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New Green Directory listings

ecowho.com — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:33:48 +1000

From the EcoWho Directory

Biorock wastewater treatment

ecowho.com — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:31:44 +1000

Biorock offers a complete range of compact packaged, non-electrical waste water treatment plants, denominated into 5, 10 & 15 person systems. If installed in parallel the treatment units can also cater for 30, 45, 60 people and so on. BIOROCK non-electrical sewage treatment plants offers an ideal solution for domestic waste water treatment.

From the EcoWho Green Directory

tasc Performance

ecowho.com — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:00:21 +1000

Tasc Performance Apparel - What we’ve discovered that polyester is just not skin friendly.We’ve invested two years on the project with talented textile engineers to find the fabric that outperforms polyester and is gentle on the skin.The aim is to achieve that invisible feeling, and we must say, success makes us feel proud; because we’ve launched some fabulous sports apparel, patented to allow athletes to endure through vigorous exercise, without discomfort.

From the EcoWho Green Directory

Solar Power Installers, what to look for..

ecowho.com — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 18:11:14 +1100

When looking for a solar power installer, it pays to do your homework and double check that you are getting the best.

Given the money to be made from doing solar system installation, both for the installer and the final client. There are a lot of businesses doing solar power system installation. This, of course, means that some are better than others and some are rather worse than others.

So, given you want to have a system which will last for at least 20 years ideally, we provide some straight forward advice on how to find the best at a price point that works for you.

1. Shop around installers

Do not go with the first company you come across. As with most things in life, it will pay dividends to shop around. Not only will you get a better idea of what the price ranges and differences are between the systems being installed; you will also educate yourself on what goes into these system far quicker than just going with the first you find.

BTW you won't go far wrong read some of our articles in solar power anyways, plus they are free..

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Choosing a water tank

ecowho.com — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:38:16 +1100

Water tanks, they come in so many different sizes and forms, it is often hard to work out what to choose and why, we can help..

A few years back we were having a reno done, and given we wanted to have a 'lush' garden without the water bill to match; we did some extensive research into what sort of water tanks would work for us and how to maximize the rainwater harvesting our roof would offer.

Well I have good news for you, all the research has been written up in an article - The Facts about Water Tanks . I hope you find it a useful read that will really focus your thinking on what you can do with a water tank or two..

Free Green Business Listings

ecowho.com — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:33:39 +1100

If you are running a Green or Eco Business, you can list it for free.

If you are running a business which is green or eco related, you can list it for free in our Company Listings Directory . This is great if you are a small business looking for additional online exposure.

Also if you provide a link back to ecowho.com, we will upgrade your listing for free.

So, you have nothing to lose, give it a try!

Shale Oil in South Australia, problem or opportunity?

ecowho.com — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:39:48 +1100

Potentially massive amounts of shale oil exist in South Australia, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

According to this article it looks like up to 233 billion barrels of oil might be sitting in shale deposits under South Australia...

Now if that is so, and it looks like it could indeed be, it amounts to a heck of a lot of oil, something to rival the oil rich Middle East. Which in turn equates to billions upon trillions of money to be made from extracting this.

So given the many zeroes sums of money to be made from this - I doubt even the political Green movement will be able to 'bury' this. Sometimes the rewards can be so great to 'leap' over any obstacles, and I think this clearly qualifies on that regard.

Now, of course, if this is going to happen, one wants to see the best outcome for the environment and given the monetary return it should indeed be possible to extract the oil whilst doing proper environmental protection.
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Sea level rise of 1 meter in Australia unproven

ecowho.com — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:18:12 +1100

The ABC is currently saying that properties on the Australian coast are at risk for a 1 meter rise by the end of the century - where is the proof???

The ABC are currently promoting a blatant lie as concerns proven sea level rises.

The problem with this is that what they say will impact on the property market close to the sea, in the same way that a Greenie fraudulently issued a press release, they are in serious danger of making those who issue or present such false statements legally liable.

As regards the 'threat' of rising sea levels - to rise one meter by the end of the century would require 11.5mm per year. Yet if one looks at the current rate of sea level rise, as recorded since 1850 we get the following graph.

