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Ending the Greenhouse Effect in 50 Years - or Less |
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We can end the greenhouse effect in 50 years - or less. And at no cost. And create untold wealth all the way, at the same time.
Here are 20 highly effective means to end the greenhouse effect, 3 of which do not cost any money, and the others pay their own way. And all of them create immense wealth - instead of destroying our economies. |
SYNOPSES:
Here is how, briefly, with 20 powerful and supremely effective methods, beginning with the easiest to implement, at low or little cost - and huge results.
1) Switch from Gasoline to Electric Lawn Mowers - and reduce carbon emissions by the equivalent of removing 4 million cars in North America - while reducing yearly operating cost from an average of $60.00 to $5.00 per year. Even better and cheaper, get a reel mower and get free exercise in the bargain.
2) Replace Fences with Hedges - and replace your lawn with a densely planted "Eco-Garden" consisting of a rich environment of trees and shrubs. This saves much money - a large mature tree can shade a house in summer to the effect of 3 air conditioners - much time, and much effort. Use a mulch between shrubs, and on paths, and no more lawn mowing, no more fence painting. And a judicial selection of shrubs or trees will minimize, even eliminate hedge trimming.
3) "Bunch" Garbage and Recycle Pick-up Points Carbon emissions and all operating costs for garbage and recycle collections can be easily reduced by fully 80% simply by "bunching" 4 individual pick-up points into a single pick-up point. This results in a 75% reduction of pick-up points, a 75% reduction in stops and starts, a 75% reduction in fuel consumption, a 75% reduction of carbon emissions, a 75% reduction of exiting and entering the vehicle, a 75% reduction in wear and tear and maintenance, a 75% reduction in collecting time, and a 75% extension of the service life of the vehicles.
It's very simple; neighbour A and B share a single pick-up point at the common border of their properties. And across-the-street neighbours C and D add their recycle or garbage items to the combined A and B pick-up point. Presto, one pick-up point instead of 4 - and, furthermore, pick-up occurs only on one side of the street.
This lends itself beautifully to planning pick-up routes, as Fed Ex has done, on right turns only. This saves much time and fuel, bringing total savings to 80% - while providing better, faster and more efficient service.
And if the pick-up trucks were to be converted to run on Natural Gas, there would be another 15% reduction of carbon emissions, and a 80% reduction of air pollution. Natural Gas burns much, much cleaner than gasoline. And the engines would stay clean as well, resulting in a much longer service life. It's a win, win, win situation on all counts. A substantial reduction in carbon emissions is accompanied by a very substantial reduction in costs.
4) Tap into Shallow Geothermal Energy - a readily and easily accessible, constant and inexhaustible source of clean and free heat for homes, apartments, shops, stores and office buildings everywhere. At 10 feet below the surface the temperatures is an even 50 - 60 degrees F. - day in day out, year in year out. And since the fluid used in heat pumps freezes only at -19 degrees F, this provides ample energy for heating (and cooling) a wide variety of buildings. The technology exists and is readily available. And since heating our buildings contributes about 40% of the carbon in our atmosphere, switching to shallow Geothermal energy will massively reduce carbon emissions into our atmosphere. And it would cost only marginally more than a furnace - and the heat is free; doesn't cost a cent.
5) Switch from Cremation to Burial at Sea - and substantially reduce the high carbon emission of cremation and consumption of fossil fuels - with other far reaching benefits. Corpses could be placed in an iron mesh cage, and consigned to designated areas at the bottom of the sea. As they accumulate, this will stimulate the growth of coral reefs - the nurseries of marine life - as the corpses provide a rich source of food for marine life, while the iron - which is in short supply which limits growth - will stimulate abundant growth, and absorption of carbon, in the marine food chain. This will create immense wealth. Finally, lovers of seafood can give back to nature what they have enjoyed in their lives, and become food for seafood.
6) Make Tissue Paper and other Papers From Rags - as we used to do. The oldest among us will remember the "Rag Man" who came around once a week or so and collected rags for making paper. Saves huge areas of forests, reduces energy use, saves landfill space.
