Fritz Kreiss

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The Importance of Greywater Recycling

While it is little publicized, there is an issue at hand that is more urgent than peak oil;  Peak Water.  All known life forms on this planet rely on water to live.  Unlike oil, we don’t think very much about our water supply because most of us have it pumped into our dwellings for little to no cost, but what we don’t know, will hurt us.  In the Chicago-Milwaukee area, despite bordering with Lake Michigan, groundwater levels have plunged up to 900 feet farther down in the Earth over the last half century or so.  Lake Powell, created by the building of the Glen Canyon Dam, as of last year has dropped to a mere 39% of full.  Speaking of the Glen Canyon  Hydroelectric Dam, it is also of note that coal, most natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, most biofuel, and solar thermal power plants also require massive amounts of fresh water to operate.  Even the gas you put in your car consumes water in its refining, totaling a phenomenal 1 to 2 billion gallons everyday to create America’s supply.  I’m assuming you’ve also heard about the damaging practice of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, which is very water intensive as well.  Groundwater is vital to our current methods of food production, which is one of the major consumers of this precious resource.  We use up so much of our freshwater on a continuous basis, it is calculated to be responsible for approximately 25% of all rise in sea levels from evaporation which later rains into the sea or from pumping wastewater directly into the ocean.  Depleting our groundwater/aquifers is compounded by one of its effects, as we pump out groundwater in areas near the sea, saltwater gets pulled in by gravity to balance the levels and contaminates much of the available freshwater we have left.

One of the most common responses to the water crisis is,”There’s plenty of water, we can always build more desalination plants.” People who don’t already rely on desalination for fresh water seldom realize just how expensive it is or how little flexibility it has to meet changing demands.  It is also important to remember that desalination plants can’t provide sufficient water to support freshwater production for use in power plants at a level which would make desalination even remotely sustainable.

While much of our water is taken out of the ground, we harvest a great deal out of our lakes and rivers.  This has deleterious impacts in addition to the waning of the water supply itself.  Since water is one of the most basic requirements for life on this planet, it has a tendency to have ecosystems build and design themselves around it.  When we take away the supplies to our wetlands, rivers, and lakes, all the other forms of life that depend on it suffer as well.  Not only do our supplies of water run low, the wetlands disappear and no longer filter our water for free , the fish die out because the water becomes toxic and the ecosystem balance is ruined, and so on.

There are many types of greywater systems to choose from.  You can choose how far you want to go and what type you desire.  You can get a top of the line system with a specialized filter and professional installation, have someone help you design an organic style biofilter using various types of aggregate, bacteria, and plants to filter the water as well.  There are some simpler plans that some homeowners may be able to make and install themselves, or if you rent you can even just collect your greywater in a bucket under the sink or connected to the washer and use it to water your plants when it’s full.  You could even go the extra step and connect its ouput back into the house for the toilet, bathing, and other uses that don’t require potable water.  Some businesses have even found that they can save a good deal of money by treating their own blackwater (water containing human and animal waste products), a few going so far as to pump water out of the local sewers so they don’t have to buy purified drinking water from the city for anything other than drinking, reducing their water consumption by as much as 90%!

Whatever you choose to do, it is important to recognize that we are using up our water supply at a very unsustainable rate.  We can stay ahead of a real crisis and change our ways now, or wait and pay the price when the proverbial blackwater hits the fan.

Click on images to enlarge

My favorite breakfast

All ingredients organic if possible:

10 eggs

5 ounces spinach

2 medium size tomatoes

3 carrots (not peeled, just washed)

2 potatoes (not peeled, just washed)

1/2 avocado

1/3 cup mushrooms (your pick)

1/4 of a green pepper

1/4 of a white onion

2-3 large sections of garlic

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon chili powder

3/4 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon salt (substitute with potassium chloride (KCL) if desired for health reasons)

a little white cheese if desired

Directions:

pour oil into pan

sprinkle chili powder, turmeric, and salt into oil

chop potatoes and add to pan and mix to distribute oil and spices

heat pan on medium low while preparing other ingredients, occasionally stirring

peel and smash garlic sections to chop with spinach (reduces oil lost on cutting board)

chop all other ingredients and add to pan

add eggs, mix all ingredients and raise heat to between medium low and medium high

cover, occasionally stirring and flipping until fully cooked

enjoy!

