The ad campaign had a tremendous effect back then. And it’s no less relevant today.
Earth Day, the annual day of environmental action and awareness, was first held on April 22, 1970. This past April 22nd, we finally ventured into the woods behind our house and pulled 4 putrid truck tires/mosquito farms out of the mud, along with about 200 pounds of scrap metal, engine parts, and farm equipment. The place used to be a dairy farm, and I guess “out of sight” was “out of mind”. If it were still the 70′s, cleaning up the woods would have been “outta sight” in a whole different way. Uploaded on Apr 30, 2007 coffeekid99
The EPA was directed to set standards for radioactive materials under Reorganization Plan No. 3 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’s shocking: Richard Nixon, one of the architects of the cold war, a man who waned to see 1000 nuclear plants across the US—thank goodness that dream did not materialize—accomplished more on the environment than any other president I can think of.
Obama is much more progressive, and has many times talked about the climate crisis. But the difference is that Nixon was able to get his agenda into law. Obama, on issue after issue, has been unwilling to show strong leadership—and is facing an opposition party that opposes anything he’s for, whether or not there’s cause. They perceive him as weak; they become intransigent, and the federal government sinks ever-deeper into a quagmire.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama was really good at mobilizing ordinary people, on the ground, to get involved. Had he not let that go on Inauguration Day, he would have been able to channel a lot of pressure to Congress. He has three-and-a-half years to turn around his legacy—and he could still be remembered as a great president. But we on the progressive/environmental side have to ‘have his back’ when he does the right thing—and make a lot of noise when he doesn’t.
Got an email from my good friend Jason Mraz today, thought I would share. Ok, so I call him a good friend because of the 4 emails I got from him this week that started with Dear Friends lol! Jason is our featured Green Musician at The Good Word.
Dear friends,
Jason Mraz performing at the February 28 – March 4, 2011 TED Conference. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Way too often I hear and read blatantly false statements about climate change, namely that it doesn’t exist. It’s very frustrating — and it makes me want to fight back and make sure we all hear the truth.
There’s a new online tool called Reality Drop from The Climate Reality Project, along with Arnold Worldwide, built to spread the truth and destroy denial around climate change. This is the REAL information from scientists’ decades of research, not government or corporations. Give it a try.
There are two things I’m passionate about: my music and nature. Therefore, I’m passionate we get it right about climate change so we may continue to enjoy music and our precious environment. Reality Drop is a way to respond to those who deny climate change and make sure our friends have access to the truth — and have fun while we’re at it.
In order to dispel some of the criticism over the water for fuel technology, we thought we would share what other respected authorities are working on. The recovery act provided a $4 million grant to Dan Nocera of MIT to work on water for fuel technology. In short, the powers to be believe! Get the full story by clicking on the link below.
Your home could power your car and your home! At The BIOS Organization we are developing a 72′ Convertible Mustang that uses water for fuel. We traveled through 28 states in 28 days meeting with experts, mechanics and scientists. After 3 configurations we were able to achieve a 58% increase in gas mileage. This year we will begin the BIOS World Peace Tour. We will visit elementary schools teaching peace through energy independence.
The Green Marketing Company and our publication THE GOOD WORD are working diligently to raise funds for the project. Advertising with us helps move the project forward.
We are currently in the process of raising $30,000 to install the third generation of hydrogen systems in the car that may allow the car to run completely on water. The car’s engine has been totally rebuilt and awaits re-installation. Before we head out on tour this year we will have the car completely rebuilt and outfitted with an audio video to assist with our presentations.
Would you like to spotlight your business? Our first trip began at WTNH the New Haven ABC affiliate. We filmed 7 spots that were viewed by millions. The system didn’t even work at that time. This time around the system will be tried and true and the coverage will be substantial. Contact us today to discuss how we can help each other email Time4Change@BiosWaterCar.com
$1 million budget: Our second fund raising drive will be to create a professional documentary showcasing the technology, the world peace tour and the personal stories behind the project.
In board rooms across the country, electric companies are deciding that many coalplants, especially small, older ones, just don’t make economic sense any more. One factor is the expectation that low prices for natural gas will continue because of the shale gas boom across the country.
Another is that new federal rules require coal plants to clean up the mercury and other toxic chemicals in their exhausts. Installing those pollution controls makes no sense when gas is so cheap.
The shift has come faster than many electricity companies expected. Every year, utilities tell the government which plants they plan to close over the coming decade. Over the course of one year, their estimates of how much coal generation they would retire nearly tripled.
If all goes as planned, within a few years only a third of the company’s power plants will run on coal. The company has already built three new natural gas plants. It’s expanding a nuclear plant and going bigger into solar and wind, Williams says.
The dramatic and swift shift away from coal at Georgia Power is part of a nationwide trend: After decades in which coal was king of electricity generation, natural gas is making a bid for the title. And it’s scoring big, unexpected wins in places like Georgia, where coal was especially dominant.
“We’re seeing that across the board, regardless of the size of the companies,” says Quin Shea, vice president for environment at the Edison Electric Institute, the industry’s trade group.
