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May 2005
UK comparison of washable and disposable nappies (diapers) is flawed
The myth keeps floating around that disposable nappies (diapers) are really no more environmentally harmful than washables. Most recently the British Environment Agency has done a report on it.
As usual, the research left something to be desired, and the Women's Environment Network - who have done much pioneering work in women's health and environment issues - have written a rebuttal.
The lifecycle analysis (LCA) for the Environment Agency has taken four years and cost more than £200,000 and concludes there is “no significant difference between any of the environmental impacts”. But the conclusion is based on poor quality data and misses the point of its own findings.“This lifecycle analysis is a wasted opportunity to put the long-standing debate about nappies and the environment to rest,” says WEN’s Ann Link. “It says what most other LCAs have: that both systems use similar amounts of energy but the disposable system uses more materials and puts more into landfill. But it has missed the point of its own findings. Even in its current flawed state it shows that parents who use cloth nappies can save waste confident in the knowledge that washing them will cause no more global warming than disposable nappies.
“The biggest impacts it identifies are all to do with energy production and use - abiotic resource depletion (fossil fuel use), global warming and acidification - yet if parents use 24 nappies and follow manufacturers' instructions to wash at 60oC using an A rated washing machine they will have approximately 24% less impact on global warming than the report says.”
Read the rest of the article which includes detailed tables and footnotes.
Full Disclosure: I am a partner in a business that wholesales organic and natural baby products, including both washable nappies (diapers) and the best of the disposables. (www.natureschild.com)
Posted by at 2:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
A device that captures vibration to produce electricit
From ABC's Innovations program 9 May 2005
A renewable energy device that captures vibration to produce electricity is making moves towards commercialisation.
The Kinetic Energy Cell is an Australian invention that generates electricity from the movement of cars, trucks, ships, even people and looks set to replace or complement small conventional batteries for a range of every day applications and enable the reliable powering of new technologies.
...
The project actually began in an attempt to create a replacement for the lithium batteries that actually go into keyless entry systems for automobiles. This is normally the little black tag that you have attached to your key – press the button and it opens a car door. In an attempt to remove or reduce the number of lithium batteries which become a pollutant in the environment when they get to their expiry, we looked at harvesting the amount of energy that you can provide by simply walking to your vehicle or for example, it could be either in your pocket or in a lady’s handbag and the idea was that we could generate power only over a distance of ten metres and that would be acceptable to a motorist. So the application was all about generating enough power to be able to trigger the system. Of course, if we walked for longer than that you’d be generating excess power which we could store in the super capacitor and in a small capacitor. The application required to power a very short burst or a very short transmission of radio frequency energy which could actually trigger the receiver in the car, so it’s a device which began ideally suited to what we call small burst transmissions. We’ve continued to look for applications like that – and the e-tag application is a classic example of it.
Continue reading "A device that captures vibration to produce electricit"
Posted by at 9:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Climate change denial, as David Bellamy’s claims show, is based on pure hocus pocus
In this article by George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 10th May 2005, he tracks in detail the mistakes behind David Bellamy's climate change denial.
For the past three weeks, a set of figures has been working a hole in my mind. On April 16th, New Scientist published a letter from the famous botanist David Bellamy. Many of the world’s glaciers, he claimed, “are not shrinking but in fact are growing. ... 555 of all the 625 glaciers under observation by the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich, Switzerland, have been growing since 1980.”(1) His letter was instantly taken up by climate change deniers. And it began to worry me. What if Bellamy was right?
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So last week I telephoned the World Glacier Monitoring Service and read out Bellamy’s letter. I don’t think the response would have been published in Nature, but it had the scientific virtue of clarity. “This is complete bullshit.”(3) A few hours later, they sent me an email.
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It is hard to convey just how selective you have to be to dismiss the evidence for climate change. You must climb over a mountain of evidence to pick up a crumb: a crumb which then disintegrates in your palm. You must ignore an entire canon of science, the statements of the world’s most eminent scientific institutions, and thousands of papers published in the foremost scientific journals. You must, if you are David Bellamy, embrace instead the claims of an eccentric former architect, which are based on what appears to be a non-existent data set. And you must do all this while calling yourself a scientist.
Posted by at 9:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
StoreWars - the adventures of Cuke Skywalk and the Organic Rebels
See Store Wars
Join the adventures of Cuke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Cannoli, Chewbroccoli and the rest of the Organic Rebels fighting against Darth Tader and the Dark Side of the Farm. And if you like the movie, pass it on!
Posted by at 2:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Peak Oil Panel in Byron Bay
Tim Winton has put together a panel to discuss the impact of Peak Oil on the Northern Rivers. For those of you who missed his talk - at Ambaji, this is a topic that is not to be ignored.
A recent poll of oil industry executives showed over half believed we have hit peak oil already or will do in the next couple of years. So this isn't just some environmentalist scare story.
Hopefully I'll see you at the talk
(Any questions etc, please email Tim directly, winton@nor.com.au
The Permaforest Trust is presenting a community information night:
"Preparing for Peak Oil in the Northern Rivers", 7:00 pm Thursday May 19th Byron Bay Community and Cultural Centre, 69 Jonson St Byron Bay, NSW.
Tim Winton, The Permaforest Trust will be joined by:
Jan Barham- Mayor Byron Shire
Nyck Jeans - Host 'Head to Head' on Bay FM
Dr. Liz Elliot, Anti Globalization Activist and Local GP
Sarah West, Environmental Scientist with GeoLINK
Find out the facts on energy availability, how energy descent will affect your life, what you can do about it, and the prospects for Byron Shire and beyond. How can the Northern Rivers as a community approach the 'energy/culture' transition in a positive and proactive way.