7) Remove, Sequester and Store Atmospheric Carbon Cheaply, Safely and Securely - and practically forever - in charcoal. In 2004 English
scientists discovered a piece of charcoal which is 420 million years old. It was not fossilized; it crumbled and left black marks. Here is the method. Grow fast growing woody shrubs on marginal, non-forested, nonagricultural lands, and when well established burn them into charcoal. Burning (pyrolizing) into charcoal emits relatively little carbon; most of the carbon ends up in the charcoal - almost pure carbon which can, obviously, be easily stored for 420 million years, and longer. Store in abandoned mines. A quick, cheap, easy and highly efficient way of removing carbon from the atmosphere. The immense wealth comes in the next step.
8) Switch to "Terra Preta" Agriculture - a super abundant, organic and permanently fertile agriculture. Amazon Indians have been doing it for thousands of years. Here is how. All organic household and human wastes are thrown into a deep ditch, along with chunks of charcoal (!!!!) and pottery shards and earth as needed. Scientists have found 8 feet deep "Terra Preta" soils which are essentially permanently and supremely rich and fertile. One documented field has produced abundant harvests for 40 years without fertilisation. The organic wastes, charcoal and pottery shards are all integral parts of this soil, which has its own unique rich bacterial and microbiotic life. And if the farmers come to the end of one field, they can start over at the other end again. Infinitely rich and fertile.
We could do that in the deserts if we like - and end up with a super abundant agriculture. This will create immense wealth the world over.
9) Plant Forests in all the Desert and Semi-desert Areas. It can be done. A Chinese woman was recently honoured and celebrated as an outstanding role model by her government for planting over 1 million trees at the margin of a Chinese desert (it was in the news). Foresting desert areas around the world will create truly immense wealth. And it can be done a no cost - see below.
Reforesting the world alone can end Climate Change, if done on a large enough scale. No room you say? Using sewerage and suitable trees, all semi-arid, arid and desert areas of the world can be forested. End of Climate Change.
So, if they wanted to, the lumber companies could create super rich "Terra Preta" soils on their leased land, grow their lumber and paper crops in massive abundance, and operate the whole thing with machinery running on natural gas, all the while storing carbon (charcoal) in the soil and getting rid of organic wastes.
10) Switch the Lumber Companies over to Bamboo, Hemp or Kudzu Vine - on designated, non-forested, non-agricultural land, for the production of lumber and pulp for paper and cardboard. All three have massively faster turn-around times from harvest to harvest - hemp can be harvested every year, Kudzu can be harvested continuously, and bamboo every year after an initial growing period of 3 - 5 years - instead of the 80 years between spruce and fir harvests. And all are far easier to harvest. And Bamboo produces 20 times more lumber in the same area in the same time as our forests do.
And fast growing bamboo can be used for premium lumber in every application, from construction (laminated beams and lumber) to floors, furniture, cabinetry and every wooden household item. This will create immense wealth as harvest are quick and easy, access is easy, and access roads will have to be built just once.
11) Tap into River Energy - a constant, free and inexhaustible source of energy. A great many paddle wheels and or submersed turbines can be installed in rivers to tap river power directly and without the need to build dams or diversions. The technology is at hand, and successful trials with submersed turbines have been run in the Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers. Given the great and growing demand for clean energy, abundant River Energy will create immense wealth.
12) Switch all Cars and Trucks to Natural Gas (Methane) in 5 years, by government edict. Cities could mandate this and end smog problems. Honda produces a readily available Honda Civic which runs on natural gas. And Volvo has been producing dual fuel (gasoline and natural gas) cars, trucks and buses for 10 years now. Methane is an essentially inexhaustible and clean burning fuel. It sharply reduces not only carbon emission, but other air pollutants as well. This will result in massive reductions of smog as well. This also removes a powerful (23 x) greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
A brand new discovery consists of a carbon "wafer" which can store 180 times its volume in methane. This neatly and efficiently solves the "gas tank" problem. This will create immense wealth as people the world over can own cars without much of a carbon problem.
