Monday, May 11, 2009
The Human Side
I liked this article on The Oil Drum entitled Life after the Crash: Lessons from Kenya. It makes us look inside. Happiness comes from the inside and in order to be happy one does not need to fulfill ones desires, we just need to cover our needs. I also liked his observation that in Kenya, people are not getting by because of politics and the financial system, instead people are getting by despite politics and the financial system. Politicians and bankers are the two biggest road blocks for social improvement in the author's home country. I believe that is equally true for many countries, including the so-called first world. The financial institutions and politicians are not going to solve problems for us, they mostly steal from the poor and middle class. (Watch "Argentina's Economic Collapse" (Memoria del Saqueo, Social Genocide) if you have doubts.) We have to strive for happiness by reducing our wants and desires. The crash and peak oil will bring the opportunity of a simpler life and it is our obligation to turn this into a more meaningful, satisfying personal experience: A life with less money, more time and a new closeness to our key resources like family, food, water, and the land.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Food Storage
A friend just reported his completed food storage project. He was taught by Mormons how to do it. They showed him three ways of storage: a) plastic containers, b) tin cans and c) by drying. He has now 1 year of food stored away for his family. There are clearly more options such as d) boiling food in glass jars (marmalades, fish, etc.) , e) sealing in oil (veggies), etc.
Storing in Plastic Containers
From the three choices my friend went for the plastic containers. He bought the food in bulk in 25 pound bags - raw in the bag. He bought five gallon FDA approved plastic containers. He bought dry ice. The dry ice is frozen CO2 at -109F. Dry ice dances around vigorously at room temperature. First one puts a chunk of it in the bottom of the bucket; next one dumps the food over it; then one waits till the hissing stop (the dry ice is boiling). This does not take long. The released CO2 is heavier than oxygen and hence pushes the air/oxygen up and out of the container. Not all of it - but enough to suffocate possible bugs. Finally one closes the container with the lid. The food has a 30-year storage life. Once the container is opened, the food must be eaten, or the process repeated. It might be a good idea to mix foods in a container this way fewer containers have to be open at any point in time. y friend has selected raw wheat, black beans, sugar, oats, and pasta. Instead of 5 containers each one with one ingredient, it might be better to have each container holding a portion of all food items.
Storing in Tin Cans
To store food in tin cans they put a chemical pouch in the can that absorbs oxygen; then they have a can sealer. It ends up like regular canned food.
Storing by Drying Food
One can store fruit and veggies if dried. One can possibly use a solar oven to dry fruit. The Mormon church says that dried apple slices have a 30 year storage life. Dried carrots have a 20 year storage life.
How to Cook?
Do you have energy and water to cook it? Do you have a hand-powered mill to grind cereals? Do you have an emergency cooker such as a wood burner or a camping gas burner? Or a solar oven?
What to Store?
GreatDreams prepared this list for 1 person for 1 year: 300 lbs Wheat, 100 lbs Rice, 50 lbs Beans, 50 lbs Peas, 50 lbs Lentils, 50 lbs Oatmeal, 10 lbs Alfalfa Seeds, 80 lbs Dried Powdered Milk, 50 lbs Peanut Butter, 60 lbs Honey or Sugar, 5 lbs Salt, Cayenne Pepper, Herbal Seasonings, Dried Fruit, Canned food, Canned Sardines/tuna/ salmon. On my personal list I have added: cous cous, olive oil, sunflower seed oil, seeds to eat (linseed, chia, etc.), seeds to plant, chocolate, vitamin pills, pasta, some bottles of whiskey, sauerkraut, etc.
Other helpful links with good ideas are: food storage on e-How, www.LongTermFoodStorage.org, Planning Guide to Dry Food Storage, Low Energy Food Preservation, and Energy Conscious Cooking.
Storing in Plastic Containers
From the three choices my friend went for the plastic containers. He bought the food in bulk in 25 pound bags - raw in the bag. He bought five gallon FDA approved plastic containers. He bought dry ice. The dry ice is frozen CO2 at -109F. Dry ice dances around vigorously at room temperature. First one puts a chunk of it in the bottom of the bucket; next one dumps the food over it; then one waits till the hissing stop (the dry ice is boiling). This does not take long. The released CO2 is heavier than oxygen and hence pushes the air/oxygen up and out of the container. Not all of it - but enough to suffocate possible bugs. Finally one closes the container with the lid. The food has a 30-year storage life. Once the container is opened, the food must be eaten, or the process repeated. It might be a good idea to mix foods in a container this way fewer containers have to be open at any point in time. y friend has selected raw wheat, black beans, sugar, oats, and pasta. Instead of 5 containers each one with one ingredient, it might be better to have each container holding a portion of all food items.