Posted by at 11:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The earth is flat, and nuclear power is cheap and safe.
A long time ago, Friends of the Earth had a T-shirt that said, "Pigs can fly, The Earth is Flat, and Nuclear Power is Safe".
Now, once again we are being asked to consider Nuclear Power as a cheap, safe way to stop us cooking the planet through Global Warming. Have we forgotten the long and hard road to put an end to this crazy idea.
Before the nuclear industry claims it is safe, and the cheapest way to counter global-warming, I'd suggest that we ask them whether ....
a) Everyone who mines Uranium for the west has health coverage, i.e. what exactly is being done about all the people who have been damaged by the mining process, typically in countries (or parts of countries) where life can be treated as cheap.
b) how exactly do they plan on on looking after the waste, and has the cost of looking after it until it is no longer dangerous been factored into the cost.
c) who is providing an insurance policy on the potential damage should one of the reactors fail, and are they still hiding behind US legislation which limits their liability (I forget the name of this)
Then, and only then, should we even start to consider claims of safety and cheapness for nuclear power.
(I'd appreciate links to the issues behind each of these points).
The only safe Nuclear Power is 93 million miles away, the sun, so lets figure out how to harness that.
Posted by at 5:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
GE - Ecomagination
GE is planning to announce its new focus ...
Joel Makower, has been working on this behind the scenes, and blogs about it, here's a short extract ....
Ecomagination, says Immelt, aims to "focus our unique energy, technology, manufacturing, and infrastructure capabilities to develop tomorrow's solutions such as solar energy, hybrid locomotives, fuel cells, lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger materials, efficient lighting, and water purification technology."By almost any measure, it's a bold move. For GE, the fifth-largest U.S. company, it represents a strategic shift that could catalyze competition among some of the world's largest companies to accelerate the emerging clean-tech economy.
This is a big deal, although GE has a LONGGGGG way to go since it is still in the nuclear power business, and it was until 1992 in the nuclear weapons business leading to a major boycott that was the subject of the film "Deadly Deception".
I believe companies can change dramatically, especially when they get new leadership, Immelt was appointed in 2001. A statement about their new-found commitment to CSR, appeared in Fortune recently. I think the jury is out, but its important to give companies a chance to change, and to prove that this is not just big-company green-washing.
Posted by at 9:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Paper comparison matrix
While trying to green your business, it is challenging to get the information needed. Search engines are great for searching for companies sites, but lousy for comparing environmental claims.
I'd like to see more tools like this one from Celery Design, which compares different papers from different suppliers. I'd love to see a similar table for Australia.
Most graphics professionals are searching for a few simple things in a paper the highest quality, the easiest functionality, and the lowest price. The goal of this guide is to help you add one more critical consideration to the decision making process: the environmental impact of the paper you specify.
Through your paper choices, you are directly connected to the preservation or the degradation of land, water, air, and the creatures that dwell therein. Paper reps and printers provide guidance on finding the best quality, functionality and price, but often can't help when it comes to preserving the environment. This guide fills that information gap and points you to the very best recycled and tree free papers on the market today. You will discover that most of these papers are also very competitive in terms of quality, functionality, and price.
The recycled and tree-free papers listed here generate fewer toxins and impact the environment far less than typical virgin wood, chlorine-bleached papers. There are options here in nearly every grade, format and price category. We encourage you to contact the paper manufacturers for samples, pricing, and ordering information, and work with your clients and printers to specify these papers. We developed this guide as an easy-to-use, practical tool that makes it simple to change old paper-buying habits. Use it and share it with your friends. With the right information and a bit of initiative, each of us can reach a higher standard for our graphics projects.
Check out the guide and table. Looks like they've done some design for some other progressive companies as well.
Posted by at 3:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
'Sustainable Community: Learning from the cohousing model' by Graham Meltzer
A friend of mine - Graham Meltzer - has a book out on Cohousing, since Graham is a photographer I expect the book will be visually interesting as well as informative and look forward to a chance to get my hands on it.
This book explores the link between ‘sustainability’ and ‘community’. It is based on a 10-year study of cohousing, a popular new type of planned residential community that addresses pressing environmental and social needs. It uses data (including 120 photographs, 50 diagrams and 30 tables) from twelve cohousing developments in Canada, the US, New Zealand, Australia and Japan – concrete examples of successful sustainable communities.
The book is scholarly and authoritative, yet accessible to a broad intelligent readership as an illustrated account of a fascinating cultural phenomenon. It will be valuable to students of architecture, planning, sociology, community psychology and environmental studies as well as architects, planners and other professionals. It should prompt local authorities and developers to envisage and implement genuinely sustainable urban development proposals.
Sustainable Community – Learning from the cohousing model provides in-depth and insightful information for participants in the cohousing, ecovillage, sustainability and communities movements. It is well known that such activists face a scarcity of literature from which to draw ideas and inspiration. This book will help fill that void.
“If this book encourages more people to explore innovative ways of sharing living space, it will have made a real contribution to a better future.” Professor Ian Lowe AO
Dr Graham Meltzer is considered the world’s leading expert on cohousing. He is an architect, scholar and commercial photographer who consults, researches and lectures in environmental and social architecture, housing and communalism."
Details about the book, including some excerpts, are available at
Posted by at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)