People around the globe are becoming aware of the health benefits of sustainable living and the ecological disaster and possible health problems that are related to purchasing meat and dairy from the supermarket and (almost without fail) a factory farm. With an ever increasing number of outbreaks of food-borne illness in both meats and vegetables, millions are seeking another way to purchase their food and strike a positive blow for public health, the environment and animal rights.

Consider the the impact of raising tens of thousands of hogs, as is common on factory farms compared with a few dozen free-range hogs on a family farm. The waste from a small number of animals can be controlled with managed grazing and plenty of organic matter to absorb it. On the other hand, lagoons of manure that are measured in acres, collecting waste from thousands of animals are an environmental time bomb waiting to go off, such as was the case in the 1995 North Carolina lagoon outbreak that was responsible for killing upwards of 8 million fish in the New River.

This has happened just about every single time a hurricane has gone through the confinement hog country of the Eastern seaboard, polluting ground water and estuaries. The excess nutrients runoff into the streams and feed opportunistic organisms such as Pfiesteria, the single-celled organism that has closed beaches all over North America. The link is very strong between factory farm practices and outbreaks of all manner of toxic concentrations of algae and rogue dynoflagellates.

Thankfully, there is a whole generation of new farmers and ranchers who are looking to reinvent – a way that takes animal welfare into account, not just for its own sake, but also because meat from a healthy animal simply tastes better. Indeed, it has become very fashionable in New York and Los Angeles for wealthy people to purchase shares of locally and humanely raised, heirloom breed animals.

Free-range eggs, meat and dairy have become a commodity of demand.

Factory farm practices have had a very significant impact on how agriculture and animal husbandry is practiced in North America. Since the 1970s, at the behest of then-Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz, the economies of scale transformed farm animals from free-range herbivores into grain-consuming widgets kept in barns designed more for human comfort rather than animal welfare.

Even mainstream animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the US have been speaking out against factory farming practices. As a result of their efforts and that of campaigners worldwide, some factory farming practices have been banned. For example, the practice of keeping egg-laying hens in the tiny battery cages that don’t even allow birds to spread their wings or stand up will be eliminated throughout the EU in 2012 (after a three-year extension).

Share The Costs

Choosing to seek out agricultural products from alternative sources can sometimes cost a bit more, as reflected in prices seen at farmers’ markets for single cuts of meat. However, when neighbors pool their resources to buy a share in an animal, such as splitting up a cow between several families, the savings can be substantial, even over factory produced meat found at discount stores.

Not only does this have the advantage of supporting family farms and local agriculture, but it is far easier on the environment, since most small farm owners use systems that have a far lower environmental impact in the near and far term. The carbon that is saved from the few thousand miles that most animal products travel from birth to the table are saved, too.

Perhaps even more importantly, these animals are fed grass instead of grains. Given the fertilizers, pesticides and fuel used to grow and transport the grains that are found in most animal feed, allowing an animal to graze instead represents a tremendous amount of saved energy that people might not even consider.

Moreover, animals that are fed grains, as is the case on feedlots, are able to support e. coli and other bacteria that are harmful to humans, whereas the grass-fed animals from family farms that are only “finished” for a few days on grains have a digestive chemistry that doesn’t allow such organisms to multiply, even if they do come into contact with it.

There are plenty of reasons not to support the factory farm model of agriculture.

From supporting animal rights and humane treatment, protecting vulnerable eco-systems from environment-damaging accidents, reducing pollution and pesticide usage, cutting carbon emissions and protecting the family farm that has all but disappeared from much of the American landscape; it’s worth more than just a better-tasting hamburger to support local agriculture and buy your meat, dairy and eggs with ethics in mind.

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One of the secondary effects of climate change is an increased pressure from infectious disease. This is partly due to the migration of disease vector insects from warmer climate into formerly temperate zones. The yellow mosquito that can carry malaria is one example, as its range appears to be expanding.

A decrease in the amount of international shipping, especially air flight, will help with the pressures from introduced non-native species, as long as shipping remains even as well regulated as it is now. If shipping became unregulated to the point that rampant smuggling was bringing goods instead of drugs across maritime borders, potentially devastating bugs could get loose, as was the case in a early ‘aughts outbreak of cholera in Mexico.