With exponentially rising population and demand for durable goods, Gunter Pauli‘s breakthrough book, The Blue Economy, explains why and how we can reinvent business models to operate with the ‘pervasive logic and sensitivity of ecosystems.’ In the natural world, nutrients and energy are abundant, efficiency grows as a system improves itself and it responds to the needs of all involved, with no waste. Have a listen to find out how businesses operated like ecosystems make more money, provide more jobs and better products, all with no environmental degradation or waste. Get The Full Story & Additional Resources
It wasn’t so long ago that composting was considered a fringe activity, something you might find ardent back-to-the-landers doing out on their country acreage, but certainly not a practice within the realm of most suburbanites’ experience. Today, however, many towns and small cities are encouraging composting like never before, sometimes offering compost bins at subsidized rates, often providing instructional materials or workshops on how to compost, while simultaneously ceasing the curbside pickup of readily compostable materials like leaves and grass clippings. At the same time, sales of bagged compost are way up, as are sales of all manner of composting equipment. Suddenly, it seems, composting has become mainstream.
Why Compost?
Organic gardeners rave about it, but what’s the big deal about compost? Why can’t you just feed your plants some 10-10-10 and be done with it? Well, i’s like the difference between eating a well-balanced meal made from fresh, natural ingredients, and eating a multivitamin and a bag of chips. In the short term, you’d be fine with either, but you wouldn’t want to subsist on the latter diet for long. The same is true in your garden. Initially, your plants will respond vigorously to chemical fertilizers, but they won’t attain the naturally robust good health they would if you provided them with compost. And with composting, you can be part of the cycle of life – instead of throwing away kitchen scraps and yard debris, you can turn them into valuable compost that your plants and soil will love.
Not only does compost contain all of the major plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) in forms readily available to plants, but it also contains a wealth of minor and trace elements as well as billions (yes, literally billions) of bacteria, yeast, fungi, and other soil creatures that will continue to break down organic and inorganic matter in the compost and in your soil, providing a long-term, steady feeding of nutrients to plants.
In addition, because of its loose, fluffy, cake-flourlike texture, compost improves the tilth, or structure, of all garden soils, both increasing the drainage of clay soils and binding together sandy soils, enhancing their moisture retention. Regardless of where you garden or what you grow, compost will make your plants healthier and more vigorous and increase their flowering and fruiting like no other substance you can give them. Simply put, composting is the best possible thing you can do for your garden.
How Long Does It Take?
Many gardeners don’t compost simply because they perceive it to be more difficult or complicated than it really is. In truth, composting—rotting really—is a natural process that will occur even without any effort on a gardener’s part. If you just put all your garden waste, kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and autumn leaves into a giant pile, you’d have good, usable compost deep within the pile in a year and a half or so.
Actively engaging in the composting process just speeds the whole process up greatly. Researchers have found that it’s possible to make finished compost (that is, compost that is so completely broken down that none of its component materials are distinguishable) in as little as 10 days. Practically speaking, most home gardeners can make a good batch of compost every 3-4 weeks; over a growing season, that’s a lot of free fertilizer of unparalleled quality.
The ABCs of Composting
So, how do you make compost? There are four key words to remember: green, brown, air and water. What this means is that, to make compost, all you have to do is bring together moist, fresh, predominantly green ingredients (grass clippings, weeds, kitchen scraps, and the like) and predominantly brown ingredients (dead leaves, straw, hay, wood shavings or chips, etc.), ensure that the mix remains damp, and turn it all every few days to reintroduce oxygen to the pile. While the soil and leafy scraps usually have enough of the proper microbes to get the composting process started, for fresh batches of material and rotary composters you can add our Compost Starter to quicken the composting process.
Adding worms to your on-ground composter and or garden soil will also speed up the composting process, and will add extra soil nutrients (from the worm castings). Keep adding worms from your finished compost back into fresh material. That’s it. In less than a month, you’ll have rich, crumbly, brown compost that you can add to your garden soil, use in containers, or mulch with.
Containers and Ingredients
Compost can be made anywhere, in virtually any kind of container, or in no container at all—just a big pile. A bin or tumbler will keep the process neat and manageable, however, and will make it easier to add air to the mixture. To start your compost pile, reduce the size of the ingredients you’re using in the pile by chopping them with a machete, a sharp garden spade or other tool. Autumn leaves can be shredded quite well by repeatedly mowing over them. Then add all the ingredients together, layering them in 3-4-inch-thick layers if you’re using a bin, or just tossing them together if you’re using a tumbler of some sort. Strive for somewhere between a 5:1 and an 8:1 ratio, by volume, of brown materials (fuel for the organisms that will decompose the pile) to green, but don’t get too fussy about it—if the proportion is off, it’s easy enough to recognize and to remedy.
There are many different styles of outdoor compost bins that fall into one of two categories:
A rotary-style composter can be placed anywhere and keeps all the material organized and off the ground—important features for some yards. Rotary composters produce compost quickly because they are easy to turn and aerate the material, but they tend to dry out more quickly.