Storing in Tin Cans
To store food in tin cans they put a chemical pouch in the can that absorbs oxygen; then they have a can sealer. It ends up like regular canned food.
Storing by Drying Food
One can store fruit and veggies if dried. One can possibly use a solar oven to dry fruit. The Mormon church says that dried apple slices have a 30 year storage life. Dried carrots have a 20 year storage life.
How to Cook?
Do you have energy and water to cook it? Do you have a hand-powered mill to grind cereals? Do you have an emergency cooker such as a wood burner or a camping gas burner? Or a solar oven?
What to Store?
GreatDreams prepared this list for 1 person for 1 year: 300 lbs Wheat, 100 lbs Rice, 50 lbs Beans, 50 lbs Peas, 50 lbs Lentils, 50 lbs Oatmeal, 10 lbs Alfalfa Seeds, 80 lbs Dried Powdered Milk, 50 lbs Peanut Butter, 60 lbs Honey or Sugar, 5 lbs Salt, Cayenne Pepper, Herbal Seasonings, Dried Fruit, Canned food, Canned Sardines/tuna/ salmon. On my personal list I have added: cous cous, olive oil, sunflower seed oil, seeds to eat (linseed, chia, etc.), seeds to plant, chocolate, vitamin pills, pasta, some bottles of whiskey, sauerkraut, etc.
Other helpful links with good ideas are: food storage on e-How, www.LongTermFoodStorage.org, Planning Guide to Dry Food Storage, Low Energy Food Preservation, and Energy Conscious Cooking.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Salad Mallow
I am always interested in plants to grow as food. Here is a lovely article on Salad Mallow from the PRI. Looks promising. After I have success with my recently planted chia I might try to grow some Salad Mallow on our terrace. Here are more articles on food plants.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Organic Food in Bilbao
I am looking for 2 contacts for our food supply: a) a local food basket provider to buy a weekly ration of vegetables and b) a store to buy bulk items like rice, cereals or pasta.
With this desire in mind I spent a full day researching the options for the city I live in, Bilbao. To my disappointing surprise I could not come up with a lot. Let's see what I have found.
Food Basket in Bilbao, Spain
With this desire in mind I spent a full day researching the options for the city I live in, Bilbao. To my disappointing surprise I could not come up with a lot. Let's see what I have found.
Food Basket in Bilbao, Spain
- Ekologistakmartxan
- http://www.ekologistakmartxan.org/555.html
- Spanish newspaper article on food baskets in Bilbao
- The store does not hook up buyers and local suppliers (farmers) themselves but they have people that can get you connected. When I called them one or two groups were full and some problems were delaying new groups. I was advised to check again with them in a months time.
- These offers might include something like a weekly basket of 4kg of veggies at €10. You pick up the basket at the store. This currently seems to be the most interesting option.
- Recapte
- Recapte is a company that does food basket orders via the internet and ships them via postal service.
- Their offer is a weekly 10kg of veggie basket for €30.
- The transport cost and carbon foot print is not ideal.
Furthermore I have read some critical opinions about it. If you read the detailed comments in this article you see that some people are not fully satisfied and that their marketing is possibly not 100% honest.
- Daiqui
- They have a wide offering, not only food baskets but all sorts of organic products, all for shipping via internet. The have a small and a large vegetable as well as a small and large fruit basket.
Organic Food Stores in Bilbao, Spain
Asociaciones y Cooperativas de Consumidores de Alimentos Ecológicos Bizigai
- This coop is like a store. You have to pay a monthly membership fee and that gives you the right to shop in their store. It is too far for walking for where I live so I am not too interested.
- Koopera Merkatua, Calle Fernández del Campo 16-18, Bilbao Casco Viejo
- Kresala, Calle Jardines, 2, Bilbao Casco Viejo, Tel: 944 153 501
- Azak, Pablo Alzola, 8. 48012 Bilbao. Tel: 944 271 001
- Bio-Bio, Elcano, 12. Bilbao. Tel: 944 210 362
- Kimua, Calle Ercilla 44, Bilbao. Tel: 944 394 216
Ekobizi, Azurleku Auzoa 13, Bilbao. Tel: 944 122 666
Organic Food Stores on the Internet
In summary, for me and other people living in Bilbao, Spain, the options for food or vegetable baskets are limited, but there is movement and it is getting better.