As can be seen, there has been no acceleration on this record since 1850. In fact we would need the rate of sea level rise to be eight times faster than it currently is; i.e. in reality we have a rate of sea level rise of about 9cm per 100 years - a darn sight less than 1 meter. For more information on this read this article .
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Tasmania Bushfires, lack of hazard reduction burns to blame

ecowho.com — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 11:13:40 +1100

The Tasmania Bushfires are more a result of a lack of hazard reduction burns and not due to Climate Change.

Miranda Devine has just published an article concerning the fires in Tasmania and how the lack of back burning and hazard reduction burns have in fact contributed massively to the intensity of the fires and that it is NOT caused by climate change.

She has also done a radio interview on the matter.

To be honest, what she says make a lot of sense. If gum leaves, bark, etc are left to accumulate you quickly have a 'fuel load' so high that it is not possible to be managed in the event of a fire. As someone who has pile burnt leaves, sticks, etc to keep my place tidy, there is a very clear reason why you do not pile it all up too high, rather than being a controllable fire it soon turns into an absolute fireball of intense heat. All those oils in the wood create a 'perfect storm' of conditions in high fuel load to create something that is uncontrollable.
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Mental Maths app Maths Bug updated

ecowho.com — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:27:10 +1100

Maths bug, the app to help teach and improve mental maths skills has been updated.

Maths Bug has been updated as follows:

Several annoying bug fixes
Support for latest version of Android OS
Localized into Chinese and Spanish.

This is a significant update to help users across the globe get more enjoyment from the app.

Its available for free from the Google Play Market here . If you would like to learn more please visit the apps' website .

Enjoy!

Updated Green Directory

ecowho.com — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 21:21:48 +1100

Our Green Dictionary App has undergone an upgrade.

We have just finished doing some upgrade work to the Green Dictionary App as follows:

Well over 800 definitions and terms covering the green, eco, environment and climate space;
Better support for tablets and latest edition Android (including Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean).
'Live' fetching of related blog posts for each definition, so for instance look up 'solar power' and see the latest blog posts that relate from leading eco, climate and science blogs.

If you have not got the App already you can download it from free from the Google Play market here . Give it a go!

Greenland Ice Sheet Melt

ecowho.com — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:00:45 +1100

We look at reports regarding the rate of Greenland ice sheet melt.

According to recent reports (see CNN & The Australian) it appears that the speed of the Greenland ice melt has been increasing at an 'alarming' rate...

The trouble with this is that this is only a problem if:

The measurements are indeed accurate enough to allow this analysis to stand, and,
The melt water remains as melt water and is not taken up by other parts of the climatic system (i.e. it gets converted back to ice somewhere else) and remains in balance as a whole.

Now, look at the following:

Embracing Data 'Noise' Brings Greenland's Complex Ice Melt Into Focus

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Straw man science: keeping climate simple; watch the pea..

ecowho.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:57:10 +1100

The conversation has just published a rather incorrect article claiming that none of the human produced Co2 is absorbed by the natural Co2 cycle, we blow it out the water.

See the offending article here , to quote:

"We produce a modest percentage of all CO2 emissions. But the extra emissions aren’t absorbed by the carbon cycle, so CO2 builds up in the air. A small rise each year has resulted in a 40% increase of CO2."

Wrong, yes Co2 has gone up, but it has been going up for the last 50m years, see here. Although, as noted in the paper, working out the exact source of Co2 and its relationship is very hard to do, as each source does not have a distinct Co2 'fingerprint' - rather there is a lot of overlap as different sources and sinks inject and consume different isotopes of Co2 in different ways.

As for the extra Co2 emissions from man not being consumed in the carbon cycle, it is well know that Co2 is growth promoter in plants. So much so that commercial operations growing plants often inject Co2 into their greenhouses to speed growth. Also it is known that the biosphere is blooming, and that the African Savannah's are turning into forests.
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Methane from waste food an environmental problem?

ecowho.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:33:14 +1100

We look at whether methane from waste food is a real problem in our environment.

ABC Radio just ran a feature talking about the impact of methane on the environment from waste food rotting.

Agreed, wasting food is a problem, but the levels of methane produced by this is dwarfed by other sources. For instance:

Natural plant material rotting after it dies;
The poo from animals breaking down..
Animals breaking down after they die...

