Conservance

Whatever You Do; Don't Call It Green

Category: Challenge

February 9, 2011

Tolerance Doesn’t Work

Tolerance is the cheap imitation of Equality. It is a lie designed to calm and pacify.

A good man cannot tolerate wickedness, just as darkness cannot tolerate light. Tolerance leads to inaction, inaction leads to weakness and weakness leads to injustice.

Tolerance is disrespectful. I can’t accept that your views are different from mine, therefore I’ll tolerate them. How childish; how selfish.

If I respect you as a person, then I will respect your opinion; even if I disagree with it. If I believe you are wrong, I will say something. Ask something. Pursue the issue further. Maybe you aren’t wrong; maybe I am. If I merely tolerate your “wrongness” then we will never learn who or what is right.

There are rights and wrongs. Constants and laws. Good and Evil. As we learn more, we have a fuller understanding of what those absolutes are. At one time, tomatoes were poisonous. We’ve since learned it was a reaction of the acidity in tomatoes with the lead soldering used in pewter plates, bowls, and mugs. Tomatoes weren’t poisonous, but the lead was.

What does this have to do with the environment? Everything!

We need to understand, that the modus operandi of our contemporary world has only been in play for fifty to one hundred years. We’re learning what is wrong or obsolete, and we need to implement what is right.

We can no longer tolerate the wrongness that exists in our societies. We must respect individuals, and begin to address the serious issues we face. To cut away what is wrong (from both sides of the argument), and add what is right.

Leave a comment
December 22, 2010

Renewed

The Sun delivers roughly a kilowatt of energy to every square meter of the earths surface. Meaning, one meter of land provides enough energy to power ten light bulbs.

If the average rooftop is say 10 meters by 30, that’s 300 meters. Meaning the potential for energy is 300 kilowatts a day.

300 kilowatts, times 365 days a year equals 109,500 kilowatts of energy a year.

The sun doesn’t shine everyday, and this is assuming a perfect conversion rate. Solar panels are only 30% effective, meaning only 30,000 kw of energy is actually produced. Still more than enough energy to power a home, and the two homes next to it.

The sun doesn’t shine every day; a true statement. But it could not shine for 8 months, and there would still be enough power for a home. The average American household uses 11,040 Kwh as of 2008 4 months of sunshine is all that is necessary to cleanly power an American home.

The rub with solar power is not energy production at all, it’s energy storage. The roof of a house has the potential, with current means, to provide all the energy requirements for a home. But there is no effective way to store that energy.

Why then is so much money and effort devoted towards solar panel development? What is needed now, is an efficient way to store and discharge energy. Solar panels work, it’s time to bring batteries up to speed!

Leave a comment
November 12, 2010

California…

Is the hot spot for tech and the environment. I have serious, serious issues with that.

Tech-wise: Products are developed that constantly decrease productivity. Sure, plenty of things occur, but not much is actually done on an iPhone. It’s like using a rocking chair; you’re moving, but you’re not getting anywhere. Think if Windows had been developed in Indiana, a state of common-sense/no nonsense thinking. Windows 3.1 would have been spectacularly productive. And Millennium would never have been spawned.

Environment-wise: Most of SoCal is utterly unsustainable for the number of residents. Yet, they’re championing solar power and electric cars. Meanwhile most of their water and electricity is shipped in from out of state. In fact, the water table keeps shrinking and shrinking.

Don’t get me wrong I’ve enjoyed my visits in California, but it is a textbook example of our current schizophrenic society. A completely unsustainable model that espouses the need for environmental responsibility.

Leave a comment
October 11, 2010

A Few Thoughts That Should Come Together

I’ve got “Factory Floor” on television right now. One of the clips is about plywood.

The quote was “because it’s man made it’s stronger than any tree.”

I had to think for a second about that statement, and the answer is yes; We can often engineer some specific characteristic to be better than what is found naturally.

Obviously then, we can improve on what is found in the world around us. Meaning we can improve the world around us.

Secondly, this post. Note further down, the ideas on taste and bad culture. Currently, our society as a whole is operating with this slow moving, bad taste culture.

The good ideas are either not being implemented, being poorly implemented, or only implemented in certain areas/sectors. What good changes that are implemented in one area (say MPG standards) are ignored or counteracted within other circles (Oil Production).

Societal costs raise every year. Yes some of the environmental changes will also raise prices. However the trade off (better city planning, more jobs, cleaner energy, more fuel efficient cars and vehicles, proper mass transit, a more integrated culture, etc) is worth it.

 

But again, prices will go up regardless of what we do. We might as well do the right thing.

Leave a comment
October 6, 2010

Plans For Today

Today I have 2-3 goals depending on my level of energy and dedication.

Goal 1:

Replace the flex-plate on the BMW.

Goal 2:

Clean the shed.

Goal 3:

Finish the speedometer/gauge assembly for the Death Machine, Black Lightning.

Why are these goals being posted on my (semi)professional blog?