For buying bulk I have not found the solution I was looking for. The local stores (in my experience) don't sell bulk and buying bulk over the internet is not ideal due to extra packaging, shipping cost and carbon footprint of the shipping. Furthermore, the internet stores have very few organic bulk items. Most items are actually 500g items. I would prefer a local store where I can go once every 3 months and buy the bulk items at reasonable rates. I will keep looking. However, there is no rice or cereals growing anywhere nearby, so somehow it will have to be transported anyway.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Carbon Politics
Remember the talk of the most powerful person on this planet on energy, given on Earth Day 2009? Obama, just like previous US presidents, is pushing the free market solution to carbon management. I quote him: "Carbon pollution would become like a commodity. It would have a value as a limited resource." This is really scary.
Haven't we learned? Carbon Derivatives to Become World’s Largest Derivatives Market. Instantly. That means that market speculation and manipulation will take place. The banks will control the carbon market. Once again, the rich will misuse it. The banks will get rich on it. Management fees, commissions, etc. But worst of all, the environment will not receive the expected and desired benefit. It will be a economy based on scarcity (see Zeitgeist). Speculations will run wild. There will be bubbles. It will be an unstable, unpredictable, and unsustainable system. It would be more beneficial to have a stable and transparent system, allowing companies to plan and execute the carbon reduction in a fixed economic environment (as opposed to an environment where the prices of carbon on the carbon derivative exchanges fluctuate drastically). And in the end, the environment and we as consumers will pay the price. Reduction through consistent regulation - in my opinion - could show quicker effects on reducing global warming and would have less risk of failing. It can even be cheaper for the corporations who have to implement it because it will reduce the middle man (the banks), advance technology faster and thereby reduce implementation cost, and reduce speculative risks. To play with words, the US will be using a system for carbon management. But we don't need more management, what we need is carbon reduction. Management has no intrinsic value for the society. Carbon reduction does have intrinsic value for the society.
Let's reduce the management (that makes the banks and speculators rich) and go directly to the reduction.
Haven't we learned? Carbon Derivatives to Become World’s Largest Derivatives Market. Instantly. That means that market speculation and manipulation will take place. The banks will control the carbon market. Once again, the rich will misuse it. The banks will get rich on it. Management fees, commissions, etc. But worst of all, the environment will not receive the expected and desired benefit. It will be a economy based on scarcity (see Zeitgeist). Speculations will run wild. There will be bubbles. It will be an unstable, unpredictable, and unsustainable system. It would be more beneficial to have a stable and transparent system, allowing companies to plan and execute the carbon reduction in a fixed economic environment (as opposed to an environment where the prices of carbon on the carbon derivative exchanges fluctuate drastically). And in the end, the environment and we as consumers will pay the price. Reduction through consistent regulation - in my opinion - could show quicker effects on reducing global warming and would have less risk of failing. It can even be cheaper for the corporations who have to implement it because it will reduce the middle man (the banks), advance technology faster and thereby reduce implementation cost, and reduce speculative risks. To play with words, the US will be using a system for carbon management. But we don't need more management, what we need is carbon reduction. Management has no intrinsic value for the society. Carbon reduction does have intrinsic value for the society.
Let's reduce the management (that makes the banks and speculators rich) and go directly to the reduction.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Inflation
Want to have some fun poking around in historical data? A friend once told me that his dad paid off his home loan in about 10 years and now, a generation later, it takes most young people his age group 20 and even 30 years to pay off their home loan. Today our salaries are higher. How come that we actually need more time to pay of the mortgage? Could it be that we are actually poorer?
There is this little thing called inflation, a form of silent tax that the government imposes on us in a more or less secretive fashion. On this site there are a lot of historical charts showing prices of a wide variety of things adjusted by inflation. Browse around just for fun. There are a few surprises waiting. The chart I liked most was the one on US average hourly earnings: Today we earn as much as in 1940! Since 1974 it is steadily downhill, for 35 consecutive years we are earning less and less and we have now reached the earning level of 1940. Wow!
Inflation and the consumer price index (CPI) can be measured in many ways. The government continues to change the formula how the CPI is computed. One has to be very wary about the governmental CPI. Alternative inflation formulas (like fixed consumer good basket index) should be used alternatively to CPI to get a better understanding of the real inflation. One alternative measure for the inflation is described in this whitepaper on The Truth about CPI from Euro Pacific Capital.
There is this little thing called inflation, a form of silent tax that the government imposes on us in a more or less secretive fashion. On this site there are a lot of historical charts showing prices of a wide variety of things adjusted by inflation. Browse around just for fun. There are a few surprises waiting. The chart I liked most was the one on US average hourly earnings: Today we earn as much as in 1940! Since 1974 it is steadily downhill, for 35 consecutive years we are earning less and less and we have now reached the earning level of 1940. Wow!
