Be A Water Hog

I've been giving a lot of thought to cistern systems, with an eye to adding one to my own household for garden irrigation.

Throughout history, cisterns have helped provide a steady dependable water supply for a variety of uses, from irrigation to drinking water. As more and more pressure is put on fresh water supplies in the United States, it only seems obvious that we will once again turn to cisterns to capture rainwater and store it for use around the house. At the college my daughter attends, Humboldt State University, rainwater is captured and used for the mundane task of flushing the toilets...saving treated water for human consumption.

This modular cistern system caught my attention as I was googling for different cisterns and rainwater catchment systems. I liked the modular design and it looked like it was fairly easy to work with. It is marketed as the Rainwater HOG by a company of the same name. The tank itself is recyclable, and the modular design makes it easy to put together a cistern to meet your exact needs.

The dimensions are such that it shouldn't take up much space, and will be easy to place in unobtrusive places. I thought it was an interesting design. Most of the cistern systems I've looked have been below ground systems. I wonder if a difference in water temperature, just by the nature of the Rainwater Hog being an above ground system, creates any issues with water treatment. Either way, there is a lot to like with the design of this Hog.

Innovative Sustainability embodied in new California Academy of Science building

A flying carpet of green grass floating in the sky. This is just one description of the 2 1/2 acre roof of the California Academy of Science's new building in Golden Gate park, just across the bay from San Francisco.

The many cutting edge environmental technologies that went into this 410,000 square foot demonstrates just what is possible in public building design, not to mention what is possible for retail and residential buildings.

The LA Times has a very good article on the new building.

Academy officials and Arup, the engineering firm that worked with Piano and a local firm, Stantec, to realize the building, have called the roof one of the museum's primary exhibits. Containing nine species of native plants, it will filter storm runoff and keep the building cool in summer and warm in winter. It is also ringed by photovoltaic panels that will produce somewhere between 5% and 10% of the building's energy needs. Although that's not a particularly impressive number, most green roofs have no energy-generating power.

The Story of Stuff

Where stuff comes from...where stuff goes. It is important to understand if we are to find solutions to the crisis we are in. Yet most people in our country, never give it a second thought.

Sustainability seemed like a amorphous concept to me for a long time. I generally understood the word, but what exactly that concept meant in day to day life was hard to see. Getting a good understanding of how our civilizations macro-scale processes worked is hard to do in our daily lives. We get up, open that box of cereal, maybe stop by Starbucks on the way to work, drop by Walmart to pick up a few things after work...these mundane, everyday acts, all have a cumulative impact on our world.

My daughter, Erin, sent my wife and I a link to this video called "The Story of Stuff". I think it does an outstanding job of creating a visual definition of how our society operates, and succinctly lays out the massive problem with the process, namely it's linear nature.

Below is a teaser to the video



Here is a link to the video itself. Watch It.

Carbon Dioxide rises by an unprecedented, worst case scenario 3%

This is not good news.

Even as bad as a financial crisis threatening depression might be, and how threatening a 700 billion dollar bailout might sound. (A bailout which may be only a down payment on a wave of financial pain this generation has never seen before.)

This news makes a financial disaster pale by comparison.

Let's say it together...a 3% one year rise in Carbon Dioxide is a very bad thing.

Let me just try to put this into perspective. It's worse than the worst case scenario laid out by the IPCC just two years ago.

From an AP article about the rise:

What is "kind of scary" is that the worldwide emissions growth is beyond the highest growth in fossil fuel predicted just two years ago by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said Ben Santer, an atmospheric scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

Under the panel's scenario then, temperatures would increase by somewhere between 4 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit (2.4 to 6.3 degrees Celsius) by the year 2100.

"We do have control over what happens over the next several decades," Santer said. "This illustrates the importance of exercising that control."

As badly as we here in the United States need to radically and urgently cut our CO2 emissions, the real challenges are in the developing countries which are now contributing 53% of the CO2 pouring into the atmosphere. Their contribution surpassed the emissions of the industrial countries three years ago, and are rapidly growing.

Part of the problem stems from industrial jobs which have been outsourced to developing countries, the other part, the need for energy to drive economic growth and the consumption driven by expanding consumer classes in the developing world, especially in India and China.

The real threat of all this, is that this puts us on track for the worst case scenarios regarding sea level rises...potentially 70 meters, and increases in temperature and erratic climate change.

One of our Presidential candidates, Barack Obama, laid out a 10 year plan to end dependence on carbon fuels. It's time to pick up that banner. We have no choice but to end dependence on carbon fuels for ourselves. And we have to solve the problem for the developing world.

And we have to do it quick.

Can it be done? I just don't know.

Twist of Green Festival in Fayetteville

For anyone interested in learning more about sustainable living practices we can implement in our lives today, take the drive to Fayetteville! To top it off, the world famous...( ok, state famous ) "Greasy Greens" will be headlining at the Green Bean Ball, the evening of Oct. 3rd.

You can learn more at Twist of Green.

Here are their goals...

