If we weren't blown away enough by the girl who wants to bury us all in mushroom suits - an amazing and fabulous idea - there is this guy who is showing us how mushrooms not only rule but can cure, restore and maintain the planet and all the life on it.
This short video is nothing short of amazing. These applications are immediately available. They have low to zero costs. They produce results in a matter of weeks.
It sounds like this could reconcile the "carbon footprint" worldwide and perhaps even clean up petrochemical disasters like fracking wastes, conventional and tar sands contamination and more. (nearly free and works in weeks)
Add this to the pharmacological properties that are hundreds if not thousands of times more potent than drugs against viruses without the dangers of pharmaceuticals - well...you'll want to watch this.
Additionally, here is his YouTube page http://www.youtube.com/user/paulstamets
and
His Website http://www.fungi.com/
Showing posts with label Energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Energy. Show all posts
6/8/13
What the Frack With Michigan!
Oil and gas companies are destroying the ecosystem and irreversibly adulterating groundwater all over the world.
It seems they are trying to make Michigan uninhabitable. I guess that would free up more land for Fracking.
http://peakoil.com/enviroment/fracking-creates-water-scarcity-issues-in-michigan
Concerns about the impact to local groundwater by massive water use—on a scale never before seen in Michigan fracking
operations—are coming to a head, as the plan for Encana Oil & Gas
(USA) Inc. to use 8.4 million gallons of water to fracture a single well
has been stymied by a lack of water on site.
Instead, the company is trucking water—nearly 1 million gallons of it in just one week—from the City of Kalkaska’s water system to meet its needs. This one fracking operation today is using more water than Kalkaska is using for all its needs over the same time period.
The Westerman 1-29 HD1 gas/oil well, located on Wood Road in Rapid River Township, Kalkaska County, originally permitted to Chevron Michigan, LLC, is now being operated by Encana.
Westerman gas/oil well, Kalkaska County, MI. Photo courtesy of Respect My Planet.
The permit issued by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) authorized one water well on the site. The estimated water required for the gas/oil well was 8.4 million gallons. That compares to about 10,000 gallons used to complete or “stimulate” wells in the traditional way—a massive increase in consumptive water use by the fracking industry compared to the past.
The Michigan Water Assessment Withdrawal Tool (WWAT) estimated that 900 gallons per minute could be removed safely from the site and would cause no adverse resource impact. As it turns out, there isn’t enough water available on the site to provide 900 gallons per minute, let alone be safely removed.
An additional eight water wells were drilled on the site but apparently they did not produce either. Starting on May 31, water began being removed from the Kalkaska municipal water system to frack the gas/oil well.
Water truck filling at municipal fire hydrant in Kalkaska, MI. Photo courtesy of Respect My Planet.
The municipal withdrawal did not come close to supplying the water necessary to complete the Westerman well, so on Saturday, another water well was drilled off site in the surrounding field.
Drilling new water well off site. Photo courtesy of Respect My Planet.
That water well also failed to produce sufficient water and trucks running around the clock continued to haul more than 900,000 gallons of water from the Kalkaska municipal system over the weekend. At last report on June 4, the water was still being trucked to the well site from the municipal water supply.
“If the citizens of Michigan knew corporations were destroying hundreds of millions of gallons of Michigan water—water that is supposedly protected by government for use by all of us—they would be opposing this new kind of completion technique,” stated Paul Brady, a local resident and leading contributor of Respect My Planet. “These deep shale unconventional wells are using massive amounts of water without adequate testing and solid data on aquifer capacity.”
Brady noted that the new fracking methods permanently remove water from Michigan’s watersheds. It is polluted with chemicals, shoved deep into the ground and never returned to the water cycle. Encana has stated in shareholder presentations that up to 500 wells are planned for Michigan. Five new wells were permitted in Excelsior Township last week that estimate using 152,000,000 gallons of water. Eight more permit applications are pending.
The water use for these types of wells in Michigan is unprecedented. There is no gas or oil play in the U.S. that is using this much water per well.
The Michigan DEQ has taken some steps recently to try and deal with the astounding amounts of water destroyed by modern fracking. But as of today, the primary tools that they are using to determine the adverse impact to our water are inadequate to even judge how much water is available in any given location (as demonstrated by the Westerman well situation), never mind how much can be safely removed. Michigan has no groundwater maps of this area; state officials don’t know how much water withdrawal our aquifers in Kalkaska County can support.
However, there is a way to find this out: Do a pump aquifer yield test. State officials should require this testing whenever withdrawals of this magnitude are proposed for any reason, not just oil and gas exploration.
“This is not about the gas and oil industry,” says Brady. “We wholeheartedly support the Michigan oil and gas worker: They are our neighbors, family and friends here in Kalkaska. We are confident local oil and gas workers value the water as much as we do.”
Elected officials often remind us that water is by far our most precious resource. They need to step in and ensure that such massive quantities are not misused in this manner, and that unsustainable well drilling is not allowed.