Disclaimer:  I only eat half at a time, more than that is not suggested…

Cholesterol is not as unhealthy as commonly believed (and it’s a good source of energy), however, the potatoes absorb much of the cholesterol and prevent it from entering bloodstream during digestion.

Renewable Energy Basics

Renewable energy is not a new concept, people have been using it for thousands of years.  Solar heating, geothermal heating and cooling, water wheels, windmills, sailboats, etc.  These were our primary source of energy until we found the uses of oil and coal, which took over because of their (originally) extremely low cost and portability due to their energy density.  Fossil fuels were also a much more effective way to make money than renewables were, because while renewable energy keeps replenishing itself,  fossil fuel dependency meant that they could keep selling more on a regular basis since people constantly ran out.  Currently, there is much speculation about the cost of various forms of renewable energies in comparison to gas and coal.  It is a somewhat complicated issue;  fossil fuels are quite cheap but have many environmental costs (mostly ignored and there is uncertainty about some additional side effects) and the prices will simply continue to rise endlessly as we approach and pass peak oil (peak oil is when oil production globally hits the maximum speed we can harvest, afterwards our oil supply will slowly wither away.  Renewable energies have a high initial cost, but have virtually no costs as time goes by aside from occasional maintainence  because their fuel is free and never goes away.  Renewables have another unknown factor because the technologies we are using now are so new, we don’t have any good examples of how long solar panels, wind and tidal turbines, and such will continue to operate.  All we know, is that they all last quite a long time.

Solar Power-

Solar power is arguably the most popular form of renewable energy.  This is partially due to the fact that there are so many different ways of harnessing and using it.  Solar power can be harnessed in a number of different ways.  The two basic forms are photovoltaics and solar thermal energy.  In most countries, when solar power is mentioned the average person immediately thinks of a photovoltaic solar panel, which is a very recent introduction in the field.  Solar thermal power has been utilized for thousands of years, beginning with such humble roots as choosing or building a home that lets the sun in during the day to warm up to simply setting things out in the sun to dry, cook, or warm.  ”Passive” solar heating is probably the most common and underutilized form of solar power, that is the simple idea of designing a building to use the sun for heat when it is cold outside and using shade to keep cool during the hot months.  Solar thermal is also becoming popular as a form of water heater.  This is another ancient use, but modern systems consist of black pipes laid out in the sun filled with oil which circulates through the tube and indoors to radiate the heat into a tank of water either for preheating or as the sole heating unit.  The same basic setup is also sometimes used for heating the air as well, although that is much less common.  One of the newer methods of harnessing solar thermal power is the solar thermal electric plant, which has it’s basic roots coming from a water pump designed in the 1800′s that was used for irrigation.  These machines consist of reflectors (mirrors of one sort or another) that concentrate sunlight on a centrally located steam(stirling) engine.  Once the water is converted into steam, it is used to pump the pistons of the engine which turn a crankshaft connected to a generator to make electricity.  Currently photovoltaics operate at approximately 20% efficiency for a standard style unit and 12 to 14% for thin-film modules.  The output of photovoltaic panels can be increased by approximately 30% if mounted on a pole and outfitted with sun-tracking motors.   Solar thermal generators operate at above 30% efficiency but are used less extensively because they only work well in warm climates with very plentiful sun, require a larger area for collection, and require fresh water.  Solar thermal heaters have a larger variance but can have efficiencies of up to 90% or more in some applications.  The primary complaint that people have about solar energy is habitat destruction, such as with the desert tortoise in California.  This issue can be mitigated by carefully choosing solar thermal sites, and using photovoltaic panels on available roof space or elevating them above ground if fitting roof space isn’t available.