The goal of this festival is to showcase our resources, research and opportunities in the Natural State, as we grow our Green Valley with the best choices of sustainability, efficiency, and responsibility.

We live in exciting GREEN times rediscovering our walk on this planet. TWIST OF GREEN will bring awareness that as concerned citizens, our purpose and assignment is in our legacy to teach our children and think seven generations ahead.

· Protect our environment instilling the practice of conservation, minimizing waste, and reducing toxic products and materials.

· Educate the public about renewable resources and efficient lifestyle practices.

· Integrate environmental values into the economy.

· Have a healthy eco-system and sustainable neighborhoods.

Our VISION for the October 4th event is to weave together "Town and Gown," (City of Fayetteville, regional community, and University of Arkansas) with corporate partners in a bio-regional spotlight of leadership. This consortium will unearth a treasure map of new information in cutting-edge sustainable practices, products, research and development, and education.
The by-product of this event is to establish Fayetteville as a MODEL city to watch--making wise, efficient sustainable choices geared towards Bio-regionalism and a green economy while staying connected to our round world.
This event adds a twist of FUN for dreamers of all ages. Expect a variety of topics and presentations to grace this weekend's Ozark Global Village which include: music, art, food, demonstration, inventions, speakers, and family activities.

Our main fund-raising beneficiary is to create scholarships and awards for Sustainable Science Fairs in the Schools, and to plant seeds of solution within our children to educate and enlighten our future generations.

Caldwell Toyota opens first sustainable retail store in Arkansas

It may seem like a contradiction for a car dealership to go green, but a local Toyota dealer, Caldwell Toyota-Scion had the Grand Opening for the first green LEED certified retail store in Conway, Arkansas on Thursday.

Caldwell Toyota has built a remarkably efficient building and has a very real commitment to recycling and sustainability. Jay Caldwell has made the facility available to green and sustainability organizations for tours, and a field trip to the facility has been made part of a sustainability class at UCA. Read Caldwell's Green Story

The "green" features of the new dealership include:

-- Waterless urinals that each save approximately 40,000 gallons of water per year.

-- A runoff collection system that collects roof runoff and air conditioner condensation in an 8,600-gallon cistern for landscape irrigation.

-- A carwash recycle system that reclaims water from the automatic carwash that recycles 80 to 90 percent of the water used to wash a car.

-- Carwash reverse osmosis that rinses each vehicle with "spot free" water, which reduces the amount of water that is left on each vehicle to evaporate or drip off. This saves two to three gallons of water per wash and also removes the necessity of using 45 hp blowers to dry each vehicle, saving an amazing amount of energy (and noise).

-- Light controls that have occupancy sensors (turning off lights in areas with no activity after a specified period of time).

As I mentioned, it is a bit of a contradiction for a car dealership to build a sustainable building, given the inherent unsustainable and linear nature of resource usage by the auto industry in it's present state.

None the less, it is gratifying to see a car dealer willing to tackle sustainability head on, and I suppose it should come as no surprise that it was a Toyota dealer who made that first leap, given the impressive investments Toyota has made in hybrid and alternative technologies and the commitment Toyota has to recycling and efficiency in it's industrial practices.

If any auto manufacturer is most likely to solve the problem of linear usage of resources, Toyota is my bet.

My path to environmentalism and sustainability

"The Future comes apace" - William Shakespeare

Growing up, among my passions was a love for the genre of science fiction. The yarns of Robert Heinlein, Arthur Clarke, Isaac Asimov not to mention the countless other imaginative and prescient authors of the 50's, 60's and 70's...leading up the the writers of today, painted a world of breath taking change, beauty and menacing danger to mankind. The abstract worlds of the future they painted are, in many ways, quickly becoming the tangible world I find myself living in today.

The warnings those early stories gave, echo in my head each day as I read about peak oil, changing climate, population growth, degradation of environment and the rapid rate of technological change we are experiencing today. While there are many aspects of the challenges we face which cause me great concern, I still maintain much of the same sense of wonder and optimism about the future we are entering, as I did as a teenager, first dipping the big toe of my imagination in the swirling water of the competing futures that science fiction offered.

I am now in my fourth decade on this shared trip through space and time, and I see that I must become an active participant in the daunting task of influencing the organic process of societal change in a direction which offers the best possibilities of survival of our world and our species.

None of us is alone in this whirling maelstrom of chaotic advancement. The unimaginably complex set of variables the problems of our future present seem insurmountable at times. But one fact remains above all others. We will all share the fate our future brings. We must shoulder our burdens and make the corrections to the path of our shared civilization and to our individual lives necessary to secure the blessings of a bountiful common future for life on earth.

In furtherance of that goal, to promote a sustainable common future, and to provide an outlet to my frustrations, fears, hopes and dreams, I will gather and share the flotsam of information on advancing sustainable technologies floating through the collective consciousness of the web as well as comment on local initiatives happening in and around my own community of Conway, Arkansas and the social and political currents which are shaping our shared outcomes.