Much of the focus on sustainable health care is on prevention rather than cure. This means encouraging healthy eating habits and plenty of exercise, as many HMOs and other health “partnerships” are doing. In Canada where government policies drive the national health care system, change can be slower, but anyone can make common sense lifestyle and diet changes to reduce your need for health care.

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One of the most secretly energetic and common building materials is concrete. Made of Portland Cement and fill rocks, this material requires a great deal of heat and electricity to transform from its constituent components into something that is the foundation of most homes in North America.

Replacing this weather-proof substance that is such a common sight will be one of the biggest challenges of sustainable development. Thankfully there are sill plenty of alternatives that are just coming available. There has always been the option of simply using rock already available on the building site and using very little cement to keep it all together.

Another innovative approach is to use different materials entirely. For instance, one company is replacing concrete blocks with a far more porous material that uses a fraction of the embedded energy of concrete. This innovation is just as strong and much easier to handle. It is also a good way to save on the shipping costs of the finished “bricks.”

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When making a slow and steady sustainable replacement of the wasteful and toxic items in your home, pay special attention to the bedroom. While most bathrooms are hotbeds of water waste and some downright frightening thing in tubes, you actually spend far more time in the bedroom.

The first step is to replace any incandescent light bulbs if you haven’t already. They are far more useful as room heaters than light sources. If you have an old carpet in the bedroom still installed, you may want to very seriously consider ripping it up to reveal hardwood floors beneath. If there’s no treasure to be found under your toxic, moldering carpets, you may want to consider having renewable and strong bamboo flooring installed.

Your pillow is also another cost effective change you can quickly make. The foam that most pillows are made out of is little more than oil nougat cut to a shape. Feather and grain pillows provide a far more sustainable and less toxic sleeping experience.

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Since people are going to need energy, eliminating carbon dioxide emissions will require adopting renewable energy. However, the cost has been prohibitively high for most of the commonly used and available methods.

Home generation has many possibilities, including getting a check from the power company for excess power that you’ve sold back.

The best and only way to make its manufacture is as cheap as possible. Several recent innovations in solar technology have brought humankind to the brink of affordable solar power that can be used anywhere. Flexible film solar can be built into just about anything, from awnings to bikinis. New advances is how to put the flexible sheets together has recently come from an American company that literally prints the solar cells onto a substrate at dizzyingly fast rates. Even solar paint is on the horizon.

The next step to really getting solar everywhere is to have similar revolutionary advances in storage technology.

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One of the direct consequences of climate change is the rise in sea levels. Observations since the mid-19th century, though convoluted, show a global average of about 20cm/8 inches in that time. Some coral atolls in the Pacific Island nations of Micronesia are already disappearing. This is demonstrated by the Maldives, Kiribati and Tuvalu – all nations that may disappear beneath the waves .

With the onset of increasingly frequent and fierce cyclones or hurricanes, the islands are physically weakened and begin to sink a bit. Even a .5cm (1/8 inch) increase in the level of the seas could half of some small islands to disappear by 2012.

The most populous island threatened by 2020 is New Guinea and it’s mirror twin Papua New Guinea, home to many of the last “undiscovered” tribes. Because of climate change, that first contact may be an evacuation of the island observed after inundation with rising sea waters.

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Is biomass a green energy source? According to experts, yes it is. In fact, it is one of the three main areas of bioenergy. But what is bioenergy? Well, it is a process by which organic material such as animal waste, plants and wood are used to generate electricity, produce heat and also aid in the production of biofuels.

In the case of biomass, hot air or water is generated to produce electricity. This is done through direct combustion and is considered the simplest and most common method of generating energy from biomass.

Aside from generating electricity, biomass can be used for hot air production so you can keep a place warm. For this to work, biomass has to be combusted in a furnace where it heats either water or air. Speaking of water, this enables you to have warm water so you can take a shower. In short, biomass in itself can also be used in a small scale as a heating system.

Since you can generate electricity and heat, some people have been able to combine the two which is known as combined heat and power or CHP. Something that many consider to be good as you use one energy source for two purposes.