13) Switch to a New 300 Times More Efficient Wind Turbine - which looks like a jet engine, and can produce electricity at far lower - AND AT FAR HIGHER - wind speeds than the huge windmill types. At high wind speeds, the windmills have to be shut down lest they are damaged and destroyed, whereas the new turbine types go on and produce energy like crazy. It is also much quieter, and no threat to birds. It is also much cheaper to manufacture. Abundant wind energy will create immense wealth.
14) Tap into Deep Geothermal Energy - a constant, free and inexhaustible source of energy. The technology is well established, readily available, and pays for itself in a few years. Many homeowners have installed a geothermal system which generously heat their house, including hot water, heated floors in bathrooms and the driveway to keep it snow and ice free, and cools the house in summer. It typically pays for itself in 7 years, after which the heat and cooling energy just costs the electricity to run the pump, which is much less than the energy required to run a conventional furnace motor.
If the furnace motor can be run with Solar Energy, heating, hot water and air conditioning in summer will be free forever after the solar panels have paid for themselves.
On a larger scale, given the great and growing demand for clean energy, abundant geothermal energy will create immense wealth.
15) Tap into Wave Energy - a constant, free and inexhaustible source of energy. The technology is at hand, and Wave Energy trials are underway off the coast of England. Given the great and growing demand for clean energy, abundant Wave Energy will create immense wealth.
16) Tap into Tidal Energy - a constant, free and inexhaustible source of energy. The technology is at hand, Tidal Energy trials are underway in several areas around the world. Given the great and growing demand for clean energy, abundant Tidal Energy will create immense wealth.
15) Tap into the Immense and All But Inexhaustible Supply of Frozen Methane (better known as natural gas) at the bottom of the ocean. The technology is being intensely studied. Given the great and growing demand for clean energy, abundant Marine Methane Fuel will create immense wealth.
18) Tap into the All But Inexhaustible Supply of Methane seeping out of rock in mines and land fills. Given the great and growing demand for clean energy, Mine and Landfill Methane Fuel (Natural Gas) will create great wealth.
19) Tap into the All But Inexhaustible Supply of Methane from Sewerage and Manure. The technology is well developed and readily available. This also yields megatons of premium fertilizers. Given the great and growing demand for clean energy, abundant methane fuel from sewerage and manures - plus megatons of premium fertilizer - will create immense wealth.
20) Switch to Plug-In Electric cars. The ZENN (Zero Emission No Noise) car is made in Canada, has over 30 dealerships in the US, is sold world wide, and is now legal in British Columbia, while all the other provinces have yet to approve this vehicle for road traffic. Besides huge savings in gasoline, it needs no oil changes or tune-ups. Other Electric cars are being produced in other countries. Given the great demand for zero emission cars, this will create immense wealth. See ZENN Motor Company.
Worth noting is that these solutions not only end Climate Change and Global Warming but also get rid of much pollution of air water and land - while keeping immense wealth right here in Canada, rather than handing it to the OPEC countries.
All these methods can be easily and cheaply implemented, none destroy any aspects of our economies, and all create immense wealth, not only here, but the world over.
Step 1: Foresting the Deserts
Here is how it is done. Can you plant one tree per week, for the next 12 month? Can you go and collect a few seeds from well adapted local trees? Can you plant those seeds in an empty coffee can each with a few little holes in the bottom? Can you water them with your dirty dishwater as needed? And does this cost you anything? And once sufficiently grown, can you plant this tree in any available space on your property, in your neighbourhood, on any bare space in your area?
Here we will have to mobilize the city fathers, or the town elders, or the state or provincial authorities - by hand if necessary - to make space available for trees or shrubs - preferably evergreen - along highways, roads, streets and avenues, back alleys, traffic dividers, clover leaves, traffic interchanges, embankments, and any and all other bare spaces that can accommodate a tree, or a shrub. And we all get to live in park like cities and countryside, with much cleaner air, nicely buffered winds, in cool shade in the summer, while saving substantial air conditioning costs and their emissions. And in addition to greater traffic safety when streets are lined with trees and shrubs, we also get the ingredients for compost every fall, which we can use to enrich our soils for growing our food.
