Archive for the ‘Environment’ tag
Read this: Planetwalker – 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence, by John Francis
I saw John Francis talk at ted.com a few months ago, and I was facinated with his story.
After witnessing the devastation caused by a 1971 oil spill in San Francisco Bay, he stopped riding in motorized vehicles, a vow which lasted 22 years from 1972 until 1994. From 1973 until 1990, he also spent 17 years voluntarily silent. During this time he earned a Ph.D. in land management and traveled extensively, walking across the entire width of the lower 48 states of the USA as well as walking to South America.
I heartily recommend this book to everyone who loves our earth, and who loves building communities.
I bought mine as a Kindle edition from the Amazon bookstore, and read it on my iPhone.
PS: There is one thing that bothers me about Johns story, something I would like to ask him if I get the chance. When he gives in and starts riding in cars again it is because he realizes that he will be a more effective communicator of his environmentally friendly ideas if he uses motorized transportation. But that is the same argument the rest of the world uses for riding in cars, it makes us more effective in what we need to achieve. But that doesn’t mean it’s good for the environment.
John Francis at Ted.com
DIY: Handpainted giftwrapping from cardboard boxes
How-to transform a boring cardboard box into something cute, beautiful and worth taking care of instead of throwing away, with very little work. This is a good little project to do with your kids.
The fun theory
The people behind the Fun Theory (www.rolighetsteorin.se) believe that the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better is by making it fun to do.
Piano stairs
Hands – Vural Tuna’s posterous
Straight into the sun
I took a nice little evening trip in my kayak yesterday (my fourth trip ever, I’m a total newbie). Launched from the nearest beach, just a kilometer from my house, and headed straight out to sea, towards the sun as it was setting, then turning around as it went down, catching the breeze on my back. Perhaps I should have just kept going? How far is it to Island?
I’ve decided to start bringing my trusty garbage picker with me on my trips. On my last outing, I saw lots of little pieces of plastic on the shoreline, just out of reach. It is a bit of a hassle getting in and out of the kayak, so a mechanical grip like the one in the picture above is a must.
Oh, and I might add that I started beach-combing / beach-cleaning last year, after finding the 46000 art project. 46000 being the number of plastic artifacts floating pr 1 mile of ocean! Isn’t that just crazy? What the hell are we doing to our planet?
Happily I didn’t find any floating debris on this trip, not even along the shoreline (I found one lonely red plastic cup).
But the situation on the beach where I launched and landed was different. There was plenty of junk, leftovers from a hot and beautiful day: Ice cream wrappers, empties, potatochip packets, etc. I am actually more than a little dissapointed that my neighbours are such litterbugs, I believed them to be better than this. To me, throwing garbage in nature is simply unthinkable, and I really feel that such behaviour is a sign of the fall of man. If you ever see me litter, then please shoot me!
In bloom
We have two apple trees and a cherry tree in our garden which we planted two years ago. One apple tree is in bloom right now, and the cherry tree has just lost it’s flowers. I doubt that they will bear fruit this year, but perhaps…
Cherry tree
It lost it's flowers a week ago, but I believe there where to few and that the distance to its nearest mate is to grate for it to bear fruit. I am thinking of buying it a friend, the nearest one is a hundred yards away.
Cherry tree
Apple tree
Our lively apple tree. It will be a while before it bears fruit I am sure. In the background to the left is our plum tree that came with the house. It just lost it's flowers. The plums from it are wonderful and juicy, and bountyful! Behind that there are three blackcurrant bushes.
Apple tree from the opposite angle.
Kind of strange looking branches.
Closeup of apple tree flower
Cute aren't they. Imaging when the tree gets huge, and there are thousands of flowers like this!
Young apple tree in bloom
So cute! This tree is growing a little slower than I would have wished. And there is one little branch which lacks leafs and flowers. But perhaps next year.
Apple tree number two
The black sheep in the garden, or rather the one with the most competition from other trees. There is a littlebit too much shade from two nearby trees. My hope is that I won't have to cut down the other trees for this one to thrive, and that it will eventually reach above the other trees, but it is growing sooooooo slooooow. Maybe I have to cut a little next year.
Pensilsharpeners for a better planet
If you have kids then you probably have a drawer full of pens and pencils, some good, some broken. In our house there are pencils spread out EVERYWHERE, I find a few every time we clean the house, and in the weirdest of places. I usually just dump them in this drawer, and pull it out whenever the kids want to draw.
But one day when I was home taking care of my daughter who had the flue, I decided to take stock, sort the broken from the usable, and sharpen them all.
I found some empty tomato cans to put them in, and sorted the pencils after their color family.
And lo and behold, would you believe that my three kids has kept this simple system in order for well over a month now! I’m so impressed with them!
More pictures after the break:
Repairing a broken cake mixer
Well, SOMEBODY has to! :) This is part of my new little project: Repairing things for me and for others. It is so easy to just throw stuff away when they no longer work, and often to expensive to take them to a repair shop, so I thought I would do my part for our planet by repairing as many things as I can.
Check out my other repairs on Flickr.
Melissa capacity 230! (Repairing a broken mixer)
Cool name :) Let there be cake! This is a cake mixer, probably from the eighties, that belonged to my wife's grandmother. It has been used to mix batter and cream for thousands of cakes, and it deserve better than to be landfilled.So what is wrong with it? It suddenly stopped, after making some VERY "interesting" noises. Probably from overheating, because if we let it cool down the motor starts again, for a short while, then stops again.It's HAMMER... no, screwdriver time!
My favorite moment! (Repairing a broken mixer)
I opened it up, and found that the fan that blows heat away from the motor was a little hacked up. It seems like something has gotten in there and made quite a mess.Eighter that or there has been a gradual buildup of crap in there.I love taking things apart, and just looking around for a moment to see how it is made. Electronics still feels a little bit like magic to me.
Messed up fan blades. (Repairing a broken mixer)
The fan blades are really chopped up!I used a sharp knife to trim down the fan blades a little, trying to make them as smooth as possible.
Crud! (Repairing a broken mixer)
There seem to have been some "crud-buildup" inside the tightfitting fan housing. Scraped it as clean and smooth as I could.Put it all together again, cleaned up the outside of the mixer with soap and water and put it all back together again.Good as new, and ready for many years of cake making!As Marie Antoinette said it so apptly when the citizens complained that there was no bread to eat: "Let them eat cake".
ScrapHouse
The ScrapHouse was a unique example of reuse in the greatest sense of the term. An array of materials–collected from salvage yards, dumps, or collected from waste piles at active construction sites–was temporarily transformed into an one-bedroom demonstration house. Scraphouse demonstrates that materials that are thrown away, or considered to be junk, still have an effective life-span. One person’s trash is someone else’s treasure.
The ScrapHouse was located on Civic Center Plaza, at the corner of Grove and Polk Streets, immediately in front of San Francisco City Hall.
Bahrain World Trade Centre
Three wind turbine blades have been successfully installed on the Bahrain World Trade Center, a twin skyscraper complex. This is the first time that a commercial development has integrated large-scale wind turbines within its design to harness the power of the wind. The three massive turbines, measuring 29 meters in diameter, are supported by bridges spanning between the complex’s two towers. Through its positioning and the unique aerodynamic design of the towers, the prevailing on-shore Gulf breeze is funneled into the path of the turbines, helping to create power generation efficiency.
Once operational, the wind turbines will deliver approximately 11-15% of the energy needs of the building, or 1100 to 1300 megawatt-hours per year — enough to provide light in 300 homes for over a year.
