*** Old Sustain You Site *****

The Sustain You blog has moved to a new domin:

See it here at www.sustainyou.com/blog

A green perspective is featured in this ‘NY Times Magazine.

Is building natural, using “green” products a way to fulfill sustainability in your home?  Perhaps a home is not just what’s inside walls but the community of what is around your home as well.  Add Organic, mix in some green design with a kazzam of local and Bam!

As part of the greenhouse studio project, the Co-op is putting a new 100 amp electrical panel in the studio.  Building code states that these electrical wires must be buried 18″ or more below the ground and put in conduit.  The traditional way would be to buy 2″ PVC pipe in 8ft sections from Home Depot, glue it together with highly toxic solvent glue, bury it and be good to go.  The idea a burying toxins in our yard, where we grow our food, does not have much appeal…..

 This link shows conduit and piping options that are PVC free.

For more about the possible hazards of PVC check this link out.

Look for the green electrical install video coming this summer.

From: Forbes.com

Biopact presents their report on Greenhouse gas Emissions balance for electricity power sources.  Check it out!

From: Biopact

From: The Wall Street Journal

The Power of Green: From The New York Times:

“Well, I want to rename “green.” I want to rename it geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic. I want to do that because I think that living, working, designing, manufacturing and projecting America in a green way can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the 21st century.”

Long live the earth, and all of her countries! 

I  hereby enlist in the green revolution!

The IPCC newest report released today determines with 80% certainly that Climate Change is happening now and it is radically altering ecosystems. 

World scientists are confirming with statistical certainly what we new all along - our earth is warming.  Now it is time for us inhabents of the earth to act! 

IPCC 4th Report Summaries:

Grist

Treehugger

NY Times

The carbon balance in traditional cement and concrete construction is tremendous.  A strong and insulated wall is not enough!  Sustainable building must comfort its inhabitents and tread lightly on the earth when built. 

Harmful minerals such as silica and portland cement are used by the train car to construct our concrete structures. 

There are other ways to make a wall.  Here are just a few:

Translucent Concrete: Let their be light!  Traditional combination of cement, sand, gravel and water but reinforced with fiber optic fibers.  Not only do they transmit light though cement, they make it stronger too!  The co-op will try it’s hand at making it’s own in a future project.

Blocks made from trash , New Concrete Science , Rammed earth walls

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A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, read by Jason Lord.

Today the Supreme Court decided that the EPA does have the right to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.  States are able to sue the EPA, if it fails to regulate.

This vote is a big win for states and the environment and a defeat to Bush Administration.

The vote was 5-4 with 4 conservative justices descending.

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I can’t wait till she arrives.  I will pop the sunroof and cruse down the highway at a pint of gas and 38cents  per mile!  Yeehaa, the great outdoors here I come –  my life is fulfilled!

I can’t go to this because I am going to the Harriet Island Earth Day celebration. Which I encourage everyone to go to, too. But if you insist on staying in Minneapolis for earth day, here’s another event I got a flier about:

Climate Crisis Coalition of the Twin Cities Film Screenings and Discussion

Sunday, April 22nd

11:00 am The Science of Global Warming, a PBS documentary that explains Earth’s climate system and how it works

1:00 pm Global Warming: Bush’s Climate of Fear, a BBC documentary on the US Government’s suppression of climate science.

3:00 pm The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, an inspiring documentary on how we can wean our society off of fossil fuels.

Location: Acadia Cafe Theatre
1931 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis

The co-op is far from carbon neutral this year.  In fact we used well over a $1000 in natural gas this winter to heat our home.  Our Natural Gas water heater, on it’s 13th year, is about to RIP and we desperately need a new electrical service.  The current 100amp service is illegally double tapped to the max.  How can we combine all of these needs and jump in the direction of energy sustainability & carbon neutrality?  This discussion looks at the supply & sources of heat needed.  Follow up posts will analyze reducing energy consumption.

The core of our energy supply problem is our reliance on a inefficient natural gas furnace and water heater.  Their heat is inefficiently distributed throughout the house by forced air venting.  Our 1911 bungalow as been added on on and re-framed with apparent disregard for heating vents — one rooms is hot, another is cold. 

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Did you take your vitamin today? 

If you did, then you ate poo, Lac bug poo to be precise.  The shiny coating you see on many vitamins is shellac.  Shellac is excreted from the lac bug and found mostly in Asia.

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