And local merchants with large parking lots can become beloved "Saviors of the Environment" by planting trees in their parking lots, so all cars can park in the shade in summer, as well as provide some shelter against the worst of the rain. Customers will love it; the trees will absorb carbon emissions and other air pollutants; tree litter will make compost for growing healthy crops; and we all get to park in a Park.
And all this does not cost anything. Nothing; zero; zilch. And here is the math. There are 6 billion people on this Earth, and lets's say about one third of them are either too young, too old, or otherwise not able to do this. This leaves 4 billion people. Now then, if 4 billion people plant 50 trees per year, this comes to 200 billion trees planted in one year. Since the average large tree absorbs about 20 kg of CO2 per year [source: Asian Institute of Technology; Forestry Department], this will absorb 4 000 billion kg of CO2, and at 1000 kg per tonne, this comes to 4 billion tons of CO2 absorbed per year. And since we add about 3.5 billion tons net of additional CO2 to our atmosphere per year, this nicely balances all the extra CO2 we contribute to our atmosphere. These trees will absorb 90% of their total accumulated carbon content from the atmosphere in the first 30 years of their growth, in their growth phase.
So, in let's say 32 years, allowing an ample 2 years for getting things underway, we can balance our annual carbon emissions. End of greenhouse effect.
Now then, if we continue this for, let's say 10 years, we can have sufficient forests to absorb 40 billion tons of CO2 per year - approximately 10 times our current additional annual carbon dioxide emissions. End of greenhouse effect.
The only problem, you say, is space; right? Where is the space to plant and grow all those trees? Well, and as a matter of fact, there is plenty of space. Besides reforesting land which had been deforested, and is currently not otherwise occupied, we can plant new forests in the vast semi-arid, arid and desert areas of the world. Since our atmosphere mixes globally in a few days it really does not matter where on Earth we plant those trees. And that includes the Sahara desert - as urged by forester Richard St. Barbe Baker - the famed "Man of the Trees", in his 1966 book "Sahara Conquest".
The Sahara had extensive forests as recently as 6,000 years ago - like yesterday in geological time - and had abundant water, so much so that hippopotamuses thrived there, and the indigenous people hunted gazelle, giraffe and buffalo. And millet was grown there as recently as in biblical times. Nothing has changed geologically since then. The only thing which has changed was that the monsoon rains have moved south. And this was caused by the deforestation and desertification of the Sahara, as the blistering hot sands sent up a standing column of hot air high into the atmosphere, which prevented the condensation of water vapour into rain, and pushed cooler air, and its rains, south. It was inevitable. Re-greening the Sahara is simple. Cool the Sahara sands, and the rains will return.
And the Sahara can be cooled by vegetation, the simplest and cheapest way, or mechanically, by grates (on stilts) which create dappled shade by shutting out about 50% of sunlight, but admit air and rain. Pioneer vegetation can then be grown under these shading grates.
[Addendum - Oct. 12, 2009] Recent satellite images have revealed some newly greened valleys in the Sahara. Apparently, a small shift coupled with a small increase of rain has been sufficient to green these valleys.
The best and the cheapest way though is to grow suitable and locally well adapted trees - such as the acacia, the date palm, or the neem tree where suitable - according to the 1 tree per week per local person initiative as described above. Even the poorest and penniless among the local people can collect some seeds, and if they don't have any pots to plant them in, they can plant them directly in the ground. The planted seeds can then be protected by placing large flat stones around them. This will cool the ground under the stones and preserve moisture. They can then be watered with dirty dishwater - which contains adequate natural fertilizers - or watered and fertilized with human bodily wastes.
Indeed, this is being done right now, although only here and there, and on a small scale, as reported by BBC News "Sahara desert frontiers turn green" - September 18, 2002 [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2267652.stm ], allowing local farmers to grow crops again in the lee of the newly planted re-established trees. We just need to do it on a far larger scale.