Inflation and the consumer price index (CPI) can be measured in many ways. The government continues to change the formula how the CPI is computed. One has to be very wary about the governmental CPI. Alternative inflation formulas (like fixed consumer good basket index) should be used alternatively to CPI to get a better understanding of the real inflation. One alternative measure for the inflation is described in this whitepaper on The Truth about CPI from Euro Pacific Capital.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Ayres Warr Model
A friend of mine has written an article on "Some Implications of the Ayres Warr Model". He builds on the Ayres Warr model and puts all the terms of energy, efficiency, economic production output, labor, energy supply and energy prices into a new relationship. The advantage of his model is that it is a mathematical formula that one can play with to derive real numbers. The disadvantage is that the model needs further validation with historic data to increase the level of confidence in the model. I see that this model can be useful in predicting tendencies. It is not intended to predict given prices on a given date. I also see that as a model is tells us how the oil prices should react to certain changes in supply, efficiency or economic production. It will not tell us how it will react. The model shows us what the value of energy is, but the true intrinsic value can be far off the price. In short we can have a bubble where the price is significantly above the intrinsic value. In this context the model can possible help us see and recognize bubbles.
Putting the price of energy or oil aside, it gives conclusions on how the economy would react to reduced production and it concludes that increasing energy efficiency is the best way for increasing economic output. Interestingly, better efficiency would also benefit the energy producers as energy prices would go up according to the model.
A summary of this long document was posted on The Oil Drum at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5378 . A long discussion with 100 comments can also be found there.
Putting the price of energy or oil aside, it gives conclusions on how the economy would react to reduced production and it concludes that increasing energy efficiency is the best way for increasing economic output. Interestingly, better efficiency would also benefit the energy producers as energy prices would go up according to the model.
A summary of this long document was posted on The Oil Drum at http://www.theoildrum.com/
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Permaculture in Spain
Today I was looking for local permaculture projects. Out of curiosity, to read about them and to see what is going on, and - of course - to borrow some ideas. We live in the Basque Country and our local region is Biscay.
Here are some Spanish links that I found useful. All these sites are in Spanish.
- www.permacultura-es.org : This site lists Spanish proyects, news articles and related resources.
- www.redpermacultura.org : Articles with useful hand-on tips and related news.
- institutodepermacultura.pbworks.com : Presents some 20 permaculturists in Spain and their projects.
- tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PermaculturaIberica : Newsgroup where some 186 Spanish permaculturists chat. There are some 30 entries per month.
In summary, there are dozens of permaculture projects in Spain, but I found very little in Biscay. Malaga and the Canary Islands seem to be popular spots for permaculture. It is motivating to see other people working the land and turning old farms around.
Friday, May 1, 2009
4 Months
It's 1st of May. Labor Day. Personally for me it is also "TC + 4 months". I use Jan 1, 2009 as the rough date when I realized that we are in Times of Change ("TC"), around then I was awakened to a realization that we are facing drastic challenges.
With 4 months having passed it is also time to re-assess and see what we have accomplished. A friend who got concerned about peak oil and the economic and political crisis at the same time as I has achieved the following. This is what he shared: "Made much progress here. Backyard is now a vegetable garden (US$1000 + many hours of hard work). Chicken coup is in the works. I have stored a one-year supply of food - raw wheat, black beans, sugar, oats, pasta (the Mormon church showed me how to do this). The food has a 30-year storage life. I have a 30 day supply of water (which I consider a weak point). Also I'm replicating all of this in a remote site 300 kilometer away that I originally purchased for other activities. Despite all this we must not to forget to enjoy life, kids ...". Wow, I was impressed. No, let me correct that: I was very impressed! Hats off. I am putting this in the blog because it will be motivational to others. It shows that one can truly accomplish a lot in only several months. I also liked his last sentence: "must not forget to enjoy life". This is exactly the positive attitude we need. Despite the bad news that hits us daily we should remain positive in order to not lose our sanity in this corrupt and mad world.
And I? What have I finished in 4 months?
With 4 months having passed it is also time to re-assess and see what we have accomplished. A friend who got concerned about peak oil and the economic and political crisis at the same time as I has achieved the following. This is what he shared: "Made much progress here. Backyard is now a vegetable garden (US$1000 + many hours of hard work). Chicken coup is in the works. I have stored a one-year supply of food - raw wheat, black beans, sugar, oats, pasta (the Mormon church showed me how to do this). The food has a 30-year storage life. I have a 30 day supply of water (which I consider a weak point). Also I'm replicating all of this in a remote site 300 kilometer away that I originally purchased for other activities. Despite all this we must not to forget to enjoy life, kids ...". Wow, I was impressed. No, let me correct that: I was very impressed! Hats off. I am putting this in the blog because it will be motivational to others. It shows that one can truly accomplish a lot in only several months. I also liked his last sentence: "must not forget to enjoy life". This is exactly the positive attitude we need. Despite the bad news that hits us daily we should remain positive in order to not lose our sanity in this corrupt and mad world.
