D.I.Y Planet Cooling

[Monomer]

Green Roofs....

 

Cities worldwide are promoting environmentally “green” roofs to mitigate several urban problems. Ground cover, shrubs and other flora planted across a building’s roof can reduce storm water runoff, easing the burden on local sewers and water treatment systems. And the vegetation can keep the roof cooler in summer, lowering interior air-conditioning costs and therefore peak demand on area power plants.

 

On a sunny, 80-degree-Fahrenheit day, a tar or black-painted roof can reach 180 degrees F; a white roof 120 degrees; and a plant-covered roof 85 degrees.

[Michaelangelica]

Great should be compulsory for citiy skyscrapers..

My local council wants dark coloured roofs.:(

 

I built an earth roof 20 years ago.

 

Colourbond steel is becoming increasingly popular as is now comes in a great range of hues.

 

I have a problem

I have been religiously turning off my HP inkjet printer to save the planet but every time I re-start it, it prints an alignment page and rattles on about a 'new printer cartrige.'

Anyone know where I hit it with my Spanish Screwdriver to make it stop?

[UncleAl]

Religion: "WE MUST DO SOMETHING!"

Engineering: "We must do something pertinent."

 

Fourmilog: None Dare Call It Reason

25 April 2008

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/images/longrange/butterfly.jpg

 

All the social activism in the world plus near-infinite sheaves of parameterized non-linear differential equations cannot overrule the implacable reality of mere arithmetic,

 

AN ARITHMETIC TRUTH

 

(0.99)^4 = 96.06%

(1.01)^4 = 104.06%

==================

0.12% imbalance (less the mean).

 

No sunspots --> Ice Age. That fractional percent is enough to decide between the Garden of Eden and glaciation. The test is in progress. Patience. Little fluctuations along the slide do not matter. BURN COAL. Hell, burn anything! WE'RE GONNA FREEZE!

[Michaelangelica]

Not good at sums

 

. USE YOUR CRUISE CONTROL

You paid for those extra buttons in your car, so put them to work! When using cruise control your vehicle could get up to 15% better mileage.

36. CHOOSE MATCHES OVER LIGHTERS

Most lighters are made out of plastic and filled with butane fuel, both petroleum products. Since most lighters are considered "disposable," over 1.5 billion end up in landfills each year. When choosing matches, pick cardboard over wood. Wood matches come from trees, whereas most cardboard matches are made from recycled paper.

50 Ways to Help the Planet

[Boerseun]

Because of bad planning and unprecedented growth (a fatal combination under the best of circumstances), South Africa has been clobbered over the head with "Load Shedding", or, quite simply, "controlled" blackouts for the biggest part of 2008 to date.

 

Because of this, people have come up with clever and innovative ideas to lower the impact this has on everybody.

 

One that I came up with (I'm sure I'm not the only one doing this), is something that I think should be employed all over, whether you have power issues or not. It is so obvious, that I think it should be standard practice, regardless. And it could save loads of energy, I'm sure.

 

What you do is the following:

 

First thing in the morning, boil a full kettle of water. Then, simply fill your coffee mugs, or tea, if you're partial to that particularly pansy British "beverage", and the leftover water you chuck into a thermos.

 

And then, when you go for your second coffee, get the water from the thermos. Until the thermos is empty. Then you boil your next full kettle.

 

The common approach is to only boil as much water as you need, i.e. one or two cups. But people following this approach always chuck in more water than required, because they risk fearing dry-boiling the kettle. Also, the water has to be boiled from cold, every time.

 

I reckon boiling a full kettle every time, and actually using all the water via a thermos, uses waaaaay less energy than boiling a kettle a mug at a time.

 

There ya go. I just saved the world. (LOUD APPLAUSE, RISING TO A CRESCENDO, NOT SEEMING TO TAPER DOWN)

 

Gosh, thanks, thank you, thank you, and you, and you, and...

 

(THE APPLAUSE JUST GETS LOUDER)

 

No, really, it was nothing - thank you!

 

(...AND LOUDER...)

 

Thanks!

