Yes, it's what it sounds like. People participating in the "Edible Estates" project transform their lawns from green, grassy plots, to areas filled with organic fruits and vegetables. This project was started in 2004 by a man named Fritz Haeg. He has designed the gardens very well, producing an attractive and useful yard area. The gardens feature produce such as blueberries, strawberries, beets, lettuce, and herbs.
Imagine walking along the sidewalk and instead of coming across yet another well-manicured greener-than-green lawn practically drowned in pesticides, you see beautiful organic blueberry bushes! You can't help but pluck off a few luscious berries as you pass by.
What better time than this to transform your own yard into an edible paradise? Not only would you trim down your mowing costs, but you would also save money on buying produce. The environment will also thank you for reducing your gasoline and water use, and ending your lawn's dependence on pesticides and herbicides (if you currently use them). I'm willing to bet you could also become quite popular with the neighbors, especially after offering them some of your fresh fruits and veggies.
For more info, check out http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html
WE are working to solve the climate crisis by offering free EDUCATION that addresses not only the Planet, but our place as holistic people in it, so we can learn to be better Stewards.
As beings with a Mind, Spirit, Physical, and a few other dimensional bodies through which we experience our world; we must take a holistic approach to our Self, change parts of Our Self perspective about our responsibility to planet and all the life on it.
Our educational site is called the FREE DIGITAL UNIVERSITY, it is free to use AND it teaches curriculum to live Free, sustainable, and whole.
Feel free join us as a Educator, Student, Librarian, Steward or other participant,
click on the graphic to visit.
*Free Digital University is a subset of the Free Digital Project, dedicated to using Information Age tools to address the damage caused by the Industrial Age. Read More »
The design of his solar oven/stove looks almost like a children's slide. The cooking area is on a stand at one end, and the "slide" part is a metal half-pipe with a tube of vegetable oil at the center. This tube of oil is cool to the touch on the outside, but inside heats up to 400 degrees F on a sunny day, and 300 degrees on a cloudy day. The stove/oven can bake bread, cook any sort of stovetop dish, and can sterilize water.
Another great thing about this cooker is that it is cheap to make. None of the materials are expensive, and they are all easy-to-find. It is also light and portable. The only source of power for the cooker is the sun - a truly renewable resource.
The inventor of this contraption hopes countries like China can use it to solve some of the third world's problems such as lack of clean water and renewable energy.
Check out a video about this solar cooker at cnn.com:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/05/06/allgire.hi.sun.cooker.kitv
Green funerals!
There are a growing number of companies and cemeteries, especially in California, Texas, New York, and Florida, offering biodegradable caskets and other environmentally friendly burial options.
Natural embalming services at these cemeteries do not include the use of formaldehyde, cement vaults, laminated caskets, or chemical treatments normally used in conventional burials. Instead, options include natural-fiber shrouds and fair-trade bamboo caskets lined with cotton (unbleached). If bamboo isn't your style, there are also other hand crafted natural wood choices. These biodegradable caskets run anywhere from $100 (basic cardboard) to $3,000 for a custom-painted wooden model.
Supporters of "green" burials say that these choices are far more environmentally friendly than traditional burials, or even cremation (because of the fossil fuels needed for cremation). Everything used for a natural burial is fully biodegradable.
So is this a fad, or is here to stay? With the funeral industry generating $11 billion each year in the USA, the market is potentially gigantic. Perhaps natural burials will continue to spread across America and stick around as yet another great personalization option for burials.
Natural burials are another example of how we're moving forward by adopting methods of yesterday. After all, people were buried without chemicals and steel for ages. These days, more and more people are becoming more environmentally minded throughout their lives. Now it's time for us to embrace nature in our deaths as well.
For more information on natural funerals and burials, visit these websites:
http://www.naturalendings.co.uk/index.asp
http://naturalburial.org/
http://www.naturalburialcompany.com/
Read More »
Peace Portal is a project designed to help fund, organize, and implement associated projects that lead to long term sustainable development. They Provide a space designed to encourage and reward acting consciously and cooperatively rather than egotistically and competitively.