EcoWatch
Click on the following link to read a very enlightening National Geographic article about the North Dakota fracking boom!
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/bakken-shale-oil/dobb-text
It seems they are trying to make Michigan uninhabitable. I guess that would free up more land for Fracking.
http://peakoil.com/enviroment/fracking-creates-water-scarcity-issues-in-michigan
Fracking Creates Water Scarcity Issues in Michigan
Concerns about the impact to local groundwater by massive water use—on a scale never before seen in Michigan fracking
operations—are coming to a head, as the plan for Encana Oil & Gas
(USA) Inc. to use 8.4 million gallons of water to fracture a single well
has been stymied by a lack of water on site.Instead, the company is trucking water—nearly 1 million gallons of it in just one week—from the City of Kalkaska’s water system to meet its needs. This one fracking operation today is using more water than Kalkaska is using for all its needs over the same time period.
The Westerman 1-29 HD1 gas/oil well, located on Wood Road in Rapid River Township, Kalkaska County, originally permitted to Chevron Michigan, LLC, is now being operated by Encana.
Westerman gas/oil well, Kalkaska County, MI. Photo courtesy of Respect My Planet.
The permit issued by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) authorized one water well on the site. The estimated water required for the gas/oil well was 8.4 million gallons. That compares to about 10,000 gallons used to complete or “stimulate” wells in the traditional way—a massive increase in consumptive water use by the fracking industry compared to the past.
The Michigan Water Assessment Withdrawal Tool (WWAT) estimated that 900 gallons per minute could be removed safely from the site and would cause no adverse resource impact. As it turns out, there isn’t enough water available on the site to provide 900 gallons per minute, let alone be safely removed.
An additional eight water wells were drilled on the site but apparently they did not produce either. Starting on May 31, water began being removed from the Kalkaska municipal water system to frack the gas/oil well.
Water truck filling at municipal fire hydrant in Kalkaska, MI. Photo courtesy of Respect My Planet.
The municipal withdrawal did not come close to supplying the water necessary to complete the Westerman well, so on Saturday, another water well was drilled off site in the surrounding field.
Drilling new water well off site. Photo courtesy of Respect My Planet.
That water well also failed to produce sufficient water and trucks running around the clock continued to haul more than 900,000 gallons of water from the Kalkaska municipal system over the weekend. At last report on June 4, the water was still being trucked to the well site from the municipal water supply.
“If the citizens of Michigan knew corporations were destroying hundreds of millions of gallons of Michigan water—water that is supposedly protected by government for use by all of us—they would be opposing this new kind of completion technique,” stated Paul Brady, a local resident and leading contributor of Respect My Planet. “These deep shale unconventional wells are using massive amounts of water without adequate testing and solid data on aquifer capacity.”
Brady noted that the new fracking methods permanently remove water from Michigan’s watersheds. It is polluted with chemicals, shoved deep into the ground and never returned to the water cycle. Encana has stated in shareholder presentations that up to 500 wells are planned for Michigan. Five new wells were permitted in Excelsior Township last week that estimate using 152,000,000 gallons of water. Eight more permit applications are pending.
The water use for these types of wells in Michigan is unprecedented. There is no gas or oil play in the U.S. that is using this much water per well.
The Michigan DEQ has taken some steps recently to try and deal with the astounding amounts of water destroyed by modern fracking. But as of today, the primary tools that they are using to determine the adverse impact to our water are inadequate to even judge how much water is available in any given location (as demonstrated by the Westerman well situation), never mind how much can be safely removed. Michigan has no groundwater maps of this area; state officials don’t know how much water withdrawal our aquifers in Kalkaska County can support.
However, there is a way to find this out: Do a pump aquifer yield test. State officials should require this testing whenever withdrawals of this magnitude are proposed for any reason, not just oil and gas exploration.
“This is not about the gas and oil industry,” says Brady. “We wholeheartedly support the Michigan oil and gas worker: They are our neighbors, family and friends here in Kalkaska. We are confident local oil and gas workers value the water as much as we do.”
Elected officials often remind us that water is by far our most precious resource. They need to step in and ensure that such massive quantities are not misused in this manner, and that unsustainable well drilling is not allowed.
EcoWatch
Click on the following link to read a very enlightening National Geographic article about the North Dakota fracking boom!
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/bakken-shale-oil/dobb-text
3/8/13
Biogas Home Energy Generators - DIY
I've always been interested in living off the grid, but want to maintain some of the benefits of industrial living like hot water, home heating/cooling, indoor plumbing and lighting while avoiding some of the problems like water and air pollution and deforestation from burning wood and keeping animals.
As a vegetarian, I thought for 30 years that I could build a cordwood envelope house that would heat and cool itself and allow me to grow fruits, nuts and vegetables year round, the garden serving as the engine for heating and cooling and maybe even lighting.
Seemed pretty nifty.