 

(THE CROWD IS GROWING WILD! SHOUTS OF "WHO NEEDS AL GORE WHEN WE HAVE BOERSEUN?" FILLS THE ROOM)

 

What? Al Gore's a ninny! He's got nuttin' on me!

[freeztar]

Or you could stop drinking hot beverages altogether. ;) :cheer:

[DougF]

freeztar

Or you could stop drinking hot beverages altogether.

Well if we stop drinking hot beverages who is going to save the world? ;)

[Michaelangelica]

Or you could stop drinking hot beverages altogether. :rolleyes: :cheer:

LOL Smart A***

If the globe can't make me a cup of coffee or tea it can get stuffed (As is is getting. . .)

Without caffeine us old guys can't work out ways to save the planet "problems" that we have dropped you 'young guys' in.

[Michaelangelica]

More here

environment cartoons - offthemark.com - by Mark Parisi

Everyone is trying?y

[Michaelangelica]

This is one of the better energy saving articles I have read

101 Ways to Use Less Gas

 

Thursday, June 5, 2008 at 9:57am by admin

 

By Alisa Miller

I am guilty of this

# Take out the junk. Make sure you aren’t carrying around too much extra stuff in your car or in the trunk. 100 pounds of added weight in your car will significantly affect your gas mileage.

Ironically enough it is usually stuff I am trying to take to the re-cyclers that sits there for weeks! :)

 

I also liked these

# Fill up at a quarter tank. Don’t wait until the gas gauge hits empty before you fill up. Filling up around a quarter tank is better for your fuel injection system, thus improving your gas mileage.

# Start slowly. Accelerating slowly uses less gas than putting the pedal to the metal. Leave the fast take-off for the race car drivers.

# Brake less. Don’t run into the car in front of you, but coasting more and braking less will use less gas.

# Check fluid levels. Low fluid levels will prevent your car from running at its peak. Get fluids to the appropriate levels and you’ll see better gas mileage. Learn which fluid levels are important and how to check them.

# Add a fuel injector cleaner. Each time you change the oil in your car, add a fuel injector cleaner to ensure your fuel injection system is performing at its peak.

Use synthetic motor oil. By reducing engine friction, synthetic oil will improve your gas mileage. Again, check your car manual to ensure this is a safe alternative.

 

all in all a great list

101 Ways to Use Less Gas | EcoTrekker

[Boerseun]

This is one of the better energy saving articles I have read...

Sounds interesting! Can you repair the links to the article, though? I'd love to read the whole thing!

[Michaelangelica]

Sounds interesting! Can you repair the links to the article, though? I'd love to read the whole thing!

Sorry Boerseun.

Let me know if this does not work

101 Ways to Use Less Gas | EcoTrekker

So many of these type articles are trite 'paper fillers'. This has some good ideas.

[John L]

I'm a little late to get into the initial part here, but if you are really interested in planet cooling, which I contend is a terrible thing to wish for, you can travel to Space weather.com, and then go check out the sunspots if you will note, there aren't any. and if you check the address window, it will show you that I am not cheating on the picture.

 

We should have been out of Sunspot Cycle 23 over one year ago, if you use the 11.2 year cycle average, but obviously we are not. This acquescing of Sunspots has been going on since 2005, and if the 4-7 year lag time holds accurate, you will all be getting what you wish: a cooler planet.

 

If we use the last two 178.7 year solar cycles, and extrapolate into the future, based upon data, here is what the cycles will look like, when matched together. Note that the current double cycle we are still in*(check the 2000-2020 date on the chart), are much lower than normal. In fact the next one, Sunspot Cycle 24, will be almost nonexistant. THis will result in a much cooler planet.

 

 

Sooo, if you are wishing for a cooler planet, your wish is about to come true, and Algore will be eating his words, OR most likely coming up with some Fantastic Excuse in the true Elmer Gantry Style.

 

*I use the term "double cycle" because ever cycle of solar sunspot activity results in a reverse of solar polarity. So, for every two sunspot cycles, you will see a return to the original polarity, where it starts over again.

