load shedding?

load shedding????

lets not beat around the bush here and use nice little terms provided by eskom to pretend that all is ok in the south african energy world.

lets call it what it is . . . . POWER FAILURE!

The Diesel Tree: Grow Your Own Oil

[ From Treehugger ]
You’d have thought that with 20,000 stories in our archives we might’ve at least mentioned this in passing. But it seems not. Australian farmers in the wet tropical region of North Queensland have bought over 20,000 of these so-called diesel trees. The intention is that in 15 or so years they’ll have their very own oil mine growing on their farmland.

Because, the Brazilian Copaifera langsdorfii, to use its botanical name, can be tapped not unlike a rubber tree, but instead of yielding rubbery latex it gives up a natural diesel. According to the nurseryman selling the trees, one hectare will yield about 12,000 litres annually. *

Once filtered—no complex refining required, apparently—it can be placed straight into a diesel tractor or truck. We read that a single Copaifera langsdorfii will continue to produce fuel oil for an impressive 70 years, with the only negative being that its particular form of diesel needs to be used within three months of extraction.

Oddly this is not news. The Center for New Crops & Plant Products, at Purdue University reports that it was first reported to the western world as far back as 1625. They observe reports from 1979 saying “Natives … drill a 5 centimeter hole into the 1-meter thick trunk and put a bung into it. Every 6 months or so, they remove the bung and collect 15 to 20 liters of the hydrocarbon.” The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation noted in a paper at the Eleventh world forestry congress back in 1997 on the topic of tree oil for cars that “… the potential of other alternatives such as the Amazon Copaifera langsdorfii need to be investigated.”

Copaifera langsdorfii can grow trunks 30 metres tall and store the oil in their unusual capilliary structure. The above image is a transverse section of the tree’s cells.

However Purdue University record that “An acre of 100 mature trees might thus be able to produce 25 barrels of fuel per year.”

Via ABC and Sydney Morning Herald

Image found at: ‘Richter, H.G., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2000 onwards. Commercial timbers: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. In English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Version: 16th April 2006. http://delta-intkey.com’

* I used to convert metric measurements in American imperial but when I discovered that the only countries that have failed to embrace metric are the USA, Liberia and Burma I stopped.

hacking for green

kym reckons that so long as people out there are competing to see how green they can be, its all good!

check out the “Hybrid Hackers” video on YouTube:

Eco-Prison

kym hopes that this will become a rule rather than an exception . . .
wouldn’t it be nice if our prisons in South Africa could miraculously be self sufficient AND actulaly rehabilitate offenders.

————————————————–

Here’s an island prison that’s about as distant in principle from Alcatraz as is it in location. Bastoey Island, about 45 miles south of Oslo, hosts some of Norway’s worst offenders in what is effectively an eco-village working holiday camp.

Instead of the traditional barred cells, prisoners, including murderers, rapists, drug dealers and thieves, live in separate, unlocked houses on the island. Although only one and a half miles from the mainland, prisoners are reluctant to escape, lest they get returned to the typical maximum security unit and lose the privilege of serving their time where they’re learning valuable skills, as well as gaining respect for themselves, each other, and the environment.

The island prison uses solar panels, is almost self-sufficient with food from its own organic garden, and operates a strict recycling system. This is an interesting experiment in eco-therapy — where reconnecting offenders with nature may well also help develop a noble sense of purpose, that in turn helps them reconnect with society.

[ Source: celsias ]

Hi everybody - I have been gone for while, but I am back . . .

I do like what Andreas from The Antidote has to say about Patrick Moore and his Nuclear Energy talks in South Africa in March.

People do change their views through the years as they are supposed to grow older and wiser, but doing an about turn quite as dramatically as Patrick Moore is fairly unusual and one must approach his current views with a pinch of salt. We do need to remember who is paying Moore’s salary at the moment. . . the Nuclear Power Industry.

Let the doctor have his say, and I will even approach the talk with an open mindedness, BUT not once will I forget that $$$$ can corrupt and disinformation is rife all across the world and the green revolution is in the hot seat.

coming clean

“Volvo decides to come clean”
“Nissan and Daimler beat other car makers to be recognised as the sector’s leaders in tackling climate change . . .”

Today’s local paper motoring articles shout out about what car manufacturers are doing to clean up their act, but how much are they actually doing? Is it merely green-washing or are motor manufacturers truly looking for real solutions? The internal combustion engine is really old technologically speaking and I would think that it might be about time that our geniuses out there are given the opportunity to find a new solution to the looming fuel, climate, water, agricultural, animal, human crises. Why, in the last decade or two, have we not seen amazing new motor engines, whereas we see new computer breakthroughs almost every month? Don’t tell me that there aren’t any incredibly clever engine lovers out there who have a fabulous new engine in their heads somewhere.

Perhaps this lack of real solutions is the reason why I am so sceptical when I see the vehicle manufacturers shouting about how sustainable and green they are when all I see are token gestures covering up the lack of real change and sustainability.

I truly hope that we will soon see some truly exciting technology coming from the vehicle manufacturing sector - technology that will blow our socks off! I am bored of green washing - give me something to really shout home about!