Public Radio International CEO Alisa Miller gives a 4-minute TED talk with some striking graphics...
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
EPA's Troubled Waters
An informative news piece about the contamination of our nation's waterways by pesticides, pharmaceuticals, sewage sludge, and other toxic chemicals, from the American News Project.
Lindbergh presentation transcript online
A transcript with slides of my presentation to the Lindbergh Foundation Board of Directors is now online and available for download at www.aqsolutions.org, Resources page.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Agrichar...a potential "win-win-win"?
Agrichar is the scientific buzzword given to a charcoal material made from the pyrolysis (heating in the absence of oxygen) of agricultural waste materials. According to this recent article from thruthout.org, the potential benefits of this material include:
* Sequester carbon captured by plants from the atmosphere into charcoal which can be buried in soil. Agrichar is recalcitrant, so this would be sinking carbon from the atmosphere into soils for decades to centuries (?) and thereby reducing CO2 forcing on climate change.
* Increase soil fertility and generally improving soil quality (drainage, aeration, nutrient availability, microorganism habitat, etc.), promoting healthier and more diverse agro-ecosystems and improving crop yields.
* Exert a positive influence over nitrogen biogeochemistry in soils, potentially leading to a reduction in the production of nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas approximately 300 times stronger than CO2.
* Provide a benign source of biofuel energy, as well as other potentially useful by-products (e.g. wood vinegar)
* Drive innovation in small scale (household- to village- scale) efficient kiln designs, for making agrichar/charcoal in a manner that's decentralized and with reduced impacts on air quality, human health, etc.
* Encourage the widespread production of charcoal materials of sufficient quality and very low cost for application in drinking water filtration systems.
This could be huge! I gotta learn more about this agrichar stuff...
More in this Nature article, for example...
And a short film from the Australian Broadcasting Company...
A post and great ensuing discussion on Grist.
* Sequester carbon captured by plants from the atmosphere into charcoal which can be buried in soil. Agrichar is recalcitrant, so this would be sinking carbon from the atmosphere into soils for decades to centuries (?) and thereby reducing CO2 forcing on climate change.
* Increase soil fertility and generally improving soil quality (drainage, aeration, nutrient availability, microorganism habitat, etc.), promoting healthier and more diverse agro-ecosystems and improving crop yields.
* Exert a positive influence over nitrogen biogeochemistry in soils, potentially leading to a reduction in the production of nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas approximately 300 times stronger than CO2.
* Provide a benign source of biofuel energy, as well as other potentially useful by-products (e.g. wood vinegar)
* Drive innovation in small scale (household- to village- scale) efficient kiln designs, for making agrichar/charcoal in a manner that's decentralized and with reduced impacts on air quality, human health, etc.
* Encourage the widespread production of charcoal materials of sufficient quality and very low cost for application in drinking water filtration systems.
This could be huge! I gotta learn more about this agrichar stuff...
More in this Nature article, for example...
And a short film from the Australian Broadcasting Company...
A post and great ensuing discussion on Grist.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Alan Watts animations
Super-groovy cartoons depicting bits of Alan Watts' philosophical expositions....here. Sound files also available.
Aqueous featured on Sustainable Design Update blog
Aqueous recently got write-up / shout-out on the Sustainable Design Update blog...a la John Barrie, director of the Appropriate Technology Collaborative.
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