And here is a golden opportunity for the oil companies of the world - including Alberta's oil sands oil producers - to become "Golden Saviors of the Environment" by fostering the planting of forests in the deserts, arid and semi-arid regions of the world, and end the greenhouse effect.
And can you imagine the immense wealth which will flow from a rich and verdant green Sahara, teeming with all manner of life, and able to sustain millions of people? Then add these deserts to the list; the Kalahari, the Karoo, the Namib, the Danakil; the Gobi, the Taklamakan, the Ordos, the Kara Kum, the Kyzyl Kum, the Thar-Cholistan; the Gibson Desert, the Great Sandy Desert, the Great Victoria Desert, the Simpson Desert, the Little Sandy Desert, the Strzelecki Desert, the Tanami Desert, the Bledowska Desert, the Deliblatska Pešcara, the vast Arabian Desert [includes the Al-Dahna Desert, Empty Quarter, Nefud Desert and other deserts], Dasht-e Kavir, the Dasht-e Lut, the Judean Desert, the Negev, the Zin Desert, the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin Desert, the Sonoran Desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, La Guajira Desert, the Patagonian Desert, the Sechura Desert and the Monte Desert. These deserts make up about 1/3 of the Earth's land surface, and with the "drylands" not listed here, about 1/2 of the land surface of the Earth.
So, there is plenty of room to grow many trillions upon trillions of trees - and create truly untold wealth flowing from immense rich and verdant areas.
So, this is how the people of the Earth - every man, woman an child (when old enough) can regreen the Earth. We can all make our personal and highly effective contribution, and get directly involved in ending the greenhouse effect in about 32 years. And instead of wasting all of our energy in protesting - and reducing the CO2 emissions of all the rhetoric, yelling and demonstrating we emit - we can actually begin right now to end the greenhouse effect.
And those of us who live in an apartment or condo can at least grow trees in pots on the balcony, and donate them for planting. And if this is not feasible, or the balcony is full of seedlings already, we can volunteer to plant a tree a week, or to organize things for planting, for obtaining planting space, for selecting and advising on suitable trees, for getting our family, friends, communities, local merchants (treed parking lots), employers, schools and churches involved, and last but not least, if all this is not up your alley, at least donate some money to the effort, or for planting some trees.
You can have your own emissions offset by paying $3.00 per tree to www.carbonneutral.com.au - who will offset the carbon emissions of your car for about $36.00 AUD by planting 9 trees for you. This offsets the carbon emissions of the average mid-size car. And you can do this as often as you like, and or you can chose to offset the carbon emissions of your household. The average Canadian can offset their own carbon emissions by as little as $0.48 AUD per day, or for $171.00 AUD for one year.
The reduction of carbon in our atmosphere begins when your first seedling appears above ground and extends its first two leaves. And it grows from there. And while one little seedling does not amount to much, 200 billion seedlings surely do.
It's up to us. We can do it. We can do it easily. It does not cost anything. And unlike all the other utterly useless notions, protests, yellings, accusations, demonstrations, political and procedural wranglings, and CO2 fumigating rhetoric - it not only works wonderfully well, but it is supremely effective. And our children will see the end of the greenhouse effect in their lifetime.
And we can get started right now. Have a seed collecting party with your friends and family. Save coffee tins. Collect some soil. Save your rinse water and dirty dishwater in milk cartons. Get your kids involved - it's their future. Grow your seedlings with them (the city of Perth has about 100 participating schools). Begin ending the greenhouse effect. And then tell everyone, by mouth, by phone, by email, by letters, by bumper stickers, by talks, by presentations, by web site, by example.
Next: Things People Can Do to Reduce Carbon Emissions
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Links to Sources:
Sahara desert frontiers turn green - BBC report, September 18, 2002
More crops for Africa as trees reclaim the desert - New Scientist, October 2006
Trees - Africa's weapon against drought and desert - Reuters, Mar. 2007
www.carbonneutral.com.au - Offset your carbon footprint
Richard Barbe St. Baker - Saskatchewan Eco Net
Richard Barbe St. Baker - The Man of the Trees
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