Wind Power-

Wind energy is the second most ubiquitous form of renewable energy has also been around for a very long time.  Among the first uses of wind power was the sailboat, but the windmill is what sticks in people’s minds today when it is mentioned.  There are two basic styles of wind turbines, horizontal axis and vertical axis.  Horizontal axis turbines are by far the most common, they are recognized as “propeller” type designs.  Vertical axis turbines are generally tall and thin and have a spiral shape blade design.  The primary factors affecting the production of wind turbines depends primarily on average wind speed, elevation (height above the ground/trees/buildings), and  fetch (distance upwind that is clear of all obstructions).  Most turbines increase in efficiency in winds up to 10 mph or beyond, and have an automatic shutoff when the wind reaches speeds that may become dangerous and/or damage the turbine.  Larger models will activate a braking system and eliminate the angle of interference of their blades.  Larger turbines and vertical models are generally much more efficient in lower wind speeds, small turbines often need winds in excess of 20 mph to generate their claimed electrical output.  Detractors of wind energy cite studies that demonstrate birds and/or bats flying into spinning blades which can reach speeds well in excess of 100 mph.  It has been found that properly placed turbines/wind farms have little effect on bird populations, the early studies that found issues were based on wind farms that were placed in the middle of migratory pathways (these issues have been remedied, at least one farm I know of bought many square miles of land to provide a new migratory corridor for the birds).  Bats have proven to be a more difficult issue, primarily in the Pacific northwest.  Scientists are working on a solution, but it is complicated by bats’ use of echolocation instead of sight and sound (they are confused by the speed of the spinning turbine and have difficulty detecting the blades).  These problems can be further remedied by using turbines off shore, erecting solitary turbines (which does reduce efficiency to a degree), and other tricks such as placing lights and whistles on spinning blades.

Water Power-

One of the earliest and most common forms of electricity production using renewable energy is water power, which works along the same basic idea as wind power.  The most well recognized example of water power is the hydroelectric dam.   While both wind power and water power work by using the flow of “fluid” matter, wind power is dependent on flow alone, while water power primarily takes advantage of gravity.  The basic equation for water power is mass times change in elevation equals output.  When a water supply is fully controlled, as in a dam, it is very efficient in terms of output because no water is wasted and the speed can be optimized to the turbine’s maximum efficiency.  Dams, however, are falling out of favor because they are extremely damaging to the environment, both flora and fauna.  Partial dams are not as effective but because they only divert a portion of the water and don’t greatly impact the speed of flow, they cause comparatively much less environmental damage.  Newer forms of  water power are tidal, current, and wave energy.  Tidal power is virtually identical to partial dams except, of course, it is dependent on the tides instead of a river.  Current power (utilizing the power of ocean currents) is basically identical to wind energy, but for being in the ocean.  Wave energy is a new concept, and there are two basic methods of cultivation.  The first is the oscillating water column, which is used at or near the shoreline.  This design uses the up and down of the water  to compress and decompress air, pushing it through a turbine (not all models generate electricity upon decompression).  Off shore generators use various types of flotation devices to capture the motion of the waves, a “duck” system that alters it’s orientation when a wave comes, a hinge system which makes energy at the joints connecting multiple floats to each other, or a simple float that pulls upward when lifted by a wave.  Wave energy is fairly new, and so there are many new ideas constantly trying to get into the spotlight.  Tidal and current turbines may pose a threat to wildlife, but the technology is still new and still being tested for any collateral damage it may pose to wildlife.  Any system which is moored to the seabed may cause damage to any coral or other life on the ocean floor at the time of installation.

Biofuels

Biofuels have also been used by people for millenia, after all, it’s what we eat.  The earliest conventional use of biofuels commenced with the “discovery” of fire, and has been used as such ever since.  Even fossil fuels are technically a form of biofuel.  Aside from burning wood for heat or cooking, the most prevalent biofuel is ethanol, sourced from corn.  This has given biofuels a bad name, because between land use alterations, planting and harvesting, spraying of pesticides, and distillation and refining, it has a larger carbon footprint than gasoline (and less power density).  New types and methods of procurement are aplenty, though.  Ethanol is also being made from sugarcane, beets, and many other food crops.  It is made from the starches of the plant and/or, preferably, the undigestible waste cellulose (currently used in many countries for electricity production).  Algae is likely one of the most promising biofuels that has yet to hit the market.  It is able to produce harvestable oils at 3 times the density per acre compared to conventional crops, can be grown in saltwater, and it’s tank can be connected to a power plant’s exhaust as a filter and a way to trap carbon dioxide.  Two more very promising biofuels come from waste products as a bonus.  Biogas is methane from sewage, human waste and waste from farm animals such as cows.  Biogas has the added benefit of converting methane, one of the most potent gases in global warming, into carbon dioxide, which is about twenty five times less potent.  Lastly, there is syngas, which is produced by the gasification of biomass.  In this scenario, biomass is superheated in an oxygen deprived environment (pyrolysis), breaking down into hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and some carbon dioxide and methane, which are then used as fuels.  This results in much less pollution and lower levels of carbon dioxide exhaust than normal methods of burning the same materials.  Pyrolysis can also be used at lower temperatures to create heat and leave the carbon behind as biochar, a very potent fertilizer.  This method was originally developed by indigenous populations in the amazon, long before Columbus came to the Americas.