An on-ground compost bin keeps material contained and in contact with the soil, which helps keep moisture content high and adds naturally occurring microbes and worms to the process. Consider using two bins at once: one to pull finished compost from and another to add new material to. Switch the bins once your finished compost is depleted.
It’s optimal to have a small cart at hand around the yard and garden to collect and organize compostable materials from weeding, pruning, clipping and raking.
Kitchen countertop compost crocks offer a clean and efficient way to collect kitchen scraps. While a one-gallon size is good for small families, a one-and-a-half-gallon container works for larger needs. Options range from plastic to ceramic to stainless steel (click on image to right to view the many varieties and sizes sold on PlowandHearth.com). Each compost crock comes with charcoal filters to eliminate any smells in the house. You can also place biodegradable liner bags directly into the compost.
A pile that doesn’t heat up within 24 hours needs more green material. A compost thermometer is very handy for determining the temperature near the center of the pile, which should rise to approximately 150-160F. Often, however, you can see a pile steaming and can feel its heat even from the outside of the tumbler or over the top of the bin. A pile that develops an ammonia-like smell needs more brown materials; just work some more into the pile, and the aroma should go away.
The air and water requirements of a composting operation are similarly low-key. The mixture of materials should remain about as moist as a wrung-out sponge—damp, that is, but not soaking wet. If the mixture seems too wet, damp is perfect, give it a turn to mix and aerate. Layer in some dryer material, stems or straw to help the air flow. If it is too dry, sprinkle on some water and add fresh, green leafy material. Remember, the more often you turn a pile, the quicker you’ll have compost, because most of the composting process is carried out by aerobic (oxygen-using) bacteria. If you decide to build your pile in a traditional square bin, you’ll want to have an extra bin next to it, so that you can move the pile from one bin into another. If you use a tumbler of some type or rotary composter, turning is easier yet: All you have to do is spin or roll the container to re-oxygenate the pile.
Tips and Troubleshooting
Not much can go wrong with a compost pile other than the two conditions mentioned above—a pile that doesn’t heat up and one that develops an ammonia-like smell. Altering the ratio of ingredients one way or the other will generally correct things. You can prevent any problems with critters visiting your pile by keeping animal and dairy products out of your kitchen compost container. Vegetable and fruit scraps are excellent “green” additions. When your compost looks black and earthy and most of the added material has become unidentifiable, it is ready to use.
Using Your Compost
Once you’ve cooked your first batch of compost, what do you do with it? As mentioned above, it’s excellent as an addition to garden soil, container mixes, or used as mulch. Depending on the ingredients you used, there may be coarse pieces still in the compost. If you intend to use your compost as mulch just leave it coarse, however, if you plan on using it as potting soil or for seedlings, you’ll want to break down these coarse pieces. The best way to deal with these is to screen the finished compost through a piece of hardware cloth stapled to a frame (or through a “riddle,” a tool designed for just such a purpose).
Starting All Over Again
Anything that doesn’t sift through the screen can be returned to your pile or bin for further breakdown. And be sure to save a bit of finished compost to start the next batch: The rich microbial life within that compost will get things off to an even faster start next time around. VIAPlow & Hearth
How to keep animals out of the compost pile
By The Editors of E Magazine / April 6, 2010If mismanaged, backyard compost piles can turn into playgrounds for unwanted furry critters. Following these simple strategies will help keep the animals away. Burying food scraps at least eight inches deep, among other tactics, will help keep animals away from your compost pile.
A: It’s true that outdoor compost piles and bins can be a draw for wildlife — be it bears, rats, raccoons, skunks, opossums, or some other creatures of the night — but there are ways to minimize the attraction.
For one, make sure everyone in your household knows to keep meat, bones, fish, fat, and dairy products out of the compost. Not only will these items “overheat” the pile, they’ll also stink it up and attract animals. Otherwise, home composters should keep in mind that critters aren’t actually eating the compost but are sifting through it to find fresh edible kitchen or garden scraps.
Ways to keep animals away from compost
To discourage animals, the website OrganicGardening.com recommends mixing kitchen garbage with soil or wood ashes before burying it in the hot center of your compost pile. Washington State’s Department of Fish and Wildlife recommends not putting any food scraps in open compost piles, but says that if you must, bury them under at least eight inches of soil and then place a wire mesh barrier over the top held in place with a heavy object or two. Putting your compost pile in a pest-proof container is another way to prevent tampering with your precious organic soil-to-be.
Compost tumblers are popular because they mix and aerate by just being turned occasionally, and they keep raccoons, rats, dogs, and other interlopers at bay. Otherwise, compost bins with wire tops or sealed lids work well too, but require a little more manual labor in terms of stirring.
Another option would be to make the compost indoors using a worm bin. You can still put kitchen scraps in it just like in a bigger outdoor compost pile, but without the worry of attracting wildlife. The website Instructables.com offers instructions for how to create your own worm composting bin. Another good source is the blog One-Change.com, which offers a step-by-step guide to the process. Via Christian Science Monitor