Peace Portal is a open rallying point for those working to implement practical solutions that address our common planetary dilemmas.
We achieve our goals through:
- Project Networking,
- Leveraging Information Age technologies, and
- Funding groups addressing a wide variety of disciplines.
Democrats across the country are becoming increasingly frustrated with their choice as both democratic candidates are becoming meaner, more bloodied, and are both losing some of their altitude and glory. What are we to do?
Is it time to bring back Al Gore?
This is an extreme theory, but here it is: If the democratic party elders decide at the end of the primaries that neither Clinton nor Obama is a good choice, they could, in theory, convince a significant number (say, one hundred) of superdelegates to pass on the first ballot at the convention in Denver. This would prevent either democratic candidate from getting the 2,025 votes needed to win the nomination. Then, the elders could ask Gore to be a nominee, and choose Obama as a running mate. With Obama's delegates coming along, there is a possibility of a winning Gore-Obama ticket.
Highly unlikely? Yes. Even if such an event would take place at the Denver convention, the likelihood of Gore accepting a nomination might be low anyway. However, "Gore-Obama" has a bit of a ring to it, in my opinion, so I like to have a little fun with the idea. Will it happen? I would be shocked. Is it a wacky idea? Yep… but this whole presidential race has been a bit on the wacky side.
Free Fundraising Online Malls – earn for your own organization while also supporting others.
There are some completely free and very easy ways to help your organization raise funds for itself, in ways which don’t need to ask people for cash donations, and in fact can reward your supporters. Here are just a few ways. Read More »
As the Internet has matured various methods and trials for governing digital communities are now common place, most especially in virtual worlds like 2nd Life, and also in more conventional communities such as eBay or MySpace. With the coming of even greater experiments in Internet Governance are tried, such as the FDU ( Free Digital Universe) "Digitatorship", we expect this issue to become a high priority of International regulatory bodies. Competing regulatory entities from countries who are also competing for trade surpluses, are a big part of why we have a global environmental crisis on our hands in the first place. Read More »
Some things we can do with a small group of friends -- by phone or in person.
Some things require the creation of new networks and markets -- in our community and between communities. Read More »
There are 3 main elements to project Access Point:
- ACCESS (Technology & Communication)
-
MARKET SUPPORT (Prosperity Program)
- PARTNERS (Portal Project-Networking)
Earth Architect, Steven Travis designed this fully self-sufficient modular home based on the structure of a DNA Molecule, this design is to be used in the GaiaTech Ecovillage currently under development by Worldwide Developers Foundation and Light of Life Society Information Age Ministry located just outside Yelm, Washington. This fully self-sufficient and environmentally friendly home sets the standards for positive impact with an off-the-grid western-comfort style of living.
View the Gallery here.
While the DNA Home looks very complicated, construction is fairly simple. Most of the wall, roof, and floor panels are equilateral triangles, eight or ten feet along each edge depending upon the size of the selected floor plan. The panel skins consist of materials graded according to the climatic conditions at the installation site. These skins encase insulating materials, creating a very strong stressed-skin panel with an R-28 insulation value. The roof panels are covered with a durable, reflective, and self-glazing material. The structure exclusively uses ecologically sustainable materials.
The DNA Home structure:
· Is adaptable to various climates by virtue of the thickness and specifications for insulating materials, with a minimum value of R-28.
· Is resistant to microbial and insect invasion without the use of fumigation or pressure treatment.
· Encases all materials with a propensity to out-gas in impenetrable barrier materials.
· Provides the option for convenient, spacious living with the option for modular add-ons.
· Able to sustain 130 mph sustained winds.
The internal systems of the DNA Home include:
1. Heat storage -
The inner layer of insulating material is dipped into a phase change material. At 70° this material begins to melt, while remaining bound. It absorbs a great deal of room heat as it melts, keeping the air temperature at 75° until all of the phase change material has melted. As the room cools, the phase change material solidifies between 70° and 65°, releasing as much heat as can be stored in 3" of concrete. Since every surface is releasing this heat, the room air warms to the temperature of the walls. When all the phase change material has melted, the room temperature rises above 75°. This heats and expands carbon dioxide gas in a piston at the peak of the house, which pushes an actuating rod, opening a vent and exhausting the excess heat.