Unity in Diversity

While there is much infighting between proponents of various types of renewable energy, it is important to note that we need all of them.  Solar only makes power when and where the sun shines, wind power only works at certain wind speeds, tidal power ceases at high and low tides, etc.  Since renewable energy doesn’t produce power on demand, as fossil fuels do, we need a balance to keep the flow steady and as balanced with our energy consumption as possible.  There is also substantial power loss as electricity travels longer distances.  People are currently hard at work to develop a smart grid to better manage the flow of energy, but even that won’t be enough;  we must also continue to develop storage methods.  Great strides are underway in battery technology (although the electric vehicle market may well end up using most of those), solar thermal plants can store energy in molten salt, simple mechanical gravity based batteries may be used, etc.  This is currently the most rapidly changing part of the renewable energy field, there are so many possibilities which are constantly advancing, it is difficult to know which technologies will win out in the end.  And, of course, I can’t finish this without reminding you that going for a walk or a bike ride can do wonders to help the health of both the world, and yourself.

where are we now?

Human beings have been living on this planet for well in excess of one million years in one form or another which hasn’t really changed that much over the years.  The basic thing that makes our species and culture unique is our technology.  More than any other species in the history of the world, we have been tremendously successful at creating new technologies and passing them down through the generations for further use and advancements.  The basic force behind most all of our advancements are of a very yang nature, representing some sort of violence or pushing the limits to make things bigger and bolder.  The first thing we learned was how to use tools for hunting and food gathering, followed not far behind by the knowledge of how to modify and create tools which were more effective.  Eventually we learned how to control and create fire, which is the first obvious demonstration of the dichotomy of our advancements.  As we learned this new technology and ways to use it, it simultaneously made us stronger as a species and weaker as individuals.  I’m sure you’ve all heard of the appendix, part of the large intestine.  Before we had fire, we had functioning appendixes which broke down tough cellulose for digestion.  when we started using fire to cook our foods, our appendixes were no longer needed and eventually became non-functional.  our bodies also became accustomed to not having to fight infectious bacterias and viruses in our food because the fire sterilized it for us.

This represents a major recurrent theme of our lives on this planet.  While we have greatly enjoyed and benefited from being the alpha predators of the planet, we are the first species to be capable of driving ourselves to extinction.  As the years have gone by, even large carnivores have almost completely lost their taste for human meat because we are so dominant;  they no longer want to even try to hunt us down.  The difficulty of being in such a position comes with it’s own difficult problem, we are now entirely responsible for controlling ourselves whether it’s preventing/curbing overpopulation, habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, ecosystem destruction, pollution/poisoning of the environment, global warming, loss of biodiversity, extinction of cornerstone species, unhealthy monocultures, etc.  The list goes on and on.  While we have greatly enjoyed and benefited from being the alpha predators of the planet.hile these problems by themselves are not too difficult to avoid if we exercise caution, a wrench that has been thrown in the works.  Our bodies instinctually have yet to catch up to the situation we are now in.  We are driven by the desire to possess power, mate and multiply, and our instinct to gather and hoard food for stability has turned into simple greed driving us to always want more, more, more.  Through most of our history we have been kept in check by adverse weather, scarcity of food, disease, war, and other factors.  mostly, our population has been kept in check, which minimizes the damaging effects of our other activities.  Approximately ten thousand years ago, things began to change.