[Michaelangelica]

Some really unusual and intersting DIY ideas here:-

DVICE: 10 best ideas for greening your home that you've never heard of

 

I especially liked the "Living Wall" (off course).

ELT Living Walls

..................................

 

I am still looking for a wide spectrum, low energy light that works in a conventional fitting on 240 V system

Any help?

[Michaelangelica]

Bury, burn or compost?

 

There's a boom in funerals around the corner as the Boomers face mortality, but neither cemeteries nor crematoria are eco-friendly.

The business of burials is beginning to adapt, and so are their future customers.

 

THEME

 

Ian Townsend: In the next few years, Australia's death rate is going to start rising fast as more than 5-million baby-boomers approach a statistical cliff.

 

What began as a baby-boom after the Second World War is about to end with a 20-year boom for the funeral industry. The wave of deaths is going to sweep away many of the traditions we have about death and dying.

 

Hello, I'm Ian Townsend and welcome to Background Briefing.

 

A few weeks ago, Evelyn Green was buried in the bush on the New South Wales North Coast.

 

John Gough: What do you reckon, Johnno? Good spot, yes. It was a wonderful idea to go with this time, and the more we're heading into bad financial times, the better this is for people, the idea that can do something difference. It's being happy in the environment, yes. It is wonderful, wonderful. And the way we're handling this is the way we wanted to do it. Hands on, family managed, and I like this idea, it's freedom and family you know and you can grieve, grieve hanging out, you know.

 

Ian Townsend: It's a sunny winter's day in the hills behind Lismore. Her family has invited me to this funeral.

 

They've chosen a grave in the long grass beneath a big gum tree, and John Gough has made a simple pine board coffin for his mother-in-law.

 

John Gough: It's the first bit of carpentry I've done for years, and I really enjoyed doing it again. Because I was a bit worried to get the length of the body, and so I pulled out a tape; it's not the time to do all of that stuff. So I got the minimum size so the boys could know what they're up to. It's worked out well, and there's nothing galvanised, no plastic, no nothing in it. It will just rot away I suppose you could say, like the earth.

 

BAGPIPES

 

Ian Townsend: There'll be no headstone on this grave. Instead, the coffin will be buried with a magnet so the grave can be found later with a metal detector. The grave's co-ordinates will be recorded, and if you want to visit, you'll be able to find it with a GPS.

 

INTRODUCTIONS

 

Ian Townsend: It all seems a very new age, northern New South Wales thing to do, but Evelyn Green was from a traditional farming family. She died at a nursing home in Ballina at the age of 97.

 

This is the first burial in a BushLand cemetery, set aside by Lismore Council for what's called 'natural earth burials'. It's something that's taken off in the past 10 years in England, where a survey recently found that 35 percent of people now wanted to be buried in one of the dozens of natural woodland burial grounds scattered around the UK.

 

The idea is to turn your body into compost as food for trees.

 

At the moment in Australia the baby boomers are still organising the cremation and traditional burial of their parents, but when they start making arrangements for their own funerals, it'll be a different story.

 

Funeral directors such as Phil Connolly, on Queensland's Gold Coast, say the industry's getting ready for not just a big increase in business, but demands for more choice.

 

Phil Connolly: There's a lot of smart people out there in business, and some of the smarter people bought out a large number of funeral companies. They know the baby boomers are coming.

 

Ian Townsend: What is coming and when?

 

Phil Connolly: Oh, it's definitely; you see it in tourism now. Tourism operators are very focused on baby boomers. Caravan parks, caravan sales, recreational vehicles, boats, and people collecting their superannuation, I suppose nursing homes will boom after that, and then we'll notice it by then. But it's actually documented when and how it's going to happen.

 

Ian Townsend: When?

 

Phil Connolly: Well I'm one of those early baby boomers, and I'm 61. A lot of people start dying around about now.

 

Ian Townsend: Australia's death rate at the moment has never been lower. But the first baby boomers are reaching an age when cancer, heart disease and strokes do begin taking a toll. If you look at the statistics, the chances of dying start to rise rapidly after we reach the age of 67.