And I? What have I finished in 4 months?
- I did take care of my finances. We paid off the bank credit. I shifted my investment from equities to commodities and I am slowly shifting left-over money from US$ currency to € currency. There is still some ongoing effort here but the majority of the reallocation is done. Still I am very concerned about these issues.
- No, I did not purchase the rural plot yet. I looked a lot in a single village and found 2 candidates. But both are overpriced and that is a key point for hesitation. I am considering (but have not done it) to look in a different area which would also be 30min/30km away from our current home. The dream of a country home with a permaculture garden is still months away.
- There are about 10 more plants on our terrace in our city flat and I spent time teaching the kids the value of trees, plants, how to take care of them, etc. I even told them about CO2, oxygen, etc. Not sure they understand that part but frequently they understand more than we think. I could turn our 10 square meter terrace into a garden, but I did not do it (I always have excuses, don't I) because we are going to live abroad next year, so the garden would be unattended.
- I looked for organic food supply, but so far my 5 to 10h search has revealed little. Bulk organic food - when bought over the Internet has some 33% cost in transportation and a high environmental footprint. That can't be the solution. I found one place for buying a food basket, but again the farm is more than 100km away and the food is shipped by mail, again adding substantially to the cost and CO2 foot print. The most promising link is a cooperative in the city center. They have information of producers that provide food baskets for some 30 consumers and that can be picked up locally in the city center once a week. We have to follow up this lead. It is the most promising looking one. Still, I have to look more. I would like to have two places: a) one to buy bulk food (grains/pasta) from and b) local access to a food basket or coop for the occasional buy.
- We have and always had a minor food store at home, food that will last us a few weeks. I have not yet increased the volume yet.
- I learned a lot about a lot of things: cooking with wood, heating with wood, about edible plants, permaculture approaches. I still have a lot more to learn (packaging, storing food, etc.).
- I changed my opinion on many issues: politics, outlook on future, values, priorities, ...
- I spread the news to reach critical mass eventually: talked to friends
in several countries, created this web blog, ... - I am definitely accelerating in the theoretical part, but as my wife says, I have to put it to practice.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
23:59:59
Yesterday I finished watching "The 11th Hour", a documentary about our environmental situation shot in 2007. It is professionally produced and broadcasts the ideas of many people dedicated to resolving our environmental challenges. It has the right mix of a positive approach, frugality, respect, humility, technology as a piece of the solution, and sustainable thinking in everything we do. I liked the video and recommend it. The official sites are The 11th Hour Movie and 11th Hour Action.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Building and Construction
This topic is way above my head. I am an absolute beginner, have no experience and have no immediate plans to do any building or construction myself. Still several times I stumbled across some information that I found interesting or intriguing. Take everything with a grain of salt.
There are many concepts for ecologic building materials and construction methods. Many of them try to reduce heating cost and use natural products as material. Compressed earth, in the form of bricks or filled into used tires make good walls. Compressed earth can also be combined with wood logs or bottles. A lighter combination is straw mixed with mud or straw squared covered on the outside with mud. Of course plain old wood is a common material.
Most buildings face south to absorb the maximum of sun and many use earth mass to absorb and store this free energy for heating and cooling. Some suggest a house-inside-a-house, a house with an outer shell with lots of windows and glass, again for the purpose of free/reduced heating. Buildings with grass and small vegetation growing on the roof caught my eye. Looks fantastic.
On the inside both heat storage and insulation are key concepts. Wood is a medium insulator as well as a medium heat store. Earth is both, a good store and a good insulator. Rocks are a great storage medium but a poor insulator, similar for cement. On the insulator side there are further materials like: hemp and cork. There are also special volcanic bricks that are a good insulator (similar heat resistance as wood) and hold up to pressure and weights. Furthermore there are special bricks that trap the air better and force the air to take long paths through the brick, thereby increasing drastically the insulating effect of the brick. There is a lot to think about and consider when trying to build eco-friendly.
Here are some sites to look at to grab ideas. www.earthship.net, www.enertia.com, Sustainable Build, a Green Building Source book, and the Open Village Construction Set (Open Source Ecology). And there is even a Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies book. A friend of mine has the book Building Green by Snell and Callahan which I found appealing.
It is such a vast topic. One will have to do lots of research before getting seriously into it.
There are many concepts for ecologic building materials and construction methods. Many of them try to reduce heating cost and use natural products as material. Compressed earth, in the form of bricks or filled into used tires make good walls. Compressed earth can also be combined with wood logs or bottles. A lighter combination is straw mixed with mud or straw squared covered on the outside with mud. Of course plain old wood is a common material.