Methane is a natural by product of normal environmental processes. The fact that food rots and produces methane is nothing new.

Also the '21 times more powerful than Co2' statement is not proven and does not take into account the carbon 'consumed' in the production of said food. For a more detailed discussion on this, see this article.

In all, I consider this a lot of 'hot air' and a desperate attempt to keep the global warming/climate change meme running in the media. Nobody is interested any more, better luck next time.
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BOM 'predicts' a hot Summer in Australia

ecowho.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:07:12 +1100

BOM have just announced that due to a three day 'heat wave' we are due a hot Summer...

BOM have just announced on the ABC News radio that they think the upcoming Summer will be very hot with lots of heat waves.

Now, the trouble with all this is that we may indeed have a heat wave on the way; but it is somewhat disingenuous of BOM to mix what are predicted heat waves with what has actually occurred. It's rather like calling the results of a race before it has finished.

There is also the problem of 'which temperature' is being measured - if they are measuring the temperature in the middle of Perth for instance, then the 'Urban Heat Island' effect could be largely to blame for the record more than anything else - e.g. black tarmac and brick buildings trap heat in a location far better than trees and forest - so temperature measurements in such urban locations have an upward bias. This is a well known effect.

By all means warn people that it will be hot in Summer (duh!), but do not fall into the trap of calling highs and record temperatures well before they could happen. The UK Met Office have got caught fowl doing this crystal ball predicting many times before, I would have thought the BOM would have been above this.
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Ballarat museum scaring children with biasless climate propaganda

ecowho.com — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:44:08 +1100

Caring about the environment is one thing, deliberately setting out to scare young children with climate change propaganda in an art gallery is something completely different...

Ballarat Museum is scaring children!!!

Probably not the headline Ballarat Museum wanted, but it fits the bill perfectly in this case.

As Australian Climate Madness and Quadrant Online have found, climate change zealots will stop at nothing to influence children. In some cases taking paintings done many many years ago and spinning the context to make it look like they are referring to climate change.

Enough!

Ballarat Museum - you should be utterly ashamed. You are meant to be a place of education and reflection, not a place where children are spoon fed the latest meme!
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What does Free Range Eggs mean?

ecowho.com — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 08:07:23 +1100

What do you think Free Range Eggs means in Australia? Well, apparently there is no standard definition of what Free Range is...

Free Range Eggs, no standard definition!!!

Yes, that is right, there is no standard definition as to what Free Range means in Australia. Apparently in practice Free Range is applied to anything from 750 to 20,000 chickens per hectare.. Not exactly what you thought it meant is it?

Now given people pay up to $5 more per dozen eggs for it being Free Range, this is recipe for paying over the odds for not what you expected.

There is a voluntary code in place that pegs the density at 15,000 per hectare but there is no mandatory code. The industry is pushing for Free Range to be defined as 20,000 per hectare but only 1% of people that is really 'Free Range'...

Now the current situation is better than Caged chickens which only get 450cm2 each, but if the density of the Free Range chickens is too high you end up with a poorer quality egg. We keep true Free Range chickens who roam over 5 acres, and the quality of the eggs is excellent - lovely flavour, deep orange colour & fresh.
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Reducing Building Waste and Saving Yourself Money

ecowho.com — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:03:28 +1100

Property building is often very wasteful. Old doors, windows, tiles, etc often end being thrown in a skip and going into landfill - we look at the alternatives.

Oh, what a waste!

If you are involved in the building game, you will be familiar with the 'skip of junk' that is required with knock downs or rebuilds. Quite often what were perfectly serviceable windows, doors and fittings just get chucked into the skip.

Now, often this is just how things are and for old buildings with fittings that are really long longer serviceable the tip and being recycled are probably the best way to go. But what about fairly modern houses and properties that are having a renovation?

In this situation you can do one of the following:

1. Leave it in the skip

Okay, this may be the simplest course of action, but its not going to win you any environmental prizes and it will probably cost you money to have it all taken away.

2. Try to get rid of it yourself

Hmm, bit difficult that. You can either try to sell it off to a recycling yard (and get a reduced amount of money) or try to sell it yourself (with no guarantee of a sale).

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Dirty weather is dirty PR

ecowho.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:08:37 +1100

Al Gore is at it again with his '24 hours of Climate Reality', we call it what it is - BS.