 

The first of Australia's 5-1/2-million baby boomers hit that age in four years' time. At some point in the next two decades, deaths will probably outnumber births in this country.

 

The Australasian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association is getting its members ready for this. Its chief executive is Darryl Thomas.

 

Darryl Thomas: The industry as it stands at the moment, is very capable of handling the increase in deaths that is going to occur. So the industry itself doesn't have to change a lot, but obviously cemeteries are going to fill up a little bit quicker and management of cemeteries is going to have to look forward to developing more land.

 

Ian Townsend: This is one of the big problems. Of every 10 Australians who die today, seven will be cremated, but three still want to be buried, and there's hardly any more space left in the big city cemeteries near where most of the baby boomers lived.

 

The biggest cemetery in Adelaide is Centennial Park. When I arrive there's a man at the counter asking how much more room there is in the family grave. He's being told there's room for four.

 

Centennial Park's considered a modern cemetery. Since 1936 it's buried 80,000 people, and cremated 138,000. Most of them are still here, under 40 hectares of lawn and roses in the Adelaide suburbs.

 

Centennial Park solves the problem of space by limiting the tenure of its graves. Instead of buying a grave, you by a licence for 50 years. Your family can renew it, but if you live and die in South Australia, or Western Australia for that matter, resting in peace isn't guaranteed. In many cemeteries there's a good chance you can be dug up again in a process the industry calls 'lift and deepen'.

 

The chief executive of Adelaide's Centennial Park Cemetery is Bryan Elliott.

Background Briefing - 28 December 2008 - Bury, burn or compost?

I wonder if you trained enough Vultures ?Eagles? and bone smashers you could offer a quality, ecological "Sky Burial"

Certainly seems to be a gap in the market here!

Many of my plants would benefit from a bit of extra blood and bone.

 

Isn't it amazing how long the human skeleton lasts.?

Even worse than plastic bags!!

[Michaelangelica]

Interesting comments here about an article about white roofs

What do you think?

Would it help or just warm the air more?

 

I remember my old computer game "Sim Earth" and the more polar ice you had the cooler the planet you created.

 

Interesting my geo-engineering never did work and my planets always self-destructed with my tinkering. Is there a lesson in that? :hihi:

Why the eff did we decide that having all the roofs in the world be black was a good idea?

I mean, I know, tar is black, and that's what most roofs are sealed with, but I really can't imagine a much dumber decision.

 

Sure, it's great in the winter, when the roof becomes a giant solar heat collector.

But there's no way to turn that giant solar heat collector off when the summer rolls around.

 

Simply painting roofs white in warm climates could decrease air conditioning bills for those buildings by 20%.

That's one reason why California has required all new buildings to have white roofs for the past few years.

 

But now there's even more reason to spend the extra dough. It looks like, if all the roofs in the world were white, enough sunlight would reflect back into the atmosphere to significantly reduce the effects of global warming. WTF?! Such a simple change, such a massive effect!

 

This new study says that if the 100 biggest cities painted all their roofs white, and switched their road materials to lighter colors (concrete instead of asphalt) it would reflect enough light and heat back into space to entirely offset the warming of the last few decades.

White Roofs for a Green Planet | EcoGeek - Clean Technology

 

BTW White roofs or silver roofs are generally not allowed in my council area as it might reflect too much light into your neighbour's eys. (?!)

[Michaelangelica]

Only in Japan?? Strange country.

I guess that cancells their woodchip order for this month?

Loo poetry can help tackle global warming: study

 

Posted Thu Jan 29, 2009 1:22am AEDT

. . .

"We asked ourselves what we could do for the environment in the toilet?" Ryusuke Nagahara of the Japan Toilet Labo said.

 

"The answer is to save toilet paper and save water."

 

Toilet paper use in Japan has been increasing in recent years, according to an industry body, possibly because of a rise in the number of public toilets, where people tend to use more paper.

 

"It's because it's free," an official at the Kikaisuki Washi Rengokai said.

 

"At home, people are more inclined to scrimp."

Loo poetry can help tackle global warming: study - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)