, ammonia is both caustic and hazardous just as gasoline is. In 2006, worldwide production was estimated at 146.5 M tonnes.

Ammonia, as used commercially, is often called anhydrous ammonia. This term emphasizes the absence of water in the material. It can be handled in ways similar to gasoline and can be burned using fairly standard internal combustion engine technology. Ammonia continues to be used as a refrigerant in industrial processes such as bulk ice-making and industrial food processing. It is increasingly popular in commercial applications, such as in grocery store freezer cases and refrigerated displays.

To make ammonia, all we need is a source of energy such as solar or wind power, nitrogen from the air, and water. Storage and handling technologies for ammonia is well understood and it is safely used by farmers throughout the nation every day. Solutions of ammonia (5–10% by weight) are used as household cleaners, particularly for glass. These solutions are irritating to the eyes and mucous membranes (respiratory and digestive tracts), and to a lesser extent the skin. The toxicity of ammonia solutions does not usually cause problems for humans and other mammals, as a specific mechanism exists to prevent its build-up in the bloodstream [1].

The gas is flammable (autoignition temperature: 651 °C) and can form explosive mixtures with air (16–25%). Anhydrous ammonia corrodes copper- and zinc-containing alloys, and so brass fittings should not be used for handling the gas. Liquid ammonia can also attack rubber and certain plastics. Although ammonia is regulated in the United States as a non-flammable gas, it still meets the definition of a material that is toxic by inhalation and requires a hazardous safety permit when transported in quantities greater than 13,248 L (3,500 gallons) [2].

Ammonia ignites at 651°C based fuels offer a great potential for universal use but suffer from the disadvantage that pure ammonia cannot be used in high-speed engines because its flame speed is too low. Omachron Technologies Inc. has developed a simple means of allowing conventional internal combustion engines to burn ammonia.

In addition, ammonia can also be doped with environmentally friendly chemical additives to make it compatible in high-speed engines. Ammonia can already be used in low-speed engines and in fuel cells. It is already produced in large quantities and it can easily be made on a distributed basis thereby allowing a decentralized production and distribution infrastructure. Production facilities can easily be expanded.

The key is to look at means of producing ammonia efficiently from solar and wind energy. Omachron Technologies Inc. has developed several means of efficiently producing ammonia from solar and wind energy.

Ammonia is not a “magical fuel” but it can easily be made from renewable energy sources, stored with existing technology, produces only water vapor and nitrogen as bi-products when burned, and is not more dangerous to handle than gasoline or propane.

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[1] Ammonia is converted to carbamoyl phosphate by the enzyme carbamoyl phosphate synthetase, and then enters the urea cycle to be either incorporated into amino acids or excreted in the urine.
Repeated exposure to ammonia lowers the sensitivity to the smell of the gas: normally the odour is detectable at concentrations of less than 0.5 ppm (parts per million), but desensitized individuals may not detect it even at concentrations of 100 ppm.
The permissible exposure limit (PEL) in the United States is 50 ppm (35 mg/m³), while the IDLH concentration is estimated at 300 ppm.

[2] The U. S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a 15-minute exposure limit for gaseous ammonia of 35 ppm by volume in the environmental air and an 8-hour exposure limit of 25 ppm by volume. Exposure to very high concentrations of gaseous ammonia can result in lung damage and death.

August 1, 2008

Bamboo – sustainable pulp, fiber, paper and construction materials source

Filed under: Energy, Environment — Tags: , , , , , , — Administrator @ 00:05

A grove of giant bamboo in Ecuador
A grove of giant bamboo in Ecuador

Bamboo – A grass you can use like wood but grows up to 50x faster

In North America and Europe, soft woods and hard woods have traditionally been used for house framing, flooring, and doors as well as for making furniture. The problem with using trees for construction is that they take 20-100 years to mature which means that vast tracts of land must be committed for many years between harvests of the wood.

An excellent alternative to using hard woods and soft wood lumber is to use bamboo.
Unlike hardwood and softwood trees, bamboo grows very quickly and can be harvested in only a few years as they grow up to 3-4 feet/day (1.5-2.0 inches/hr)), with growth rates of 3-6 inches per day being common due to a unique rhizome system and is dependent on local soil and climate conditions.

Bamboo scaffolding of Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong (2003)
Bamboo scaffolding of Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong (2003)**

Bamboo is already important to East and South East Asia where it is used in gardens, as a building material, and as a food source. Bamboo can survive in diverse climates from cold mountains to hot tropical regions Bamboo already occurs in the south eastern United States and there are a number of species that can be grown in the northern USA and Canada . There are already 35 species of bamboo that can be used for pulp and paper instead of trees. Bamboo grows in many sizes from small one inch diameter poles to large 12″ diameter bamboo which grows 100 feet (30 meters) tall in only 3 to 4 years.

Treated, bamboo is a very hard wood that is both lightweight and very durable, and can be used in making or building houses, fences, bridges, toilets, walking sticks, canoes, tableware, furniture, chopsticks, food steamers, toys, bicycles, construction scaffolding, as a substitute for steel reinforcing rods in concrete construction, hats, and for martial arts weaponry, including fire arrows, flame throwers and rockets. Omachron has developed a series of environmentally safe treatments to preserve bamboo for use in construction.

Harvesting bamboo for wood requires care to select mature stems that are several years old, as first-year stems, although full sized, are not fully developed and are not as strong as more mature stems.

Bamboo can also be carved for decorative artwork, and can be made into flooring. Bamboo flooring is made by steaming pieces flattening them, gluing them together, and then sanding and finishing them. The only caution about bamboo is that it is easily infested by wood-boring insects unless treated with wood preservatives or kept very dry.

Bamboo can be used to make paper and the fibers can be used as yarn and fabrics. Bamboo fabric is soft and has claims of natural antibacterial properties. Clothing, bed sheets, and towels made from bamboo are a great natural item and available at Omachron OnLine. Bamboo has gained increasing popularity in the culinary world as a material for cutting boards, as they are hard enough to withstand years of knife abuse, yet more forgiving to the knife blade, causing less damage to the edged utensils over time

You can plant bamboo in your own back yard throughout much of North America and the wood and fibers can be used for everything from small building and carving projects to simple fencing, decoration, and making paper and crafts with your kids. For more information visit Omachron OnLine

Some skateboard and snowboard deck manufacturers as well as surfboard builders are beginning to use bamboo construction. It is both lighter and stronger than traditional materials and its cultivation is environmentally friendly. At least one snow ski manufacturing company, Liberty Skis, now uses bamboo construction for these reasons.

Bamboo is also used to make enclosures in fish farming, where cages can be made from a wooden frame and bamboo lattices.

Omachron OnLine will also be offering a completely sustainable bamboo paper which is free of pesticides or fertilizer.

Bamboo is a great potential as a fiber resource for pulp and paper and clothing and can be an excellent low impact farming opportunity in the near future.

Bamboo and switchgrass are also excellent fuel crops when used with the Omachron plasma combustion system to power generators, space heating, and vehicles.
For further information visit Omachron Technologies Inc website.

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** This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Chris 73 and is freely available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:BambooConstructionHongKong.jpg under the creative commons cc-by-sa 2.5 license.

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