2. Crystal energy - The house utilizes the properties of crystal energy to create a healing, clear environment. Lightning rods at the peaks attract the ambient electrical charge of the sky and transmit this charge along the edges of the structure through copper wires to quartz crystals at each point, then down to grounding rods buried in the Earth.
3. Lighting - The quartz crystals (mentioned under “Crystal energy”) resonate to the frequency of this conducted charge and emit electrical energy. These crystals are enclosed in glass spheres from which the air is drawn out and replaced with gases that ionize and fluoresce with the crystal charge. The spheres emit a warm, natural light and are controlled via a variable switch. Photovoltaic panels, an optional wind generator, and batteries power full-spectrum compact fluorescent lights. When daylight is not sufficient, these lights are switched with light and motion sensors, so the room lights up when entered and darkens when exited,. The wall and ceiling surfaces may also contain phosphors that absorb the sun's light during the day and glow through the night.
4. Windows - Sunlight enters the south windows, warming the surfaces directly and also indirectly as the warm air circulates to the shaded surfaces. The windows consist of no less than three layers of clear Tedlar film, a very strong material that does not degrade in sunlight. The windows are soft like pillows.
5. Air heat exchange - The windows exchange heat from warm stuffy room air being exhausted to cool fresh air entering. The room air enters the inner air space at the top of the window and as it loses heat through the window it sinks out the bottom of the window. The fresh air enters the outer air space at the bottom of the window, picks up the heat being released by the room and old air through the film, and rises into the room at the top of the window. This captures about 85% of the heat in the exhausted room air plus the heat lost through the window from the room, giving it an effective insulation value equal to 5" of fiberglass (R-14), while the house has the fresh breath and scent of the outdoors.
6. Solar hot water and refrigeration - Solar collectors on the south sloped roof panels both heat the water and cool the refrigerator. These panels are filled with a material that adsorbs ten times its volume in water. During the day the 200° heat generated within the panels evaporates the water contained within this material. The resulting expansion from vapor pressure evenly fills a piping system with water vapor. Water vapor carries 17 times as much heat as an equal volume of dry air. The vapor condenses in tubing within the hot water tank, transferring the heat of condensation to the water within the tank. The condensed water pre-heats the incoming cold water at the bottom of the tank, then flows down to tubes in the refrigerator box. After sunset, the solar collectors cool down and the adsorbent material reclaims the vapor, thus dropping the vapor pressure of the piping system. As the vapor pressure drops, the water in the refrigerator tubes evaporates very readily. As the system pressure approaches near-vacuum, the evaporation absorbs so much heat from the refrigerator water that it freezes the water remaining in the tubes. The resulting ice keeps the refrigerator cold during the following day. As the vapor rises back to the adsorbent material, it is diverted through a bypass valve around the hot water tank. Each shelf in the super-insulated refrigerator is an individual drawer. When opened, the cold, heavy air is retained within the drawer, versus conventional refrigerators with side-hinged doors, which allow the cold, heavy air to tumble onto the kitchen floor each time the door is opened.
7. Electricity - Solar photovoltaic panels generate electricity. They can be mounted where most convenient or in treetops in a forested location. Wind power from an optional wind generator in the tree tops increases in winter and during storms, just as solar power is decreasing and as the lighting needs increase. Solar and wind electrical power feed through a charge controller into batteries. When needed, it flows through an inverter to change the 12v dc current to 110v ac.
8. Rainwater - Rainwater on the roofs runs into gutters, then flows into a cold water tank located in the ceiling between the rooms, above the closets. This tank also filters the water through a high-grade micron filter. The optional ozonator further ensures water purity and optional flow-form enhances bioactivity. The water flows to over-sized faucets through one-inch pipes, to give full flow at very low pressure. It also flows to the hot water tank. A low-flow showerhead requires very little water. A thermo-siphoning solar collector located in the southern deck heats and further filters water for a covered, insulated hot tub.