Al Gore has found a new catch phrase 'Dirty Weather' - i.e. weather produced by human pollution; and he is going to inflict on us all 24 hours of video editing tricks and misdirection on us in an attempt to convince us that we are the ones responsible for the 'dirty weather' and not just natural climate variability.

This is basically a last gasp attempt to try sell the snake oil that is man made climate change onto an unsuspecting public. Unfortunately for Al Gore and his supporters they are facing a 'climate' in which:

The public is being increasingly more educated on the actual facts at hand;
The money is drying up, mainly due to the fact that the schemes for solving the 'climate problem' are actually turning up to be expensive white elephants that are actually more harmful than the 'problem';
The climate itself isn't playing ball, no climate model is supported by the actual measured climate.
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From the EcoWho blog

Fixing a water pump cheaply

ecowho.com — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:53:30 +1000

Our pool cleaner pump just died and I was able to fix it for $14...

Seems to be the week for things electrical to break.
We have a pool with a Polaris pool cleaner, which does a very effective job. Unfortunately I noticed the other day that the 'overload' fuse on the board powering the pump for the pool cleaner was out. I reset it and turned on the pump, was greeted with a loud hum and then the overload fuse reset.. Okay, the pump was not happy.
Now, being okay with fixing basic electrical items, I took the pump out of the system and hooked it up in my garage. Again apply the power and I get a hum, except this time I quickly removed the power to stop it tripping the garage circuit. So the pump was responding to the power just not doing anything.
So I did a little of dismantling - basically taking the fan guard off the back so I could easily spin the motor. Now in order to test the operation of the pump spinning under power I would give the pump a quick spin in the right direction and whilst it was still in motion apply the power - and surprise surprise the pump would run quite happily.
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Fixing a solar hot water controller

ecowho.com — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:28:17 +1000

Fixing a broken solar hot water controller need not be that expensive

We have had a Hills Solar evacuated tube solar hot water heater for a number of years now that provided cheap hot water year round. Recently we noticed that our hot water was not as hot as we were used to it. We put it down to a cold and cloudy winter. Although once we noticed that even on sunny days there was not much hot water available it was clear something was wrong.
So under the house I go, we have a system where the hot water tank is fitted in the crawl space under the house at the end where you can easily stand. Now a quick touch test of the return pipe where it goes into the hot water tank showed there was not much heat.. Hmm, a quick look at the solar controller showed that it thought it was powering the pump, the light was on. The pump must have gone I thought, but these small pumps are very reliable. I wondered if the controller itself was to blame, so I turned it off and turned it on, then when the light came back on I could hear the relay 'click' and the pump started up. So the relay had stuck.
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Cloud feedback wrong in climate models, paper

ecowho.com — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:09:11 +1000

A recent paper by Miller et al 2012 in the AMS Journal indicates that the climate models could be out by a factor of 19 with respect to actual cloud feedback.

For those of us who have been wanting to see more analysis done on the exact role clouds play in the climate and how they relate to the Co2 and feedback, this paper (abstract) and (pdf) will certainly be of interest you.

This is also covered in detail both on Jo Nova and The Hockey Schtick.

Given how much emphasis models place on positive feedback in relation to Co2, without any real solid analysis as to 'how' they proved the positive feedback is there to model - such papers that cast more light on the relationships between different elements of the climate should be encouraged.
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Droughts in the USA, not

ecowho.com — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:51:36 +1000

It appears that NASA's James Hansen has been caught out spreading unproven conclusions about droughts in the USA, when in actually it is not the case.

James Hansen has been famous over the years for making pronouncements that are shown later on to be false, from deaths of Polar Bears (more than ever now) to Manhattan being under meters of water within a few years.. He is famous for turning off the air conditioning at a Senate hearing to make the Senators feel a heat that wasn't really there.
His latest erroneous pronouncement is that the odds of droughts & high temperatures occurring in the USA now are 1 in 10... Although in a Watts Up With That that post, Former Virginia State Climatologist Dr. Pat Michaels, says:

Hansen claims that global warming is associated with increased drought in the US. This is a testable hypothesis which he chose not to test, and, because PNAS isn’t truly peer-reviewed for Members like him, no one tested it for him.

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