If you are able to compare the amount of electricity generated between biomass and let’s say solar energy, you will notice that biomass produces more because the energy in plants is already captured and stored.

You don’t have to collect it first which is what happens with solar or even wind energy since this is manufactured technology. It is readily available unlike the other two which is totally dependent on the weather.

Another is the fact that you can even use organic waste to product electricity. No other green energy source can do that and by using this extensively, any government can save money because you don’t have to spend money to dispose of the waste and you will no longer depend on foreign oil that much to power your plants.

The downside to biomass is that because you have to burn waste and other organic materials to product power, you add to the pollution which is already in the atmosphere. But this can be offset of course by planting more crops which we know helps reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

You will also have to shell out a lot of money initially for the costs of labor, the transport of these fuels and how these should be stored.

Biomass uses renewable natural resources which is why it is considered a green energy source. This means that we have an endless supply of it around just like the power of the sun or the wind which flows from the ocean. The challenge is to find suitable land that has a sufficient water supply so these will be able to grow.

This means that in areas where water is not that abundant, you cannot rely on biomass technology to generate power. When that happens, you use other means and one good example given the right geographical location is wave energy which is the process of generating power from the water.

There is a way to generate power without causing harm to the environment. We have the technology and the green energy sources. We just need to muster the willingness to make it happen.

For more information on green energy visit our ‘Green Energy‘ website.

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No one has predicted that the price of fuel will go over $4 per gallon on the pump. And no one has ever expected that the prices will go down to below $2 per gallon in just a few months. With this erratic change in diesel fuel prices, you cannot help but wonder how much it will cost to fill up our gas tanks in the future. Will it go back to its record highs or will it remain on its current level? With answers still hanging on the balance, it is good to explore alternative fuel sources.

Vegetable oil. Why not?

You have to pay for diesel; vegetable oil is free. A diesel engine car can run on either but why are car owners hesitant to make a switch?

Ditching petroleum and running on vegetable oil couldn’t be simpler. For one, many car owners do not know anything about vegetable oil; its reliability and effects to the engine. But the main reason is: there is not enough vegetable oil available for everyone. Americans consume 140 billion gallons of gas every year. Restaurants throw 100 million gallons of waste oil annually. Assuming that all 100 million gallons of waste oil will go to gas tanks, simple math will tell us that there isn’t enough – vegetable oil will only account to 0.07% of the annual gas consumption in the country. Besides, if every American will switch from gas to diesel, the problem of scarcity will rise.

Environmental Impact

We cannot disregard the importance of taking care of the environment when choosing alternative for diesel fuel. As for vegetable oil; it is biodegradable so it does not do harm on the environment.

Reliability

We have mentioned reliability and effects to the engine of using vegetable oil. Should you be concerned? A little history tells us that Rudolph Diesel had designed his engine to run on vegetable oil. He even displayed it on the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. But the vegetable-powered diesel engine didn’t prosper because petroleum diesel was more economical during that time. Thus, it is not surprising to hear that modern diesel engine vehicles can run on vegetable oil without a need for conversion.

However, conflicting testimonies of car owners who switch from petroleum diesel to vegetable oil make it hard to guarantee any given conclusions. Some claims that vegetable oil has no effect on the engine while others say that vegetable oil speeds up coking of the engine.

The question of reliability becomes a major issue. Most owners try vegetable oil on older trucks and do not encounter any problem. Others spent on conversion kits so that their engine can “safely” run on vegetable oil. Others conduct certain filtration process on their vegetable oil before putting it on their gas tank. Some owners even mix fluids on vegetable oil to make it more viscous. We cannot really identify where, if there is any, a problem would begin. We can only speculate the possible factors that cause engine breakdown.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Waste oil is cheaper if not free.
• Environmentally friendly
• Better lubrication
• Use reduces dependency on imported oil

Cons

• May void warranty
• Cold starting
• Can only be used on older vehicles
• Exhaust smells of chips (if you consider it a disadvantage)
• Use may lead to coking engine when used improperly

For more information on alternative energy visit our ‘Alternative Energy‘ Guide

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