Most buildings face south to absorb the maximum of sun and many use earth mass to absorb and store this free energy for heating and cooling. Some suggest a house-inside-a-house, a house with an outer shell with lots of windows and glass, again for the purpose of free/reduced heating. Buildings with grass and small vegetation growing on the roof caught my eye. Looks fantastic.
On the inside both heat storage and insulation are key concepts. Wood is a medium insulator as well as a medium heat store. Earth is both, a good store and a good insulator. Rocks are a great storage medium but a poor insulator, similar for cement. On the insulator side there are further materials like: hemp and cork. There are also special volcanic bricks that are a good insulator (similar heat resistance as wood) and hold up to pressure and weights. Furthermore there are special bricks that trap the air better and force the air to take long paths through the brick, thereby increasing drastically the insulating effect of the brick. There is a lot to think about and consider when trying to build eco-friendly.
Here are some sites to look at to grab ideas. www.earthship.net, www.enertia.com, Sustainable Build, a Green Building Source book, and the Open Village Construction Set (Open Source Ecology). And there is even a Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies book. A friend of mine has the book Building Green by Snell and Callahan which I found appealing.
It is such a vast topic. One will have to do lots of research before getting seriously into it.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Edible Foods
Over Easter friends shared some of their edible food recipes. One was a nettle soup with potatoes and nettle tea. Nettles have other uses as well as you can read in this article on weeds. Another recipe I could try was honey from dandelion. Tasty! These recipes are from the book "Sauvages et comestibles - Herbes, fleurs et petites salades" (Wild and edible) by Marie-Claude Paume. "Sauvages et medicinales" (Wild and medicinal) is another book by the same author. I could not find an English translation of these French books, but there is a different book available at Amazon. "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places" by Steve Brill. Bon apetit!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Obama on Energy
Today for Earth Day president Obama gave a speech on energy. Here is the presidential energy speech transcript. The speech is directed towards the emotional side and tries to be inspiring, it is a motivational talk. It provides a few facts for proposed legislative and tax changes, most but not all of which are good, but ... He hides the size of the energy issue we are facing and he is silent on the implications.
The government will provide funding of $15 billion each year for ten years to develop clean energy including wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, and clean coal technology. Compare that to the cost of the current bail out of the collapsing financial system that some experts estimate at $15 trillion. The government spends 0.1% on new energy in comparison to rescuing the financial sector. That says something about the importance of energy in the government strategy. It is not crucial if it is 0.1% or 1%, the point is that it is vastly out of proportion.
In the second part he negates that current US politics are broken. In my opinion he is wrong on this. Our society and economy is first of all in a structural collapse, not a financial one. And the structural collapse just like the financial one were permitted and induced by past and recent politics. Politics is broken.
We need a change in energy production/consumption and above all in politics.
The government will provide funding of $15 billion each year for ten years to develop clean energy including wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, and clean coal technology. Compare that to the cost of the current bail out of the collapsing financial system that some experts estimate at $15 trillion. The government spends 0.1% on new energy in comparison to rescuing the financial sector. That says something about the importance of energy in the government strategy. It is not crucial if it is 0.1% or 1%, the point is that it is vastly out of proportion.
In the second part he negates that current US politics are broken. In my opinion he is wrong on this. Our society and economy is first of all in a structural collapse, not a financial one. And the structural collapse just like the financial one were permitted and induced by past and recent politics. Politics is broken.
We need a change in energy production/consumption and above all in politics.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Chia
I just ran across this edible plant: chia. The official name is Salvia Hispanica. Never heard of it before, but it sounds worth while a closer look. Read more about the wonderful characteristics of chia on PRI and GardenGuides.com. Got time and opportunity? Put a few seeds in a pot and see what happens. Here are some chia recipes.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Commodities
www.marketskeptics.com has an interesting article on commodities (and that includes oil, precious metals, food). The article uses a report from the UN on commodity trading to point out the facts that investors and above all large institutional investors distort the commodity prices, create artificial swings and drive the prices away from real value. Artificially driving up the prices for the purpose of profit taking on basic food (wheat, rice) is questionably moral as the welfare and health of millions of people depend on them. Furthermore the volume of commodity trading has increased drastically and with 95% being done in derivatives, namely futures, it is clear that commodities have become a tool for speculation rather than a tool for distributing and arbitrating food producers and consumers. Once again we have moved away from providing a meaningful, responsible process to a misuse of the system with no value (but a lot of damage) for the general community.