The advent of farming had a powerful effect on the world, for us as well as the rest of creation.  Our subsistence culture of hunting and gathering was coming to an end.  Once we learned farming and animal husbandry, we no longer needed to hunt and gather.  Although farming was more work than the old ways, it was favored because it allowed us to have some stability and the chance to settle down in one place.  This was the birth of modern “civilization”.  As we formed larger societies things became more complex.  Advancements in farming allowed for some to pursue other occupations.  The division of labor greatly enhanced our ability to advance our technologies, since some people no longer needed to spend their time looking for food.  We also began to build more permanent housing, since we no longer had to follow the food.  These changes led to the first population explosion.  We were now more immune to the weather and food scarcity was seldom a problem, although we still had the other factors to contend with.  Population growth was not the only factor that multiplied the effect, the “footprint”, our species had on the world.  As our lifestyles changed, instead of living in balance with the world and taking what was “given” to us, we started to shape the world to our desires.  We cut down forests and killed any plants we deemed undesirable to make room for our food crops, as well as killing any “pests” which damaged our productivity.  We cut down more trees to make our now more permanent buildings, cleared the land for our towns and eventually cities.  After a while we built fences and walls to create greater control over what we “owned” so we could keep out thieves and animals which were not being raised as livestock.  this, not fossil fuels, marked the beginning of our “carbon footprint”.

As with the invention of fire, this led to more evolutionary changes.  we now had more tools, clothes, and shelters to depend on;  to become dependent on.  We became physically less robust in regards to extreme temperatures and weather conditions, but culturally more immune because of our new technologies.  As cities grew, our population was now controlled largely by increased spread of disease due to increasing population density and more advanced warfare due to better weaponry and desire to control more people and land.  While we obviously haven’t stopped waging war, as people became more civilized we began to depend on less violent ways of deciding many disputes within each civilization and to some degree between different cities and empires;  leading to further growth of conquered land and population continuing to expand.

The irony of civilization is that as we learned to become more civil towards each other, we became more violent towards the majority of other species, both actively and passively.  Actively, we cut down more forests and cleared more fields and killed increasing numbers of prey and unwanted predators.  This is something that was widely recognized by most people at that time, as well as now.  seldom do people pay attention to the more passive forms of violence we employ in our day to day lives.  The most basic, and the one with the largest impact is land usage.  A cage is a cage, whether the intent is to keep something in or out.  In the beginning, no one realized that by building a house and putting up fences and walls around our living spaces essentially entraps everything outside of them.  There was so much space, it didn’t seem to have an effect on that which lived outside of our walls.  As we have spread throughout the globe and multiplied, constantly increasing our requirements for the amount of space we needed to dominate to be satisfied, it has become more obvious.  More species have gone extinct because of loss of habitat/habitat destruction than any other factor.  The real irony of this is that, we have actually created a cage that we are now stuck in.  Basically all habitable land is “owned” either by a person or government, or both.  We are born into a society that we are virtually unable to leave, that choice is essentially gone.  Since most of us are born with out any real posessions, we don’t have a chance but to do work which benefits those already more wealthy than us and rent/buy a home from someone who is making a profit from the exchange.

Then came the industrial revolution.  We discovered fossil fuels and realized a great many ways in which this energy source could be used, rapidly advancing our technology in many new ways.  This is when we started really poisoning our environment, and ourselves.  of course, these changes increased the speed of population growth to levels never before experience.  We also used our new tools to tear down forests, pave over previously wild lands to create highways, all sorts of new and larger buildings, and the beloved parking lot, of course.  Since the dawn of the industrial age we have caused extinctions of so many species so fast, that the last time species died out at such an alarming wait was way back during the demise of the dinosaurs.

We’ve already caused a lot of damaged that is irreparable, but the time is now to change how we live on, in, and with this beautiful world which has supported our lives through so many generations.  The basics are simple, turn population growth around, reduce your dependence on fossil fuels (biofuels are an improvement but still has many issues),  work on energy efficiency and creating passive homes, move into the cities to allow more lands for wildlife to roam free and thrive, and get to replanting forests of all types, restoring watersheds, quit using so many toxic substances, and much more.  The hard part is that we need everyone to cooperate, none of us can fix these problems on our own.  We need to band together to create a nonviolent revolution to change the way we take our place as part of Life on Earth.