After awhile it seemed that this idea might not be sufficient and that it would be good to have other means of producing energy for these tasks.
Also, I'm no longer vegetarian and see that in an ideal condition I would raise my own meat and dairy animals and also have to provide for their feeding and productively disposing of their wastes.
I was very impressed by people who were making very effective hot water heaters out of compost piles.
I had heard years ago of people who used compost, such as soiled straw from the horse barn, etc. to produce methane that could be used for heating, cooking and running machinery and fertilizer for gardening.
Recently I came across this information on something similar and more effective than sticking a pipe into a pile of rotting hay, though it is almost as simple.
Although these projects use manufactured materials in their construction, they could be made from natural, found materials though I suspect the efficiency of the units are likely higher with the manufactured parts.
The project described first can be built in a couple weeks [one week is for cement curing] for about $1,200 while the second one, built in China - runs about $450 but due to materials that degrade requires more maintenance.
I recommend that you also read the articles in the links at the end of this article; one of which describes how these generators have been used for decades in China and shows how they are constructed.
For some reason this article will not post properly here.
Please follow the link to read it.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/renewable-energy/home-cookin-with-homemade-biogas-energy.aspx#axzz2NEcqq0yG
As a vegetarian, I thought for 30 years that I could build a cordwood envelope house that would heat and cool itself and allow me to grow fruits, nuts and vegetables year round, the garden serving as the engine for heating and cooling and maybe even lighting.
Seemed pretty nifty.
After awhile it seemed that this idea might not be sufficient and that it would be good to have other means of producing energy for these tasks.
Also, I'm no longer vegetarian and see that in an ideal condition I would raise my own meat and dairy animals and also have to provide for their feeding and productively disposing of their wastes.
I was very impressed by people who were making very effective hot water heaters out of compost piles.
I had heard years ago of people who used compost, such as soiled straw from the horse barn, etc. to produce methane that could be used for heating, cooking and running machinery and fertilizer for gardening.
Recently I came across this information on something similar and more effective than sticking a pipe into a pile of rotting hay, though it is almost as simple.
Although these projects use manufactured materials in their construction, they could be made from natural, found materials though I suspect the efficiency of the units are likely higher with the manufactured parts.
The project described first can be built in a couple weeks [one week is for cement curing] for about $1,200 while the second one, built in China - runs about $450 but due to materials that degrade requires more maintenance.
I recommend that you also read the articles in the links at the end of this article; one of which describes how these generators have been used for decades in China and shows how they are constructed.
For some reason this article will not post properly here.
Please follow the link to read it.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/renewable-energy/home-cookin-with-homemade-biogas-energy.aspx#axzz2NEcqq0yG
2/20/13
Canadian Beaver Taint Steps on Free Speech in Lower 48
Canadian Attack on U.S. Free Speech — an Unwelcome Export
Canada, the great white north — land of Mounties, lumberjacks, double-doubles, twofers, toques and universal healthcare. Nice people, one and all, eh?
Not so much anymore. At least not their corporations — specifically, in the oilpatch.
A few Canuck corporate hosers are spoiling their nations’ pure-as-the-driven-snow reputation by suing its citizenry left and right, and they are spreading the litigious beaver taint to their neighbor to the south. As Democracy Tree reported last month, TransCanada sued some Texas environmental activists into silence, but that’s just the tip the iceberg.
Canada has traditionally enjoyed broad free speech protections under their constitutional Charter — Section 2(b) states that “Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: … freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” Canadian courts have a long history of upholding these rights and consistently supporting expression over controls.
But in April of last year, the Canadian Supreme Court approved Ontario Corporations’ ability to file cross-border defamation lawsuits, which are frequently SLAPP suits (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) meant to silence dissent and activism through unending legal harassment and intimidation. The Canadian oil industry has a long history of SLAPPing activists, and now they can ship more than just their oil around the world– they can export legal terrorism as well. In the wake of a dramatic increase in the use of this tactic, the Ontario government convened a group of legal experts to form an Anti-SLAPP Advisory Panel whose efforts help provide some domestic protections and remedies.
As recently reported in AlertNet, these corporate bullies have found a new way to harass activist organizations within their borders. Late last year, Ethical Oil.org, a lobby group for oil sands development demanded the Canada Revenue Agency (equivalent to the IRS) investigate alleged tax code violations of various non-profit environmental agencies, included among them are the Canadian Sierra Club, Tides Canada, Environmental Defense and the David Suzuki Foundation. Repeated threats of tax audits would not be covered under anti-SLAPP policies.
It’s only a matter of time before these corporations try making similar claims in the U.S., and elsewhere, about the tax exempt status of environmental non-profits. The IRS has traditionally been reluctant to pull tax exempt status from churches that blatantly engage in political speech, so let’s hope they have the good sense to say “take-off, you hoser!” to these Canadian bullies.
Amy Kerr Hardin This article also appears in Voters Legislative Transparency Project
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