Option contracts have grown 5-fold in the last 10 years. Notional amount of outstanding OTC commodity derivatives went from $1 trillion in 2004 to over $13 trillion in 2008, making them a bubble. More data on www.nowandfutures.com. Personally I moved away from equities to commodities in the hope of reducing risk and exposure. But now after reading this article it became clear that the risk has traveled a lot faster than me. Risk has arrived at the commodity market some 5 years ago as it became a profit-taking playground for big investors. Artificially manipulated price and intrinsic value of commodities have been separated.
Option contracts have grown 5-fold in the last 10 years. Notional amount of outstanding OTC commodity derivatives went from $1 trillion in 2004 to over $13 trillion in 2008, making them a bubble. More data on www.nowandfutures.com. Personally I moved away from equities to commodities in the hope of reducing risk and exposure. But now after reading this article it became clear that the risk has traveled a lot faster than me. Risk has arrived at the commodity market some 5 years ago as it became a profit-taking playground for big investors. Artificially manipulated price and intrinsic value of commodities have been separated.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The Crash of 2010
"El crash del 2010" ("The Crash of 2010") is the title of the book by Santiago Niño Becerra. We are in a structural crisis, a crisis of our system, a crisis of capitalism. He foresees that we are going through a crash in slow motion and that the principal crash is yet to come, according to him in 2010. Between 2010 and 2015 we will see the biggest impact and changes to our lives. For the individual he recommends to cancel all credits, pay back all debts and as a profession to do something one truly loves and is passionate about; to work in a field that makes sense and that provides real value to the society. He foresees that concepts like "usefulness", "efficiency" together with "coordination" and "co-operation" will become key to our daily lives. Individuals must pick up and carry their responsibilities.
I like his back to basics vision. I agree that we all must re-think and re-evaluate to assure that what we do provides value to the core necessities of society. I see so many jobs that provide no value to society, they only serve to fill one's own pockets and there are also many jobs that serve society but at a very peripherical way, not at its core. The times of luxury have passed, we must focus on the essential, the core necessities.
An interview in Spanish is here.
I like his back to basics vision. I agree that we all must re-think and re-evaluate to assure that what we do provides value to the core necessities of society. I see so many jobs that provide no value to society, they only serve to fill one's own pockets and there are also many jobs that serve society but at a very peripherical way, not at its core. The times of luxury have passed, we must focus on the essential, the core necessities.
An interview in Spanish is here.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Oil Price
The PRI had an article on oil price. There are many factors influencing the price: exploration cost, market supply and demand, political decisions, and speculation. I thought the article quite interesting and the author to be correct on many issues. The US will be the country most impacted by high oil prices. Producers will soon satisfy their domestic needs and reduce export. For the next years while we are going through the current structural crisis, oil price will not be a crucial issue. We are heading equally fast into the peak oil situation but oil price is unlikely to go up drastically during the next 2 years and hence oil, oil prices, and peak oil will not be on the political radar even though it should be. Current politics is always a step behind. Our society is always dealing with the past problem, the one that just happened; it is never willing (to face and) to deal with the upcoming problem showing up on the horizon, no matter how big it is.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Permaculture Videos
I downloaded the following videos on permaculture. I am fascinated by the food forests. I really am. It is so simple, so back-to-basics, so anti-high-tech, so in tune with nature and it delivers fantastic results. A feast for the eyes, the nose and the taste buds. This is one of the things I want to get into and remain into during the next decade.
Establish Eden (Food Forest) With Love was produced in 2008 by Geoff Lawton in cooperation with the Australian Permaculture Research Institute. Wouldn't you want to have this in your backyard? It looks enriching. Just watching makes me feel good. Let's see how doing will make me feel. It gives a good introduction and explains how to build a food forest and how long it takes for the forest to take shape. After watching the video also check out the PRI site.
Permaculture - Synergistic Garden was produced by Emilia Hazelip in 1995. 1995! Wow, quite forward thinking. While watching I took many mental notes on practical tips for home gardening.
Permaculture Trio: Forest Gardening, Edible Landscaping and Urban Permaculture was produced by Iota Pictures in 2007. I especially liked the third part that showcases how a tiny backyard in an urban environment can be transformed to produce about 20% of a families food intake. Even in a city this concept shows success.
Permaculture - Harvesting Water with Love is from 2008. It is another video by Geoff Lawton. This time he focuses on how to build a dam or swale to use water to your advantage in synergy with nature.
Permaculture Visionaries - Small Solutions to enormously large Problems produced by 220Productions in 1989 for television. It discusses the basic concepts at a high level and refers to food and environmental issues in various countries. It is a little less practical but shows that most countries around the world, first or third world countries, can benefit from the permaculture concepts.