9. Waste water - Greywater from the sinks and shower flows through a sand filter, then to the hydroponic gardens. The toilet flushes with a ball valve instead of a U-trap, thus requiring very little pressure and only a pint of water to flush. The toilet wastewater flows to a clear fiberglass tank beneath the south deck.
Sunlight enters this tank, where algae feed on the sewage. The algae water then flows through a one-way valve to a second black-colored tank and is thus heated by the sun. Here anaerobic bacteria feed on the algae, and produce methane. These organisms produce five times more methane from the algae cellulose as they would from raw sewage. When the pressure has sufficiently risen, an exit valve in the bacteria tank bursts open, releasing the water and bacteria to a solar still. With the pressure released, the exit valve closes and a fresh load of algae water flows into the tank. The pressurized methane later flows through a regulator, and proceeds on to the cook stove and a quiet, high-efficiency back-up electrical generator.
Between the opposite polarities of algae growth (oxidation) and the anaerobic bacteria digesting the algae (reduction), an electrical potential develops. It is a living battery. An anode in the algae tank and cathode in the bacteria tank collect this current, which can then be transformed and inverted for household power.
The solar still evaporates the water and pasteurizes (sterilizes with heat) the bacterial solids left behind, which make excellent fertilizer. The water vapor rises up a tube and condenses in the hot water tank in the peak of the house, completing the water cycle.
10. Hydroponic Gardens - Hydroponic trays are fitted to the structure which are automatically feed by the filtered greywater system and provide food source for the family. In temperate zones, these trays are mounted on the exterior of the structure during the spring and summer and move inside during the fall and winter months.
1) What the common root cause of these problems are; and
2) What constitutes a sustainable solution.
We believe it self-evident that the common cause is the Industrial Age economic model that creates money out of thin air, then requires the living people and the Earth pay the bill in labor or natures resources. When peoples labor pays the bill a debt crisis is eventually created with poverty the inevitable result; when nature pays the bill the environment is damaged. Only a few hundred years old, this economic model based on competiton and conflict has left our children a legacy of debt and a withering planetary environment. Read More »
Mundialization is one of the oldest of municipal peace activities. The word is derived from the Latin word “mundus” meaning “world”. It is an act whereby City Council declares its city to be a “world city”, interdependent with other communities worldwide.
Mundialization is a movement expressing the solidarity of populations of the globe aiming to transcend and transfer one’s obligations as a national citizen to a planetary scale; to declare oneself available (sovereign standing) for the fight to preserve the survival of humanity now threatened, to ensure a sustainable future where peace and justice may finally be achieved.
The mundialisation of a community is the act through which the basic cell of any social and political national organization declares having become aware of the problems which claim the attention of the world community and takes the pledge to seek, in full agreement with all the communes in the world, a just and fair solution for every one.
*Some, not all whom are expanding the mundialization concept advocate for a new political organization of humanity involving the transfer of certain parts of national sovereignty to a Federal World Authority, Federal World Government and Federal World Court. The Authority would be capable of solving, by majority decisions, the problems which call into question the future of man, such as: hunger, water, war, peace-keeping, pollution and energy. If this concept could include and uphold the sovereign rights of individuals and collectives as communities, perhaps it could work.
A Mundialization Portal has been created to debate such topics, provide resources for those wishing to Mundialize their community.Visit the Mundus Society , a assoication of individuals from various nations, and secular Members of spiritually based unincorportated Ministries, as an experimental New (Information) Age society existing entirely in cyber-space; a virtual jurisdiction that transcends territorial boundaries.
If we trace the causes of poverty, the above mentioned issues, and of environmental degradation on a planeary scale we will find they all have a common root-cause, the Industrial Age economic model. The FDU Game will test a Information Age economic model. Read More »
Even something as simple as a flyer to hand out or post around the city could make a difference. People could go back to their little hometowns, newly enlightened, and spread that knowledge where we can't.
Unfortunately I'm loaded down with schoolwork and I don't have the time to put into that sort of thing, but maybe with some help....
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