Simply because I can. Seriously though, the BMW is a 528e. One of the most economical vehicles still on the road today. Once I replace the flex-plate, I can start getting 30-35 mpg driving all over town again.

The shed is becoming home to my next venture: taking the Conservance philosophy and style, and applying them to motorcycles and whatever else I damn well feel like. A good cleaning and reorganizing will make my life so much easier. It also will be nice to have a place out of the elements to work on the motorcycle.

Once I finish the gauges, the bike is effectively done. The last major hurdle will be the BMV inspection.

If all goes well: two stylish and efficient vehicles will be ready for the open road. Huzzah!

1 comment
September 22, 2010

New Energy, Old Problems

If  you were to draw a rough line around the Saharan and Sub-Saharan region of Africa; you would have circled the renewable energy equivalent to the Middle East.

The sun that shines and the wind that blows across the dunes of the Saharan desert could power a large chunk of the world. On its own.

Or to put it into perspective:

That’s all that’s needed regarding solar panels.

Here’s where it gets a bit rough.

The record for the First World in Africa is spotty at best. That’s a lie: it’s down right atrocious.  For example, many of the ecological issues in Western Africa were a result of the intensive farming methods of the French Colonists. Think Sierra Leon and C’ote De Ivory.

We have the third world once again sitting on tremendous potential wealth and resources. I have a sneaking suspicion that our clean energy generated there will be tainted.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek had an article from the 16th of September that highlights this fact. Note that no quotes or thoughts from  African countries/leaders/anyone is mentioned. It’s as though those countries don’t really matter, and are merely in the way of everything.

My pride also wants to note that I was spouting of this idea over a year ago. FIRST!

2 comments
September 15, 2010

For My Christian Readers; A Thought…

There has been a long running debate regarding what the phrase “in the image of God” means. As in God created Man in His image.

Allow me to toss my hat into this theological debate.

I think it falls in squarely with the story of Creation. Our first encounter with God is when he creates. In that sense I feel that our “image” then is to be creators.

Furthermore, we see God create a world of perfection, with systems and orders and ecological principles. This highlights the logic of God. Before God there was nothing, and now there is a logical universe with principles and laws.

Finally we step back further and see a God of Justice and of Love. And lastly we have a call from Jesus to join in building the Kingdom of Heaven.

So our image then is to be creators who join in the building of the Kingdom.

What does this mean for the environment?

We must approach it with the same love and respect that God approaches it. We are creators, but the question that must be answered is does this better the Kingdom of God? Does it further the Kingdom?

Do we understand that the fullness of the Kingdom of God encompasses the entirety of creation? Honestly, I don’t think we do. God created everything with a purpose, with intent. Our current system of use, does not treat everything with that same reverence.

Leave a comment
September 14, 2010

Recycling Is Easy

Or at the very least it should be.

There are two ways to encourage recycling.

1) Make throwing away trash prohibitively expensive

2) Make recycling easier than throwing something away.

Regarding option 1,  somehow the US economy has hidden the actual cost of certain products and disposal. Trash disposal should be much more expensive then it is currently.

Regarding option 2, imagine if you could throw every recyclable object into one bag. No sorting, no checking of numbers, no worries. Meanwhile, if you wanted to throw something away it had to be sorted. And depending on what it was, there would be costs associated with it.

For example plastic and styrofoam would cost the most money to throw out, because they never really decompose.

Leave a comment
September 1, 2010

Engineering Marvels

To get a car to go 155mph it only takes “a pithily 270 horsepower.” To break the 250mph mark it takes an additional 730 horsepower.

Why on earth would I talk about horsepower and speed records on an environmental blog? Aren’t the two completely against each other? Sort of…

We’ve become obsessed with speed, and have broken engineering benchmark after engineering benchmark in our pursuit of speed. The Concorde, the F-22, land speed record vehicles, The Veyron, and others are modern miracles. Akin to the Pyramids of Machu Pichu, the Great Wall of China, and others.

We’ve broken the sound barrier in the air and on the land so often, it’s old hat.

Yet we start talking about averaging 30mpg in the city, and automakers begin to hem and haw and balk at the challenge…

WHAT THE F$&K????

We can build a car that can average 700+ mph on two runs over the Bonneville Salt Flats, but we can’t manage to squeeze a measly 30mpg city driving? 100mpg on the freeway is apparently so impossible that not even MIT students can manage it… Yet you talk about squeezing 1,000HP from a V-6 engine and it’s basically a bolt-on kit.

Leave a comment
August 27, 2010

Change The Game

For years we’ve been told that plastic isn’t really that easy to recycle. These guys are on there way to being able to break plastic back down into gas and oil.

If this works; trash dumps could potentially become huge payloads.

Subaru has figured out that it’s cheaper to save and reusing shipping materials as much as possible.

New Belgian Brewing likes renewable energy to make its beer, and encourages it’s employees to bike to work.

And we’ve been told that it takes huge amounts of energy to make hydrogen, yet a few scientists figured out that waste water (pee) can be converted into hydrogen for quarter of the energy.

Leave a comment
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.