Permaculture in Practice is from Iota Pictures and from 2007. I haven't seen it yet, but the title sounds promising.
We need to get permaculture in sync and integrated with the high-tech proposal from Zeitgeist and the Venus Project. Permaculture is available and working here and today. In my opinion it must form a corner stone of future solutions, even if other aspects of live are high-tech. While communication systems (phone, internet, etc.), transportation (trains, cars, etc.), energy creation (biothermal, solar, wind, etc.) might be based on the latest technology, I'd rather live in a wooden log cabin with a wooden desk next to my garden than in the titanium-glass building of the 21st century as presented by the Venus Project.
I guess in summary I believe that anything should be as low-tech as possible, but not any more low-tech than necessary. Food production and water management as seen in these videos can achieve incredible results while being very low-tech.
Establish Eden (Food Forest) With Love was produced in 2008 by Geoff Lawton in cooperation with the Australian Permaculture Research Institute. Wouldn't you want to have this in your backyard? It looks enriching. Just watching makes me feel good. Let's see how doing will make me feel. It gives a good introduction and explains how to build a food forest and how long it takes for the forest to take shape. After watching the video also check out the PRI site.
Permaculture - Synergistic Garden was produced by Emilia Hazelip in 1995. 1995! Wow, quite forward thinking. While watching I took many mental notes on practical tips for home gardening.
Permaculture Trio: Forest Gardening, Edible Landscaping and Urban Permaculture was produced by Iota Pictures in 2007. I especially liked the third part that showcases how a tiny backyard in an urban environment can be transformed to produce about 20% of a families food intake. Even in a city this concept shows success.
Permaculture - Harvesting Water with Love is from 2008. It is another video by Geoff Lawton. This time he focuses on how to build a dam or swale to use water to your advantage in synergy with nature.
Permaculture Visionaries - Small Solutions to enormously large Problems produced by 220Productions in 1989 for television. It discusses the basic concepts at a high level and refers to food and environmental issues in various countries. It is a little less practical but shows that most countries around the world, first or third world countries, can benefit from the permaculture concepts.
Permaculture in Practice is from Iota Pictures and from 2007. I haven't seen it yet, but the title sounds promising.
We need to get permaculture in sync and integrated with the high-tech proposal from Zeitgeist and the Venus Project. Permaculture is available and working here and today. In my opinion it must form a corner stone of future solutions, even if other aspects of live are high-tech. While communication systems (phone, internet, etc.), transportation (trains, cars, etc.), energy creation (biothermal, solar, wind, etc.) might be based on the latest technology, I'd rather live in a wooden log cabin with a wooden desk next to my garden than in the titanium-glass building of the 21st century as presented by the Venus Project.
I guess in summary I believe that anything should be as low-tech as possible, but not any more low-tech than necessary. Food production and water management as seen in these videos can achieve incredible results while being very low-tech.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Khaleeji
Today in this TOD article I read for the first time about the planned new middle-eastern currency, the Khaleeji. I also heard the name "Petro" in similar discussions. It is a discussed as a regional currency like the Euro, but created and controlled by the oil producing Gulf states.
The www.gulfcurrency.org web site suggests a G as a sign, but I do not take them too serious. The web site owner seems to be a design company trying to sell us a symbol; like somebody registering a web domain to later cash in if the term becomes attractive. But the truth is that there are talks underway that discuss the possibility of the Khaleeji/Petro/Gulf currency creation.
Everybody is doing their bit to reduce the dependence on the dollar. The Chinese do currency swaps to bypass the dollar and as it seems the Gulf states might be quoting the oil price in Khaleeji soon.
The www.gulfcurrency.org web site suggests a G as a sign, but I do not take them too serious. The web site owner seems to be a design company trying to sell us a symbol; like somebody registering a web domain to later cash in if the term becomes attractive. But the truth is that there are talks underway that discuss the possibility of the Khaleeji/Petro/Gulf currency creation.
Everybody is doing their bit to reduce the dependence on the dollar. The Chinese do currency swaps to bypass the dollar and as it seems the Gulf states might be quoting the oil price in Khaleeji soon.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Arcane Secrets of Political Power
The Occult Technology of Power, subtitled the "Arcane Secrets of Political Power," is an anonymous booklet describing the nature of power, the nature of rule, and the nature of oligarchy. The style chosen to present the thoughts is a fictional dialog between a powerful father and his son. The 52-page article written in 1974 eloquently outlines the deceiving means of power and control. It is certainly food for thought with so much between the lines. And it was way ahead of its times. 35 years have past and what has changed? Nothing, we are in the same struggle for self control and liberties. Also makes me think of George Orwell's 1984.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)